Category Archives: Inspiration

Real life train subjects to inspire your building

NLGM Wörrstadt – what happens when a small town decides to have a big Lego train show

NLGM means Noppenbahner L-Gauge Meeting and is organized by you guessed it, the Noppenbahner. It’s hosted in the town of Wörrstadt, Germany, where the Lego event is now almost a yearly tradition. And that brings something unique into the event, something I haven’t experienced before.

The Noppenbahner are a group of German Lego train builders that build their models, just like most European builders, in scale 1:45. They have been around for a few years now and have built some of the most recognizable German trains in Lego. Including some TRAXX locomotives, a lot of German steam locomotives and diesel locomotives like the Baureihe 218. The individual members build their own layouts as well, which are mostly based on the MILS standard. These layouts can connect to both layouts from other Noppenbahner, and layouts built my members from other groups. Their members are based all across Germany, so they don’t meet up on a regular basis. But they decided to turn one of their meetings into an event for similar minded builders and turn this into the NLGM event. 2022 was their first time hosting this event, 2023 was their second turn at it.

They decided to host their event at Wörrstadt, which used to be a small sleepy suburb of Mainz and other big cities in the area but is now internationally known for its Lego event.

Figure 1 Nick form the Noppenbahner has built the Wörrstadt railway station in Lego, visitors who lived in Wörrstadt spent hours looking and recognizing all the details.

Why Wörrstadt?

Ahh Wörrstadt, the name alone brings back memories of a lot of visitors, having friends around, German BBQ at Saturday night and crashing your trains on a huge group layout. The reason why the Noppenbahner decided to host their event in Wörrstadt is quite simple.

Nick lives in Wörrstadt since his forever basically, coming even to the point that he built the Wörrstadt train station out of Lego. As he knows the small town in and out, he was able to secure the towns venue, a beautifully restored town hall, for the event. Luckily for the Noppenbahner, the town of Wörrstadt really liked the idea of having a Lego train event there and supported them by giving them the keys to the location for affordable conditions. The major also gave a short speech to open the event both years.  The even included the town symbol of Wörrstadt in their 1×6 sand red event brick at the 2023 event.

Figure 2 the mayor giving his speech during the 2022 event. As you might noticed the author of this article isn’t in this picture ;).

Like mentioned before, the 2023 version was the second time the Noppenbahner organized this event and it was again organized on the last weekend of April. Before we get to much into the event itself and all the cool Lego stuff, there is something else I would like to point out.

Visitors.

I have been to quite a lot of events/conventions in the last six years. As far as I can remember there aren’t any events that I have done where I wasn’t satisfied with at the end of the weekend. But one thing always stands outs to me at events, and that is the reaction and behavior of visitors. Don’t get me wrong I’m not a creep who likes to stalk all the visitors and observe them (maybe.).

Visitors always bring a certain atmosphere to an event. Your goal is always to impress them and give them their “money worths”. There is nothing cooler than having a group of visitors around that are interested in what you do as a hobby, ask in depth or interesting questions and most importantly enjoy your exhibit. There have been so many events around where I was able to meet other builders who like to learn from us or want to check out our stuff in real life. Their where times where I missed a large portion of an event because I was just talking with visitors for most of the time.

A good example of this was a model railway event I attended with the LLMTC early this year, so many of the “normal” model railway builders were asking in depth and interesting question and where really keen on learning what we do. And they just loved recognizing all the details we have built into our models.

However, an uninterested group of visitors can really turn an event down. I have been at events where the visitors where just not interested. I have been at a event where the number of stands where you were able to buy Lego outweigh the amount of MOCs that were on display. This made most of the audience/visitor’s keener on a bargain than seeing interesting MOCs. A “children” event like LegoWorld attracts more visitors which aren’t interested in MOCs but just want to play and built with Lego at the event itself, the consequences of this is that you have a audience of visitors which ask more questions like “” why isn’t that train running?” instead of being interested on how that train is made.

Luckily, I can say that the visitors at the NLGM in Wörrstadt belong to some of the most kind, interested and well-behaved visitors I have ever experienced. The amount of question and interest in us was overwhelming, it’s also turning in something well known in both the area of Wörrstadt and Germany itself. Some visitors travelled very far just to visit this event. The car park was so full that people decided to use the nearby basketball field to park their car. And visitors are now calling it a yearly tradition, where even the elders in the village asked if the event is really going to happen again next year.

Figure 3 one of the visitors’ favorite layouts was Holger Matthes his bridge.

Beside visitors travelling far, befriended builders from across Germany travel to see this event and hang out and talk to us. Something that I can say is very unique to see in a field of MOC building that isn’t that very big or well-known compared to others.

One of the things that stood out at the event was how well behaved and polite the visitors where (might have to do with the fact that they are German). There were some area’s that visitors weren’t allowed to walk through or enter. I have experienced at other events that we had to uses gates (sometimes even riot gates) to prevent people to enter these areas, with visitors still ignoring the gates. But in Wörrstadt, a simple sign on a piece of paper that said (in German of course) that visitors weren’t allowed to enter was more than enough.

Figure 4 normally I would be really scared having my models this close to the edge of the table

2022 event.

Back to some Lego stuff. The 2022 event was held on the 30th of April until the 1st of May. Back when covid was still a thing and it was mandatory to wear a coffee filter on your face in Germany, me and six other members from the LLMTC decided to travel to Wörrstadt. The principle of Wörrstadt is very similar to what other events like the event at Schkeuditz maintain, they create the possibility for builders to create a layout at home to a modular standard of their choice and bring it to the event. Where the organizers try to get as much different layouts possible connected to each other to form one huge group layout.

Figure 5 an overhead look of the 2022 set-up in the main room, a large section isn’t visible since it was underneath the platform where I took this picture from.

The running/layout style of this event is point to point. Which means your train is able to start at point A on the layout (most likely a storage yard), travel through the entire layout to point B, where it can use the return loop, or you can choose to park it inside of this yard. This makes running trains way more interesting compared to a tradition loop layout. The play factor in setting up layouts like these is way higher compared to having your trains running on the same circle at the entire event.

Figure 6 back in 2022 the second room had Thomas/TS_ his yard in it, here I was dropping of some coaches and picking up some others to take back into the main room.

So, the 2022 event, what was so special? Well, the number of layouts was so immense that they used a second smaller room to display some extra layouts. Your trains literally had to go through a walkway from the main room to the second room, a concept that adds a lot to the point-to-point driving experience. What was also very unique is that the main yard was on stage in the main room. This meant that trains which were not in use, where parked on a higher level, perfect height for visitors to look at the models.

Figure 7 Inside the yard from Thomas/TS_ was also a turntable which was perfect for turning locos to send them back into the main room.

There was a large number of interesting layouts, too much to list up in this article, therefore I highly recommend checking out Ties’ video of the event which has 20+ minutes of amazing video shots of our models running around.

2023 event.

The 2023 version was similar to the 2022 version however the number of layouts was less compared to the 2022, most of this had to do with the fact that there was another semi-big Lego show in Germany at the same weekend. Nevertheless, the event was still a heck of a lot of fun. Here is a quick list of what changed compared to the 2022 version.

Figure 8 overhead shot of the 2023 layout set-up in the main room.

Well first of all we didn’t have to wear any coffee filters on our faces anymore, which was a big plus. Second, the point-to-point driving experience was expanded compared to last year. This year the second room had a small narrow-gauge layout that was able to work together with the normal gauge layout, in short, this means that trains on normal gauge where able to deliver wagons to the narrow gauge, and narrow gauge where able to transport those wagons on their layout. This was perfect for playing around with freight wagons.

NLGM Wörrstadt 2023
Figure 9 one of the narrow-gauge loco’s shunting beside the mainline connecting. Photo credits: Thomas/TS_.

