New BMR Store, New Premium Instructions, and Community Updates: June 2020

Today is the big day. Brick Model Railroader is launching our new and improved online store. And we have three band new Premium Instructions for sale along with an array of new decals for each.

Our old store served us well, but we we starting to out grow it. As we added new products, it was increasingly hard to navigate and find what you were looking for. Also the look was growing stale, and our products were not being show off to their fullest potential. So one the last few weeks we’ve been moving our store over to a new platform, one full of shiny new widgets, and hopefully a much better buying experience for you.

Click Here to Check Out the New BMR Online Store

The new BMR store front.

New Premium Instructions

Continue reading New BMR Store, New Premium Instructions, and Community Updates: June 2020

LEGO Announces 10277 Crocodile Locomotive

After several weeks of (intended?) leaks and gossip all over the internet, Lego finally does what we all expected it to do a week before Fathers Day: It released the much anticipated Crocodile! As expected, it’s based on the Swiss Railways Class Ce 6/8 II. The model will be 7 wide, which is a first for TLC, and is meant both as a display model and combined with the Powered Up! Hub (88009) and a L-motor (88013), controlled by the Powered Up! app.

Here’s what Lego has to say about it:

Remember those happy childhood hours spent playing with toy train sets? Now you can escape your responsibilities and head back to those joyful days with this LEGO® Crocodile Locomotive Building Kit – but this time, it’s strictly for adults! Take your time with the build, then immerse yourself in the sublime engineering as you explore the features and functions packed into this impressive model. 

Build and display a railway icon. Unwind with this rewarding building challenge as you create an authentic, displayable, LEGO® model version of the iconic Crocodile Locomotive.

Clear your mind and escape the daily grind with this fulfilling building project. If your passion for toy train sets has never really left you, you’ll love recreating the amazing details of the Crocodile Locomotive, a vintage classic from the golden age of rail travel.  Impressive attention to detail Inspired by the Class Ce 6/8 II locomotive, first built for the Swiss Federal Railways between 1919 and 1927, this beautiful LEGO® model is packed with realistic details. With side rods that move as the wheels turn and posable pantographs that move up and down, there’s lots to explore. Lift the roof to access the crew compartment and use the 2 minifigures to bring the story of this iconic train to life. Add the Powered Up components (sold separately) to motorize your locomotive.  Spark your passion for building The Crocodile Locomotive (10277) is part of a collection of LEGO® model building kits for adults who love beautiful design. This model also makes a great gift for anyone who loves model trains.

• This LEGO® Crocodile Locomotive (10277) model kit is perfect for adults looking to build a vintage locomotive model or for anyone who loves trains and is looking for their next hobby project.

• Enjoy a rewarding challenge as you bring this buildable model train to life. Then explore the features and functions packed into this set, which celebrates the classic Crocodile Locomotive train.
• Discover amazing details with authentic features true to the original Crocodile Locomotive. The 2 LEGO® minifigures with tools, display track and plaque provide lots to explore after building the classic train.
• Ideal for model train fans, railway enthusiasts and LEGO® lovers, this building kit for adults makes a creative gift or birthday present to transport building fans to a world of total relaxation.
• This train model measures over 6” (16cm) high, 20.5” (52cm) long and 3.5” (8cm) wide, making it a beautiful display piece to show off with pride.
• You can jump right into this immersive building project since no batteries are required. To motorize your locomotive, add 1 x 88009 and 1 x 88013 Powered Up components (sold separately).
• This building set for adults comes with coffee-table-style building instructions with design details to encourage and inspire you.
• Part of a series of inspiring LEGO® building model sets for adults, designed for LEGO building fans, and hobbyists who love elegant design, beautiful architecture and models packed with detail.
• LEGO® building bricks meet the highest industry standards, which ensures they are consistent, compatible and connect and pull apart easily every time – it’s been that way since 1958.
• LEGO® bricks and pieces are rigorously tested to ensure that every building set meets the highest safety and quality standards, so you can be sure that this set is designed to last.

