Of all the designs which I regard to be “almost unattainable” in terms of LEGO modeling, those of Sir Nigel Gresley are perhaps at the top of the list. Probably one of the greatest locomotive designers of all time, Gresley is responsible for the legendary A3 and A4 pacific locomotives of England, not to mention numerous other successful designs.
Gresley was also responsible for the six P-class 2-8-2 ‘mikado” type locomotives used by the London & North Eastern Railway (LNER). These locomotives arose out of the need for more powerful engines to be used in passenger service between Edinburgh and Aberdeen. One locomotive was initially built, which sported three cylinders and an A3-style boiler with a longer firebox, double blastpipe, feedwater heater, and smoke deflectors. The result was delivered in May of 1934, numbered 2001 and named “Cock O’ The North”.
The original P2, #2001 “Cock O’ The North”
The following P2 locomotives were improved upon until the last one, 2006, was completed. Gresley died in 1941, and his successor, Edward Thompson, rebuilt all P2 locomotives into A2/2 pacifics.
Currently, there are two separate groups working to build new P2 locomotives. One is based in Darlington, and comprised of the same team responsible for the Peppercorn A1 class Tornado. Similar to Tornado, the P2 Locomotive Trust is building a new locomotive of the class, improving upon the advancements made decades before, instead of rebuilding a former member of the class. Once completed, this new engine will be numbered 2007 and named “Prince of Wales”. Several modern techniques are being used on the locomotive, like a new pilot truck design, and use of the Lentz/Franklin rotary cam valve gear. The other P2 group is recreating the original locomotive, 2001, in the classic Gresley streamlined style.
Illustration showing #2007 “Prince of Wales” completed
Sam, of Australia, who goes by his Flickr username British Bricks, has chosen Prince of Wales as his newest modeling endeavor.
As promised, this is a follow-up to the post by BigDaedy and me about how the both of us designed our Bombardier Traxx’es.
The people who know me, know that most of my Lego projects can take weeks, months, even years to finish. It’s something I’m not especially proud of, but on the other hand, I know it’s just my way of building. For some reason I never mastered the art of Digital building, so everything I build, is build IRL. For me that makes the process even more lengthy, because I also tend to delay my BL orders. However, every now and then you meet somebody who seems to be having the exact same project and lengthy building process, and can actually stimulate you to finish a build. This post is the result of one of those projects.
For me, this story started the moment when the Dutch Railways (NS Hispeed more precisely) started operation on the High Speed Line between Amsterdam Schiphol, Rotterdam and Brussels. Because the ordered 250 km/h High Speed EMU’s weren’t ready when the HSL was finished, NS Hispeed decided as a stopgap measure to use the Bombardier Traxx F140 MS and IC carriages instead for what they called their “Fyra” service. Fun fact: The name comes from the same people that came up with the nonsense word “Thalys“.
A short note: Officially this consists isn’t high speed at all, but after a bit of re-gearing they could run 160 km/h. The main reason then wasn’t the speed, but the reliability and operationability: The Traxx was at that point in time the only locomotive that was able to run on the HSL to begin with, due to troubles with the special version of the European Train Control System that was used at the HSL at that time.
However, this being the first new Electrics by NS since the NS 1700-series build between 1990-1994, which I build several years ago, they immediately caught my attention. Due to the double curved front shape, I didn’t really know where to start, at one point even contemplating to just saw the Jack Stone car canopy in two. However, being the purist that I was (In my defence, I was a lot younger back then) I decided against it an shelve the whole idea.
In the end of 2014 I finally had my first a-ha erlebnis and realized how to build the double curved front. After trying it out and getting the ‘right’ feeling, I decided I should move forward and try to actually build the whole thing, instead of only the front. However, me being me, it just didn’t work out, and I got stuck with half an engine that I didn’t manage to finish.
Now, this is the moment that normally I would shelve an idea indefinately and just give up. Luckily for this build, this was the exact moment I got in touch with BigDaedy. He was very enthousiast of the build and told me I should just continue. The reason was simple; he had just started his training to become train driver on the German Traxx. In his own words:
“If I remember correctly you started building your first iteration of the Traxx sometime back in late 2014, right when I started my trade training to become a driver.”
