BMR Staff/Contributor
I enjoy building steam locomotives and streamliners. You can check out my work on the following sites:
Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPPuieIdMz4TwY1ard1bCzw
It is with this short post that I must announce my formal departure from Brick Model Railroader. I have quietly stepped away from most of my role at BMR for several months, leaving things in the hands of my good friends and colleagues. My reason for leaving is by no means negative; I have no bad feelings towards any other member of the team.
I have simply decided to more fully pursue my own projects and parts of this great hobby and grow the hobby in other ways. I have nothing but the utmost respect for the team here at BMR and fully believe it is in capable hands. I am happy with what I helped to create and I am looking forward to see it continue to grow this wonderful hobby.
When I was younger and still pretty new to the world of Lego trains, I would often browse the internet looking at various Lego MOC sharing websites like MOCPages, Brickshelf, and later Flickr. I was able to learn of a lot of builders and enjoy the work they had published.
Every once in a while, however, I would find a hidden gem off the beaten path of the common Lego websites of the day. The Christmas Train by Matt Chiles is one of them.
Last year, Lego gave us one of my favorite battery powered train sets, 71044 Disney Train and Station. This set, while expensive (but worth it) and at times a challenging build, is still marketed with younger audiences in mind. It’s a proven formula: some kids like trains, but MOST kids love Disney. Put those two things together and you end up with a very desirable product.
I shared some thoughts on that set in an article linked above, and now I have the task of writing about Lego’s newest train again: 10277 Crocodile Locomotive. This new set is the polar opposite of the Disney train; it literally says 18+ on the front of the box, but I’ll touch more on that later. I should also say that once again Brick Model Railroader was not offered a set to review. Again, I went to my local LEGO store (with a mask and practicing proper social distancing, mind you) and purchased the locomotive, Powered Up motor, and Powered Up hub to review.
A sweet box.
10277 Crocodile Locomotive sold out very quickly online and is now backordered for a couple months. However, if you’re lucky and able to, you may still find a few on store shelves.
LNUR was founded by three members – myself (aka Bricks McGee), Jack and James. We felt there was room for a LEGO train club in our area of the UK, and LEGO Northern UK Railway (LNUR) was born. The name and logo of the LNUR group are pastiches of LEGO Northern Eastern Railway, a historic and also current operating name for a major railway route in the UK between London and Edinburgh.
We were fairly local to each other, based in North East England and Yorkshire, and had talked before at LEGO shows we had been exhibiting at. Every LEGO train club seems to have plenty of loco builders, so our aim was to build a large main railway display for members to run their locomotive and rolling stock models on.
There are quite a few LEGO User Groups in the UK already, so our aim was not to replicate the functions of those, but to create a group in which LEGO train fans could collaborate more closely.We now have members from every LEGO User Group in the UK – something we hadn’t envisaged when we first started!
OUR FIRST LEGO RAILWAY DISPLAY
The first official LNUR display was at Hull Block Con in August 2017, though a handful of British LEGO railway modellers had displayed together at Bricktastic LEGO show in Manchester earlier that year. The layout was based on Richard’s Felpersham railway station model, and James’ 9ft long Intercity 225 was incredibly popular with visitors to the show.
A model of Stephenson’s Rocket locomotive on our display at Hull Block Con 2017.
As a group, we average around 12 – 15 LEGO shows a year, which gives us plenty of chance to run locos and wagons on longer layouts than we could probably set up in our living rooms. As a LEGO train club, our flagship show for displays is Shildon Brick Show.
This has become our major show for displays for a few reasons: firstly, Shildon Brick Show is in a railway museum, which is the perfect backdrop for our LEGO railway. Secondly, the show is held in November each year so it gives us 11 months to prepare a new display to tour.
Last year, our display was “Darrington”, centred around a railway station based on Loughborough Central, now part of the Great Central Railway heritage line. The layout also features a traditional steam locomotive shed and a traction maintenance department.
A view from the road bridge over the railway station.Felpersham Traction Maintenance Depot (TMD) on our Darrington LEGO railway display.
We use standard LEGO track where possible, though larger radius curves from both Brick Tracks and Trixbrix enable us to run at higher speeds for shows, and their custom crossovers, points and slip points are really helpful for allowing more interesting running for the public.
ROLLING STOCK AND LOCOMOTIVES
The majority of our members build British locos and wagons, though we do have a token railroader in Matt, who is building a modular US-style railroad display. Between our members, we have LEGO models of many of the more famous locomotives to run on British railways, including Jack’s Intercity 125:
James’ Intercity 225 on our layout at Bricktastic 2018 in Manchester:
We seem to like building the more quirky rolling stock, too. This is Pete’s FNA nuclear flask wagon:
MEMBER LAYOUTS
Now we’re a little more mature as a LEGO train club, we’re seeing members building their own LEGO railway layouts ready to display at shows and exhibitions, too. We displayed our Ambridge & Paxley layout earlier this year at a show, which is a new end-to-end display. It made for a fun few days of operation as it required more coordination between drivers to use the single line between the stations.
