Nice piece of video, looks a bit odd without the pantographs...Hopefully more pics/vids as he gets further along in finishing it.
Wow! That's awesome! I can't wait to get one. It really doesn't seem noticeable that they are only six-wheel trucks, but I'm still waiting to see what you come up with for the eight-wheel trucks. Actually, since this example is using a GG1 chassis, I should mention that I am trying a similar project based on an idea that I believe came from Jeff King. I bought a bunch of Erie-Built diesel shells by V-Line, and I plan to cut the ends off them and glue the cabs together to make a double-ended loco that hopefully will fit on a GG1 chassis if I measure it correctly. They won't be Little Joes, of course, but the one example I saw still looked really good. Must be something about those rounded noses on the Erie Builts, and it does play rather well along with all my other Milwaukee Road fantasy units.
Jeff King is the gentleman that built this model! He just sent me updated pics yesterday that I'm excited to share. You mentioned Milwaukee Road fantasy units - he took a play from that book and did an "imagine if" scenario - that MILW was still around and were running a business train powered by a Joe. He did a complete train with this livery - it looks awesome. I think he's been calling this one the "Little Jeff". Here it is: There is video, too, with the special cars. I'm working on getting it uploaded to YouTube to share. Jeff's a talented guy... -Mike
That's even more incredible! I wish I had any skills at painting and lettering something like that. The Milwaukee Road passenger scheme has to be one of the most difficult to paint with the separation lines between the maroon and orange. It actually looks like Jeff went bigger than prototype thickness for the black lines, but who can blame him? It still looks great. Can't wait to see the video.
Here's the related video: [video=youtube;_HCATOY23Sk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HCATOY23Sk[/video] -Mike
Great video. It sure moves fast! Any idea what modifications he needed to do with the GG1 chassis to use the shell with it?
Mike, the video isn't downloading. The white dot just spins in a circle. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news... :-( Edit...It now is downloading, dunno what changed, obviously at my end. BTW, she sure is pretty, especially with her matching consist.
Just caught up with this thread. This is one of the coolest things I've seen in a long time. I'm envious of the skills shown around here to make something like this. Bravo!
I just realized something else we can all do with the printed Little Joe shell while we are waiting for the right chassis. I just recently saw a photo of a pre-delivery Little Joe carbody balanced nicely on a flat car. No wheels or trucks or pantographs: just a shiny, freshly painted 'shell' and some wood cribbing underneath it.
I just noticed the listing for the Little Joe shells on shapeways the other day, when someone mentioned the Virginian EL2B shells. I notice that there is now a complete set of trucks available as well. Any word on what type of chassis will feasibly work best?
Hi - so far the modified GG1 chassis (shown in the videos above) has been the most "off the shelf" solution. I am still plugging away with my own home-brew chassis and there is good and bad news with that. Bad news is I got frustrated using Shapeways for my prototype/test beds which stalled progress. It was just too much time between prints and kind of expensive when you throw in shipping. The good news is that I bought a 3D printer that should allow me to do my rough drafts at home. I printed out a draft of my E78 (rebuilt) Joe and it's looking great, so I think the at-home printer solution is going to help forge these projects ahead. Secondly, doing the Great Northern W-1 and VGN EL-2b shifted my attention from the Joe but now those are complete I'm ready to re-prioritize. (btw, I just received a W-1 print from Shapeways and holy cow that thing is a huge hot dog! it looks like it could be HO!!) If anyone reading here has gotten one of my shells and has worked on or painted them up, please share! Also, you can also PM me at Shapeways (or here on TB) to provide feedback on existing offerings or future ones. And for the hardcore Joe and MILW fans, yes - E78 is coming! Cheers -Mike
Hardcore MILW fans only like authentic Little Joes. E78 was just a pretender :cute:. You're really going the distance with buying your own printer. Hopefully everything works out right, because the modified GG1 chassis with the Shapeways trucks is actually a bit touchy to get it running nicely according to Jeff King.
The GN W-1 was a HUGE locomotive, something like 98' long, IIRC? I'm a bit of a GN nut... Do you have a thread for that build? As far as the 'Joe, it looks great. Perhaps an idler axle (freight car axle or something to at least provide the right look) would eliminate the 4th axle issue. What 3d printer did you get? I saw Dremel has one, but it didn't get the best reviews and for a grand to get your foot in the door, it's not cheap.
Hemi - I have to be honest, when I opened the box from Shapeways to see the W-1 print for the first time, I laughed. It is ridiculously huge!! The GE literature I have on them says 101 feet knuckle to knuckle. I don't have a thread for that build but I could try to put something together. The printer I got is the Printrbot Metal. It comes in at the right price (for me) and it has resolution I can live with for the purposes it's intended for. This is the article with the print sample that really sold me on the Printrbot Metal: http://3dprototypesandmodels.com.au/blog-3/ So far I have not been disappointed. PGE-N°2 - E78 will be sad that you called her a pretender after all she went through to stay in revenue service! lol It was a fun project though, and trying to graft an E8 (or F7 or whatever it was they used) cabin onto an EF-4 I can appreciate the work the shop guys put into making that happen. Doing it in CAD it became clear what they had to do, where they had to use bondo, sheet metal, gradually changing contours to make the whole thing look as clean as they could. Remarkable job, really. I think E78 will end up being my favorite! -Mike
I'd love to see a photo of the W, though probably not in this thread. What did your printer cost? I'm guessing a couple large, since the entry-level Dremel printer is a grand, starting. I'd love to see the E78 done. It's such a distinctive motor!
Ha-ha. It's just the age old story: the other loco that was wrecked was restored to its original appearance, but E78 got sent to the wrong shops who didn't understand how to treat electric locomotives properly :cute:. Although, I was just thinking last night, it might have been nice to have a nice electric loco with slanted E-unit noses. Too bad they didn't have any E-units lying around when they rebuilt E78,