Even though he tried to get me enthousiast about a total rebuild, I just didn’t see any added value in that, I had just given up on the loco. BigDaedy however had a different view and got inspired in 2016 to just give it a try himself as well:
“I’ve built my first version in early 2016 after seeing this post in a German forum, 1000steine.”
We kept in touch while I was living abroad for a year, and thus was away from most of my Legos. I did keep the original mock-up of the front, but wasn’t really interested in doing anything with it. Every time when BigDaedy send pictures of his current WIP it kind of gave me the feeling to keep on trying, but in the mean time I had started several other projects, plus it’s really nice weather in Curacao so why bother.
Around the time I moved back to Europe I got another message from BigDaedy: His second version was ready. Ditching the curved slopes he came up with a totally new front design, which didn’t bear any resemblance with mine at all. It’s always impressive to see how different builders can come up with totally different designs for the same prototype, and this was no exception.
This second version however left me with a problem: I got really inspired this time around to start building again, but for the next two months, all my Legos were locked away in a container, waiting to be shippped back from Curacao to Europe. So again, I wasn’t able to actually build anything (and still wasn’t comfortable with LDD either).
So finally, in the beginning of 2018, I was reunited with my Legos and ready to go. I didn’t change all to much from the previous iterations external, but internally I did a lot. As usual however, life catched up on me, and more than that, Legoworld 2018 did.
An then came the build by Dennis aka Techno, and I knew I had a major
problem. Cause Dennis actually managed to get almost everything right
that I never managed to. I had been struggling with certain details in
the front for example that I never got around to fix, and he just nailed
them in his first pictures.
To make matters even worse (or maybe better?) for me was that BigDaedy contacted me again, showing his almost finished Traxx P160 DE ME, the Diesel version of the Traxx, in use with DB Regio. That one set the bar even higher, incorporating some of his earlier design elements from his Electric Traxx, but also some elements that Dennis aka Techno had introduced.
In the meantime I had however finally been able to find my ‘ideal’ front. I combined several types of slopes and techniques, including a nice incline, to get to an as natural possible version of the shape that these beasts have.
So then came the most difficult part (at least for me): Choosing the drivetrain, desiging the frame and building the trucks. All other parts of building a loco are pretty easy with me, but these three always turn out to be a huge pain. Finally I just ended up with a plates + bricks frame that is party hold together by the L-motors themselves. It does very well actually, the loco is really stable, so I can’t complain.
I however did have to exchange gears in the end (and thus come up with a different way of connecting them) because this way it actually slowed down the motor, whereas I wanted an increase in speed. I’m definately not that good with gears…
And that actually leaves at the end of this story. Because when I had these parts finished, the rest just fell in place, and I was finally able to keep up with BigDaedy’s speed. He actually decided to ditch his last version of the front of his loco and change it to the one I had just engineered, so that took him a couple of extra days to figure out how I had attached all those parts. In fact, his V4 and my V2 have been finished within a month of each other. Not bad when you think of it!
To quote BigDaedy for the last time:
“In a few days we’ll see the fourth and hopefully final version. What a long way to go, but perfection takes time. “
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.
In the last 5 years, me and BigDaedy have been desiging our own takes on the Bombardier Traxx in 1:45 scale. The Traxx runs both in the Netherlands and in Germany, and is, together with the Siemens Vectron, one of the two truely “European” Electrics out there at the moment. While we had very different starting points, we more and more converged to a same type of design, but we’ll get back to that in a future post. Since both of us have just finished our respective versions, we thought it would be nice to present them together in one post.
The Bombardier Traxx is the current workhorse on most of the Cargo trains in Europe, but next to that, it also has seen a fair share of use in passenger trains. In the Netherlands the High Speed Line – Zuid between Amsterdam Schiphol, Rotterdam and Breda is their main operating ground, but there are also several private freightcompanies that run Traxx’es. In Germany almost every Rail Cargo company uses Traxx’es, plus several of the big passenger train companies like Deutsche Bahn and Metronom.