A LEGO 02 locomotive on passenger service above the cricket pitch. A LEGO dinosaur (bottom left) always seems to be present on LNUR layouts! Photo: Isaac Smith.
We also have two narrow gauge railway displays in progress, and our long-running “playout” – a drive-your-own LEGO train display – is hugely popular at LEGO shows. Part of our remit as a LEGO train club is to encourage interest in the LEGO train hobby, so the younger we can inspire LEGO fans the better!
LNUR TODAY
3 years since starting LNUR, we now have a steady membership of around 20 members, spread throughout Scotland and England. We even have a member in the US who builds British locomotives!
If you love LEGO trains and building displays, we would highly recommend getting together and building your own LEGO train club.
I subscribe to some model railroading channels on YouTube. A personal favorite of mine uploads more than just layout progress, locomotive modeling, and such; he sometimes posts videos where he discusses some thoughts he’s had or other areas of the greater modeling hobby. He models in OO, P4, and N scales, so the parts of this article regarding his video will come from a background in traditional scale modeling (i.e., not LEGO). Today I’ll expand on a point I find to be particularly interesting.
Perpetual Woes of an Improving Modeler
To summarize the four minute video, the creator, Gavin, presents the viewer with a theoretical timeline that goes like this:
A beginner modeler builds their first kit, like a goods wagon, or model plane, etc. and is satisfied with the finished product, and earns a sense of gratification from it.
The modeler begins work on another kit, and finishes it to the same or slightly better quality than the first.
Over time, the modeler’s skill improves greatly, and he no longer can accept the standards at which he began at.
After this, Gavin states that it can be difficult to move on from old models. It takes forever to “push it off your desk”, move on to a different model, or quickly finish the model, forget about it, and move on to a new one. At some point, you return to a simple kit, which quickly becomes complicated because your new modeling standard has far surpassed the old standard.
How does this apply to LEGO train modeling?
I find that Gavin’s ideas apply to our hobby in a slightly different way. Instead of taking forever to finish models (which does happen sometimes, I’m guilty of this for sure) old models begin to look more and more dated. This really hits home for me with two cases in point.
In 2015 I built a model of the Reading Crusader streamlined 4-6-2 and installed a sound system in it. This model probably has the most mileage on it out of anything in my collection, and has proven to be reliable and fun to use. However, that model turns 5 later this year, and to me, there is a lot of room for improvement that I can’t help but notice when I look at the locomotive. The same is true for my Cotton Belt 4-4-2, which I finished almost a year after the Crusader.
My Reading G1sas 4-6-2, built early 2015, and unchanged since then.My Cotton Belt E-1 class 4-4-2, built late 2015/early 2016, and also practically unmodified since then.
Four and five years later, I have greatly improved as a modeler since I built those two locomotives, and I have started, scrapped, and completed several other projects in that time. I still have my Crusader and Cotton Belt, but they just don’t look as good when I compare them to, say, my Buffalo Creek & Gauley #13. For this reason, I haven’t brought them to as many shows or ran them as frequently.
Moving on to other projects has been great, because new challenges are always nice and I enjoy being able to have a variety of models in my collection. However, there’s always a voice in the back of my head that suggests that I return to the old models and build new versions.
Tying it all together, I guess I could say my perpetual woe ad an improving modeler is wanting to build new versions of my old models using the new skills and techniques I’ve learned since the originals were built, but often times the lure of new ideas and models is far greater. I have yet to find a good balance between the two, since there are so many new projects to work on but an increasing number of old models to improve.
Can anyone relate to these “woes”? What are your thoughts, and what are some woes you may relate more to?
Since our launch in early 2017, we have had a pretty small crew. Mainly consisted of Cale Leiphart, Jim Catagnus (our webmaster), Elroy Davis (our LAN Ambassador), and myself, the only others we’ve had on our team have been occasional guest writers, many of whom have had to answer calls from their non-hobby lives.
We quietly added raised (Gerbrand) to our team a while ago, and he has since taken charge of writing excellent articles, spearheading our OcTRAINber challenge, and representing our website in the Netherlands. More recently, we have also added Enrico Lussi, who has quickly become a frequent contributor. We’re glad to have our two Netherlanders on our team.
Raised (left) and Cale hanging out at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania.Enrico fixing (or breaking) Raised’s yellow NS 1600 at Lego World 2019.
Since about the middle of 2019, we have been working to bring a few more people on board, primarily in the United States. After some discussion, back and forth, and dropped conversation, we are happy to officially announce our newest team members: Aaron Burnett, Matt Csenge, and Chris Stone.