If you want to read more about the design process of the Crocodile, we recommend you to have a look over at The Brothers Brick, where they have an interesting interview with Jamie Berard about the design!

Now, let’s just dive into the pictures, shall we?

The box art, with the new classy “Adults Only” design:

Lego also made some great photorealistic renders of the Croc:

This being a product meant for adults, TLC was so kind to also send some pictures of an actual adult playing with Lego trains.I can almost see myself pictured in it, hooray for that!

The model can be motorized with the Powered Up! Hub and a motor

And yes, it’s Lego, so you can break it apart!

I’m for one pretty sure I will get one of these, but what do you think? Is this a set that all of you want in your collections? And is the “adults only” label a good thing for the L-gauge community, or not? We look forward hearing from you!

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.

A Lesson From Our Hobby On Being Better People

This week at Brick Model Railroader we are taking a pause from our usual LEGO train blog. BMR endeavors to cover LEGO trains from around the world, but as many of you know, most of us who contribute are from the United States. And well, the US has been going through a lot this past week. In the midst of this health pandemic that the whole world is dealing with, our nation has seen long buried issues of racism brought to light once more. Our country is divided, and it’s led to unrest, protests, and riots.

This is just a simple blog about LEGO trains. We’re not here to advance a political agenda. Our purpose is to promote the LEGO train hobby. However, this week, we didn’t feel it was right to just carry on as usual. Ignoring the elephant in the room is what got us here, and it’s something we as a society cannot do any longer. I don’t have any easy answers to our problems, no one does. But I know we need to talk about what’s going on. And we need to keep talking about it. Talk will hopefully lead to understanding, and understanding will lead to change.

I’m writing today to tell you a story. A story which I hope will be a positive tale, and hope will help us understand that if we just stop and listen, we may find we have more in common than we know. 

It was May of 2015, and I was traveling to BrickMagic, a LEGO fan convention held that year in Charlotte, North Carolina. I was driving down to the event and had decided to make a detour during my trip. I wanted to stop and see the Virginia Museum of Transportation in Roanoke, Virginia. I have never been to this museum, but it was high on my list of places to visit. Housed in an old freight depot, VMT sits in the heart of Norfolk & Western Railroad, now Norfolk Southern, territory. VMT is home to legendary locomotives such as the “Spirit of Roanoke” N&W 611, the “Mercedes of Steam” N&W 1218, and many other awesome pieces of railroad rolling stock. The museum also has a nice car collection on display, and even some aeronautical and space artifacts tucked away inside. For me, this place was golden.

I timed my drive so that I got there not long after the museum opened. I spent most of the day walking around by myself, just taking in all the exhibits and shooting as many photos with my camera as I could. Got to document those future modeling projects you know. As I was nearing the end of my tour through the museum, I stopped to rest for a minute on one of the park benches in the museum’s outdoor display yard. The museum sits right on the Norfolk Southern’s very busy mainline through Roanoke, and the outdoor display yard is perfect spot to watch trains roll by.

While sitting on that park bench, one of the museum volunteers came out from inside the museum and spotted me. He was a black gentleman, probably in his late 60’s or early 70’s. He was about my stature, so not especially tall, with short curly gray hair poking out from under his Norfolk Southern Retiree hat. I really didn’t think anything of him until he came over and sat down beside me on the bench, and then it was mostly just my fear of being socially awkward. I’m very uncomfortable with small talk, and with meeting new people. He said hello, and I replied hello in return. I made mention of how nice the day was, and he asked me how I was enjoying the museum. I said I loved it of course, and he asked me where I was from. I said I was from Pennsylvania, and he then asked what brought me down here to Roanoke. I told him I was on a trip to a LEGO fan convention, and that I was a big train fan and model railroader and wanted to see the museum on my trip. He was immediately fascinated by my LEGO train hobby and began asking more questions about what I build, how I make my models, where I display my creations and such. I answered, and even took out my phone to bring up my Flickr gallery and show him some photos of my models. He had never seen LEGO train models before and thought they were pretty neat.

