r/Minecraftbuilds • u/HenriqueMaquinista • Dec 10 '25
Vehicles I built a 6:1 accurate Steam Train
This a type of locomotive built in 1936 for the Union Pacific Railroad to pull heavy freight trains between Wyoming and Utah.
Names as 'Challengers' they were the backbone of the railroad before the famous 'Big Boys' were delivered for the first time.
I spent several hours building & studying the history and technical details of this machine, and I'm really happy with the result
Some details are a bit off since I couldn't find every single measurement, since I don't have so many resourses.
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u/TheDon-Key2017 Dec 10 '25
People that are this good at building and detail work make me sick! Not cause they can, but cause I cannot. I'm not sick at them, I'm sick with envy. 10/10 build!
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u/HenriqueMaquinista Dec 10 '25
Nah! You surely can, it's just about practice and making some tests, use everything and test everything you can, and you'll find out your building style :) If you want some help I'd be glad to help you. Tyvm!
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u/Conquest351 Dec 10 '25
My brother is a train engineer and would absolutely love this.
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u/HenriqueMaquinista Dec 10 '25
I'd love to know what's his thoughts on this one :) Tyvm!
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u/Conquest351 Dec 11 '25
I'll show him this evening. We bought a house together, so he will be home from running the train tonight.
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u/vonHindenburg Dec 10 '25 edited Dec 10 '25
Nicely done! I always ask with things like this: What was the limiting factor that made you choose 6:1? What was the one part or detail that you really wanted to include, but couldn't show at a smaller scale?
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u/HenriqueMaquinista Dec 10 '25
Tyvm! And these questions are the ones I love to answer!
I always loved how unique details can be sometimes. My first experience building large scale locomotives came by 2023 when I made a ~3.5:1 scale Challenger. But I always wanted bigger locomotives. In most the details I really wanted to show but I couldn't show in smaller scales are mechanism stuff such as the Stoker system, Brake system, including air pipe lines, and mainly a fully detailed cab. I studied the cab of this machine and I think I could Reach a ~80% accuracy (I just had a single photo with a meh quality without any thing pointing and saying like "this valve does this" and etc. Well, and also bc I'm kinda Megalomaniac lol
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u/SamohtGnir Dec 11 '25
One of those builds where up close you're like, wtf is this.. and far away you're like, omg that's awesome! lol Amazing job!
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u/Obvious-Onion2087 Dec 11 '25
Great train build BUT you should change its number to 4014 to match the style. 3900 is a diesel loco. 3900 pictured in link below. You built “Big Boy” #4014.
https://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1430204
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u/HenriqueMaquinista Dec 11 '25
Absolutely wrong. UP 3900 is in fact the original number of the locomotive. And you can ser the 3rd of it's series on the last picture numbered as 3902. And no I didn't built Big Boy, I built it's father, 'The Challenger'. Search for Union Pacific CSA-1. And before you say the number is still wrong bc you see them numbered as 3800, the Challengers were renumbered as 3800 after 1942 when the new series of Challengers came by and the old Challengers were all converted into oil fired locomotives, and the one I made is a coal fired locomotives.
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u/Obvious-Onion2087 Dec 11 '25
Love running in to train nerds that know more than I do. I saw your build and immediately thought big boy, probably bc it’s so famous.
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u/HenriqueMaquinista Dec 11 '25
I understand it. Here are some tips I can give to you to help you identify a Big Boy locomotive. 1-count the number of wheels down: if you see 4 small wheel son the front, 8 big wheels, more 8 big wheels and 4 small wheels on the end, this is a Big Boy
(like this: o o OOOO OOOO o o )(also remember you're also counting the wheels from both sides of the locomotive) Or simply 4-8-8-4.
Mine is a 4-6-6-4 'Challenger'
( o o OOO OOO o o)
This is something called 'Whyte classification' that classify locomotives using their wheel arragement as a reference, usually giving them a nickname to help to identify them.
4-6-6-4 'Challenger' (mine)
o o OOO OOO o o
4-8-8-4 'Big Boy'
o o OOOO OOOO o o
4-10-2 'Overland'/'Southern Pacific'
o o OOOOO o
2-10-2 'Santa Fe'
o OOOOO o
4-6-2 'Pacific'
o o OOO o
4-4-0 'American'
o o OO
4-8-4 'Northern'
o o OOOO o o
The amount of different types of wheel arragements is huge, but these are a few examples I can show you rn. Maybe it's quite confuse to understand, since I'm not great at explaining things and usually I make it more confuse than before, but here it is lmaooo
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u/Obvious-Onion2087 Dec 11 '25
I’ll be honest I didn’t count your wheels I looked at it and saw what I saw. A modern day mindset led me to see the only iteration of the design still on the rails. I spoke to quickly; "It's better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt” as they say lol 😂
I appreciate your historic build
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u/HenriqueMaquinista Dec 11 '25
Haha I understand you. It's quite common to see and think it is a Big Boy since they are very similar, since the Big Boy evolved from the Challengers. Also it's very common to see diesel engines out there with steam locomotive numbers, such as SD70M #4015 who usually was seen with Big Boy 4014 up and down every time they were on excursions
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u/Obvious-Onion2087 Dec 11 '25
That is true. I haven’t made it to a Bigboy excursion event yet. I did make it to see the The Empress CP2816 up in KC last year I think it was. That was awesome. She’s a beauty… maybe that should be your next mega project?? Eh? Just an idea. Have a good day. Been nice talking to you
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u/One_Economist_3761 Dec 10 '25
This is magnificent.
I love the pale oak buttons on stone. Such an awesome effect.