We’re halfway through the month already and we’ve seen plenty of unique and interesting looking WIP stories so far. This is shaping up to be a great year so far, and we’re looking forward to seeing the final entries!
Of course, what would any OcTRAINber challenge be without prizes? We have some new prizes this year from our good friends across the community.
PFx Brick XL Package
This prize was donated by Fx Bricks, and includes the following:
Enrico Lussi has officially joined Brick Model Railroader as a contributor. We’re happy to have him on our team!
Saturday, June 29th was the third annual Lego Trains Day at BrickKing. This year UrbanErwin, raised, and Bananenbuurman showed up to help me transform a Lego Shop into a train exhibit.
Brickworld 2019 has come and gone. It’s time to reflect on all the excitement, pain, wonder, frustration, and joy that characterized my trip this year to one of North America’s premier LEGO fan events. Brickworld takes place at the Renaissance Hotel & Convention Center in Schaumburg, IL every June, and is one of the largest LEGO fan events in North America. It draws some of the best builders in the country, and even a few from over seas. It is also typically the largest gathering of LEGO train fans, and train clubs in the US. If you love LEGO trains, you’ll be in good company at Brickworld.
Today I’m writing on behalf of the L-Gauge Modular Standard Oversight Committee.
Last August was the NMRA National Train Show in Kansas City, Missouri. A number of LEGO clubs and LTC’s were in attendance, and it was certainly one of the best non-LEGO shows with multiple clubs I’ve ever seen.
The participating AFOLs from the 2018 National Train Show
Of course, when you put that many LEGO train fans in one place, they start getting ideas. On Saturday evening after the show had closed for the day and everyone had eaten a Bar-be-que dinner, several people invaded the basement of Shawn Lazarz for some good ol’ conversation. There were several topics of discussion (and debate in some cases), one of the biggest being standardization. This was then broken into two categories: electronics and layouts.
Discussions about LEGO train modeling are always fun.
Everyone was starting to get their hands on Lego’s new Powered Up! Train sets and putting them through their paces, finding the capabilities and limitations of the new system. Many people didn’t like what they found, so there was some discussion about the introduction of a “standardized” third party system, be that LEGO-based like a PFx Brick or SBrick, or train-based, like a radio-DCC system, or DelTang.
A suspicious looking group of misfit train builders discussing a Modular Standard.
The conversation then turned to layouts and collaborative displays.
This article was submitted to BMR by our good friend Gareth Ellis, who discusses his experience with DelTang control systems in his models. Thanks Gareth!
Introduction
DelTang RC Control systems is a well-designed radio control platform, with many benefits for a growing LEGO® model train community. The system comprises of a transmitter and receiver, bound with each other for discrete, individual and reliable control.
The basic principles of DelTang radio control for battery locos, in its simplest form are a transmitter and a receiver that has an integrated Electronic Speed Control unit which in turn is connected to batteries and a motor. When the throttle knob on the paired transmitter is moved the motor increases or decreases in speed accordingly.
DelTang currently produce many transmitters and receivers for a wide range of model control, we will focus on Model Train specific variants of the transmitters and receivers. As there is such a wide range we will cover the TX22 Transmitter and the Rx-65 (22) specifically. At the time of writing this, the TX2 was on V207, and the Rx-65c (22) was on V611.
When Brick Model Railroader began in the late December of 2016, we had no idea where it would go. We certainly didn’t have plans to be selling instructions for models, and be working towards selling full kits as we find ourselves today. But fate seemed to intervene and has switched us to this express track we’re on now.
On February 25th, 2019, Brick Model Railroader reached a milestone. We sold and delivered our 1,000th Premium Instruction Kit.
Kevin Johns, a member of PennLUG, is the proud new owner of the 1000th BMR Premium Instruction Kit sold. His plans for the kit are to use the instructions to build a Muppet themed train with his wife Stephanie.Continue reading Excuse Us While We Toot Our Own Whistle→
It seems that lately TLC is really trying to release train sets outside of the Lego City theme and by doing so, trying to tap in more different categories of kids that come into contact with Lego trains. All of them use train wheels and fit on Lego track, which is great compared to the old times (I’m looking at you, Time Cruisers 6497!) For example, we have seen several Hogwarts Expresses, but also the Lone Ranger and Toy Story trains. Of course, even more than the Lego City trains, these are aimed at kids as a toy, to actually play with them, and just have them run around. Also, they tend to not have any PUP or PF on board, but can be motorized quite simply (it’s Lego after all).
