Continuing our theme of interviewing builders of exception MOCs, we’re back with European builder Mateusz Waldowski. Mateusz built this awe inspiring bullet train, the Alstom Pendolino ED250 PKP Intercity. We might not have awesome trains like this in the United States, but we sure wish we did! His build is complete with lights, a complete interior (!), and custom stickers. Check it out.
BMR: Tell us a little more about the build. How long did it take? Estimated piece count?
Mateusz: My MOC is 130cm long, has 3500 pieces, 10m of wire inside, lights on the front changing by direction, and lights inside. I first made a sketch in September 2015 and I started building from real bricks in 2016. The build took longer than I expected because I had to collect lots of ideas and continually improve the model.
BMR: What inspired you to build this particular locomotive?
Mateusz: In the LEGO catalogs from my childhood, passenger trains were always express/high speed.
BMR: Is it powered?
Mateusz: Yes. It has two LEGO train motors (old 9V train motor and pf train motor) and the receiver is behind the cab. Power comes from 9V tracks and steering by pf control pilot.
BMR: What is your build process? Do you use some form of digital design program?
Mateusz: I don’t have one way in my building process. For this particular model I used “LEGO Digital Designer” to sketch it, but my 3D model wasn’t good enough and I made lot of changes. In others MOCs I build immediately from real brick.
BMR: What was the hardest bit to get right?
Mateusz: The most difficult was the front of the train. I wanted the train to look very smooth and fast like the original. I didn’t want to have “stairs” on the front of train. (Ed: you certainly succeeded!)
BMR: What’s your favorite detail that other people might not notice?
Mateusz: I don’t know. I spent too long building this train to have an objective opinion about it.
I know what my favorite detail is, the pantographs. Binoculars!
BMR: What’s next?
Mateusz: This year I plan on adding one more car to the Pendolino (with a restaurant inside). Right now I am building another diesel locomotive to add to my PKP Cargo family. I definitely must build more cargo cars.
BMR: What’s best, steam or diesel?
Mateusz: I don’t have a favorite type of locomotive/train. (ed: we’re sure that Mateusz meant to say diesel, but we’ll let it slide this once).
We’re’ back again with our second builder interview, this time we’re going across the pond with 39 year old Swiss builder Beat Felber. Beat built this awe inspiring Santa Fe 5000 class steamer.
This is something new BMR is piloting, interviews with builders of exceptional MOCs. Provided there are enough new builds, we hope to have several of these every month.
The builder for our first interview is 19-year-old Zach Reynolds.
Evolving your home layout beyond LEGO’s standard track elements has never been easier. First there was ME Models and now with companies such as BrickTracks, 4D Brix, and TrixBrix, competition is fierce. Even home 3D printing can offer decent results as long your machine has a large enough print area. With that in mind, I’d like to go over a few more recent entrants to the LEGO track world.
In addition to the companies listed above, there are also several companies in China that have been producing what I would consider knock-offs. These brands include Leipin, Ausini, Banbao, and Enlighten and can be found on sites like eBay and Aliexpress. I have actually ordered some just to see what the quality is like. Honestly, they’re not bad, I just don’t like buying what is obviously meant to rip-off LEGO track. Besides, once you factor in shipping, they’re not really much cheaper than the real thing. Anyway, none of the Chinese companies are being creative with track geometry or producing anything other than R40 curves, switches, and straights.
With that out of the way, even though they are not exactly new to the game, I’d like to first go over ME Models. Unfortunately, it appears as though ME has exited the track business. As per the thread on Eurobrick forums, there are still many original Kickstarter backers who have not received their pledges from several years ago. There are many other reviews out there of ME Models, so I will try to be brief. I myself received my Kickstarter pledge fairly early. Once the metal track was released, additional orders of metal track showed up without delay.
I have a few gripes with ME track. First, it requires gluing. I tried using it without glue at first, but after the track randomly exploded for the umpteenth time, I bit the bullet and glued it all together. Secondly, rather than the “tire” of the wheel riding on the top of the rail, the outer diameter of the wheel flange rides on the top of the lower part of the rail. This causes every wheel-set to bump up when transitioning from OG LEGO track to ME track. If your train is going fast enough, this can cause derailments. And my last gripe is specific to the metal track, that the metal inserts are not pre-bent. The tension causes the inner rail of the track to bow up. Also, while mostly only noticeable on r56 and r72, the joints between rails are straight, causing the train to wobble through the curves similar to as if you had single R40 curves spaced with straight sections.
