Torpedo Wagon

[Leoma Cianchetti]

Atorpedo wagon is one of the largest and heaviest cargo wagons in the world. It is used to transport hot liquid iron. At the iron works ore is converted in to liquid steel after which it is transported to the foundry where the liquid iron is poured in to molds, plates, tubes etc. An iron plant is huge, so therefore these wagons are used.

The torpedo is filled through an inlet on the top of the torpedo. To empty the torpedo it rotates about 170 degrees and the liquid iron pours into a canal and flows to the foundry.

Torpedo wagons come in different sizes and are used all over the world, yet not much is known about this remarkable piece of engineering. This model is copy of the torpedo wagon used at the ThysenKrupp in Germany.

A torpedo wagon is one of the largest and heaviest cargo wagons in the world (and It is definitely my longest car ); it is used to transport hot liquid iron to the foundry where the liquid iron is poured in to molds.

When I saw the first pic, which was from a distance, it looked very blah. But up close, I then noticed the great details put into the wheel bases and I was like "WOW!". And that pic of it going around the curves? Crazy! I'd love to see a video of it running! Four thumbs up. (My big toes helped out.)

Not just trains, but train related. I built a big blast furnace with 13k bricks a while ago. It took several weeks to build it all in LDD. I tested the stability of the pipes i.r.l. with random bricks to be sure. When I posted those pictures, quite a few people asked for instructions so I decided to make a small blast furnace instead and enter it at Lego Ideas. It comes with all the main process features except the storage bunkers and crane. If you are interested in more pictures, please have a look at the linked page. -cd51-4f10-9e9f-ead01adae6b8

blast furnace by Yvonne Strijbos, on Flickr

Chromeknight, I often use the renders because my pictures tend to turn out rather bad. I am working on the small furnace as we speak. I cannot really say how much it would cost, because I have a fairly large supply so I had to order only a few bricks. It is 3000 bricks, with several large elements and a few baseplates, I guess it would be close to 400 euro?

2) This is the big one: trash it up. Add greenery, garbage, and the general detritus of a working existence (I'd start by dropping the yellow and making it look more antiquated/rusty, rather than sparkling new [as an example, here is the Walthers blast furnace kit, which looks straight out of the 1950s - the general age of a lot of the world's steelmaking facilities]):

What gave the Old Fishing Store its appeal wasn't that everyone needed a fishing-themed business on their shelves - it was the fact that, no matter where you looked on the model, there were playful surprises; a story to be told. Simultaneously, it felt gritty and real.

What I see here is a set that is very niche, very functional, and very sterile. But, with Lego Ideas, you aren't just trying to sell a concept to random, otherwise-disinterested casual browsers - it also needs to catch fire with the people actually working at Lego. And, for this sort of theme, the more "slice of life" details you can cram in - even at the expense of some functionality - the better.

*Edit* And I am not criticizing the original. I think it is brilliant. I just believe - firmly - that when it comes to Ideas, you have to think less about personal taste, and more about selling a product. Because that's all Lego cares about.

Tristram, I am not entirely sure about what you mean with "slice of life". I agree with you that the yellow looks a bit off. I put it in because, in general, LEGO likes bright and cheerful sets. The one I am building irl however is quite dark, grey and brown :)

I will post it when ready and on the update page as well of Ideas.

Adding more "crap" would make it look more rugged and used, I agree, but as I am on the limit of 3 k already, it will mean deleting a part of the process. I am a bit hesitant to do that simply because I would not know which part to delete. What I could do is remove the bricks between the tracks, or delete the torpedo maybe? That would free about 400 bricks to be able to change it to a more messy state.

Maybe you will like the updated version better :)

What I meant was like vignettes - scenes within a scene. So, let's say you have a theoretical Lego beach boardwalk. The main scene would be the people walking along the boardwalk. But there might be some kids building a castle under the boardwalk... and some seagulls picking at a trash can next to the boardwalk... and then there's a guy selling ice cream... and another guy teaching someone how to fly a kite, etc., etc.

As I said: I wasn't being critical of your design - I think it's fantastic. This is more a general criticism of the way Lego Ideas is run, I guess. Because if one thing has become clear about the people making the decisions at Lego Ideas, it's that they want Lego sets... not 'sets made out of Lego.' In essence: they are looking for things that feel as if they were designed in-house, and that appears to be the only types of items that they feel comfortable marketing. This is sad, because as you and I both know, there are a lot of people out there designing stuff with Lego that surpasses even they stuff they are doing within their own brand (in some cases by leaps and bounds). But they don't want to sell that stuff - they want to sell stuff that looks exactly like what they would have designed themselves if they had been told "hey, go make a Back to the Future set," "hey, go design a Big Bang Theory set."

One thing you might consider is removing some element of the full steelmaking process and considering it to be an "off scene" portion of the industry. This is done a lot in model railroading in general - people just model one element of a big industry, and then imagine the rest occurring elsewhere.

Tristram, nothing wrong with constructive critisism :) I get your point. I will see what I can come up with . Sofar, however, the project is not gaining votes as fast as I had hoped. Ever since the new set up of Ideas, I have been very hesitant to post anything. Visibility is horrible with all the stuff being posted in one giant mix. Still, I have not given up hope just yet :)

Apparently, I am "one of their earliest supporters, dating all the way back to the GT3 launch in 2018"! (In fact, I didn't buy GT3, and my 'Fell' was returned for a refund, on the grounds that the model bore no resemblance to the prototype at any point in its history)!

Quite agreeJJB but the key point is - as already said - how many folk model steelworks? Apart from the display case types the market for one of these is extremely limited unless the train set folk go fo one 'because it's so different- (but could they afford one?). On my view it is a niche too far but I have to admit some pretty unusual niche items have found a market in past years so I might be wrong. However what appears to be some sort of sales push mentioned above in this thread does tend to hint that these might not be adding to the ranks of KR's pre-orders.

Not heard of it. I'd be surprised if the layout of a steelworks is a state secret, though that might apply to a nuclear estanlishment, and MoD establshments weren't shown in detail on OS maps, but even that became somewhat pointless when satellite photography became the norm. The steel company might have intellectual property rights over company logos/loco livery I suppose

Steelworks could be very protective. I had an unpleasant run in with a security guard at Scunthorpe when photographing BR Coke wagons through the fence - managed to save the film and was rather pleased when I had one published in MRC a few years later. Although Scunthorpe had a conservation organisation and rail tours around the site they still tried to say no photographs to be published.

When we had an official visit to UES Stocksbridge in 1994 we were not permitted to take photographs of several buildings because they were making special metals for NASA or USAF. I have no idea what you could learn by viewing an elderly building.

PS here is no. 59 and lots of others. I'm not in the market as they haven't reproduced the heat that comes off of these as the brake van trip passes them - very pleasant as, even in June, it can be very cold out there. ?

Big companies have a huge advantage. If you tell them to bog off, you might never hear from them again (probably wouldn't), but if they do put their lawyers on the case then any potential costs will be a rounding error (if that) in their accounts whereas it could ruin a private individual. Companies know that and try it all the time, usually it's an empty threat which works more often than not but they do sometimes act on their threats. The English legal system is notorious (and has a dreadful reputation) for allowing those with deep pockets to use civil law to their advantage.

3a8082e126