This week, Lego released a new child in this family, as part of the Hidden Side-theme. Lego is planning to have this theme be a fusion of Real Life and augmented reality (AR), by using apps and whatnot. For more information on Hidden Side, I recommend you have a look over at TBB, who posted the whole press release plus some extras.
For us here at BMR, there is of course only one important thing: set 70424, better known for it’s highly creative name: “Train”.
So, what’s new, and what’s interesting for us as trainheads? Well, let’s shortly summarize:
A new train piece! It seems to be a re-railer, meant to easily get your trains on the track. Since this set only has about 3 pieces of straight track, meaning that it’s meant to play with without track to begin with, this is a great addition to playability. Even more for kids, because now you can run your trains both on the track and seperate from it, without having to fysically remove it from the tracks. For us as trainheads this can be very interesting as well, I for one always have troubles getting my trucks properly on the rails!
“New” couplings! As we all know, the new style of Lego Train Magnets is pretty weak. There is a solution by using 1×2 plates to connect them together, but it seems that even for Lego this wasn’t a viable option anymore. So, they are now using ball-joints to keep the wagons connected in a more durable way. I have the feeling this is just meant for this specific set (also because there is indeed a Lego Train magnet available on the end of the train) but it’s interesting to see nonetheless.
It’s an American Diesel! Yes, it’s not going to win any beauty pageant, but still, after the last two European-styled trains, it’s a nice addition for kids that live across the Great Pond.
A black Front Window and black Train Doors! Now I have to be honest, I have never used either of both, but I’m pretty sure some of use will love this.
The number on the loco says 30877, even though according to the box-art its supposed to be 70424. Knowing Lego’s style to just put the set number on their trains, this seems to be an interesting decision, even more because the number 30877 also doesn’t exist as a set…
It’s also a monster, it seems 😉
Anyways, I know this might not be the absolute masterpiece that some of us are always waiting for, but I’m really glad to see Lego is incorporating trains more and more in their other themes. When you ask me, the more trains the merrier. So, what are your thoughts about this new set?
We’ve got a very busy month ahead of us! We’ll be at several train shows joining the Pennsylvania LEGO Users Group (PennLUG) at their train layout as well as visiting friends. Let’s take a look at what January has to offer.
World’s Greatest Hobby on Tour Show, Oaks, Pennsylvania
A Norfolk & Western duo, A class and a Y6b, are being serviced in the yard before going out a coal drag.
This coming weekend, we’ll be at the World’s Greatest Hobby show in Oaks, Pennsylvania. Public hours are Saturday the 12th and Sunday the 13th, from 9-6 and 9-5 respectively. For those in the area, it is the same convention center where Philly Brickfest is held every year: the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center. We attended this show last year when it was on Monroeville, Pennsylvania (closer to Pittsburgh) and it was one of our favorite shows. There will also be several model train manufacturers in attendance with their own displays, and much more. More information is available on the show website.
Hello again followers, fans and supporters, and happy new year!
Here’s our first post of 2019! We hope that everyone had a joyous Holiday season and an awesome New Year’s. We’d like to reflect on our 2018 and offer some commentary on our second year.
In last year’s review we started off with some stats, so let’s see how we we’ve with our second year behind us.
201 article posts (this one not included)
358 comments on our website posts
543,733 views on our website
616 orders on our website store
3 premium instruction kits produced
1 kit designed for Brickmania
2414 people who “like” our Facebook page
2516 people who follow our Facebook page
80 followers on Twitter
276 posts on Instagram
1335 followers on Instagram
21 videos uploaded to YouTube
972 subscribers on our YouTube channel
Not bad for a little website about a niche hobby run by some builders who have never done this kind of thing before. Now lets look at some highlights from 2018.
Articles
Okay, we know this hasn’t been our strong point this year. Writing for BMR is a completely volunteer effort, and many of us have either been busy with other parts of Brick Model Railroader, or with life outside the hobby. That doesn’t mean we’ve lost our zeal for the hobby, and we’ve still managed to put out some good stuff. If we have one resolution for 2019, it’s to write more.
We love LEGO trains, and we have a lot to say about them. And we know a lot of others do too. There is an enormous wealth of knowledge out there just waiting to be shared, and we want to be the ones to facilitate that. So, for 2019, expect more great LEGO train articles from us.
Events
The participating AFOLs from the 2018 National Train Show
In 2018, BMR attended several great events, including.