ME Models R104 on the left, BrickTracks R120 on the right
Next up, BrickTracks! BrickTracks’ initial release of R120 and R104 curves was intended to continue where ME Models left off. Now with ME Models seemingly going dark, I believe it is their intent to start working backwards by releasing R88, R72, and perhaps even R56 and to also release 9V versions if there is enough interest. Additionally, they are in the prototyping stage of R104 switches. I myself have only used their R120 curves and some 3D printed prototypes of wide radius switches.
Suffice to say, the R120 curves are essentially indistinguishable from LEGO’s own R40. Solid, crisp, injection molded single piece curves. Quality comes at a slightly steep price, but the product speaks for itself. Each stud even has “BT” embossed on its surface. My 3D printed prototype R104 switches and R104 double crossover are available to anyone willing to pay the steep price that Shapeways charges. Functionally, they are superior to LEGO; the throw requires rotating the knob 90 degrees, making motorization easy, and the throw and be moved to either side of the track. Will these ever see mass production? We can only hope.
Sweet R120 goodness.
Having never used TrixBrix, my first hand experience ends with 4D Brix (what’s with the X’s?). Besides the regular R56, R72, and R88 (no R104, you’ll have to stick with BrickTracks for that!), 4D Brix also offers some very interesting switch configurations. You can purchase R40 ladders, double crossovers, wyes, and a very recent addition, R148 crossovers and double crossovers. A huge plus of 3D printing is rapid, cheap prototyping and a low upfront cost. 4D Brix (and TrixBrix) prove this by offering a large range of interesting track geometries without having to pay the high costs of having a tool machined for injection molding.
4DBrix R148 crossover on the bottom, BrickTracks R104 3D printed prototype up top. Someone needs to come over and ballast these monsters.4DBrix R40 crossover
4D Brix (and TrixBrix) are both 3D printed products, so the quality, strength and surface finish are not quite as good as ME Models or BrickTracks. However, the clutch of both the anti studs and the regular studs are excellent. Usability-wise, I’ve had no issues. One quirk of 4D Brix is that each switch is broken in to different sections, each about 16 studs long. For example, the R148 crossover is 8 separate pieces. I imagine this is a size limit imposed by the particular 3D printers they use. My guess is that the size limit is also why they do not offer R104 curves. Once assembled, this isn’t really an issue though. The color matching is excellent, and if the surface finish was as smooth as LEGO, it’d be hard to distinguish. I recommend taking some sand paper to the top rail surface to smooth it out.
And although I’ve never used their product, TrixBrix has some wild cross track products. Check them out.
Switches my locomotives can actually go through!
How do the prices of all these products compare? ME Models doesn’t have any product listed on their site anymore, so my comparison will be with product currently for sale.
Updated to correct TrixBrix prices.
Prices are for a full circle of track. TrixBrix prices were converted to USD at 1€ = $1.17USD. When viewed this way, BrickTracks investment into injection molding really shows. I can’t wait for them to begin production of smaller radii and switches.
One of the things I dislike about modeling real locomotives and rolling stock is how dull and monochromatic the colors tend to be. I’m always on the lookout for bright and colorful things to build and when I came across these Union Pacific heritage units last year, I knew what I had to build next. Union Pacific had these SD70ACe’s painted special to commemorate 6 different rail lines that they acquired throughout the years. Missouri Pacific in 1982, Missouri-Kansas-Texas in 1988, Denver and Rio Grande in 1989, Southern Pacific in 1986, Western Pacific in 1983, and Chicago & North Western in 1995. I built the Missouri Pacific right away and held off on building the remaining 5 pending the construction of some other projects.
I never actually planned on making all 6 but had several people ask me when I was going to complete the set. I mentally scoffed at the idea of making 5 more of the same locomotive. Well, here we are today and all 6 are now complete. I think it was my friends Cale and Nick that finally convinced me to do it. Nick was also very generous with sharing brick in rare colors to help me. I did all the vinyl stickers myself on my vinyl printer/cutter Roland BN-20. I take custom orders and enjoy doing stickers for other Lego train fans. I can print full CMYK + white ink and cut on any color vinyl including metallic colors and clear. Just shoot me an email to legoman666@gmail.com.