As we talked more, our conversation turned to his railroading career. He was a retired railroad employee, and had spent his entire working life involved with the railroad working multiple jobs for the Norfolk & Western, and later Norfolk Southern. He worked as a trainman, conductor, engineer, and several other positions over the years. He had some great stories to tell about working on the railroad, and I sat there intently listening to each one. His knowledge of the railroad ran deep, and as trains passed by he would identify each one. He knew what it was hauling, where it came from and where it was going. He even called out one intermodal train passing by saying “now in about a minute you’ll see him start slowing down, they’ll be stopping up ahead to make a crew change.” And like clockwork, a few moments later we heard the brakes being applied and the train started slowing before passing out of sight. It was clear to me that trains were his love, and a hugge part of who he was.

The two of us must have spent a half hour on that bench just talking about trains. We were from very different walks of life. Me, an awkward white guy from rural Pennsylvania in his late 30’s and obsessed with a children’s toy, and him, a retired black railroad worker from Virginia spending his days volunteering at a museum. But we connected over a love of trains. In that moment, race, age, and where we were from didn’t matter. We found we had a common interest, and all the superficial differences between us faded away.

I wish I could have spent more time talking to this gentleman. It was the highlight of my visit to the museum. I would love to return for another visit and would like to think we could meet again and talk more about trains. But if nothing else, that day stays with me. I love trains and have had some awesome experiences with them over the years. I often find though, the most memorable train experiences are not with the machines, but with the people who share that love of trains. In those moments, we all share a connection, and we’re all one.

I don’t pretend to be a perfect human being. I know I have flaws, I know I can make unfair judgments of people, and I know I can be better. I recognize that I have work to do to be better. Every day I need to strive to be a kinder, more understanding, and more tolerant human. I need to look past skin color, ethnicity, culture, gender and other differences in people because when I do, I may find someone I have more in common with than not. Maybe that’s where solving our problems should start, with each one of us working to be better each and every day. We need to lead by example because just saying something is not the same as doing something. When we all work to make ourselves better, the good will propagate.

I love this hobby most for the people I’ve met, and the friends I’ve made. I have friends now from all over the world, from different backgrounds, different cultures and languages and lifestyles. But for all the differences we may have, we all share a love of LEGO, a love of trains, and a love for each other. We are one family here. I hope that someday we can learn to treat everyone the same. 

If you’ve read through this, thank you. I hope it’s brought some positive light to a troubling time in our history. I hope you too will work to be a better person. This hobby, and this world, becomes a brighter place when we welcome all.

Thank you.

Cale Leiphart
BMR

Track Detailing – USA: Part 2

As a continuation from my Part 1 of this series, here are a few more trackside details to get your creative juices flowing!

Lubricator

As Hod Carrier discussed in the UK Track Detailing article, railroads often use grease or other friction modifiers to reduce rail noise and vibration on tight curves (R40 would definitely be lubricated!). These systems consist of a wayside tank and pump, applicators mounted to the rails to dispense lubricant, and wheel sensors to detect an approaching train and begin pumping lubricant. Wheel detectors come in various colors based on the manufacturer, but dark turquoise is a good match for the ones I’ve installed in the past.

Many lubricator installations on North American railroads are out in the middle of nowhere, like an installation I did on the outskirts of Lemoyne, Nebraska (the entire town was the outskirts, honestly…) for example, where hardwired power would be very expensive to install. In these situations, it’s very common to install solar powered units. The dark blue 1×4 tiles on this design are stand-ins for 1×4 tiles with solar panel print (part no. 2431pb499).

Whistle Posts

Whistle posts are another self-explanatory item: when they see the post, the engineer blows the whistle (or horn, but horn post sounds…wrong). These are palced in advance of grade crossings so the engineer can start the telltale horn pattern of a grade crossing: long-long-short-long.

Different railroads have different designs of whistle posts. Most modern ones are signs mounted on poles, but older styles include concrete pillars with a “W” molded into them. In both of these examples, the 1×1 tile is a stand-in for the 1×1 letter “W” tile (part no. 3070bpb031). Usually the concrete post or signs would be white with black letters for better visibility, but the 1×1 letter tiles don’t come in white.

