18201
built in 2012
DIMENSION: mostly 7, strictly less than 8 wide to operate
on 12V track geometry and to fit into my roundhouse.
approx. 45 studs long (for my 48 stud turntable).
SCALE: much too small if you compare wheel diameter
to a minifig and much smaller than others do. This is
due to my dense track system. Besides I personally see
that increasing scale to solve design problems has often
poor results.
MOTORIZATION: 12V motor type I, as a contribution to
"the fastest operating steamer of the world" I took
the best original Buehler motor I had. It's fast and can
pull heavy trains on a 4% slope and works very easy
on the decoupling unit.
GEAR: 4-6-2 (german 2C1). Same as my other pacifics:
the 4 front and the 2 rear wheels are linked to the main
gear (big ben) by long underfloor rods to control
and minimize the clearance in between wheels.
The main gear is NOT fixed to the locomotive, but
the front wheels in one vertical axis and the rear
wheels in a sliding vertical axis.
This way the required clearance margin of the tracks
in curves is distributed and minimized to BOTH sides of
the tracks and the vehicle stability in turns is improved.
Looks good in curves and runs smoothly across switches.
CUSTOMIZED parts are the buffers, the 1mm rods, the
cabin aft windows, some stickers, 100g lead ballast,
the slim wheels for the tender, made from red 70ies
spoke wheels and supplied with silicon rubber tires.
I filed two red 1x2 plates to support the
outline of the missing flanges of the blind wheels.
The front window case has green adhesive foil 
wrapped around (part not available in green).
Finally two paper clips.
FOTOS: A light posterization filter applied on the original
fotos pronounces the seams between and shall help you
distinguish individual bricks.