Aaron Burnett, who has been previously featured on BMRMatt standing between Frisco no. 1621, a 2-10-0, and Chicago, Burlington & Quincy no. 9908, Silver Charger in St. Louis, Missouri.Chris Stone: previous OcTRAINber winner and also featured on BMR
All three individuals are known and talented builders and passionate hobbyists. The rest of us are excited to have each of them on board to both write articles and join in the model-making side of Brick Model Railroader. Cale, Elroy, Gerbrand, Enrico, and myself are all excited to have some new team members aboard.
You can read a little more about our newest team members on our updated Team Page.
The Denver & Rio Grande Western, while perhaps more remembered for it’s famous narrow gauge operations, is also famous for it’s extensive passenger service through the Rocky Mountains. One such train was the Royal Gorge, which was operated from 1946 to 1967. During the final year of operation, the train was operated between Denver, Colorado and Salida, Colorado and was run daily. The train was typically run with two or three cars.
“Royal Gorge” near Cotopaxi, Colorado. Photo by Steve Patterson
Wil Hata has chosen to model the 1967 train, consisting of an F7A and F7B unit with a baggage car and Pullman passenger car. Bright light orange was used as the DRGW’s signature orange-yellow color combined with light bluish grey. The results are, there’s no other word for it, awesome.
Happy New Year to our followers and supporters. The Brick Model Railroader team hopes you had a wonderful holiday season.
Today we celebrate our third birthday. 2019 was filled with many new experiences, some old ones, new challenges, and new opportunities. We’d like to reflect on some of that today.
We start with some statistics. Below are current statistics for our website and social media outlets:
249 articles posted (this one not included)
446 comments on articles
921,124 views on our website
6 more Premium Instructions produced
2,821 people who “like” our Facebook page
125 followers on Twitter
335 posts on Instagram
2,273 followers on Instagram
26 videos uploaded to YouTube
1,530 subscribers on our YouTube channel
Our 1,000th Premium Instruction Kit Sold
We averaged almost one article a week, which is hitting our goal compared to last year. We’ve also added a new writer to our staff, Enrico Lussi. We’re happy to have Enrico with us and glad to be growing.
Kevin Johns was the lucky buyer of our 1,000th Premium Instruction Kit sold.
Shows Attended
We were able to make it to several shows and conventions this year, some were planned trips, and others less so.
At Brickworld this years, trains were also some of the hot items donated to the Charity Auction. Together, trains brought in more than $4000 for the The Esther Walner Memorial Charity Fundraiser, with Tony Sava’s Warbonnet F7 locomotives bringing in $2700 alone. Cale is looking forward to donating more trains to the 2020 auction in hopes to raise more money than Tony in a friendly challenge. Cale says he’s “GOING FOR THE RECORD!”
Tony’s F7A and F7B model set from the 2019 Brickworld Charity Auction brought $2700. How much will Cale’s train bring in 2020?
In 2019, Brick Model Railroader assisted with publishing the new standard for modular LEGO train layouts, the L-Gauge Modular Standard. So far we have had a successful first layout at Brickworld Chicago 2019, but another LGMS layout is planned for the Great Scale Model Train Show in Timonium, Maryland this coming February. Cale will be attending the show and contributing to the layout, and we are looking forward to seeing LGMS grow. Cale and Glenn are both members of the standards committee and work to refine and improve the standard.
New Products
This year also saw the continuation of our original Premium Instructions products by adding five models to our regular lineup and one exclusive model.
We’re pleased with our models this year and look forward to adding more this coming year. We have some already in progress, and we hope to also have our first Premium Instructions locomotive available this year as well.
Reading T-1 4-8-4 Premium Kit
Speaking of locomotives, this has been the primary focus of our work this year. Putting together a plan of action for a big kit, then following through and producing it, has proven to be a huge task with a lot of challenges we planned for and some we could not think of. Regardless, we’re happy to be in the phase of putting kits together to deliver. Our 3D printer has been printing parts as fast as we can use it while getting quality parts in the end, and part sorting has begun though there’s still plenty to do. We look forward to wrapping up the T-1 project in 2020 so we can continue on with other projects.
We’re all looking forward to our fourth year, and we’re excited to see where we go. Thanks to everyone for their support.
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.
Test parts, November 2019. Photo by Scott Hoffemeyer.
R104 Left Hand Turnout. Render by Scott Hoffemeyer.
I’m sure I’m not alone in eagerly waiting for these turnouts to become available.
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.
An L-Gauge Modular Standard layout will be present at the Great Scale Model Train Show in Timonium, Maryland. The dates of the show are February 1st and 2, Saturday and Sunday from 9 AM to 5 PM.
Monty Smith will be layout chief for this event. He is responsible for the layout plan and operating schedule. Anyone interested in participating should contact him directly:
Monty Smith montyslegotrains@cox.net Facebook / Instagram: @montystrains
Participants must be finalized by the end of November in order to coordinate a layout plan and submit it to the show coordinator.
The LGMS layout must conform to LGMS v1.3, which has been uploaded to our LGMS page and to the LGMS Facebook group.
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