The storage yard on the stage was heavily expanded with a lot more extra space. The yard was in fact so large that a team of dedicated shunters where always ready to help out with storing trains and rearranging them. This yard solved some of the storage problems that happened previous year. Shunting in this yard was a heck of a lot of fun. Where you were able to team up with one builder on the left side operating all the switches on that side, and a builder on the right side doing the same thing. This was one heck of a team effort to shunt and store all the trains, but it was immense fun to experience.

Figure 10 the 2023 storage yard on the stage where Tamás is shunting in the back. Photo credit: Ervvin

To add even more storage space, Nicolas Tbx made a storage yard which was placed in the middle of the layout. This meant that it was the perfect space to pick up some extra freight wagons while you’re driving from point A to B. Having this extra yard plus some stations where there where storage tracks available, made it really fun to shunt trains from one yard to another. I personally spent a lot of time picking up freight wagons at the different stations and yards and driving those to the main yard.

Figure 11 my NS2454 pulling a small mixed freight train which I picked up in the main yard, and which I’m going to drop off at the yard Nicolas Tbx has built. Location of this picture is Ties’ layout.

Branch line.

One of the more unique things from both the 2022 and 2023 version that both group layouts had their own dedicated branch line. A branch line with no overhead wires, wooden sleepers and instead of double track it had a signal track. This branch line was a warm welcome to the busy and crowded mainline and was the perfect piece of the layout to take your time while driving through and take pictures at every spot. It’s very unique to see events where the number of layouts is so vast, that there is even the possibility to set up a branch line where your able to drive for a significant distance. 

Figure 12 Ervvin his Mat64 driving on the branch line and just passing Wörrstadt Hbf.

If you want to see more of the 2023 layout, check out Ties his 1-hour documentary:

So, what makes this event so great?

Well, it’s a combination of the factors mentioned above. First of all, the set-up of the layout, where you’re driving from point A to point B makes driving trains 10x more interesting than a conventional layout where trains just run around the same loop over and over again. With a point-to-point layout you’re really playing with your trains, combine that with the ability to shunt wagons in different yards and station, and the ability to travel with freight wagons from point A to point B and you have a weekend where you just can’t get enough of playing around. Plus add to this equation the fact that you have a dedicated branch line and multiple interesting and unique layouts and then you find yourself with one of the best group layouts to play with your trains on.

Add to this the fact that the visitors are interested, kind and really want too more about us. And genuinely enjoy watching us play with our trains for hours.

And to add this all up, you have a group of warm, friendly Lego trains builders, who want to provide you with an amazing weekend and the opportunity to enjoy it to the fullest. Attending Wörrstadt feels like you’re hanging out with your mates while you’re playing with your Lego trains. And in the evenings, you can sit back, relax and share stories and ideas for new Lego projects. NLGM is what all Lego events should be about, and the Noppenbahner did a bloody damn good job of it!!

Figure 13 the 2023 crew together in one picture.

I want to really thank the Noppenbahner for organizing and having us, I’m grateful for the friendship and the collaboration the Noppenbahner and the LLMTC have. It’s very unique to see that builders from different countries can be so close and so collaborative, I told the story about the LLMTC and Noppenbahner friendship at a model railway event earlier this year, and the other builders just couldn’t believe that we are daily working together and have such a close friendship that has been around for so many years. Thank you so much for everything!

If you’re interested in seeing more of the event, I highly recommend watching the following video’s:

I hope you enjoyed this look into this unique event, thank you so much for reading! And thank you Nick for giving this article a quick read trough to spot any spelling mistakes.

Ciao!!

Enrico

BAUSPIELBAHN-TREFFEN (BSBT) the place to be for L-gauge railway fans in Europe.

This year, for the fourth time in a row, the LEN-Eisenbahner from Leipzig (Germany) organized one of the biggest l-gauge meetings in Europe. Where builders from all around the world come together to form one of the biggest community layouts that the community has ever seen. But what makes this event so special? And what goes on behind the organization of this event? This and many more will be shown and explained in this article. It is going to be a big one. So, get something to drink and enjoy a story that starts a long, long time ago, in a galaxy far away.

Origin story, something that started out small.

Back in 2019 the LEN-Eisenbahner group had the idea to organize an event which was similar to an event, what other model railroad organizations in Europe organize. Where, depends on the gauge, similar building model railroad clubs would join up in a location and try to connect the group diorama’s together to make a big enough layout to be able to drive from point-to-point. For accomplishing this, they had to find a location that would be big enough to house a lot of layouts at once, and which was suitable to welcome all the builders and visitors.

They found one in an amazing little old tram shed, which is not in use anymore by the public transport company. This tram shed is located in Schkeuditz, a small residential village right beside Leipzig. The tram hall is owned by the local model railroad organization that uses the location as both their base of operation, and to organize a similar event as the LEN-Eisenbahner were planning. This would turn out to be the perfect fit as a location for some many amazing stories and adventures. The tram shed is around 700m2. And one of the plus sides of this location, is that it is located, almost in the middle of Europe. And therefore, relatively accessible for builders all around the EU.

Figure 1 setting-up day at the tram shed in Schkeuditz.

For the construction of the layouts, they relied on 2 things. First, builders would enter their layout by BlueBrick or planning sheet. Where they would specify what their dimensions are, what type of power system they use, and if they built using MILS, LEN, NOIS etc.

Second, they use a lot of wood, and I mean tons of it. Most of the tables under need the layouts are constructed on side in advance. And after 4 years of doing this, they exactly know what they are doing and how to be creative. A lot of my respect go out to these guys and how they are always able to build tables and connection units for all the amazing complicated and unique shaped layouts. Be doing the constructions of tables on side, they are able to house more unique looking layouts and display them in curves and different shapes and therefore they are able to be more creative compared to using standard square tables.

What makes this event unique and I think is one of the reasons why it’s gotten so big, that it doesn’t matter how or what you built. Not only does that mean you can pick any type of layout you want, it also implies on what power system or modular standard you use. You can pick whatever you want, PF, 9v, r40 curves or R104+. The organization will make sure that your layout get’s places somewhere and that trains will run over them. The mainline itself is always pf and R104+ where a big part is also 9v powered so that you can excess those areas. A few of the branch lines are 9v r40 so only specific trains are able to excess those. By doing this, the event becomes a dynamic and lively thing, where different builders and different building style meet and come together.

After the 2019 version they decided to go bigger for the 2020 version, and even bigger after that. And now we are at a point that the tram shed is becoming too small.

Back in early 2021, myself and a few other LLMTC members decided to join BSBT with our layouts, and before we knew it, we were in for a big adventure and the event of a lifetime. So, what follows is the report of that 2021 event (what maybe was supposed to have been uploaded back in 2021).

BSBT2021, what an event.

So, after a long time of uncertainty because of the epidemic, we were finally able to go to the event on Thursday 12th of august 2021. We decided to rent a van to transport our modules and trains to the event. So, after meeting early morning at Erwin his apartment we drove together to the event in a really well packed van, which later turned out to be well not so appropriately named. We rented the van from busjehuren.nl, and once the fellow Germans noticed, we came to the conclusion that “huren”, which means “renting” in Dutch, has a really different meaning in German. After getting a tour of the location by the organization we were able to unpack and see what survived the journey. The days that unsuited where filled with seeing amazing trains run, a really cool trip to Leipzig, and one of the best night photoshoots I have ever seen.

Figure 2 not everything survived the transport unfortantly

To fully show the size of the event, I will now give a fictional tour of this event. So, take place in my Trans Europ Express while we cross the layout from one amazing layout to the other. Oh and don’t pay attention to the pieces that we are losing on the way, those were “non-essential”.

Figure 3, the layout design for BSBT2021. The full high resolution image can be seen here.

First location has to be number 12, Maciej Drwięga his Maciejowo station. And come on, who has not been following him for ages. His station has gotten immensely big over the years, what once started with a small station building is now a complete functioning train station. The current station is the size of 88 48×48 baseplates! And all the infrastructure like signal box, a huge station building, and a really neat train shed combine it into the perfect scenery. Combined with the fact that all these have lighting made this the perfect spot for late night photo stops. Oh, and it’s the perfect place to store/dump a train who runs terrible but looks good.

