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.

The trip out; Riding with an Australian, chasing trains, and feeling the wrath of Murphy’s Law.

This bit is pretty long. If you want to skip right to the stuff that actually happened at the event, go ahead.

My traveling partner this year was a special guest from Melbourne Australia, Teunis Davey. Teunis is well known for his Australian LEGO train models and for founding the Victorian Railways L- Gauge Modellers group. This was Teunis’s first time attending Brickworld and to the make the most of his trip to the United States and see as much of the country as he could on the trip, he met up with me in Pennsylvania for the road trip to Brickworld.

Our first stop on the road to Brickworld was to meet up with fellow BMR staffer, Glenn Holland for dinner and fun. Unfortunately Glenn was not able to attend Brickworld this year, but he did send some models along to display, including his new Buffalo Creek & Gauley no. 13. Of course when three LEGO train builders get together with models around, there is going to be some show and tell.

After leaving Glenn’s place we continued on to our stopping point for the night at our friend Jason Steinhurst‘s house in Toledo Ohio. After a late night tour of Jason’s LEGO room (currently under renovation) we turned in for the night.

The following morning the three of us went out for breakfast and some local train watching before Teunis and I continued on to Brickworld. The Toledo area is a hot bed for train watching so while there we checked out a local park in Swanton where we saw a preserved Wheeling and Lake Erie caboose, and several Norfolk Southern trains running through town.

After a morning chasing trains with our host Jason in Toledo, Teunis and I left to finish our journey out to Brickworld. We expected an uneventful trip the rest of the way. Unfortunately, things turned out a little differently than planed.

About 1.5 hours from Brickworld, on Interstate 80 near Portage Indiana around 2pm in the afternoon, we encountered a problem. Murphy’s law is an adage, or epigram, that is typically stated as: “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong”. This could not be more true for what we were in store for the next few hours.

It started while approaching the last toll plaza on I80 before leaving Indiana. While slowing down for the plaza we heard a load scrapping sound coming from behind my truck. We made it through the plaza and got to the shoulder of the highway where we could inspect things. We found that one of the spring shackles on the trailer suspension had broken. The trailer was now leaning to one side and the bracket was dragging on the ground. After finding the damage, my first action was to call AAA. Since I do a lot of traveling, I’ve been a AAA member for many years for just this reason, roadside assistance. AAA promptly sent out a tow truck to get our trailer off the highway and to a repair shop. Problem solved.

Well, not quite.

It turned out that our trailer was too wide to safely fit on the rollback truck that came out. So the driver called into dispatch and said that AAA would be sending another truck out capable of handling the trailer and left us, informing us that I would be getting a call soon with an update. And so we waited.

And waited

And waited some more.

Finally after almost an hour with no truck in sight, and no call, I called back into AAA to find out what was going on. The representative informed me that he was looking into the situation and that I would get a call soon with more info. So more waiting.

And waiting.

Still waiting.

45 minutes later, with no call, I again call into AAA to find out what the heck the problem is. By now I was very frustrated. Again I was told that they were looking into it, and to expect a call back in a few minutes with more info. More of that waiting again.

Finally this time I did get a call. The news was not what I had expected. It seems that our trailer is classified by AAA as a recreational vehicle. And since I did not have RV coverage under my AAA membership, they could not assist me. This despite what I was told by a rep when I joined AAA that trailers would be covered under my AAA Plus membership. Murphy’s law just keeps on hitting.

The AAA rep did give me the names of two towing companies to call who he thought would be able to help. The first refused right away, stating they don’t mess with trailers. The second said they could do it. But after 45 mins going back and forth, sending them photos of the trailer, and our location, they informed me that we were too far away for them to come out. I hate Murphy and his stinking law.

So now I was desperately searching with my phone for any towing or trailer repair company in the area that could help. I managed to find a truck and trailer repair place that also had a contact for a towing company that they guaranteed could help. The towing company came out with a truck and (insert sarcasm) to our surprise, the trailer was too wide to safely fit on the truck. Fortunately the driver was able to contact another company who he thought would be able to help.

