For March of 2020, LEGO® has released gift with purchase set, the 40370 Steam Engine. The set is available until the end of the month at LEGO.com and through LEGO brand retail stores for via qualifying purchase. The set is a replica of 7810 a push-along steam locomotive that was released in 1980, and commemorates the 40th anniversary of the 12v train line being launched worldwide.
I recently picked up a copy through an order to LEGO.com. Let’s take a look at this set now.
Announcing an L-Gauge Modular Standard layout for BrickFair Virginia in Chantilly, Virginia 2020. BrickFair Viginia is one of the premier LEGO® fan events in North America, bringing together hundred of LEGO builders and their creations. The dates of the show for 2020 are July 29th to August 2nd.
Cale Leiphart will be layout chief for this event. He is responsible for the layout plan, securing space at the event, set up coordination, and operating schedule. Anyone interested in participating should contact him directly:
Cale Leiphart – cale@brickmodelrailroader.com
Participants must be finalized by the end of May 15th in order to coordinate a layout plan and submit it to Brickfair for space approval.
The LGMS layout must conform to LGMS v1.3, which has been uploaded to our LGMS page and to the LGMS Facebook group.
Recently I had the pleasure of participating in LEGO train displays at two train shows here in the Northeast United States. The first was the annual Amherst Railway Society’s Railroad Hobby Show with the New England LEGO User Group. The second was the Great Scale Model Train Show with the second ever L-Gauge Modular Standard display. These were both great shows, and were a lot of fun. Here is a report on both these events.
Continue reading 2020 Winter Train Show Report
On December 14th and 15th, Brick Model Railroader members Cale Leiphart and Glenn Holland were once again invited by the Northern Illinois LEGO® Train Club to attend the annual Cantigny Park Christmas Train Show in Wheaton, Illinois .
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 18 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. Vendors at this year’s show included Brickstuff, Brickmania, EclipseGrafx, Citizen Brick, and Abbie Dabbles.
There is no better time of year for a train show than Christmas time. Ever since Lionel Cowen began persuading department stores to incorporate his toy trains as part of their Christmas tree displays, making them into popular Christmas presents, model trains and Christmas have been linked together in the childhood dreams of every train fan.
The Northern Illinois LEGO Train Club brought out an amazing display for this year. Their display featured everything from winter scenes, cityscapes, Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, a massive train yard, and a little bit of everything in between. Of course some pretty cool trains were on display as well. Cantigny Park itself was beautifully decorated for the Holliday Season, and Christmas music was playing the whole weekend.
The members of NILTC were warmly welcoming to us and made us feel right at home. It all made for a truly fun and memorable weekend, and we are thankful for the club’s hospitality.
Beyond attending the show for the weekend, we also had the opportunity to visit some other cool places. After set up on Friday we left Cantigny to visit the Brickmania Chicago Store, and Des Plaines Hobbies.
This was the first time either Glenn or myself had seen the Chicago Brickmania Store since moving to it’s new location earlier this year. The new store had much more space than the old store at the Woodfield Mall. All of the current Brickmania kits were on display and for sale, including many currently sold out online. Also there on display was Brickmania’s model of the World War II destroyer USS O’Hare, and Nathan Flood’s model of the German U-boat, U-505.
After leaving the Brickmania Store, we traveled to the legendary model train shop, Des Plaines Hobbies.
If you’re in the Chicago area and love trains, this hobby shop should be a must see on your list. It’s tucked away in a little shopping center, and while the store may not seem big on the outside, the inside is packed with some very cool model train treasure. Models from almost every scale can be seen in the display cases, hard to find books line the book shelves in the back corner, and a full range of modeling supplies can be found throughout the store with a friendly and helpful staff waiting to answer any of your train hobby needs. This is the old school hobby shop done right.
Once again, we can not say enough about how awesome NILTC and the Cantigny Train Show was. This year was every bit as cool as last year for us, and we hope we can make the trip again for 2020. We already have an open invite to come back, and we will be making plans as soon as we can. In the meantime, here are photos from myself, and from NILTC of this year’s display.
Thank you again to the Northern Illinois LEGO Train Club and Cantigny Park for a wonderful train show experience.
It’s that time of year again. The air is turning colder, strings of lights are going up, and Christmas music is playing somewhere in the distance. We here at Brick Model Railroader are getting into the Holiday spirit, and to kick things off, we’re having a Black Friday Weekend Sale!
Use code “BMRBLACK19” on your order to save 15% on all our Premium Instructions freight car and caboose kits, decals, and Printed Bearing Tiles starting at Midnight, Thursday November 28th and ending at 11:59 Monday December 2nd (EST times).
There’s more!
Every order will receive a free printed BMR 2×2 Logo Tile, and every order over $50.00 will receive a Brick Model Railroader Catalog, while supplies last.
The 15% off discount does not apply to pre-orders for our Reading T-1 Kit, Reading Passenger Car Premium Instruction Kits, or our Ball Bearing Wheel Sets.
Pre-orders for our first locomotive kit, the Reading T-1 4-8-4, will close at 11:59 on Friday, December 6th, 2019 (EST). If you have not reserved your kit yet, get those orders in. We do not plan to offer this locomotive kit again in the future.
We’ve been busy with preparing the kits. Parts have been flowing in, our instructions are in the final editing stage, final details have been worked out with our graphics printer, and our new 3D printer is here and we’ll be working to get everything set up and fine tuned for making rods, valve gear, and drivers.
If you celebrate, have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday, and a wonderful weekend.
On Saturday, September 21st, 2019, American Steam Railroad Preservation Association, Inc hosted an event, An Evening with a Legend of Steam: Ross Rowland, to benefit the ASR’s “Fire Up 2100” campaign for the restoration of Reading T-1 class steam locomotive 2100. Brick Model Railroader attended the event to display our soon to be released custom LEGO® model of 2100 and support the restoration.
On Saturday, September 21st, 2019, American Steam Railroad Preservation Association, Inc will be hosting an event, An Evening with a Legend of Steam: Ross Rowland, to benefit the ASR’s “Fire Up 2100” campaign for the restoration of Reading locomotive 2100. Brick Model Railroader will be attending the event to display our LEGO® model of 2100 and support the restoration.
From the American Steam Railroad Website:
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.
Earlier this year we announced the first official locomotive kit from Brick Model Railroader, the Reading T-1 4-8-4 steam locomotive. Since then we have be a bit quiet about this project, only releasing a few minor updates, but this does not mean that progress hasn’t been made. Today we have big, and hopefully informative, update to share.
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.
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