Figure 4 Maciej his station packed full with trains in the early morning sun light. Credits: Maciej Drwięga

Our second stop has to be the station Linderei with bridge (number 7 and 56), a group layout from Urban Erwin and Pieter Post. The station itself is set in the 1920-1930’s where all the scenery, including minifigures, match this time period. Behind this station building is the bridge Urban Erwin made, and this bridge is the starting point of the branch line, which extends all the way to the other side of the tram hall. A perfect location for photos and a lot of traffic jams.

Not only is the bridge a starting point of a branch line, the station itself also features a branch line, where once you drive through a piece of scenery you arrive at station Wörrstadt Hbf (number 6). Nick Kleinfelder, from the Noppenbahner group, is the builder of this station. And it is the perfect typical small German railway station. The entire station has controlled signals and working switches and combined with the lighting it was a true sight to behold. I highly recommend checking out his Flickr page to see the progress of the station over the years.

Figure 6 the TEE in Wörrstadt Hbf, waiting for continuing its journey.

After you drive future down the line, and through a time machine, you arrive at the Western layout from Chrisian(number 5). This Western layout was full of little details and moving elements, that made it a layout you just kept looking at. Oh, and it was a really fun place to see a modern day train drive trough.

Figure 7 everything but prototypical, but fun to see never the less.

Future down the other branch line that uses Urban Erwin his bridge, you come across station Stammbach from Ben Gollwitzer (number 2). Ben is also a member of the Noppenbahner group, and since they wanted to stay in contact during the event, they made a direct phone connection between Nick and Ben there stations. The station also uses working signals and was perfectly located for trains to wait to go up or down the branch line.

Figure 8 Stammbach station full with trains waiting for going up or down the branchline

After getting the clear signal we can leave the station and see the beautiful Bw Kleinfeld (number 32) which is also built by Nick Kleinfelder(I wonder if that’s where the name of the layout came from). This turntable and roundhouse were the perfect spot for loco’s to turn and refuel before heading back onto the branch line.

Figure 9 a trully impressive sight to see, all the locomotives in the fully packed roundhouse.

After driving down the branch line a bit more we come across the amazing Glenfinnan Viaduct (number 57) by Thomas/TS, where we are slowing down a bit, since we really don’t want to crash and destroy the bridge. This bridge is of course modeled after the iconic real-life viaduct which was featured in some kind of wizard movie. The bridge itself is located, like the real life one, in a curve and therefore a true piece of L-gauge Engineering.

Figure 10 Maciej his PKP SP32 at the Glenfinnian Viaduct. Photo credits: Maciej Drwięga

There is still so much more to see here, but one layout I do got to mention is the Rangierbahnhof Zwickau-Bakken(number 41) by again Thomas. This shunting yard uses a hill to shunt freight wagons into random order, and can be operated fully automatic or manually, I highly recommend checking out this video he made of the shunting yard.

Figure 11 shunting yard Zwickau Bakken Ablaufberg was the perfect spot for getting your trains shorted in a unique and diffrent order. Photo credits: Thomas/TS.

The combination of these amazing layouts with all the amazing models, and people made it a weekend that we will never forget. And after 3 days of running trains, we all came home with enough pictures and new ideas to last us for another year.

Beside showing off amazing models and running on a huge layout the entire weekend, the organization also organizes multiple games and challenges. One of these challenges was a speed building competition, where 2 builders had to build a Lego train set, where only one builder is able to see the instructions, and the other is able to see all the parts. Or the legendary pot racer building competition where you had to build a pot racer by using an existing speed champions set.

Figure 12 you gotta love potracer. Photo credtis: Urban Erwin

BSBT2022, were legends meet again.

Before we realized it, it was time for BSBT2022, were luckily this time there were no covid restrictions. With the lessons we learned from BSBT2021 it was time to head out for another weekend of running trains and meeting amazing builders. (And this time without renting a van with a name that some Germans still talk about to this day).

Figure 13 my roundhouse packed with loco’s all over the world. It saw a lot of use during the event!

The significant difference from last year was, that this year the organization purchased a lot of black clothes, and I mean a lot of them. The difference was immediately noticeable, and we highly recommend it for events. It hides all the mess and ugly wood with a blank continuously black cloth which helps with not only the presentation but also the pictures. Talking about pictures, the tram hall got some really cool ambiance lights, which are adjustable and therefore perfect when taking nighttime pictures. The difference between the settings was highly noticeable, and it was nice to not run into things in the dark that you are not able to see. There was a perfect quote from Tamás when we drove our trains in the dark without these ambiance lights:

“I was running my br65. It hit something and I heard a lot of bang. The nose was damaged and a 9v controller fell on the ground, no idea what happened.”

Figure 14 late night photostop at Donát his station. Featured in this picture is Tamás his br65 which really hates 9v controllers.

The layout set-up was similar to last year however, there were even more builders that we able to travel all the way to the event. By the uses of the NOIS modular system by Tbx Nicolas a lot of the layouts felt like one continues connected module which was an improvement upon last year. Some of these modules were built on the spot, and Nicolas really loved it when I asked if he was able to build one with 2 R104 switches for a crossover. By having more builders than the previous year a lot of the blank spots in the layouts from last year were corrected.

Figure 15 smaller layouts like this one from Jelle filled up a lot of the blank spots in the layout, and added a lot of live and detail! Photo credit Maciej Drwięga

I would like to take you through a tour of all these layouts again and stopping at a few that are really worth mentioning. This time take a seat in my ICM 4241(also known as the orange banana).

Figure 16: another packed layout design. Full high resolution image can be found here.

Let us start at Wörrstadt Hbf (number 3) by Nick Kleinfelder. We already visited this amazing layout during our 2021 tour, but a lot has been added, like this amazing looking bridge that we are just quickly going to crash into.

Figure 17 yup that isn’t the first, and won’t be the last time this will happen.

After getting back on the tracks, and gathering all the pieces that we already lose, we are stopping on the number 62 Brücke(bridge) from Michael. And this bridge is the perfect spot for so many photo opportunities. The landscape around the bridge is perfectly covered with a lot of small and interesting details. And it might be one of the most photographed layouts from this event.

Figure 18 Tamás his br65 with a small freight train. And Nick in the background being goofy. Photo credits Tamás de Groot.

After passing by some of the other amazing layouts on the branch line we arrive at Tamás his layout (order ehh I mean number 66) that gives us perfect excess to the main line. We are driving for a quick stop towards number 68, Erwin his banana fiddle yard. This yard is built using a lot of grand curves and therefore has a realistic and natural feel to it. Combined with the added lights makes it the perfect spot to stop and drop off some wagons (or dump your hopper wagons here during the entire event since they were a nightmare to use).

Figure 19 the Banana yard with the famous LLMTC hopper wagons. Photo credits: Maciej Drwięga

After passing by my Roundhouse (number 32) we are off back to Tamás his layout and onto Maté’s station (number 6) from Maté. This station is filled with models from both Maté and Donát and has a really cool modern-day train shed with some really cool and interesting details.

Figure 20 there is always time for a photostop at Maté his station!

After a quick stop we are continuing our journey towards the PFx project layout (number 82). Here Michael Gale was able to evaluate and show his new PFx products. And man was it a treat to see these things in action. I do not want to give away too much, since a lot of the products were still test versions. But the craftsman ship was impressive. And talking to Michael while you are waiting for a green signal to pass was a real treat and amazing experience.

Figure 21 PFx project layout at night.

Talking about green signals, this was the first of many working signals provided by Donát Raáb. With the center point being Ashilfalva station (number 7). This was the center of operations for the working signals project, whereby uses of original Lego sensors and S-bricks, he was able to detected if a train was in a certain part of the layout, and therefore preventing a crash. This system did take some work to set-up but was amazing to see in action, and I highly recommend checking out more about it this video. The station itself was huge and the meet-up point for a lot of the express trains that were going across the layout. And at night, the lights that were added to the layout gave it the perfect look of a busy mainline station.

