ianxofour | Bad Piggies: Steam Engine Train @ianxofour | Uploaded 11 years ago | Updated 22 hours ago
The construction of this train is fairly realistic in that the leading locomotive actually pulls the train of unpowered cars, which are reversibly coupled to each other through articulating connectors.
The main difficulty in the design of this train is getting the cars to couple correctly. There isn't much room on the starting slate, so the cars are designed to fall/slide into interlocking positions. The suction cup wheel allows the engine to have a throttle by using different combinations of the suction cup wheel and regular drive wheel. The suction cup wheel sticks to the ground, so it also helps keep the engine from flipping back when it pulls a very heavy load. The soda bottle is the smokestack for the engine, and it will briefly emit "smoke" when actuated. The metal airfoil in the front of the engine represents the cowcatcher (also called a pilot), which is used to clear obstructions from the rail.
I don't use rope as the connectors in this train because, in my humble opinion, they seem too long to give a realistic look, even though others have used them effectively to create very long trains. In particular, PiGineering has an impressively designed road train consisting of a tractor and 3 trailers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSwLrq3ENwo
The construction of this train is fairly realistic in that the leading locomotive actually pulls the train of unpowered cars, which are reversibly coupled to each other through articulating connectors.
The main difficulty in the design of this train is getting the cars to couple correctly. There isn't much room on the starting slate, so the cars are designed to fall/slide into interlocking positions. The suction cup wheel allows the engine to have a throttle by using different combinations of the suction cup wheel and regular drive wheel. The suction cup wheel sticks to the ground, so it also helps keep the engine from flipping back when it pulls a very heavy load. The soda bottle is the smokestack for the engine, and it will briefly emit "smoke" when actuated. The metal airfoil in the front of the engine represents the cowcatcher (also called a pilot), which is used to clear obstructions from the rail.
I don't use rope as the connectors in this train because, in my humble opinion, they seem too long to give a realistic look, even though others have used them effectively to create very long trains. In particular, PiGineering has an impressively designed road train consisting of a tractor and 3 trailers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSwLrq3ENwo