Mileposts

Mileposts are very common on railroads, since there’s an average of 1 per mile. Yes, you read that correct; track and right-of-way realignment often leads to short or long miles rather than redoing the mileposts over the entire line. These markers help train and maintenance crews know precisely where they are on the line (give or take about a mile).

As with whistle posts, each railroad has its own standard design for mileposts. In this design, the 1×1 tiles are stand-ins for the 1×1 number tiles. Placing these every mile (on average 4224 studs, for those of you counting) would be a quick way to add detail to a layout. As with the whistle posts, the signs would typically be white with black letters but the 1×1 number tiles don’t come in white.

Pole Lines

Railroads have a long history in North America, which means they have seen many different technologies come and go. Pole lines played a crucial role in delivering information from one point to another. These lines carried not only telegraph transmissions, but also information for the signal system. I could go into great detail, but I’ll save that for another article and summarize: rail lines are divided into blocks, and each block has an electrical circuit that is on when the block is empty and turns off when a train enters the block. Each wire on a pole line carries that status information along the line to different parts of the signal system.

The wires are connected to the poles with glass insulators (the trans-clear, blue, or green plates), and the pole line would also have wires connecting to every signal and relay cabinet. Here I’m using Lego string elements, but it would almost certainly be more cost effective to use non-Lego thread or string. While pole lines are not commonly used anymore, in many places they were never removed. Abandoned pole lines with broken wires hanging to the ground would therefore also be a great detail on a modern layout.

Tell Tale

Tell tales are another piece of old railroad technology that has succumbed to innovation. In the early days, before trainline braking systems, brakemen would walk the roofs of railcars applying each car’s brakes anytime the train needed to slow down. As you can imagine, life expectancy for a brakeman was relatively low. Tell tales were one of the brakeman’s safety devices: a beam extending over the track above head height with ropes dangling down. If a brakeman was walking the roof of a car and felt the tell tale hit them, they would drop to their stomach immediately! Why? Because tell tales meant that the train was approaching a tunnel or overpass, and warned the brakemen to duck or they would be hit and killed.

This tell tale is a cantilevered type, and is clearly missing the all-important ropes. This design would feature additional non-Lego ropes to support the cantilevered beam, as well as ropes to allow the tell tale ropes to be lowered for maintenance. Like pole lines, though tell tales fell out of use they were often not removed and thus would be great details on a modern layout.

Switch Stand

Switch machines, as shown in Part 1 of this series are a modern item used primarily for main lines and high-traffic switches. For low-traffic switches and branch lines, switch stands are still the best tool for the job. Switch stands are how track workers manually line the switch, by lifting the lever and rotating it 90 degrees. The red and green parts are called “targets,” and they rotate with the stand to communicate the status of the switch to an approaching train: red means the switch is set for the diverging route, and green for the straight route.

Similar to the switch machine, this switch stand design will require a bit of additional ballast extending off the PennLUG standard cross section. There are many designs of switch stands with variations of the target location and design, and the throw (lever) design and location.

Tie Colors and Types

Some railroads paint their crossties different colors for different purposes. Union Pacific (UP) paints a tie blue at every culvert crossing under the track (blue=water, right?). They do this because often the culverts are pretty far down in the subgrade under the ballast, and often the inlet and outlet become obscured by brush. The blue tie helps maintenance crews locate culverts so they can check if they need to be cleared out, thus preventing washouts. Similarly, Amtrak often paints ties yellow when there are gauges or instrumentation mounted on the tie and they want tamping crews to be careful while maintaining the ballast around those ties. The defect detectors shown in the image are from Part 1 of this series. The culvert design is more suited to a MILS module than the PennLUG standard ballast, but the blue tie can be placed independently.