So our third tow truck for the day shows up, and to our relief, the driver was just barely able to fit our trailer on his truck, it’s now sometime around 7pm and our trailer is finally headed to the shop. After dropping it off, Teunis and I headed to Brickworld, leaving our trailer behind in Indiana at the repair shop. We arrived around 10pm that night, very tired, very frustrated, and not knowing how the next few days would pan out.

Thursday morning I awoke to a call from the repair shop. They told me that they would be able to repair the trailer that day and have it ready for me to pick up that afternoon. Maybe Murphy had decided to leave us alone? I elected not to pick up the trailer that afternoon though. There were several talks scheduled that day that I didn’t want to miss. And fortunately my portion of the LGMS layout was easy enough to set up in a few hours. So I planned to pick the trailer up first thing the net morning and head back to Brickworld.

I left Friday morning at 5am with the intention of getting to the trailer shop when they opened a 7am to pick up the trailer and head back to Brickworld. Murphy’s law however was not done with me. Most of the trip down to Indiana was pretty smooth. Despite Chicago’s horrendous reputation for traffic, I made good time. However 7 miles from the repair shop, I ran into one of the worst traffic jams I’ve ever encountered. For two hours we creeped and crawled the 4 miles to my exit. A tractor trailer had crashed and spread it’s contents all over the highway. All three lanes we shut down and traffic was just barely moving by on the shoulder. I get to the shop two hours past my intended arrival time, but was finally able to retrieve our club trailer, and start making my way back to Brickworld. Once there, an army of my fellow AFOLs (to which I’m eternally grateful) helped get things unloaded from the trailer, and get my tables set up so that I could finally set up my part of the LGMS layout. Murphy and his law were no longer on my back.

L-Guage Modular Standard Collaborative Train Layout

This year was a bit of a different experience for me in that I was not setting up with our usual club train layout. My club PennLUG has been bringing our train layout to Brickworld since 2011, and since 2014 we’ve collaborated with Texas Brick Railroad to form a joint layout. This year though neither PennLUG or Texas Brick RR were bringing huge displays. Instead we both collaborated with the new L-Guage Modular Standard layout.

For those not yet familiar with the L-Guage Modular Standard, or LGMS for short, The L-Gauge Module Standard is a simple set of specifications where anyone from an advanced train builder to a novice can read the specifications, build and connect their module to any other module from any other builder worldwide. You can find out more about it by clicking the L-Guage Modular Standard tab at the top of this page.

Brickworld 2019 was to be the first full scale test of the standard in operation. 15 people participated in putting this layout together, either by building modules or lending support. The layout was an impressive 16ft x 40ft in size. Thanks to the careful collaboration between builders the layout really came together well. A layout this size with so many varied builders could easily become a disjointed mess. But every one worked together with Layout Chief Richard Glatter to help make sure the layout was harmonious, flowed well, and presented well visually. It was truly an awesome collaboration and the start of many good things to come.

New Products

Brickworld has become a huge gathering place for LEGO train builders. So it’s no surprise that many new products for the LEGO train hobby first get debuted at the event. This year track was very much at the forefront.

Bricktracks introduced their new Short Straight Track Pack at the event. The packs include 8-long (1/2 length), 4-long (1/4 length), and 1.6-long (1/10 length) straight segments. Scott Hoffmeyer form Bricktracks had some samples on hand at the event, and the quality was every bit as amazing as their previous RR56, R104, and R120 curve offerings. These are going to be very useful to LEGO train builders. And in case you are wondering what to do with the 1/10 straight tracks, aside from being really useful for filling odd angle gaps, they’ll be very important for what’s coming next!

Yes, It’s finally happening. Bricktracks is in the tooling stage for their molded R104 Switches. Estimated arrival is sometime late this year. We are super excited.

Short Straight Track Packs will ship starting July 8th. Check them out at www.bricktracks.com!

