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About BMR

2019 in Review: Our Third Year

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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.

Thrall 61′-1″ Bulkhead Flatcar

Pacific Car & Foundry 50′ Insulated Boxcar

B-50-25 “Challenger” Express Boxcar (Brickworld 2019 Exclusive)

International Car Company Extended Vision Caboose

Reading Arch Roof Coach

Reading Arch Roof Combine

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.

Happy new year, and play well.

Brick Model Railroader

About BMR, Events

RETURN TO CANTIGNY

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2019 CANTIGNY PARK CHRISTMAS TRAIN SHOW

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 .

2019 Cantigny Show Flyer

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.

Cantigny Park Website

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.

Trains and Christmas, A Perfect Combo

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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.

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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.

Extracurricular Activities

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.

World War II destroyer USS O’Hare
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German U-boat, U-505

After leaving the Brickmania Store, we traveled to the legendary model train shop, Des Plaines Hobbies.

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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.

Another Great Show

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.

My Photos from the Event

Photos from NILTC

Thank you again to the Northern Illinois LEGO Train Club and Cantigny Park for a wonderful train show experience.

About BMR, Contests, Events

OcTRAINber 2019: Second Service Announcement

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Just a very short update from our side regarding the wrapping up of OcTRAINber 2019. Just like last year it has proven to be a quite busy number of months here at BMR, specifically for me (Legoworld, our biggest show of the year in the Netherlands, plus the whole aftermath of that) which means the judging has taken some delays again since coordinating the judging is my little task. However, last night I finally finished the Judges Excel Sheet so final judgement has just commenced. We will try to get it done in maximum 2 weeks, so hopefully we will be able to announce the winners before the end of 2019. We will keep you updated on this proces as much as possible.

In the same time, we would also like to ask you guys for some feedback. OcTRAINber has been a succes for three years in a row for us over at BMR, but we are wondering how you actually think about OcTRAINber. What do you guys like about the contest? What are the reasons to participate, or not to participate? What do you guys think could be done better next year?

We look forward hearing from you, to make sure OcTRAINber 2020 will be even better!

About BMR, Products

BMR Black Friday Sale 2019

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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.

Our catalog may be smaller, but our products are 100% cooler than those other model train companies..

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.

One week left to pre-order the Reading T-1

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.

About BMR, LEGO Train News, Products

New Products from Big Ben Bricks, BrickTracks Turnout Update, and Brass Expo 2019

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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 Flanged Driver

XXL Blind Driver

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

M Wheels with Grooves and Traction Bands, Flanged and Blind

Medium Flanged Driver Grooved with O-ring

Medium Blind Driver Grooved with O-ring

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.

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. 

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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.

About BMR, Contests

OcTRAINber 2019: Service Announcement

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Happy last days of OcTRAINber! We hope you are enjoying this month as much as we are. In the last couple of weeks we have seen a lot of great WIPs and even some amazing entries being posted in the Brick Model Railroader Flickr Group. We are again stunned by the amount of creativity that the community has to offer.

However, we also saw several not-yet-finished builds, that look very promising, but might get into trouble finishing before the end of the month. We know this challenge, due to the heavy involvement of Technic and moving parts, is a bit more out of the comfort zone for many builders than the previous two installments of OcTRAINber. In fact, some of us here at BMR (being me) try to ignore all of Technic when it’s possible, so kudos to you all for trying!

So, anyways, long story short: we have decided upon a grace period of two weeks, to make sure all of the current WIP builds will be posted in the respective entry threads. Even though this means OcTRAINber will now end in the middle of November, but hey, space already had their month with this years SHIPtember!

NEW DEADLINE FOR OCTRAINBER:

Novvember 14th, 23:59 PDT!

Please be sure to ONLY post entries in the appropriate thread on our Flickr group. This is the only place where we will look for entries – showing us an entry on social media or elsewhere does not count.

Good luck finishing up those builds!

About BMR, Contests

OcTRAINber 2019: The Technic Challenge – The Prizes!

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We’re halfway through the month already and we’ve seen plenty of unique and interesting looking WIP stories so far. This is shaping up to be a great year so far, and we’re looking forward to seeing the final entries!

Of course, what would any OcTRAINber challenge be without prizes? We have some new prizes this year from our good friends across the community.

PFx Brick XL Package

This prize was donated by Fx Bricks, and includes the following:

PFx Brick M Package

Also donated by Fx Bricks, and includes the following:

  • PFx Brick 16 MB (new injection molded case!)
  • M Speaker
  • pinLABsolo Light Accessory Board
  • 4x Bright White Fx LEDs

BrickTracks Track Packs

BrickTracks has donated plenty of track this year! We have split it up as follows:

R120 + Short Straights Package

Short Straight Pack

  • 2x boxes of BrickTracks Short Straight Track

Lastly, and certainly not least:

LEGO 71044 Disney Train and Station

Prize allocation will be covered in the wrap up article before winners are announced.

We hope everyone is having a great OcTRAINber!

About BMR, Models, Products

Reading T-1 4-8-4 Premium Kit Now Available for Pre-Order

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After several months of hard work, challenges, and setbacks, our first steam locomotive and first full kit is now available for pre-order. It’s been quite a journey to get here. We’ve learned a lot in getting the kit ready and we’re excited to move this project into the next phase.

Our instructions are currently being finalized, prices and costs have been taken into account, and we’re ready to start taking orders.

Our model of Reading 2100 sitting in front of the real Reading 2100.
Continue reading Reading T-1 4-8-4 Premium Kit Now Available for Pre-Order →

About BMR, Contests, Layout Design, LEGO Train News, Model Design, Models

OcTRAINber 2019: The Technic Challenge Has Officially Started!

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As we announced a bit over a week ago, this year BMR will again run the OcTRAINber contest. OcTRAINber is a contest meant to get outside of your comfort zone and build something you haven’t thought of before. You know, that one truly special build that will spice up your layout like no other has before. All within the realm of Lego Trains, but with a twist. So, let us officially introduce you to the contest and let’s get rolling!

OcTRAINber

First of all, the name. It’s called OcTRAINber, if somebody had not noticed after two years. Why OcTRAINber? Well, because it’s a great intermediate month between SHIPtember and November. Also, TRAINS. Mostly TRAINS. TRAINS.

“The Technic Challenge”

Second of all, the subject of this years OcTRAINber. Why the Technic Challenge?

Two years ago we had a ‘build your longest’ theme, and last year we were all about ‘building that foreign dream of yours’. Both of them produced some really nice models, but, in essence, they were all static. Yes, some of them were motorized, and yes, some of them even had very fancy motorization that not even us had thought of before. However, in the end motorization was just a nice have-to, not a requirement, which is strange when you think about it. Therefore, we have decided that this year everything is forced to move. The more movement, the better!

Continue reading OcTRAINber 2019: The Technic Challenge Has Officially Started! →

About BMR, Events, Products

Event Report, AN EVENING WITH A LEGEND OF STEAM: ROSS ROWLAND, And an Update On Our T-1 Kit Launch Date

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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.

Two T-1’s, of drastically different scales, meet in a historic roundhouse.
Continue reading Event Report, AN EVENING WITH A LEGEND OF STEAM: ROSS ROWLAND, And an Update On Our T-1 Kit Launch Date →