Varying the type of ties on your layout can also be a simple way to add some detail. While branch lines and short line railroads may use exclusively wood ties, most Class I freight railroads (BNSF, CSX, CN, etc.) do not use just one type of tie from end to end. There is a wide variety of materials that crossties are made from, as well as the forms those materials come in. Concrete ties are used for high tonnage or high speed lines; plastic composite ties, synthetic ties, and tropical hardwood ties are used in wet areas where treated hardwood would be susceptible to rotting; and steel ties are sometimes used in yards, as they need less ballast than regular wood ties.

From left to right in the image above:

  • Reddish brown tiles representing wood ties (my personal color of choice for wood ties),
  • Dark tan tiles, representing a tropical hardwood tie,
  • Medium nougat tiles, representing a Fiber-reinforced Foamed Urethane (FFU) synthetic tie,
  • Two versions of concrete dual-block ties, one with studs for the fasteners, represented by light bluish grey tiles and plates,
  • Three versions of concrete ties using different tiles and plates, represented by light bluish grey tiles and plates to for different designs,
  • Two versions of plastic composite ties, represented by black or dark grey ties (on dark bluish grey ballast),
  • Dark brown tiles and plates, representing a steel tie.

Concrete ties come from multiple different manufacturers, each with their own designs. If a railroad had multiple types installed they would typically be in large sections, rather than a mix of different ties. Concrete ties and steel ties typically use elastic fasteners rather than steel plates and cut spikes used on the other types, so the chunkier fasteners can easily be represented with the stud of a plate. Dual-block concrete ties have a steel beam in the middle connecting them, which would be buried in the ballast. Though they have yet to be widely accepted by North American railroads, some railroads are experimenting with dual-block concrete ties. Steel ties are not commonly used on signalized tracks as the rails need to be electrically isolated for the signal system to function properly. Additional variation can be achieved by mixing slightly different colors, like reddish brown and brown for wood ties, black for weathered wood ties and brown or reddish brown for new wood ties, and light bluish grey and light grey for concrete ties.

Some railroads also have test sections of track where multiple different types of ties are installed, with measurement devices monitoring their performance and wear. Shown above is a possible test site, with small bunches of multiple different tie types, relay cabinets housing testing equipment, and a pile of old crossties that were removed from the track, including a broken concrete tie. (See Part 1 of this series for more of the relay cabinet and piled ties) Piles of new ties of any kind would also be fitting!

Hopefully these examples help get some ideas going. Be sure to share photos of the details of your layout to inspire others too!

Track Detailing – USA: Part 1

After Hod Carrier’s wonderful article on UK track detailing, we thought it’d be good to look at track detailing for North America as well. These digital designs represent details found on American railroads and though the designs were based specifically on my experience with railroads in the United States, railroads in Canada and Mexico tend to follow similar practices and use similar equipment. All of these designs are compatible with the PennLUG standard of track building, instructions for which are available for free at l-gauge.org.

Dragging Equipment Detector (DED) and Hot Box Detector

Defect detector is a general term for a number of wayside vehicle monitoring devices used by railroads to inspect the cars in their train as they pass. Some common types of defect detectors include Wheel Impact Load Detectors (WILDs), Dragging Equipment Detectors (DEDs), Hot Box Detectors (HBDs), and Automatic Cracked Wheel Detectors (ACWDs). These detectors monitor the train as it passes over them and log and alert the crew to any defects that are detected, so that the offending car can be scheduled for repair or removed from the train.

Here I’m focusing on DEDs and HBDs. DEDs (at left) consist of sensors mounted between ties that deflect, or bend when a dragging piece of equipment, like a chain, strikes them. HBDs (at right) use an infrared detection system to monitor the temperature of the journal bearings where the car sits on the axle. If the journal is too hot, there is a problem with the axle causing too much friction. These two detector types are some of the most common on North American railroads, and are often sited together. When sited with a DED, the HBD will have guard slopes on either side to ensure any dragging equipment doesn’t damage the sensors.

Lego’s new Slope 45 1×1 Double (part no. 35464) is perfect for the DED. The 2×2 tile represents a junction box where the wires for the detectors would come together before going to a relay cabinet (shown later).