Figure 22 Donát his station was the center of the working signals program. You can see all the red signals in the background keeping the lLMTC nightexpress safe.

After getting the green signal we are able to leave the station and continue towards a favorite from last year Maciejowo station (number 8) from Maciej. And of course, a lot of pictures have to be taking once passing through this legendary station. After that we arrive at the last big fiddle yard (number 75).

Figure 23 perfect scenery for a late night photo stop

A destination we aren’t able to reach with this train (and not because of the tight radius curves this time) is the narrow gauge layout they had on display. These layouts (number 22, 31 and 42) used the narrow-gauge Lego system and had some really intricated and interesting models running on them. A surprise to see so much narrow gauge in action!

Figure 24 it always impressive to see all the little working narrow gauge trains in action.

As a special event, the organization team organized a “loc-Olympics” event. Where you were able to enter your locomotive in a series of challenges. Like a speed run, or a pulling power test. And the results behind these where surprising. As a building competition, there was the special “95 years of Lego” competition. Where all the participants got the same creator set and had to build something in the theme of 90-years of Lego. And the result builts from this challenge was surprising and creative. These challenges make a cool extra entertainment factor to the event itself, and we are already looking forward to what the challenges are next year!

Nighttime photo’s.

Uncommon compared to other events is that BSBT is open until late on the Saturday evenings. And therefore, has a special “late night photoshoot”. The goal behind is to turn on all the buildings and trains that have light and thereby creating light in the darkness. The result off this is utterly unique for any event and is one of the highlights of the weekend. Unfortunately, still builders are still too lazy to add lights which can make driving in the dark a bit dangerously. Anyway, the layouts get a different life to it. Driving around the layouts gets impossible since everybody is stopping every 2 seconds to take a picture. I remember back in 2021 that there was an entire group of photographers taking pictures off our trains in Maciej station at the same time, while a traffic jam formed behind the station for other builders who were waiting on their turn to take photos.

Figure 25 Maciej his station full with lights and in the background full with a group of photographers trying to capture the magic. Photo credits Maciej Drwięga

So, what’s next.

The BSBT even has been growing increasingly throughout the years and that comes with a real problem. The current location (the tram hall) is getting to small to host every layout and builders that wants to take part in this event. So that’s one of the reasons they are now judging all the entries more strictly than before. Therefore, we highly recommend that if you want to join the even next year, that you would let the organization team know as soon as possible. The dates have already been set(11-13th of August 2023). So see you next year?

Figure 26 always fun having so many diffrent locomotives as guest, but why don’t they clean up after themself? Photo credits Maciej Drwięga.

I really want to thank the organization team behind the BSBT event. What they pull off every year is so impressive, and they surprise me each year on what they are able to each eve. The event itself is growing and growing and I am really looking forward to the bright future what this event is able to hopefully fulfill. The team behind this event is full of the most enthusiastic and friendly people I have ever met in the community and their only goal is that everybody can enjoy the weekend and have a fun time. Being able to be together with some many likeminded builders who you can share ideas and stories with is something I am truly grateful that I’m able to be a part of.

I also want to thank Nick and Tamás for helping out with this article.

Ciao! ~Enrico

If you’re looking for more photo’s and video’s of the events I highly recommend checking out these links:

BSBT2021:

BSBT2022:

Flickr groups:

BSBT21: just a view... who wants to play a bit?
Zremb SB-8 gantry crane and heavy stuff: PKP SM42 and ST43

Rail Car Secret Santa 2020 Part 1

Last year I was invited to join a group of friends from the LEGO train community in a Secret Santa Gift Exchange. If you’ve never participated in one, a Secret Santa is a Christmas tradition in which members of a group or community are randomly assigned a person to whom they give a gift. The identity of the gift giver is to remain a secret and should not be revealed until the gifts are opened.

Since all of us in the group are LEGO train builders, for this gift exchange we decided to exchange rail cars. The cars that came out of this exchange were awesome and the whole event was an unbelievably fun experience! It was such a success that we decided to do it again for 2021, and the gift opening date is only a few days away.

But for now we would like to look back on the cars from the 2020 exchange. So for the next few days, we’ll be sharing those builds with you and giving a bit of background on them, Who built them, who received them, and why the designer chose the car they modeled.

Recipients holding up their cars on the video call.
Continue reading Rail Car Secret Santa 2020 Part 1

Baureihe 01 and Baureihe 01.10, the pacific’s of the Deutsche Reichsbahn made in LEGO

The Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft’s BR(Baureihe) 01 steam locomotives were the first standardized (Einheitsdampflokomotive) steam express passenger locomotives built by the German railway. The BR 01 10 was also a part of the standardized locomotives, but it was a 3-cylinder version of the BR 01. Both the BR 01 and BR 01 10 where used right up to the end of steam service in both West-Germany and East-Germany. In this article both Enrico and Simon Jakobi (Dr Snotson on Flickr) will take a look through the history and use of the BR 01 and BR 01 10 and show their models which represent these iconic locomotives.

DRG Class 01

The Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft’s BR 01 steam locomotives were the first standardized (Einheitsdampflokomotive) steam express passenger locomotives. A total of 231 locomotives where built by German company’s across Germany. They were of 4-6-2 “Pacific” wheel arrangement in the Whyte notation, or 2′C1′ h2 in the UIC classification. The idea behind standardization is to reduce cost and make repairs easier and quicker.

Neuenmarkt-Wirsberg, 3 September 1972. Loc 001 180 with a sister locomotive at the Schiefe Ebene, photo credits to Nico Spilt.

The BR 01 is a 2-cylinder locomotive. As a test 10 locomotives where built with a 4-cylinder configuration, these where renumbered in BR 02. The 2-cylinder version was favored after long testing because it was easier to maintain running compared to the 4-cilinder version. The main batch of the BR 01 were delayed in the 1920’s. The reason behind this was that the infrastructure of the DB wasn’t ready for these locomotives. Turntables needed to be lengthened and railway lines needed to be strength to be able to support the 20-ton locomotives.

Since 1938 there were 231 BR 01 locomotives available for the prestigious express train duties across Germany. The 10 four-cylinder BR 02 locomotive version (01 111, 01 233–241) were converted to two-cylinder BR 01 models between 1937 and 1942. Since there were so many routes that still had axle load restrictions, which were too low for Class 01 service, in the early 1930s, a third variant was produced: the BR 03 designed with a two-cylinder engine and axle load of 18 ton. A total of 298 BR 03 locomotives where built. Launched in 1939, the three-cylinder DRG Class 01.10 was a further development of the 01.

The 03 098, a version of the 01 with a lower axle load. The 03 098 is preserved in the Technic-museum Speyer.

In 12 years, a total of five series or batches were delivered, each with minor variations:

  • 01 001–010 (1926)
  • 01 112–076 (1927–28)
  • 01 077–101 (1930–31)
  • 01 102–190 (1934–1936)
  • 01 191–232 (1937–1938).

Stats

Originally, the BR 01’s top speed was restricted to 120 km/h(75mph). In order to raise this to 130 km/h(81mph), the diameter of the leading wheels was increased from its original 850 mm to 1,000 mm on locomotives from operating number 01 102 onwards and brake effort was increased by installing double-sided working of the brake shoes on the coupled wheels and by braking the trailing wheels.  Each locomotive was able to produce a respectably 1,648 kW. The driving wheels where 2000mm (78.74 inch).

Tenders

The BR 01s were equipped with 2’2 T 30, 2’2′ T 32 or 2’2′ T 34 tenders. Their coal capacity was 10 tons of coal, and the water tank held either 30, 32 or 34 cubic meters of water. The prototype locomotives, 01 001 to 01 010, were supplied with the smaller 2’2 T 30 tenders, because there were not enough large turntables around. Later these tenders were only used if they were absolutely necessary, e.g. in cross-border services with the Netherlands. From the second series (01 012 et seq.) on, the Class 01 was furnished with rivetted 2’2′ T 32 tenders. The welded tenders, class 2’2′ T 34, appeared only by way of exchange (mainly from brand new Class 44) locomotives. Thereafter they were almost the only ones used during the war years and after the Second World War, because they had a larger water capacity.

