Our friends across the hobby have been working hard to deliver new parts for the rest of us. Here is a small update on a couple of them, and a small announcement on BMR’s next show appearance.

New Products from Big Ben Bricks

Any steam locomotive builder is familiar with Big Ben at this point. Ben Fleskes was one of the first people to pioneer realistic steam locomotive driving wheels made specifically for LEGO models, even going back before the Emerald Night. The hobby certainly wouldn’t be where we are now without Ben’s efforts.

Ben has been working to add some new products to his lineup, and they are now ready and available for purchase on his website:

XXL Size Wheels, Flanged and Blind

XXL wheels are available in black, dark grey, light grey, red and dark red.

M Wheels with Grooves and Traction Bands, Flanged and Blind

These wheels are available in red and black and include traction bands of the same color.

New Color: Dark Red

Ben has also added a dark red color option to all wheels on his site.

This is exciting to see, I personally would love to try out some injection molded XXL wheels. So far, I’ve only had experience with Nate Brill’s wheels from Shapeways for XXL wheels. This is a great solution due to the higher level of customization and cost (it costs a lot to create molds), but injection molding always has a better quality, especially for moving parts. 

Now I just need to find a suitable locomotive to use M size wheels and give those a shot too…

BrickTracks Progress on R104 Turnouts

BrickTracks is another known name in the community. Scott Hoffemeyer has been working to bring new track geometries in high quality molded parts to the LEGO train third party market. Recently, Scott has shared with us a video showing some testing of his molded R104 turnouts.

Scott tells me that there is still some work yet to go with the molds, a few minor fixes here and there, but very good overall.

I’m sure I’m not alone in eagerly waiting for these turnouts to become available.

Brass Expo & Custom Craftsman Models

Brick Model Railroader will be displaying at the 2019 Brass Expo & Custom Craftsman Models convention this coming weekend, November 23-24. 

This year’s convention is at the Wyndham Lancaster Resort & Convention Center on Route 30 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. We have the honor of having a booth right next to the American Steam Railroad, with whom we have been working with to produce our model of a Reading T-1 4-8-4.