Derailer

Derailers, also known as derails, are installed in places where the consequences of derailing a train or car are less severe than the consequences of not derailing the train or car. The most obvious example would be at a movable bridge: when the bridge is open (raised) the derailer would be set to derail a train, as derailing the train is not as bad as the train crashing into the river below.

This type of derailer is known as a hinged derailer, which sits on top of the rail and lifts the wheel over the rail. These are commonly seen in yards or on industry sidings, to prevent stored railcars from rolling out onto the main line. In the US, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) requires industry sidings from main lines to have derailers installed for this purpose. The FRA also requires them to be painted a clearly visible color, like yellow. As the name suggests, the derailer has hinges so that it can be folded into the gauge of the track (i.e. between the rails) so cars can pass over it.

Here’s two versions of a hinged derailer, one in the derailing position and one in the open position. The blue sign is an optional feature, which is typically used when workers are doing maintenance on a piece of equipment. The “open” derailer requires a bit of modification of the track structure in order to get the tooth plate upside-down, but allows for it to be included on the layout without preventing use of a track.

Switch Machine

Mainline switches on most railroads are controlled remotely by a dispatcher, and switch machines have the job of physically moving the switch. There are many models of switch machine produced by many different manufacturers, and this is a representation of just one type.

The switch machine requires a bit of expansion of the ballast section under the tracks. The black tile at the top represents a junction box where the wires go into conduit to be run to a relay cabinet.

Switch Heaters

The purpose of a switch heater is pretty straightforward. Parts of North America are subject to low temperatures and heavy snowfall in the winter, and many switches are susceptible to freezing or getting packed with snow and becoming inoperable. Switch heaters use a wayside generator and ducts between the switch points to blow hot air into the movable part of the switch to prevent freezing of snow buildup.

This design uses the new Bracket 1×1 – 1×1 (part no. 36841) to connect the hose to the ballast section, making it look like the hose is buried in ballast.

Relay Cabinet

Relay cabinet is a general term for wayside electronics cabinets on the railroad. The name comes from the signal relays, or magnetic switches, that they originally housed. Shown here are two types, a smaller, older style at right, and a larger, newer style at left. These cabinets are not used exclusively for relays, and they can be found at signals, switches, defect detectors, grade crossings, and numerous other locations along the railroad.

Using Lego’s door parts allows for the interior of the cabinets to be detailed as well. This one includes a junction box at left, battery backup in white at bottom, and three magnetic relays using trans-clear headlight bricks (part no. 4070) and round plates to represent the magnetic coils. The large cabinet features headlight bricks at the roof representing the lifting points, as these are installed by crane. These features could make for fun vignettes, with signal maintainers working inside the cabinets or using a crane to install a new one!

Piled Ties

Maintenance on North American railroads is often carried out by track gangs; large teams of workers specializing in replacing one component of the track. Typically the materials for these gangs are dropped along the track in advance of them arriving at the worksite. Thus, it’s common to see bundles of new ties and buckets of spikes, clips, or other track materials along the right of way.

Similarly, old ties are often piled or discarded along the right-of-way awaiting a crew to pick them up (or simply being left to decompose). It’s pretty common for these ties to be deteriorated or have plates still attached to them, so in this case studs showing is a good thing!

Hopefully these ideas help get the creative juices flowing and give you some ideas to add detail to your home or club layout!

BMR and Community Updates: May 2020

Hello again, LEGO train fans and Brick Model Railroader supporters! We’ve got some great new articles in the works for you, but today we wanted to update you on a few things going on here at Brick Model Railroader. Let’s dive in.

Train Community Roundtable

There will be a Train Community Roundtable for the Brickworld Virtual Event coming up this Saturday, May 16th. Brickworld Virtual features LEGO artists, engineers, and vendors showing their creations via Zoom meeting rooms.  A new twist to the Brickworld public shows will be a presentation room where you can learn from the experts. General details about the Brickworld Virtual Convention can be found on the Brickworld website below.