Rebuilds:

Multiple locomotives where converted in their life spent. From a complete overhaul to a small parts change. Here 3 categories that stent out the most:

Henschel mixer preheater rebuilds

In 1950 and 1951, the Deutsche Bundesbahn converted locomotives 01 042, 01 046, 01 112, 01 154 and 01 192. They were enhanced with a Heinl mixer preheater by Henschel and a turbo feed pump. In addition, combustion chambers were installed in the boilers. This increased the power to 1,802 kW. Finally, the conversion was rounded off with the replacement of the original smoke deflectors by Witte deflectors, which in spite of their considerably smaller size were just as effective as their larger predecessors. Four of these five modified locomotives remained in service until 1968.

New DB boiler design rebuild

From 1957 until 1961 the Deutsche Bundesbahn rebuilt a further 50 vehicles. These engines were given welded, high-performance, steam boilers, which had already been used on the BR 01.10’s. In addition, a new mixer preheater system was installed in the smokebox and numerous friction bearings were replaced by roller bearings. Changes to the cylinder block, running board, a shorter chimney, front apron (Frontschürze) and locomotive frame, as well as the missing feedwater dome, all gave the locomotives a different external appearance. The power of these rebuilds where increased to 1,714 kW.

Koblenz, 12 Augustus 1970. Loc 001 150, with a new boiler, ready for departure to Trier, credits Nico Spilt.

DR Reko locomotive 01.5

The Deutsche Reichsbahn (the East-Germany railway’s) rebuilt 35 BR 01 locomotives which were on their part of Germany after the split between East and West. All these locos were fitted with new Witte smoke deflectors with tapered edges, a new driver’s cab and a new boiler, positioned higher on the frame. The boiler had a combustion chamber, a mixer preheater and a continuous cover for the dome. All this gave these locomotives an entirely different look compared to there West-German versions.

The 01-514 in Technic museum Speyer. This locomotive was rebuilt in West-Germany, and currently preserved in the Technic museum.

The end of the legends

Class 01 locomotives remained in service with the Deutsche Bundesbahn until 1973. In West-Germany, they were still working up to the early 1980s, largely in their original state with large smoke deflectors. They were legendary in their last years for hauling the D-Zug services on the Berlin-Dresden route up to autumn 1977. Only when the large Soviet DR Class 132 diesel locomotives arrived, the Class 01 express train locomotives were finally forced out of scheduled services in East-Germany after almost 50 years.

Survivors:

The list of preserved BR 01 is quite impressive. All the locomotives mentioned bellow very in state and condition. Some are still in there rebuild version, how ever there a few preserved in the state they came out of the factory.

  • 01 118
  • 01 066
  • 01 202
  • 01 116
  • 01 150
  • 01 005
  • 01 008
  • 01 111
  • 01 137
  • 01 164
  • 01 173
  • 01 204
  • 01 220
  • 01 509 (ex 01 143)
  • 01 514 (ex 01 208)
  • 01 519 (ex 01 186)
  • 01 531 (ex 01 158)

DB BR 01 „Blue Lady“ – SIMON JAKOBI

Inspiration

In late 2017 I met Julius Theißen a.k.a. “Dampfstein” on a meeting of LEGO Fans at our local LEGO-Store “Steinchenbrüder” in Hannover, Germany. Like me Julius was totally into 8 w LEGO train MOCs. On this evening he brought his excellent model of a German Baureihe 03 to the store. His solution concerning the golden boiler rings is outstanding. On both hands they are slim and round with a diameter close to the boiler, but brick built. On our first exhibition in early 2018 we decided to plan a team layout with turntable and roundhouse to showcase our MOCs. Up to then I had only designed electric and diesel engines.

But now I was wondering which DB steam prototype would reveal an interesting contrast to Julius` 03 on our future “Bahnbetriebswerk”. Deep down in my stuff in the basement of my parent`s house I found the first part of the answer – a 20 years old MINITRIX model (12617) of the German Baureihe 03 in a special dark blue livery with silver boiler rings. A few days later deep down in the dungeons of the WWW with the pictures of a KM1 model of the 01 1087 I found the second part of the answer: It seems that not only a few of the 03 were painted in steal blue, but also one Baureihe 01 received this elegant color scheme which gave these so called “blue ladies” a perfect match to the blue coaches of the “F-Zug-Netz” in those early days of the young DB.

The award winning Bahnbetriebswerk Julius and Simon built together.

Challenge

First of all, I don`t scale. That`s not my kind of approach to a locomotive. In the end all of my MOCs reflect a balance between form and functionality. Usually, I start to design several characteristic details of a prototype to get a first idea if I achieve a satisfying recognition factor in LEGO. In case of the Baureihe 01 I began with smaller sections like the boiler sections, cab or rear and top of the tender and checked if I could carry out my drafts in the desired color. Some items are rare or not available in dark blue, so I decided to stick to regular bricks and plates whenever possible.

Again, and again, I checked if the required bricks were available in dark blue for a reasonable prize. But as mentioned before, the BR 01 was my first steam locomotive and what is even more important my first articulated steam locomotive. At a certain point of my fast and enthusiastic progress on both details and arrangement I had to look the devil in the eye and face the bitter truth: Moving further on doesn`t make any sense without solving the critical issues concerning articulation of such a type of locomotive (pacific, 4–6–2 or 2`C1`) when it comes to negotiation of R40 curves and TLC switches. Because I don`t own any curves bigger than that, the ability to take such small radii was one of my prior goals. On the other hand, I wanted to keep the gap between engine and tender as narrow as possible.

The front profile of the amazing Blue Lady.

References

I was wondering if I could realize both of these wishes or if I would have to abandon one of these desires. Long story short: once again I had to dig deep in the common digital archives. Sooner or later, I stumbled upon another excellent executed Baureihe 01 on Flickr. On his account the creator Johan van den Heuvel [Johan van den Heuvel | Flickr] shows us smart solutions for the articulation of the front truck and both the rear truck and the coupling of the tender to the engine.

Based on his concept I connected the center pivot of the first boogie of the tender with a long towing bar as close as possible to the last main axle of the engine. The rear axle of the engine is swimming underneath the towing bar. The tender is not connected to his first boogie as one would expect but to the middle of the towing bar as close to the cabin as possible. The result is some kind of virtual pivot point pulling the tender close to the engine to a minimal gap on a straight track and providing enough clearance for turnout of the cab on curved and even S-curved track like switches.

The distance between the tender and locomotive, is impressively short.

Result

Apart from the close coupling of engine and tender and the ability to negotiate R40 curves and TLC switches on the same time I was able turn a lot of other ideas or major goals from my list into reality: The special livery in dark blue with flat silver boiler rings gives my creation a very unique look. There is a real gap between the round boiler and the frame carrying the main axles enabling you to look through the spokes of the huge XXL-wheels from Shupp`s.

To eliminate the LEGO specific raster of plain brick-built sidewalls most of the tender is done in snotwork with regular 1 x 1, 1 x 2 and 1 x 4 bricks laying on their side and betraying our LEGO brains. Only when it comes to motorization, I have to admit one big sacrifice. I really would like to see the drivers of the engine be powered. But unfortunately, the 6 wagon wheels split up the boiler in 7 short sections and there is not enough space left for one (or even better two) PF-motors and a reliable drivetrain.

Due to the fit of extreme snotism space in the tender is also very limited. Keep in mind: snotism and other extravagant design techniques are nothing but cruel and relentless space killers! The only solution left is the use of PF-train-motors underneath the tender. Luckily, I managed to store and hide a PF-battery-box (6 x AAA) and a SBRICK in the coal bunker of the tender above. Recently I have equipped my V60 and my Baureihe 81 with 3D-printed rods from bricks-on-rails.de to put these new items to a test. I am very pleased with the quality and will definitely upgrade my Baureihe 01 and my upcoming Baureihe 50. Last but not least I have to mention the custom decals from modellbahndecals.de. Please note: the number my locomotive is fiction. It is the birthday of my beloved wife.

