DalaGStanator's Customs, Mods and Experiments

Skarloey has that cab shape... unusual but nice. Skarloey's basis, Talyllyn, has that shape too:

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That is an Awesome picture Mr No

Well...is he right LaG?

The best thing is that TALYLLYN RAILWAY is still operational! 

Skarloey Railway was inspired by Talyllyn Railway in Wales, where the Rev. W. Awdry volunteered as a guard in the 1950s. At the end of the 10th book of the Railway Series, Awdry writes: 'If you have enjoyed these stories, you will enjoy a visit to the Talyllyn Railway at Towyn in Wales.'

Who was I trying to fool here? I should've just said it in the first place. Either way, Mister No is correct (finally someone else other than Supes). I realised that if that short chassis looked right for Duncan, I could easily build the three 0-4-2STs without making them look too distorted. The tank lid and decorative trailing wheels were made using googly eyes in two different sizes. Not having another plastic container for the funnel, I just used a roll of cardboard as an alternative. To achieve the white lining more easily, I used a marker to help fill some of the red parts without overriding the primer. As shown above, the saddle tank is held with a cross shape as opposed to a round boiler.




This is why I'm calling these versions "prototypes": for various reasons (besides the incorrect bufferbeam), I'm not entirely as fond of him. Unlike with Duncan, I didn't design a proper rear plate to keep him in place, making him come off too easily. What I tried using instead eventually became the rear wheel holders. On top of that, it almost never runs well with him on it. Perhaps if I made an extended bufferbeam to overlap the one on the chassis, it would've made him look somewhat better.

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You are getting so good with the cardboard...soon you will be able to make a train out of one sheet of paper origami style

Skarloey looks... like a delicious pastry decoration on the cake!

LOL. Might be the way he was painted or the texture of his splashers/face. In the shot with Thomas, the lighting does make him seem "sugary" compared to the other shots.

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CAKE?....Did somebody say CAKE?.....mmmmmmmmm

Thought I should use LEGO for this one to ensure stability, precision and reliable components. I came up with the simplest and most obvious way to power the upper axles on a scratch built Ashima or any other X class (not necessarily for Plarail). One chassis design is more faithful but less functional, while the other is shorter in length and works better.



The main problem with this version is only one set of the upper wheels can be driven, while the other doesn't engage. It could be the band was too big or not stretched enough. To rectify this, I rebuilt the chassis with only three axles connected and a different band. It operates equally both forwards and backwards and would be easier to adapt to Plarail or similar.



These rubber bands look similar to official LEGO ones, but are actually not. No idea how effective this would be for electric systems, though it should be alright for toy ones. Gear assistance may cause it to jam because of different rotation speeds (like Theo's cogs in Journey Beyond Sodor). Quick demo of version 1 here.

Also gave Skarloey the overlapping bufferbeam and sandboxes and improved some of the detail on him.

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Quite the bit of Lego machinery...didn't know they had parts that you could create moving parts like an Erector Set (oops, showing my age)