Anyway, here’s the first one I did, the Missouri Pacific aka MoPac.
As an electrical engineer, I have always found lithium batteries to be…. amusing. They’re extremely volatile; if overcharged, they explode. If over-discharged, they explode. If charged too quickly, they explode. If discharged too quickly, they explode. If punctured, they explode. If they get too hot, they explode. If they get too cold, they simply don’t work. Think back to the recent debacle of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 battery woes. But yet, these are the best batteries that are currently mass produced. Almost everyone carries one in their pocket and frequently holds it close to their face. For applications where the energy density (energy stored per volume) or the total energy stored (in Watt-hours) isn’t important, there is an alternative storage media that might be of interest to my fellow model train fans. Enter supercapacitors.
Not quite the same thing.
What follows isn’t for the electronically faint of heart. Accidentally short circuiting an alkaline battery or similar for a few seconds isn’t going to cause much harm. Short circuiting a bank of supercapacitors will melt wires and turn your supercapacitors into charcoal in no time. Be smart.
A supercapacitor is different than a battery in several important but sometimes subtle ways. For a model train, some of these differences are to our advantage, others are not. First off, when a battery is discharged from 100% to 0%, the voltage is fairly consistent. The difference between the full and empty voltages and the rate at which it falls depends on the type of battery. For example, a NiMh battery is about 1.45V full, and 1.2V empty. A capacitor is different; when empty, it is 0V. The “full” voltage is whatever you charge it to. Different capacitors have different maximum voltage ratings. When discharged, the voltage falls from the charge voltage to 0V. Most supercapacitors are rated for either 2.5V or 2.7V. Similar to batteries, putting multiple capacitors in series is how you get the desired voltage capacity. For example, a 9V system would need 4 2.5V/2.7V supercapacitors in series. When the system is charged up to 9V, the voltage will be split evenly with 2.25V each on the 4 capacitors.
The second major difference between the two technologies is the speed at which they can be charged. NiMh and LiPo batteries are usually limited to some fraction of their amp-hour capacity for their charge rate. Meaning, a 2000mAh NiMh battery can be safely charged at 1-2A. Of course, this varies based on manufacturer specs, and charging them faster will degrade their capacity faster, but that is neither here nor there. A supercapacitor has a much higher safe charge/discharge rate. The small ones I like to use in my locomotives are safe up to 3.3A! Much higher rated ones exist too, I built an experimental system that used 100F supercaps rated up to 35A. Additionally, a rechargeable battery typically is only rated for a few thousand charge cycles. A supercap can be charged several hundred thousand times.
The major downside to supercapacitors is energy density, or how much power you can store per volume. My choice supercaps are 4mWh/cm^3 whereas a 2000mAh NiMh battery is about 350mWh/cm^3. So they’re less dense by about a factor of 100, useless, right? No! If all we need to do is get over an unpowered track section, for example an unpowered ME Models R104 180 degree curve, we only need about 10 seconds of run time. So if we have an equal volume of supercaps to AA batteries, our run length will be 1/100th: an AA battery set lasts several hours, call it 2h on the conservative side. That means an equally sized supercap bank will run for 1.2 minutes, plenty of time for zipping through a short unpowered track section!
Some of the difficulty in implementing a supercap bank is limiting the charge current. From the perspective of your power supply, capacitors are more or less a 0 ohm short circuit which means the theoretical charge current will be infinite. You can limit this with a resistor, but realistically this is unfeasible. A resistor spec’ed correctly would have to be very physically large to allow for high heat dissipation. It’d get hot enough to melt LEGO (ask me how I know)! Additionally, as the capacitors charge, the charge rate slows down exponentially. Luckily, there are other methods available to limit the current. I found a cheap, small product on eBay that fits the bill perfectly: a CC/CV regulator. Not only can this thing limit the voltage to the bank, but it can also limit the current.
With a CC/CV regulator set to never charge past the supercap’s rated voltage and current, the next step is regulating the output of the supercaps. Because we don’t want our train to slow down as the supercap bank discharges, we need a DC/DC regulator. There are some nice cheap ones on eBay for about $1.50 that just so happen to be exactly 3 studs wide.
