So here is my Magnum Opus - yes it is a locomotive, from a bygone era. This loco was designed by Robert Stephenson to replace the outmoded reciprocating steam engines of the Victorian Era. Sadly this locomotive never made it to service, but it is believed that it was secreted into a hidden tunnel somewhere on the UK rail network and sealed up, never to be seen again - maybe not!
The reason this technology never made it to daily operations, is not because the Victorians decided not to hand it down to us for fear of us misusing it - the common assumption, but because the patents were all bought by a major oil company, through a series of deceptions, underhand practices, etc. and shelved so that they could continue to make huge amounts of money out of burning fossil fuels. Fortunately, after I learnt of the existence of the loco, I was able to commission a “friend” to break into the vaults of said oil company and steal the patent drawings for most of the parts of this intriguing machine.
So here is the start of the project:
UPDATE - Picture changed for more up to date version.
Showing the front bogie and drive motors. I am just “blocking out” at this stage to get the overall feel of each piece. I will return over the coming months to each mesh and refine it, along with much more detailed texturing.
Here is the second bogie, with not much in the way of suspension yet, and the High Pressure Gas Turbine that will drive the AC generator to provide power to the traction motors, along with the “boiler” where a “liquid” is converted to high pressure gas to drive the turbine - much like a Steam turbine, but not driven by water, if you get my drift:
The boiler and heat source - much more on this later, but it was patented and built by Fosdyke Advanced Reactor Technologies Ltd. and provides heat from combining three chemicals together in a chamber. This will be housed in the “tender” behind the loco - yes, like all privately educated schoolboys, this loco has a tender behind!. :eyebrowlift: Here are some more details of the turbine:
The flexible pipes coloured red and blue convey the high pressure gas to the turbine and return it through a forced-air condenser to the boiler, where it is reheated, re-pressurised and reused. You can make out the gas induction “Thromulators” in this image, these are located on ether side of the brass inlet pipes and control the pulsing of the gas into the turbine for maximum efficiency. You can also see the “Necromatic Lubrication Modules” at each end of the turbine, these have the small copper pressure stabilising chambers and relief valves on them.
From a Blender point of view I should say that every thing on the model so far is fully rigged and operational, including all the motors, driveshafts and transfer gearboxes, the loco is also rigged to travel around a curved track. The drive motors have torque-reaction damper springs to stop damage to the loco caused by the immense power they have. These motors are of the “Rotating Magnatronic Pulse” variety - lost to us from Victorians times, but similar to a modern brushless AC induction motor. You will see banks of resistors above each traction motor - these are for braking - any motor of this kind can be slowed by simply connecting a low resistance across any two of the three input wires to the motor - much like your typical radio controlled car of today. I have also discovered that “gas compensated, oil filled motion dampers” are nothing new, there are some already on the bogie, but more need to be added. As befitting the will of the Victorians, the gas balance chambers on these are made of copper.
But here I need some help, unfortunately some of the drawings are notated in Latin (Bloody Smartarse Victorian Engineers :eek:) and I cannot decipher what the three chemicals required for the reactor are. The first one is a bright orange in colour (I have a coloured drawing of the reactor), the second is a lightish blue (maybe there is Phosphorous in it?) and the third is lime green - eek!. All three and iridescent, quite stable when apart, but highly volatile when mixed in proportions of 1/2 first, 1/3rd second and 1/6th third, the resultant compound is a kind of purple/magenta colour. So if anyone knows what these might be, I should be most grateful for any help. :yes:
So here it is - despite the best efforts of the fossil burners to stop this marvellous technology, I aim to reproduce this loco in all its glory over the next - probably year, I think. Again any help with the technology, where I cannot find the details off the stolen drawings, would be gratefully received.
Cheers, Clock.