气动蒸汽机车

Pneumatic Steam Locomotive

作者：alfredboyer / 发布于：2020-05-19

I love steam locomotives, I always loved their noise and to watch the mechanism working with so much accuracy and power. Therefore, I decided to build a model working with compressed air, to imitate as much as possible the way a real steam locomotive works. Some beautiful models of steam locomotives already exists in Lego, but they are working with eletric motors and have a small size to fit the Lego railtracks. By using Lego Technic parts and pneumatic parts, I thought I could make something bigger and closer to the way a steam locomotive works !

You can watch the model working in a video here :

The model reproduces the functions of a real locomotive, using compressed air from Lego pumps :

The Locomotive can move foward, at two different speeds, using only the force of compressed air.
An air whistle, built with only Lego parts, produces this typical noise that we all know.
The brakes, working with compressed air like in reality, can stop the movement of the train.

All of these functions are controlled in the cabin with pneumatic switches, like a real locomotive would do.

It works using 4 big pumps, some air tanks, 4 medium cylinders for the engine, 1 small cylinder for the brakes. A free wheel is hidden in the locomotive, helping the wheels to work smooth. The locomotive comes with its tender and rails, for a size of approximately 80x10x20cm.

I believe this model could make a great Lego set for some reasons :

It is one of the firsts locomotives made of legos that works with compressed air, using only Lego parts.
Everybody knows these historical trains and could like to have a Lego model from it : young people have seen them in several movies and the older generations may have even seen them in real.
I think it is fun to control the movement/brakes/whistle of the train from the cabin. This may help people to understand and appreciate the way a steam locomotive works.

I hope you liked the model and maybe support it !

Desined by Alfred Boyer