Between our two models there are some very big similarities, which (most of the time) are intentional since we worked very closely together on this design, sharing WIP pictures quite often. Some differences are the vents on the side of the roof, the pantographs, the sidepanels and a different motorization option. Whereas I (raised) chose to go all-in with two 1:2 geared PF L-motors for extra speed, a PFx Brick (with the potential to include lights) and an additional XL Speaker for sound, all build in, BigDaedy chose the always reliable 9V motor. Who says Modern European Elecitrics can’t have some heritiage in them? (In all fairness, with the future arrival of FX Track, a hybrid of both might not even such a bad idea to begin with…)
Even though the most beloved scale of BMR is somewhere in the lines of 1:45 (Europe) or 1:48 (US), that doesn’t mean we don’t try go give some love to other scales as well. Today, over at the Eurobricks Train Tech Forums, Sérgio Batista showed us what you can do if you go a little bit bigger, by presenting his 1:20 Siemens CP4700 in Medway Livery. And with “a little bit” I mean more than doubling the size to 16-wide compared to 8-wide, and more than 2.5 times the width when compared to the 6-wide trains by TLC! And yes, you can definately see that.
When it comes to this size, it’s mostly the numbers that say it all, so I leave that to Sérgio himself:
“1:20 scale replica (16wide, 128 studs long) more than 5000 parts.”
By the way, this isn’t the first time that Sérgio made this loco. In fact, the Medway version of the CP4700 is ‘nothing more’ than a reskin of his previous incarnation, when Medway was still owned by CP, the National Railways of Portugal, and named CP Carga. In my opinion this is an even better loco, and it’s a shame that Medway decided on this absolutely boring livery, but hey, it did give Sérgio a chance go build this beauty, so I guess that’s something.
I’ll be honest. Building models for BMR, such as the NMRA and Brickworld exclusives, the bulkhead flatcar, and now six versions of an extended vision caboose, has been fantastic. I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything. But it’s now been over two and a half years since I added a locomotive, or any piece of rolling stock for that matter, to my personal fleet, coming from my to-do list rather than BMR’s.
This was a topic of conversation between Cale and I at the end of 2018. We were hanging out together over the final weekend of the year getting ready to announce the T-1 and prepare for other things coming up. At that point, it had been a little over two years since I built a locomotive that was good enough to keep. (I did build a 2-10-4 in that time, but I don’t count it because it never worked properly and has been mostly dismantled.) That had to change.
BC&G #13, modeled by Glenn Holland. Fireman’s side front, 3/4 view. Cale Leiphart photo.
Several locomotives were brought up as contenders for my new project. My primary goal was to select a locomotive which could be built from start to finish with a minimum of custom work and electronics. In essence, I wanted a strong jumping off point instead of having to perfect several new techniques like a drive-train. Cale and I had recently completed the S160 2-8-0 for Brickmania, so I was inspired to build a similarly sized locomotive: a 2-8-0 or 2-8-2 would be the perfect size, it could use the same “golden” drive-train as the S160, and I had no suitable freight locomotives. I began to look through my build list and found a locomotive that met all the criteria.
The Buffalo Creek & Gauley Railroad
Growing up I was gifted a boxed set of VHS tapes called “American Steam: A Vanishing Era.” These old tapes comprised of old black and white and color film of steam railroading right up to the end of mainline steam power and beyond. My favorite was “Steam Shortlines of the South” which was a collection of footage from numerous small steam-powered railroads in the Southern United States. The Buffalo Creek & Gauley was one of these railroads, although featured for only a few minutes. The tape showed a hefty 2-8-0 switching strings of coal cars at the line’s interchange with the Baltimore & Ohio. That was my first contact with this incredible shortline.
The BC&G shops at Dundon, WV. The mainline is to the right and continues on to the interchange. The rest of the line continues the opposite direction behind the photographer.
Doug WIngfield photo – November 1961, from Brook’s website
The Buffalo Creek & Gauley was a coal hauling railroad with connections to the B&O in Dundon, Clay County, West Virginia. If there was ever a perfect West Virginia coal-hauling shortline, the BC&G was it. The line ran from Dundon all the way to the mine in Widen, West Virginia with several unincorporated towns along the way.
Every now and then our readers themselves get so excited with BMR that they send in their own articles. This is of course something we really appreciate, so please keep them coming! Today it’s Enrico Lussi’s turn, who has written an article about his MILS layout “NeuKirche”. You might have already seen his layout before in our coverage of Legoworld 2018, but today he will give some more insight to how this layout came to light. Enjoy, and thank you Enrico for this entry! Please feel free to keep them coming!