We had a lot of fun getting out and meeting our fellow LEGO train builders. And we already have several event we’re planing to attend in 2019.
On January 12th and 13th Glenn Holland and Cale Leiphart will be attending the Worlds Greatest Hobby on Tour in Oaks, PA along with their club layout from PennLUG. Also in January, Cale will again be attending the Amherst Train Show in Springfield, Massachussetts January 26th and 27th, and will be hanging out with the New England LEGO Users Group and their LEGO train display.
In March, Cale and Glenn will be trekking out to Nebraska Brick Days on the 30th and 31st. This will be our first time attending this show. Cale and Glenn will be their along with their club, PennLUG. LOLUG and NILTC will also be there with their LEGO train layouts. We’re really excited to see this growing event.
In April, look for us to again be in attendance at Philly Brick Fest in Oaks, PA from the 25th to the 28th.
In June BMR will be returning to attend Brickworld in Chicago Illinois. This is one of the premier LEGO fan events in North America, and a hot bed for LEGO train enthusiasts. BMR will of course be a part of it.
In July on the 12th to 14th, BMR will be traveling to the NMRA National Train Show in Salt Lake City, Utah. We have a special project we’re hoping to unveil at the show, and will again be making a special edition BMR kit for participating fans.
On July 31 to August 4th BMR will again be attending Brickfair Virginia. This is a huge LEGO Fan event and we’ll be there as part with other train fans to experience it.
That’s a full plate, but where else will we be in 2019? We’re not sure yet, but if we can make it to any more LEGO train events, we’ll let you know.
BMR Models
In 2018 we launched three more models in our Premium Instructions Kit line. Those were the North Eastern Caboose, The NMRA Special Edition Missouri Pacific Caboose, and the 52′-6″ 70 Ton Drop-End Gondola.
Box cover for the Northeastern Caboose
Along with those we continued to sell our previous kits, The Pullman PS-1 40′ Boxcar, USRA 55-Ton Hopper, American Car & Foundry Type 27 Tank Car, and AAR 53′ Flatcar. You can find them all, except the sold out, limited run 2018 NMRA MoPac Caboose, in our online store. And don’t forget to pick up some decals, and extra wheel sets too.
What kits do we have planed for 2019? We plan to start off the year with a double release in January. We will be launching the Thrall 61′-1″ Bulkhead Flatcar and the Pacific Car & Foundry 50′ Insulated Boxcar. Both of these cars should appeal to fans modeling from the 1970’s through 1990’s and later. We’ll have more info on these cars coming soon.
Box art for the Thrall bulkhead car.Preliminary LDraw model for the PC&F boxcar.
These are just the first of hopefully many Premium Instruction kits coming this year, but that’s not all. The BMR model team has been hard at work over the last year with our first full kit. Yes, full kit, all parts included right in the box to build the model. This is a big step for us, so we wanted to make this model something special. We’ll be revealing it soon (at the end of this week!), with plans to go on sale in Spring 2019. We can tell you though that it is our long awaited steam locomotive project, and it will be awesome. Stay tuned.
BMR Models will be picking up steam in 2019.
BMR Teams Up With Brickmania
In 2018 Brick Model Railroader had the opportunity to team up with Brickmania to produce a model of the USATC S160 Steam Locomotive. Brickmania is a company who specializes in high-end custom model kits made with re-purposed LEGO bricks and is without a doubt the best at what they do. For them to approach BMR and ask us to design a steam locomotive kit for them was an amazing opportunity, and we think we did pretty well. Not only did we create an excellent model of this World War II work horse, but the initial run of 25 kits sold out in less than an hour. Both us and Brickmania were blown away by the response. Of course 25 kits is not a huge number, Brickmania did their best to produce as many kits as they could with in the production timeline, but this was a complex kit to put together. If you missed out on the first run, Brickmania has confirmed that they will be making a second batch of kits as soon as they can fit it into the schedule. When we get word of when the second run is coming, we’ll let you know.
S160 Box CoverOur own AAR 53ft flat car was the basis for Brickmania’s 40ft USATC Flat Car kit sold alongside the S160 LocomotiveA 1/48th scale Sherman Tank kit was also made available with the S160 and USATC Flatcar kits.
This will not be the end of BMR collaborations with Brickmania. We’re not sure what will be next, but both us and Brickmania are committed to working together again in the future to bring you more awesome stuff.
Two Years and BMR is gaining strong!