BR 01 10

Launched in 1939, the three-cylinder DRG Class 01.10 was a further development of the 01. They were 2’C1’h3 2’3′ locomotives, there was a need for faster locomotives for express trains between mayor cities in Germany. To achieve this speed, the 01.10 was designed with a three-cylinder layout. Furthermore, they were equipped with a streamlined casing to reduce air resistance. Frictional losses were minimized by the use roller bearings on the driving and coupling rods. Originally 400 locomotives where ordered. Because of the Second World War only 55 where delivered, all made by Schwarzkopf.

Emden West, 12 July 1971. Loc 012 063 ready to depart to Rheine, credits Nico Spilt.

After the war al the BR 01 10’s where left in West-Germany. All these locomotives where in a bad shape, a lot of parts of the streamlining was removed to be used in the war machine. Secondly and the major problem of the BR 01 10 was that their boilers where made from bad quality metal. Which resulted in them ageing much faster compared to other locomotives. Due to a locomotive shortage a number of BR 01 10 got a quick refurbishment after the war to get them back in action.

In 1949 all the locomotives (accept the 01 1067), got a major refurbished, in this refurbishment what was left of there streamlining was removed. The boiler problem was later fixed in 1953-1956 which also saw a number of locomotives converted to oil-firing instead of coal. On 31 May 1975 the last BR 01 10 where decommissioned in Bahnbetriebswerk Rheine, one of the last strong holds for steam locomotives in Germany.

Stats:

Because the BR 01 10 has 3-cilinders it’s able to reach a much higher top speed compared to the standard BR 01. The top speed of the BR 01 10 was 140 km/h (87 mph) for coal powered and 150 km/h (93 mph) for oil powered. There driving wheels where the same diameter as the standard BR 01, 2000mm (78.74 in), which resulted in the top power of the locomotives being around 1,728 kW for coal powered and 1,817 kW oil powered. All the locomotives where equipped with a 2’3 T 38 tender which was able to carry 38.0 m3 of water and, 10.0-ton coal or 13,500 L oil.

Survivors:

Of the 55 locomotives, 10 survived. Just like the BR 01 there in a range of states.

  • 01 1056
  • 01 1061
  • 01 1081
  • 01 1082
  • 01 1063
  • 01 1066
  • 01 1075
  • 01 1100
  • 01 1102
  • 01 1104
The 01 1102 got it’s streamlining back which represented the streamlining which the locomotives came out the factory with. The 01 1102 in Hilversum, credits Nico Spilt.

BR 01 1075

A side profile of the SSN 01 1075 in LEGO

History of the 01 1075

To better explain why the 01 1075 is my favorite locomotive, we need to go trough a quick history lesson.

The 01 1075 was decommissioned, like many BR 01 10, in 1975 in Bahnbetriebswerk Rheine. Around that time a number of steam enthusiast in the Netherlands where looking in the possibility to buy steam locomotives in Germany, and to bring these to the Netherlands to preserved and restore them. 4 of these enthusiasts decided to join forces and create a steam heritage organization, this would from then on, be known as SSN, Stoom Stichting Nederland (Steam Organization Netherlands). There goal was to preserve and restore steam powered machines.

The first 2 locomotives that the SSN bought were the 23-023 and 01-1075. The 23-023 was a locomotive from the BR 23 class, this was still operation when the SSN bought it. It was therefore used to collect the 01 1075 from Bahnbetriebswerk Rheine an get both locomotives to the Netherlands.

The SSN 01 1075 beside their small platform, a perfect place to take pictures.

The 01 1075 wasn’t operation until 1991, then the SSN decided to restore the locomotive at the Reichsbahn Ausbesserungswerk Meiningen, which was located in West-Germany. Besides getting the locomotive operation again, the locomotive was converted back into coal power. Therefore, it’s the only preserved 01 10 which is coal powered, and operation. The 01 1075 is equipped with both the Dutch and German safety systems, and it’s therefore able to operate in both the Netherlands and Germany. It is currently the fastest steam locomotive in the Netherlands.  

The SSN is located in Rotterdam, near where I live (about a 15 min drive). I literally grow up with the SSN, my first visit was back when I was just 1 year old, and I have been a regular since then. The 01 1075 has been my favorite as long as I can remember. It’s speed, profile and looks just speak to me!

The SSN 01 1075 on the turntable of the SSN during one of my visits. The locomotive just barely fits on the turntable.

From 2016-2020 I had another version of the SSN 01 1075 in LEGO, this was 95% HaBricks 01 202 model, whit some changes to colours/parts. Back at the end of 2019 I equipped the model with a Pfx brick with a XL speaker. Since the tender was to small, and the model wasn’t really scale acquired, I decided to complete redesign the locomotive from scratch.

The tender has increased in size compared to my old model; therefore, all the electronics are easier to fit in.

A rough and strange 9 months later, and the locomotive is done. It still has the Pfx Brick with XL spear, with a led board for LED’s which are programmed. The Pfx Brick has original sound files that I got from the ESU lokprogrammer system. All these sounds are from the real BR 01 10, programming the sound alone took me at least a week. The LED’s which are used on the locomotive have been provided by UrbanErwin, which was kind enough to spend his free Saturday afternoon helping me out. For power the locomotive has 2 XL-motor’s inside the boiler which power both driving wheels. The driving wheels are XXL wheels from Big Ben Bricks. The costum prints are provided by BrickPrint, and the costum driving rods are provided by bricks-on-rails.

Lights, let there be lights!

Since most German locomotives look so much alike I tried to capture the real look of the locomotive as much as possible while still building in the right scale(1:45). For this I printed scaled dwarings ,where Raised was kind enough the rescale them for me, and massure the lengt/with of all the little nots and pieces. I also highly recommend serials scale program!

The scaled dwarings, provided by the-blueprints.com.

Wagons:

The SSN has their own wagons to use when organizing events trough, the Netherlands and Germany. The bulk of there fleet are Bm 238 wagons. I have built 2 of these with great help from UrbanErwin (and with great help I mean he made most of the design). One of their most recognizable wagons is the Mitropa wagon, a WRm 130.1 wagon from West-Germany. This wagon is painted in the recognizable dark red paint scheme with yellow logos on the side. I made both these wagons in scale 1:45 for my SSN 01 1075. I’m planning to add more including the blue water wagon, dark blue Bm238, and the Bm 232 in dark green and white. These are all somewhere on my “to build” list. Both the Bm 238 wagons and the Mitropa model have lights, one of the Bm 238 has red lights at the end of wagon, these are made by UrbanErwin as well.

The locomotive in action:

Since there aren’t any shows currently to visit, I haven’t been able to make a proper video of the SSN 01 1075 in action. However, I do have a video of it running with all 3 wagons inside my house. The quality isn’t perfect, and I hope to be able to properly film the train soon!

if you’re interested in seeing the real locomotives in action there a few great video’s down below. Some are in German and Dutch, but hey, steam locomotives speak a universal langue.

Ciao

Enrico

Simon

Getting Started on Scale Model LEGO Trains

Traditional Model Railroading has been called by some the “World’s Greatest Hobby” – and not necessarily out of the normal sort of pride that one tends to have towards their passions. Model Railroading encompasses a very large amount of skills and interests, even beyond just scale modeling – electrical work, carpentry, machining and fabrication, paint, plastic and foam sculpting, and more. A lot has been done in the hobby to help make it easier to get into and make some truly impressive things without requiring an in-depth knowledge or steep learning curve to be learned by a single person, but it can still be very daunting for a person to pick up once they start looking into everything involved.