Introducing Enrico
Well I can’t believe I’m actually writing a post for BMR! What a honor. First I would like to introduce myself. My name is Enrico, 18 years old and currently studying to become a civil engineer at the University of Applied Sciences in Rotterdam. I have been building 1:45 scale trains for the last 3 years (could be 3,5 already). My passion is history and especially train related history. So I build a lot of steam locomotives and historic railway wagons.
My current collection is 7 steam locomotives, 4 diesels, 1 Intercity train (ICM 4001), 2 diner wagons, 1 postal wagon, 2 passenger wagons, 5 closed freight wagons and 4 flatbeds. My biggest project is my Bahnsbetriebswerk. In this article I would like to take you through the design and building project. I hope you enjoy this article as much as I did building my layout!
We all know Scott Hoffemeyer for his outstanding work in engineering new LEGO-compatible track elements. Those who know Scott personally will know that he never fails to deliver anything less than awesome, and this week he again proved this to be true.
Scott published an excellent model of Chesapeake & Ohio (C&O #377, a 4-6-0 steam locomotive with classic lines and fun colors.
Driving south along Route 1 in Van Buren, Maine today, a visitor glancing to the right probably wouldn’t know that they were looking at the remains of the northern yard of the former Bangor and Aroostook Railroad. The tracks are gone, and buildings, at least those still standing, peek out from the trees.
Keeping the past alive, William Dumond
has been modeling that rail yard.
William Dumond’s Van Buren Yark – from his Flickr account
We’ve featured his work before, but in addition to building incredible locomotives and rolling stock, Bill is a proficient scenery modeler, as can be seen in his comparison shot of the real Van Buren yard, next to his brick-built version on the left.
Van Buren Yard in 2014 – image from Google Maps, notice the white warehouse to the left, and the yellow building through the trees.
Looking at a Google Maps image of the area, it’s easy to find the buildings featured on the layout, and to get a sense of the tracks that used to run between them. The layout has a nice organic look, matching the prototype, and staying away from the rigid blockiness of some LEGO layouts.
Custom Turnout Switch – from William Dumond’s Flickr gallery
One of the most interesting things about the model Van Buren yard is the use of a custom switch, documented on Bill’s Flickr account. This switch flows nicely, and really adds to the realism of the scene.
For more of William Dumond’s Van Buren yard, as well as more of his Bangor and Aroostoock work, check out his stream on Flickr. We’ll be looking forward to watching the progress on this one!
Last fall I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Lionel Strang and the crew of the A Modelers Life podcast. Today that podcast was officially published and is available to download.
If you’re not familiar with the Modelers Life podcast, it’s a show about the people who make up the model train hobby. From the shows website, “All modelers have a life, but what do we know of it. This podcast is as much about the people in model railroading has it is about the hobby itself.”
Lionel Strang hosts the show with a rotating crew of regular contributors from the model railroad community. Lionel is best known as the builder of the Allegheny and Lackawanna Southern, a 20’ X 30’ HO Scale layout. He also built two project railroads for Model Railroader Magazine: the Northwest Timber Company and the Appalachian Central. Lionel wrote the monthly column Workin’ on the Railroad for Model Railroader magazine from July 1998 until May 2005, then continued to serve as a contributing editor for another six years after that.
It was a really fun interview to do and I’m honored to help represent both the LEGO® train hobby and BMR to the greater model railroad hobby. I hope you enjoy the interview and let me know what you think of the show. You can download the episode on the AML website, on iTunes, of listen to it on the AML Youtube Channel via the links below.
As you may have read, I’ll be attending the Amherst Railway Society’s 51st annual Railroad Hobby Show in Springfield Massachusetts January 26th and 27th. While there I will have the prototype model for our upcoming Reading T-1 Steam Locomotive Kit on display at the American Steam Railroad Preservation Association booth in the Young building. The ASR group is currently restoring Reading T-1 no.2100 to operation, and with whom BMR has been working with on our model of the T-1.
I’ll be splitting my time between the New England LEGO User Gorup’s LEGO train layout in the Mallary building, the ASR Society booth, and just enjoying the show. But if you can track me down, look for the guy wearing the Brick Model Railroader T-shirt, I would love to talk about the T-1, other BMR kits or just trains and LEGO in general. Hope to see you there.
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