Another surprise track announcement at the event came from Fx Brix. At the event Michael Gale, one of the two founders of Fx Bricks and co creator of the PFx brick, gave us a first look at his plans for the upcoming Fx Track system.

You may find information about the new Fx Brick Track system at https://www.fxbricks.com/downloads/FxTrackPreReleaseJun2019.pdf

The plan is to mold all track elements and add metal over the rails in the same process as LEGO did for the discontinued 9v LEGO train system. Further plans are already in the works for power pickups, new train motors, and other power related elements.

The tentative schedule is for the FX Track system to start rolling out the first half of next year, with other elements to follow later.

We will be covering both the Bricktracks and FX Bricks news in more detailed articles coming soon.

BMR Golden Driver Awards

At the NMRA show in Kansas City, Missouri, Brick Model Railroader introduced the Golden Driver Awards. It’s our way to recognize exceptional LEGO train building from AFOLs and clubs at an event. Since then we’ve presented awards at Nebraska Brick Days, and now at Brickworld 2019.

Best Structure, Joyo Theater by Nate Flood

Nate Flood’s Joyo Theater was chosen for it’s interesting architecture, it’s use of simple, but very effective techniques, and it faithful recreation of the real life prototype.

Best Rolling Stock, Victorian Railways Spirit of Progress passenger cars by Teunis Davey.

Teunis built an amazing set of passenger cars for his Victorian Railways “Spirit of Progress” train. The close coupling of the cars is a technical achievement, the faithful recreation of the dark blue and gold color scheme is beautiful, and together these cars are a perfect match in beauty and building skill for his streamlined S class locomotive.

Best Landscape, Flyover Country by Anthony Sava

Tony Savas LGMS module was this beautifully landscaped set piece he titled “Flyover Country”. The landscaping is full and lush, with tightly packed trees opening up to patches of wildflowers and long forgotten structures. One of the most intriguing parts though, and one many at the show may have missed, id the backstory Tony created for his module.

“Long ago, locomotive #3 derailed coming out of the branch line and caused a fire. The fire burned the farm house and the farm was abandoned. Old number 3 was also left to rot, and the branch line switch was torn out and the track abandoned too. Since then, nature has taken it all back.”

Best Diesel, Adirondack Scenic Railroad ALCO RS-18 by Robert Tebeau

Robert’s Also set was a stand out this year. It is a prototype we’ve never seen modeled before. It’s from a railroad we’ve not seen modeled before. But it’s also a very faithful and well done representation of it’s real life prototype. And that color scheme is quite good looking, and translated well to the LEGO model.

Best Steam, Forney “Kate” by Rob Hendrix

I have to admit, this was a hard one to judge this year. There were several very well done steam locomotive models at the show, all deserving of recognition. But we finally decided on a bit of an underdog in the category, and we’re chuffed about. Rob’s 0-4-4 Forney type locomotive is not a stud for rivet exact recreation of any one real locomotive. But it is very much an excellent representation of this overlooked locomotive type hitting all the right details. Modeled to a slightly larger scale that the 6 and 8 wide norm, this diminutive locomotive is packed with awesome character.

Best L-Guage Modular Standard Module, Imperial Sugar by Edward Chang.

Ed swung for the fences and knocked this one out of the ball park. Imperial Sugar is an amazingly detailed module, filled with carefully thought out details and set planing. The warehouse in front forms an effective view block for the main line tracks. But with an open interior, one is invited to peer through the windows to Veiw passing trains, just as if your were an employe loading boxcars in the building. The whole module gets even better at night, with cited Imperial Sugar signs on the tall refinery, lit interior in the warehouse, and listed road crossing. One could have spent hours looking for all the great little details in this build.

“Club Car Extra” Train

This year at Brickworld we ran for the first time a special “Club Car Extra Train” made up entirely of club and organization cars. We ran this train on the L-Gauge Modular Standard collaborative layout from 2pm to 4pm on Saturday the 15th during public hours. Our train included 17 cars emblazoned with the logos various clubs and organizations present at the event, plus a caboose, and several guest locomotives pulling the train throughout the 2 hr run.