Above is my Amtrak B32-8WH being retrofitted with 10x 15F 2.7V supercaps. The small circuit board on the left is the CC/CV charger. The wires going down through the center lead to the fuel tank, which is where the DC-DC regulator, bridge rectifier, and bluetooth motor controller all live.Complete circuit diagram of my supercap system. The bypass diode on the CC/CV charger was later removed.
I’ve also made a system with 10x 100F supercaps. The added capacity doesn’t really add any utility over 10F-20F supercaps, so all of my recent systems are 15F. One of the downsides to charging the supercaps as quickly as possible is the sizing of the power supply required to handle the peak current, especially when you have multiple locomotives on the same circuit. Luckily for me, my work has stacks of 24V 6.5A power supplies lying around. Unfortunately for you, they are not cheap new. A used PC power supply can be rigged up to perform similarly, but as always, the exercise is left to the reader…
Following up on my previous article introducing LEGO’s 9V system and their Power Functions (PF) system, I’m going to go a little more in depth about building hybrid systems that utilize both PF battery packs and 9V train track. I’ve developed and iterated through several different systems that combine the best of both and have come up with several easy to implement systems. Anyone with a few dollars, a volt meter and a soldering iron can hack together one of these hybrids in a matter of hours. Continue reading Hybrid PF/9V Systems→
Young and new recruits to the LEGO train scene will never have known anything other than the current generation of power functions. Battery packs coupled with infrared receivers and remote controls, each taking up precious space in your build. However, it didn’t used to be this way. The previous generation of trains (ignoring the aborted RC train theme) used metal rails to directly power the motors. Both generations had their own advantages and disadvantages, which I will attempt to shed some light on. In a follow up article, I will go over some advanced applications of each, and hybrids that combine the best of both technologies.
Batteries take up space. In my eye, this is Power Function’s main drawback. Additionally, the current generation Infrared (IR) Receiver is quite large and the sensor on it needs to be visible from outside the locomotive for the signal to reach it.
IR Receiver with the shell removed. Why is this thing so big?
Trying to incorporate the AAA/AA battery pack and the IR Receiver into a model is often very tricky, especially when working with 6 or 7 stud wide models. Additionally, batteries need to be recharged or replaced after several hours, so the battery pack needs to be accessible or removable. When running for many consecutive hours at a convention, swapping batteries becomes a chore. For home use, it is not such a big deal. The IR receiver also has difficulty reaching more than a few feet when there aren’t any walls or ceiling to reflect the light off of. On the other hand, the IR receiver and battery boxes are still currently in production, which means they’re cheap.
PF track Vs. 9V track
Track power has always been my preference and I’ve iterated through several generations of electrical systems searching for the best configuration. LEGO’s classic 9V train controller is simple, turn the knob and your locomotive starts to move. The biggest limiting factors are being limited to metal equipped track and the original 9V train motor, (meaning no double crossovers). Additionally, laying out certain track geometries will cause short circuits. Also, once your loop gets to a certain length, additional power hookups are required so as to avoid slow downs. Of course, the main drawback is price. Expanding or building a new 9V layout is very costly. 9V straight track hasn’t been manufactured in almost 10 years and averages $3.50 each used and $5.50 new on the aftermarket. Original 9V train motors average $35 each used and $75 new. Many clubs still use 9V systems, and with ME Models finally shipping their metal track, will continue to do so for years to come.
Things start to get interesting when you get rid of LEGO’s speed controller and start substituting your own electronics. Swap in the third party Bluetooth controlled SBrick in lieu of the IR receiver and not only save space, but also gain control range, gain 2 more channels for a total of 4, and lose the line of sight requirement.
2 Channel PF IR Receiver3rd party SBrick, approx 8x available power output in a smaller footprint
Get rid of the LEGO 9V train controller and use constant track power to feed a Bluetooth motor controller. No batteries! Or better yet, use batteries and track power together: constant track power feeding a Bluetooth motor controller, with batteries for backup. With such a system, a track powered locomotive can continue through double crossovers, over draw bridges, maintain consistent speeds through spotty connections on dirty track, or possibly even charge itself. With the track providing power most of the time, the batteries will rarely need to be recharged.
Read about my experiments in hybrid systems in depth in my next article.
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3rd party SBrick, approx 8x available power output in a smaller footprint
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