Train truckers haul heavy metal

It is quite normal to see a truck (or lorry, if your persuasion is British) on top of a train. A train on top of a truck, however, is unusual, but that makes it an interesting Lego build.

Carrying trains is one of the specialities of British operator Allelys Heavy Haulage. The tractor is a German-built MAN TGX, specifically intended for heavy-duty use. The locomotive is a so-called Ivatt Class 2 2-6-0, built in 1952-53 in the UK. This particular example still serves with a heritage railway in the Scottish Highlands.

This project started about half a year ago, when I spent some time looking at British trucks to add to my ever-growing collection and to display at events in the UK. I came across photographs of trucks operated by Allelys and first built one of their rigs carrying a transformer. What I really wanted, though, was a truck carrying a steam locomotive. I figured this would be interesting, but I also wanted to display it at the Great Western Brick Show. This is held in a railway museum, housed in the former railway works in Swindon (UK). The event first took place more than 20 years ago. Back then, several train builders, all part of Brickish, displayed their Lego railway layout in the museum’s event hall. Nowadays, during the show, Lego builders fill the whole museum. Unsurprisingly, though, many visitors to the event like trains.

There are two reasons why I did not build it at first: I feared that a trailer for a heavy locomotive would bend ridiculously and I am not an experienced train builder. I used to love Lego trains when I was a child, but I have only built three train models in the last thirty years. What got me moving was finding a picture of this very truck carrying this type of locomotive. It looked doable.

I started with building the MAN tractor unit. I have previously built trucks by DAF, Mercedes, Scania, Volvo and Iveco, so was happy to add another manufacturer. For any Lego truck that is supposed to look like a particular make and model, getting the look of the front end right is crucial. I built things sideways and upside down, but it works.

In real life, it is a big brute, with two steering axles and two powered axles. My model has working steering, with the front axles connected such that they steer at different angles. This may seem unnecessarily complicated, but positioning them at an angle adds to the realism. There is little space between the front and rear axles, so the tractor carries its fuel tank and equipment on a rack behind the cab. Building this, with all its little details, took hours of tinkering and I could not have done it without relatively new parts, such as small brackets and rounded tiles.

The trailer was the next challenge. The Ivatt Class 2 is fairly lightweight and quite small. This limits the length of the trailer, which makes preventing it from bending a bit easier. I also used a technique that I previously used for my combine harvester transport. The structural parts of the gooseneck are built with 90-degree angles, using plates mounted sideways. These connect to plates and technic beams that run down the length of the bed. It does bend a bit, but it does not look ridiculous. The deck on top of the gooseneck, above the tractor, is supposed to be sloped. I built this as a separate bit that sits on top of the structure at an angle. The real trailer has rails on top, but annoyingly, on my scale model, their length worked out to 36 studs. With Lego only making rails that are 16 studs long, that left me with a 4-stud gap to fill. I used tiles for this, that luckily sit in a location where they are not too obvious once the locomotive sits on top.

I had built a small mock-up of the locomotive with the proper length and axle spacing, based on a sketch. But when the trailer was more-or-less complete, it was finally time to build the rest. Besides its relatively small size, there are a few more things that made the Ivatt attractive. At this scale, the diameter of its wheels matches that of available Lego train wheels. Furthermore, the diameter of its smoke box and boiler works out to close to four studs. This means I can use standard 4×4 round parts to build the cylindrical shape. Finally, this particular locomotive was built in Swindon Works, the very place where the event is held!

The model came together nicely and works well as a stationary model. However, I have designed it with running it on Lego track in mind. For that, I will have to remove the forward part of the cylinders, to allow the pony truck (with the front axle) to swing out. I am also in the process of building a tender for it that houses a train motor and battery box. I will go into my journey into Lego train building in a future article. For now, the locomotive looks pretty good sitting on my shelf.

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