LEGO Model Railroading is similar to this in a lot of ways. Beyond just building a model that looks good, if you want to design and run a LEGO locomotive you will need to learn a lot more than just good building practices. There’s some dabbling in Technic, learning about gearing, learning about articulation and swing clearances – and that’s just for the locomotives! The amount of topics to learn grows greatly as you expand into a full layout.

People looking to get into LEGO Trains as a modeling hobby have a bit more of a challenge than they would going into something like HO or O Scale stuff – you have to build everything yourself, and LEGO doesn’t sell true Scale model kits. This leaves a bit of a gap for where to start – how can someone just coming in get to a point where they can have and run models that look as good as the custom stuff that caught their eye? This generally seems to be the point where people realize that there is a lot more to learn than there seemed.

Of course, there are always options outside of the LEGO company. There are a lot of great builders in the train community who have been sharing huge amounts of resources and information for years. Custom instructions for LEGO Trains and train-related models are becoming easier to find and many very-high quality ones are available as well, which can also help more with teaching techniques and getting people started with nice detailed models. 

Even with these available, there’s always going to be the desire to do something yourself. Maybe what you want isn’t available, maybe you just want to have the satisfaction or the skills to be able to do something like that on your own – and of course, there’s also those who love to learn new things for its own sake.

To help with this, I’d like to do a series covering how to build Scale Model LEGO trains – just the good, fundamental basics. A lot of this information may be common knowledge to more experienced builders, but my hope is to create a good starting point for new people coming into the hobby. By taking the many stages of good design in small, focused chunks we can examine each stage and learn some good practices and methods for dealing with the different phases of the design process. These are good starting points, but they are not necessarily definitive or even the best way to do it – They should let you get some good starting fundamentals. When building a model from instructions or mimicking techniques from more experienced builders, it can be relatively simple to see how something was built, but it’s good to know why it was done that way. Learning the fundamentals behind each of the design choices is a great way to get started towards great models.

That said, let’s cover the first, most fundamental topic of Scale Modeling.

Continue reading Getting Started on Scale Model LEGO Trains

LEGO TRAIN PROJECTS book review.

Recently author Charles Pritchett has released a LEGO train project book with 7 unique designs for LEGO trains. This article is a review about the book and the 7 designs which are included.

The Author

First about the author, Charles Pritchett has been building with LEGO for 35 years. He is also a professional graphic, UI, and UX designer. He has authored or co-authored several LEGO books, including Prehistoric Bricks: Building LEGO Dinosaurs and Other Extinct Beasts; Building LEGO BrickHeadz: Heroes; Building LEGO BrickHeadz: Villains; and Expanding the LEGO Winter Village. All these books ,including the Train Projects, are available on Amazon. The introduction paragraph gives an interesting back story on how Charles started with LEGO and how he came back from his dark ages.

After the introduction, the book starts off with an explanation on how the book is laid out and where you can gather parts for the designs which are featured in the book. It also gives a link the useful XML files to use if you want to upload the designs to Bricklink. This paragraph is useful for first time builders or builders who just came back out of the dark ages. However, for the more experience builders this paragraph is a bit useless and will be skipped.

The Designs

The book features 7 designs: a coal gondola, a milk tanker, an open hopper, a depressed flatcar with electrical load, a passenger coach, a powered box car and a locomotive. The designs themselves are featured in a way that is visually interesting. The instructions and the parts list are clear, simple, and easy to use. All designs, except the locomotive, also have a couple of alternative color scheme featured, which shows the design in an alternate version and can be a cool change if you’re building multiple of the same design.

The contents of this book.

All the designs are 6-wide builds and more in a City train style. They are all neat and cool designs and go perfectly with the standard Lego train city sets. But, for a more experienced builder, they are all more simple. \

Is this a bad thing? It depends. If you already have the City trains in your collection and want to expand them with a couple of interesting builds, these designs will then be perfect for you! If you’re an experienced builder and have been building MOCs for a while, then these will not really speak to you as a builder. For 6-wide builders in general the book shows how you can build interesting designs in a 6-wide space.

For the designs themselves, I haven’t got that many things to point out/say. There all interesting if you’re a 6-wide builder and if you built in the city train scale/theme. There all pretty good looking and straight forward and haven’t got anything really important to mention, except for the locomotive.

The EMD FL9

The locomotive is the final design featured in the book and is the most complicated/biggest built in the book., and is in my opinion the best looking. The design is an interesting one with a great shape and colour scheme. It’s an EMD FL9 diesel locomotive, sixty units were built between October 1956 and November 1960 by General Motors Electro-Motive Division for the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad (the “New Haven”). The locomotive is designed in the famous orange, white and black color scheme.

An Electro-Motive builder’s photo featuring freshly outshopped New Haven FL9 #2033 circa 1960.(source: american-rails.com)

Like mentioned above the locomotive is really good looking especially for a 6-wide model. The way the orange and white cross each other is achieved with a really intricated building technique using cheese slopes. The locomotive has got a lot of detailing on all sides to give it a really realistic look.

The EMD FL9 locomotive.

So, the design is good looking, but there is a small problem. The locomotive isn’t powered. For the motorization the locomotive can use the Powered Box Car featured in the book. I find this disappointing. First of all, I personally prefer if a locomotive can power itself along the tracks secondly if you look at the design featured in the book, it can easily be powered with Power Functions, 9V or Powered Up. I’m personally really disappointed that the locomotive design isn’t powered, and it feels a bit like a missed opportunity.

In Conclusion

In my opnion, this book is just about worth the 15 dollars/euro/pounds. It’s a instruction book which shows 7 pretty interesting design and that’s about it. I was hoping for a bit more background information about LEGO trains, and maybe a bit more history. There are already so many great and interesting LEGO train books out there. I feel it’s really a missed opportunity. It doesn’t even point out which power systems LEGO has made to be able to power your train.

In short, I recommend the book for 6-wide builders who want to expand their collection or want a couple of interesting designs to use as inspiration.  For more experienced builders, this book hasn’t got that many things to offer. It is, however, interesting to read trough the instructions to get a general idea how the designs work and what you can achieve with a 6-wide build.

If your looking for a book that has got it all. Check out Holger Matthes his book. It’s a bit more expensive but has it all. From LEGO train history and power systems, to help and instructions for beginners and amazing builds for experience builders. Holger has written the book in a very calm and enjoyable writing style, which can make difficult and complex topics easy to read. The book contains a lot of interesting background story behind a couple of his most complicated builds.

The LEGO TRAINS BOOK from Holger Matthes

Christmas Train by Matt Chiles: A 9V Throwback

When I was younger and still pretty new to the world of Lego trains, I would often browse the internet looking at various Lego MOC sharing websites like MOCPages, Brickshelf, and later Flickr. I was able to learn of a lot of builders and enjoy the work they had published.

Every once in a while, however, I would find a hidden gem off the beaten path of the common Lego websites of the day. The Christmas Train by Matt Chiles is one of them.

Matt Chiles’ Christmas Train
Continue reading Christmas Train by Matt Chiles: A 9V Throwback

Railroad Track Maintenance Part One; The Tie Gang

By Sal Ciofani

So you’ve decided to step beyond just laying LEGO track on baseplates, so you have added ballast and reddish brown or black ties to really make your track come to life.  You might even say it is starting to less like a toy train track, and a little more like realistic model railroad track.  But even the nicest looking high speed mainline track needs good maintenance to keep it in tip top shape so trains can run quickly and safely, without risking catastrophic derailments.  We will take a look at how track is maintained to keep it looking realistic and to keep trains running safely and reliably.    

Continue reading Railroad Track Maintenance Part One; The Tie Gang

Track Detailing for Light Rail

Article by Conrad Schlenker

In the past, we have seen great and highly informative articles from Hod Carrier and Matt Csenge on simple but good-looking details anyone can build to add detail to their track. Today, I’d like to do the same, but for a relatively unexplored genre of L-gauge modeling: Light Rail!

