On December 8th and 9th, Brick Model Railroader members Cale Leiphart and Glenn Holland attended the 17th annual Cantigny Park Christmas Train Show in Wheaton Illinois as special guests of Brickmania and the Northern Illinois LEGO® Train Club.
Cantigny Park is a 500-acre park in Wheaton, Illinois, 30 miles west of Chicago. It is the former estate of Joseph Medill and his grandson Colonel Robert R. McCormick, publishers of the Chicago Tribune, and is open to the public. Cantigny includes large formal and informal gardens, two museums, a 27-hole golf course, a picnic grove, a playground, hiking paths, restaurants and a gift shop.
Each year, for the past 17 years, the Northern Illinois LEGO® Train Club has been invited to set up their train display for a special Holliday event the second weekend of December. Over the years the show has grown to include vendors and special displayers in addition to NILTC’s own ever growing display.
Brick Model Railroader and Brickmania
This year Brick Model Railroader was invited to the Cantigny event as special guests of Brickmania who has been one of the regular vendors at the show for several years. BMR has been working with Brickmania to produce a kit for the United State Army Transportation Corp. S160 class Steam Locomotive which Brickmania will be selling through their online and retail stores.
The United States Army Transportation Corps S160 Class is a class of 2-8-0 Consolidation steam locomotive designed for use in Europe during World War II for heavy freight work. A total of 2,120 were built and they worked on railroads across the world, including Africa, Asia, all of Europe and South America. When Brickmania approached us here at BMR about designing a train model for them, the S160, with its World War II military background seemed like an excellent fit. It plays to our train modeling expertise, and Brickmania’s military model market.
This show was the first public unveiling of the S160 model, with three locomotives on display, including BMR’s original prototype as well as two preproduction test models from Brickmania. We are pleased to say that all ran flawlessly during the show, shifting cars around the yard, hauling freight trains, and even a special triple header run Saturday evening.
While at the event BMR helped film the official Brickmania review video for the S160 kit, operated the models during the show, and talked to the public about the upcoming kit while there. Look for the review video coming soon to Brickmania’s youtube channel, we’ll update with a link in this article when it’s released, as well as links to Brickmania’s shop to purchase.
More Train Items from the Show Vendors
In addition to Brickmania, several other vendors were in attendance. Of note were Bricktracks, and Brickstuff. Bricktracks was there with their current assortment of LEGO® compatible track in R56, R104, and R120 radii. However they also had a early prototype working knuckle coupler on display. Needless to say, we at BMR were very excited to see this and are looking forward to seeing how this project develops. Meanwhile Brickstuff had their always awesome assortment of custom lighting kits for LEGO® models. One new item was a prototype for a working train signal. We will have more information on both of these products coming soon.
What and Awesome Show
The weekend was a huge success, and a fun time for all involved. The crowds we’re heavy both days, some times three to four people deep the whole way around the trains layouts. I wish I could have taken more photos to share, but the crowds made photo opportunities during public hours a challenge. NILTC has published some great photos though. You’ll find links to my photos, and NILTC’s bellow.
Finally we would like to thank NILTC and Brickmania for their hospitality this weekend. We were warmly greeted by all, and felt right at home. We saw old friends again, and made many more new ones. We could not ask for a better experience, and we hope we can participate again in the future.
Cantigny show is always a good time, the NILTC folks are great hosts and the visitor center buzzes with people excited to see the displays.
I am curious how those knuckle couplers handle the vertical ‘play’ required for most layouts.
I am skeptical of the knuckle couplers until I see the price and how fast the community adapts