Brickworld Charity Auction

Each year at Brickworld in Chicago, attendees gather together to participate in what has become an fun, exciting, and unforgettable events held during the convention. The Esther Walner Memorial Charity Fundraiser. Th auction features unique LEGO® and LEGO Fan Community items donated by individuals, groups and companies to help raise money for charity. Proceeds benefit several deserving charitable organizations, including Creations for Charity, Riley Children’s Hospital, FIRST LEGO League, and the Make a Wish Foundation. 90% of the proceeds raised is donated to these charities. The other 10% Brickworld uses to support other opportunities to help kids in the community. Last year’s auction raised $22,300 with 100% of that money going to charitable organizations.

For several years now, Anthony Sava and myself have had a bit of a rivalry going in donating LEGO train models to the auction. You can read more in depth about that here. This year it was Tony’s turn to donate a model and he chose a copy of his F7 A and B unit’s in the classic Santa Fe “War Bonnet” livery.

This year the auction raised $28,000 with every cent going to charity. Of that Anthony’s Santa Fe F7 brought an amazing $2700 at the auction, the highest item of the night. Scott Roys donated a built copy of BMR’s Northeastern Caboose in Norfolk & Western colors which brought $300. Mechelle Roberts Hendrix donated an awesome train themed stained glass mosaic which brought $400. And BMR donated an NMRA 2018 MoPac caboose instruction kit, and a BW 2019 “Challenger” Boxcar full kit, which Brough $350, and $500. If my numbers are right, that is total of $4250 raised for charity from just us in the train group.

That’s incredible! It really speaks to how awesome the LEGO train community can be.

So now for next year, thanks to my challenge I made to Tony, I have to try and top the $2700 mark set by his F7 set. I’ll be donating a whole train (as in locomotive and cars). I’m looking forward to the challenge.

Heading Home via Railroad Museums

Once Brickworld ended it was time to make the long trip back home. Fortunately for us is was smooth sailing, no more trailer trouble. Since we were in no rush, we took some time to check out a few railroad museums on the trip back home.

First stop was the Illinois Railway Museum. Fellow train builders Anthony and AJ Sava, and Richard and Ashley Glatter joined Teunis and me on the Monday after BW to check out the sprawling museum. If you ever have the opportunity to go, I highly recommend it. The museum grounds are huge, and the collection extensive. The museum has operating steam and diesel trains during the weekend, as well as operating trolleys throughout the week. The collection is so large, it’s almost impossible to see everything in a day.

You can see my photos from the Illinois Railway Museum here.

Our next stop was on Tuesday, where we visited the Mad River & Nickel Plate Railroad Museum in Bellevue, Ohio with Jason Steinhurst. It’s a somewhat overlooked museum, but it’s home to some really neat items, including the recently relocated Nickel Plate no. 757. The museum volunteers have done an amazing job with this locomotive since it was transferred from the Railroad Museum of PA only months ago. It was great to see the locomotive again, last time I seen 757 it ws a lot closer to home, but in need of some real TLC. Thankfully the locomotive is now the star atraction in her new hometown and getting the royal treatment.

You can find my photos from the Mad river Museum here.

Final Thoughts

This year Brickworld was filled with some frustrating lows, and some amazing highs. Thankfully the good far outweighed the bad, and the trip was overall very awesome. Once again I was able to spend time with some of the most talented train builders from around the world. A group who is both generous and welcoming, and willing to lend a hand when needed. Above all the amazing creations on display, its the people, my friends who keep me coming back to Brickworld. I’m already looking forward to next year.

I apologize for not having as many photos of this year’s event as I have in the past. Dealing with the trailer issues made for a very abnormal weekend. Instead of forcing myself to take photos of everything I could, I elected to spend the weekend that I had, just enjoying the show. I did take a few photos and video though, and you can find them here.

If anyone has photo galleries they would like us to share from the event, please let us know.