2018 has been a crazy awesome year for the entire BMR team. To everyone involved, be you staff, contributors, website masters, contest organizers, instruction and model producers, and more, thank you for your amazing support, time, and effort. The success we’ve had in through our second year has been great.
We would like to our extend our sincerest thanks again to the amazing LEGO train community. You are what drives us to keep moving forward. Without you, we wouldn’t be in a position to produce instructions and to help promote the hobby. BMR wouldn’t truly exist without our amazing followers.
From all of us at Brick Model Railroader, we thank you for a good 2018, and we wish you and your families a safe, happy, and prosperous new year!
Some final thoughts on 2018 from Cale
Cale, in his office, celebrating the Second Anniversary of Brick Model Railroader surrounded by awesome BMR Models.
On December 30th, 2018, Brick Model Railroader celebrated it’s second anniversary. There was no party, or cake. But there was something special going on. Together with Glenn Holland, my colleague here at BMR and one of my best friends, we we’re wrapping up a weekend of work on several BMR projects. We finalized decals, finished box art, and and filmed our review video for the Thrall 61′-1″ Bulkhead Flat Car. We continued work on our PC&F 50′ Insulated Boxcar, and also worked on a few smaller projects. But for me the most special was working on the final details of our upcoming steam locomotive kit before the reveal in a few days.
Producing my own locomotive kit has been a dream of mine for many years. My original USRA Mikado model built in 2011, was actually intended to be the prototype for a kit. It never made it that far, and for several years, the dream lay dormant. But with the launch of BMR in 2017, and soon after the success of our BMR Premium Instructions, the dream came roaring back. Glenn an I started laying plans for BMR’s first full kit, and of course it was going to be steam.
It’s taken us over a year to get there. And in the process we got side tracked into designing a locomotive kit for Brickmania. So we kind of already made my dream a reality. But the BMR locomotive is all ours. The BMR name will be on the box, and it will be awesome! We’ve taken our time to get every part just right. There has been a lot of hours spent between Glenn and myself obsessing over the smallest details, and a few arguments too. But it will be worth it. This will be the top their in LEGO Steam Locomotive kits. And I will have had the pleasure of working with my friend Glenn, to make the dream come true.
And if we can do this, there’s no end to the other awesome stuff we can do at BMR.
Thank you to all our supporters.
Cale
Glenn Adds Stuff Here
What a year, man. Being in my early 20’s and finishing college in the first two-thirds of this year meant I couldn’t do a lot with BMR, or even LEGO trains in general. Certainly not as much as I would’ve liked. The year hasn’t been without stress, but that also doesn’t mean it hasn’t been a blast. Look at what we were able to accomplish, and we’re still only two guys at this point.
I’m looking forward to what we have in store for the coming year, and I hope you are as well. Until then, keep a eye out for the long-awaited Brick Model Railroader Locomotive Kit reveal. I’m excited to finally be able to say that; it’s been a long time coming.
I keep trying to think of something meaningful to put here, but I can’t. Instead, let me just say thank you. Thank you to everyone that I’ve had the pleasure of working with and speaking to, and hang out with at events, talk to online, and more. I never would have imagined being on the staff of a LEGO train community website, or being able to design models for which fans can purchase instructions for, yet here I am, doing all of that, and more. There’s been some incredible opportunities coming my/our way, and I’ve had a lot of support from my friends along the way. Let me say again, sincerely, thank you.
If you follow Brickmania on their social media outlets, you probably already know what this is about.
Almost two weeks ago now, Cale and Glenn where invited to attend the NILTC show in Cantigny Park. You can read Cale’s report on that awesome event here. We attended the show as guests of Brickmania to be a part of some of the final steps leading up to the release of a locomotive kit designed by us. We’ll be shedding some light on the details of this epic collaboration in this article.
Brickmania
Firstly, you may be wondering what Brickmania is. Founded in 1999 by Dan Siskind, Brickmania specializes in high-end custom model kits made with re-purposed LEGO bricks. Their focus is mostly within a military theme, but have ventured outside of this norm to produce space race, sci-fi and fantasy, and pop culture kits as well. They release one new kit every week on Friday morning while restocking older kits and also producing other custom products like books, minifigures, their own table-top game, and a lot more. All production is done in-house at their headquarters in Minneapolis. You can read the full history on their website. Brickmania continues to drive the hobby in many ways and always raises the standard for custom model kits.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settingsACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
You must be logged in to post a comment.