streamlined electric locomotive (Alligator)
This electric engine (number 9028) was originally designed as a un-streamlined freight workhorse for use in the mountains of the Western half of the North American continent on a electrified section of the Lego-Land Rail-Road mainline back in 1918. The engine uses a unusual 2+C-2-C+2 arrangement, which is code for two un-powered wheels then these are connected to six powered wheels connected to each other by steam-style driving rods. In the middle is a set of completely separate two un-powered wheels, and then six more powered drivers, lastly followed by two sets of non-powered wheels connected to the drivers by a pin.
After serving dutifully for around seven years as a freight loco, the engine was upgraded to a fully streamline-shrouded passenger unit after another of it's eight-strong class was destroyed in a accident with a stuck Shell tanker truck blocking a road crossing. The 9028 was also given a higher gear ratio in it's trucks, to allow for the higher speeds that the passenger schedule called for.
It was around 1932, that the engine type was first given it's title as the "American Crocodile", or the "Alligator", by a senior Swedish railway official on vacation. The name was picked up by local, then national railroad press, and the name stuck from then on.
(In reality, the loco was screaming for new pantograph's due to the old one's breaking, so I gave it some based on set 10277's leaked pictures. Also, this uses eight Big Ben Bricks medium drivers + four blind drivers for the driving wheels where the gears are. I swapped in the new steamer wheels because the regular wheels are getting scarce, and I need to conserve them as much as I can. I ordered the few parts I don't already have to complete this version of the engine today, so they should be here soon... maybe a week or two for the wheels.)
streamlined electric locomotive (Alligator)
This electric engine (number 9028) was originally designed as a un-streamlined freight workhorse for use in the mountains of the Western half of the North American continent on a electrified section of the Lego-Land Rail-Road mainline back in 1918. The engine uses a unusual 2+C-2-C+2 arrangement, which is code for two un-powered wheels then these are connected to six powered wheels connected to each other by steam-style driving rods. In the middle is a set of completely separate two un-powered wheels, and then six more powered drivers, lastly followed by two sets of non-powered wheels connected to the drivers by a pin.
After serving dutifully for around seven years as a freight loco, the engine was upgraded to a fully streamline-shrouded passenger unit after another of it's eight-strong class was destroyed in a accident with a stuck Shell tanker truck blocking a road crossing. The 9028 was also given a higher gear ratio in it's trucks, to allow for the higher speeds that the passenger schedule called for.
It was around 1932, that the engine type was first given it's title as the "American Crocodile", or the "Alligator", by a senior Swedish railway official on vacation. The name was picked up by local, then national railroad press, and the name stuck from then on.
(In reality, the loco was screaming for new pantograph's due to the old one's breaking, so I gave it some based on set 10277's leaked pictures. Also, this uses eight Big Ben Bricks medium drivers + four blind drivers for the driving wheels where the gears are. I swapped in the new steamer wheels because the regular wheels are getting scarce, and I need to conserve them as much as I can. I ordered the few parts I don't already have to complete this version of the engine today, so they should be here soon... maybe a week or two for the wheels.)