Brickworld Virtual May 16 Web Page

BMR has been invited to participate along with several other LEGO train community members. The Train Community Roundtable is scheduled for 1:00pm – 2:50pm Central Time. The tentative topic list is as follows.

1. Introduction – LEGO Train Roundtable.

  • –  Bringing the LEGO Train fan community together
  • –  Open conversation and sharing ideas

2. LEGO New Developments

  • –  Powered Up?
  • –  40th Anniversary Train Set
  • –  Ghost Train Express ( # 70424)
  1. Brick Model Railroader Updates
  2. Brick Track Updates
  3. Other Updates
  4. Show off your MOC’s!
  5. Open Forum – Train Talk!

Come join us for two hours of talking trains.

Brick Model Railroader Podcast

We recently posted an article announcing the Brick Model Railroader podcast, a short live-streamed discussion on various Lego and train topics. Our Pilot was hosted by Enrico, and all regular episodes will be hosted live on the Brick Model Railroader Youtube channel. Podcast episode announcements will be posted through our social media outlets a few days in advance.

While primarily hosted on Youtube so we can answer questions from viewers, our podcast episodes will also be shared to and available on Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcast (pending approval) and iTunes. Just type “Brick Model Railroader” in any of those apps and you should be fine!

New Premium Instructions

The Gunderson 60′ Boxcar, ACF 1958 Cu. Ft. Covered Hopper, and Pacific Fruit Express Reefer.

The BMR model team has been hard at work designing new Premium Instruction Models. Three of which we will be releasing very soon.

Gunderson box cover

The Gunderson 60′ High Cube Plate F Boxcar is our first BMR model designed by Aaron Burnett and  is our most modern freight car to date.

The modern 100 ton, high-cube, 60’ boxcar has become ubiquitous in the modern rail scene. These cars are designed to carry a myriad of loads, from auto parts to forest products and are a fixture to any modern freight train.

ACF Covered Hopper box cover

The American Car & Foundry 70-Ton 1958 Cu. Ft. Covered Hopper is our first BMR model designed by Matt Csenge.

American Car & Foundry recognized the need for a mass-produced covered hopper car to transport goods and bulk flowable commodities that needed protection from the weather. In 1936 ACF began building this 70-Ton 1958 cu. ft. capacity covered hopper for task. The cars quickly gained wide-spread appeal, with 59 railroads and 16 private and leasing companies purchasing them throughout their lifetime. Many of these car lasted well into the 1970’s, some even into the 1980’s in revenue service. Some of these cars are even still used today in maintenance-of-way service.

Pacific Fruit Express Reefer box cover.

Designed by Cale Leiphart, The Pacific Fruit Express R-30-9 and R-40-9 Reefer is a classic wood reefer from the golden age of ice cooled railroad refrigerator cars.

In 1936, Pacific Fruit Express began a program to recondition a large part of its aging wood refrigerator car fleet. These cars had their entire wood superstructure rebuilt above the frame sill, giving them another 10 to 15 years of service life. These cars became the R-30-9 and R-40-9 class cars on the PFE. Around 7,000 cars would go through this reconditioning program and many lasted into the 1950’s with the last being retired in 1966.

As usual, we have a wide range of decal sets lined up for our new models. Final release date for these cars is still pending. We are currently waiting for the new train wheels from Bricktracks before setting the release date.

The three cars talked about above are not all we’ve been working on. Here is a sneak peak at two more models coming later this year.

EMD SD40-2 diesel locomotive designed by Chris Stone.
Budd Rail Diesel Car by Matt Csenge. (yes, SIX variants!)

Coming Soon, The New BMR Online Store

New store front page.

Speaking of things on the Brick Model Railroader storefront, we will be debuting a new online store for Brick Model Railroader soon. While it’s served us well, we’ve outgrown the old store design. The new store will be much nicer to look at and easier to navigate. We’re still putting the finishing touches on things, but we plan to have the new store ready to go by the time the new Premium Instructions are released. In the meantime the current store is still up and running with all our current products.