Light rail is a very important mode of public transportation in a lot of major cities throughout the world. Although I will be covering details that aim to replicate things found in America, hopefully this article is helpful to anyone looking to model a rapid transit railway. 

Before we get into the larger details, lets look at some simple details that don’t take many parts, but can add a lot of detail that is sure to catch any spectators eye. 

Tie Choices

            I 100% agree with the things Matt said in his 2nd article about USA Track Detailing. Ties are everything. Concrete ties are quite common on light rail systems, so here are a few ways to do them: 

Concrete ties left to right:

  • Dual block ties with no fasteners
  • Dual block ties with 1×1 plates for fasteners
  • Full concrete ties with no fasteners
  • Full concrete ties with fasteners on both sides
  • Full concrete ties with fasteners on outside only

Its also recommended that you put ballast in between a double track mainline as well. 

Trackside Signs

Whistle Board. Used at grade crossings, it alerts the driver to use the horn in order to warn motorists of the incoming train. 

Absolute speed board. Tells the driver the current or absolute speed limit of the track.

Upcoming speed board. The slant of the board indicates that the speed listed on it will be in effect when the next board arrives. 

End of Track Bumper

There are many different types and designs of end of track bumpers out there, but this one is modeled after the one used on the DART system, which is the closest light rail system to me. Rest assured, this detail will look great on any layout, and looks general enough to match other designs seen all over America. The end of track bumper is obviously used to stop a train from going too far off the rails when its going too fast. Sometimes it works better than others, as seen in an incident in a Chicago Metro station a few years ago. The bumper is attached to the rails, which is modeled by the 1×4 plates in between the ties, and the 1×2 jumpers hanging over the rails. Also modeled are the rubber pads, which are meant to soften the impact, but don’t really help much if the train is going fast enough to hit the bumper in the first place. I used 1×2 grills for these. Since these bumpers are so common on light rail / rapid transit lines, this detail will bring a lot to any layout, and is sure to catch the eye of any spectator. 

Next, we have a simple line side signal that can be found pretty much anywhere on a light rail system. Signals are necessary not only to light rail lines but any type of mainline anywhere in the world. Their job is fairly simple and works much like a traffic light on a road. It tells drivers weather or not it is safe to proceed, and if anything is occupying the right of way in front of them. The most common aspects seen on such signals is as follows: Green or clear = proceed at line speed, flashing yellow or approach medium = proceed  with caution and be prepared to stop in the next 2 signals, yellow or approach = proceed at a maximum speed of 40 miles per hour, and be prepared to stop at the next signal. There are many more aspects, meaning lots of different things, but that should give you a basic understanding on how they work. Light rail signals appear more box-like than signals found elsewhere. It is important to make sure the signal looks like it is set in concrete, hence the LBG bricks at the bottom. This also goes for crossing gates and catenary poles. Some signals have two ‘heads’ on them, which means they display two aspects at one time. The second head can easily be built under the first one if you need it.

Don’t worry, this detail is compatible with the PennLUG style of track ballasting found on L-gauge.org. Light rail lines often have to weave through small spaces to get where they need to go, so on especially tight corners an inner 3rd rail is used to make absolutely sure the train stays on the track. It’s not like the 3rd rails some of you may have heard of; it doesn’t provide power on the outside of the track, it provides stability o the inside of the track. These can be seen in maintenance bases, yards, and on the mainline, as well as be attached to either the inside or outside edge of the rail. 

            That was my last detail for this article, and although it was a short one, I hope it gave you some inspiration and jumping off points if you ever take on a project involving light rail. If you’re wondering why I didn’t talk about a catenary pole, its because the height usually changes depending on the scale of the train, and I didn’t want to create a size limitation for people who don’t build the same scale as me. 

             To all who read this far, thank you. I hope you enjoyed this brief look into the world of light rail. 

               Play well,

                       Conrad.

Building a LEGO Train Club

This article was written for us by Richard Carter, a founding member of the LNUR, or LEGO Northern UK Railway.

What do you do when you find other adult LEGO fans who love LEGO trains? Start a LEGO train club, of course!

We were all inspired by the collaboration we had seen on railway displays from LEGO Train Clubs (LTCs) in America and Australia. Groups such as PennLUG and Texas Brick Railroad in the US, and Melbourne LEGO Train Club and Victorian L Gauge Railways in Australia.

FOUNDING THE GROUP

LNUR was founded by three members – myself (aka Bricks McGee), Jack and James. We felt there was room for a LEGO train club in our area of the UK, and LEGO Northern UK Railway (LNUR) was born. The name and logo of the LNUR group are pastiches of LEGO Northern Eastern Railway, a historic and also current operating name for a major railway route in the UK between London and Edinburgh.

We were fairly local to each other, based in North East England and Yorkshire, and had talked before at LEGO shows we had been exhibiting at. Every LEGO train club seems to have plenty of loco builders, so our aim was to build a large main railway display for members to run their locomotive and rolling stock models on.

There are quite a few LEGO User Groups in the UK already, so our aim was not to replicate the functions of those, but to create a group in which LEGO train fans could collaborate more closely.We now have members from every LEGO User Group in the UK – something we hadn’t envisaged when we first started!

OUR FIRST LEGO RAILWAY DISPLAY

The first official LNUR display was at Hull Block Con in August 2017, though a handful of British LEGO railway modellers had displayed together at Bricktastic LEGO show in Manchester earlier that year. The layout was based on Richard’s Felpersham railway station model, and James’ 9ft long Intercity 225 was incredibly popular with visitors to the show.

A model of Stephenson’s Rocket locomotive on our display at Hull Block Con 2017.

As a group, we average around 12 – 15 LEGO shows a year, which gives us plenty of chance to run locos and wagons on longer layouts than we could probably set up in our living rooms. As a LEGO train club, our flagship show for displays is Shildon Brick Show.

This has become our major show for displays for a few reasons: firstly, Shildon Brick Show is in a railway museum, which is the perfect backdrop for our LEGO railway. Secondly, the show is held in November each year so it gives us 11 months to prepare a new display to tour.

Last year, our display was “Darrington”, centred around a railway station based on Loughborough Central, now part of the Great Central Railway heritage line. The layout also features a traditional steam locomotive shed and a traction maintenance department.

A view from the road bridge over the railway station.
Felpersham Traction Maintenance Depot (TMD) on our Darrington LEGO railway display.

We use standard LEGO track where possible, though larger radius curves from both Brick Tracks and Trixbrix enable us to run at higher speeds for shows, and their custom crossovers, points and slip points are really helpful for allowing more interesting running for the public.

ROLLING STOCK AND LOCOMOTIVES

The majority of our members build British locos and wagons, though we do have a token railroader in Matt, who is building a modular US-style railroad display. Between our members, we have LEGO models of many of the more famous locomotives to run on British railways, including Jack’s Intercity 125:

James’ Intercity 225 on our layout at Bricktastic 2018 in Manchester:

We seem to like building the more quirky rolling stock, too. This is Pete’s FNA nuclear flask wagon:

MEMBER LAYOUTS

Now we’re a little more mature as a LEGO train club, we’re seeing members building their own LEGO railway layouts ready to display at shows and exhibitions, too. We displayed our Ambridge & Paxley layout earlier this year at a show, which is a new end-to-end display. It made for a fun few days of operation as it required more coordination between drivers to use the single line between the stations.

A LEGO 02 locomotive on passenger service above the cricket pitch. A LEGO dinosaur (bottom left) always seems to be present on LNUR layouts! Photo: Isaac Smith.

We also have two narrow gauge railway displays in progress, and our long-running “playout” – a drive-your-own LEGO train display – is hugely popular at LEGO shows. Part of our remit as a LEGO train club is to encourage interest in the LEGO train hobby, so the younger we can inspire LEGO fans the better!

LNUR TODAY

3 years since starting LNUR, we now have a steady membership of around 20 members, spread throughout Scotland and England. We even have a member in the US who builds British locomotives!

If you love LEGO trains and building displays, we would highly recommend getting together and building your own LEGO train club.