Preview of the PCF decal section for the new store.

New Bricktracks Products

Lastly, we have two brief updates from our friends at BrickTracks, everyone’s favorite injection-molded track supplier.

The final mold for the R104 turnouts is in the process of being made. The last details have been tuned and we are closer than ever to having these turnouts on our layouts.

The second update regards the new replacement wheels for bearing wheel sets. The first batch of wheels has been produced and is en route to BrickTracks’ home base. However, the shipment is on the proverbial (or perhaps literal) “slow boat from China”, to quote BrickTracks.

There is certainly plenty to look forward to for fans of LEGO trains.

Thank you for reading.

Track Detailing – UK Outline: By Hod Carrier, Part Two

Every now and then there are some articles online on one of the well-known fora that you just HAVE to share to a broader audience. A while ago my eye fell on an article by Hod Carrier over at the Train Tech forums of Eurobricks. Hod Carrier is no stranger here at BMR, having contested twice on OcTRAINber, and one time almost. Today we present his second part about Trackside Structures, one of my favorite parts of any realistic Lego Train Model Railroad:

Thanks so much for the fabulous feedback that I’ve received so far. It’s really amazing to have prompted such a response.

I’ve been busy adding a few more details which I hope you won’t mind me sharing. Don’t worry, though. I’m not intending on reproducing every single piece of UK rail infrastructure. 

49751007802_0a74e88caf_z.jpg

In order to reduce noise and wear to rails and wheelsets, flange lubricators (sometimes referred to as grease pots) are provided because, lets face it, no-one likes a dry flange. *Ahem*. These automatically apply a small amount of grease to the train wheels as they pass to help reduce friction. These are often found in areas where the route follows tight curves or at junctions.

49750679361_0d3d0f8588_z.jpg

When clean these are generally yellow to make them visible, but over time, and through careless refilling, these eventually become black.

49751007827_36e2a0245b_z.jpg

Very simply, this is a drain. At some locations the ground or environmental conditions means that the ballast and formation of the track is insufficient to provide adequate drainage. In this instance additional drains are provided, either at the sides or between the tracks. I won’t insult anyone’s intelligence by showing the design in isolation, as I’m sure it should be clear.

49750139293_1e7400f964_z.jpg

This is a Hot Axle Box Detector (HABD) together with it’s associated small portable-type lineside equipment building. These detectors are dotted around the network and are used to detect an overheating axle box. These automatic installations sound an alarm at the signalbox and tell the signaller which axle and on which side of the train the defect is occurring so that the train can be stopped and examined.

The central detector between the rails is offset to be nearer one rail or the other to help the system determine which side of the train the defective axle is.

49751007902_e03a064a0e_z.jpg

There are many different designs of point/switch motors in use across the UK, and this is just one of them. It is an older design that has since been superceded but which remains in operation in large numbers across the network. 

49750679446_d535dda05c_z.jpg

The design does not affect the operation of the switch and should not interfere with passing trains either. I would have liked to have had a go at one of the successor designs, but the studless nature of the standard LEGO points/switch preclude this, although third party offerings may be different.

49750679291_7e7ec3ca7b_z.jpg

All of my designs so far have been made to be compatible with the PennLUG ballasting standard. While it’s great for LEGO modellers by being compact and not too demanding in terms of parts, I don’t think many operational railways would tolerate such a shallow bed of ballast. Certainly in the UK the trackbed is much wider and ballast shoulders are built up at each side.

49750679296_42d728fbec_z.jpg

I suppose you could call them shoulder pads in that they bulk out the track ballasting to more realistic proportions. There are side sections and centre sections.

Used together for a twin track arrangement (as in the previous picture) the total width comes out at 34 studs, two more than a standard 32×32 baseplate. Consequently I have shown the design split across two baseplates with the centreline as the join. To make this compatible with the MILS modules, the centre section is built in two halves to facilitate splitting of modules into individual 32×32 sections.

Want to see more of Hod Carriers? Just pop over to his Flickr stream to see even more awesome builds!