OcTRAINber 2020: The Results

January 25, 2021 raised 2 Comments

In 2017 we published the results on November 17th, in 2018 on December 9th, and in 2019 on January 6th of 2020. This year it is January 24th. Partly this is due to ever more busy lifes of our editors and judges, but partly it is also due to the ever increasing level of the builds. Every year it seems to be more difficult then the last year to judge the entries, which is great to see!

Just as the previous years we really enjoyed all the WIP stories of this year, and the entries as a whole. Making OcTRAINber a two-month edition really worked this year, both for the quality of the builds, the ammount of entries, and the higher quality WIP stories. This means we are pretty sure that a two-month OcTRAINber will again be a thing in the coming installment.

Prizes & Judging

In total, there are five prizes to be won in this years OcTRAINber. One Grand Prize (meaning the winner of winners) and four category prizes: Small, Medium and Large Real Life Entries, and one Digital Entry. The Grand Prize this is the Lego Crocodile 10277, this year sponsored by BMR. The other four prizes are a PFx Brick + XL Speaker (two times) and a set of R104 switches by BrickTracks (two times). Also, all winners will get one set of BMR Knuckle Couplers. Lastly, and this is new this year, all winners will receive a BMR OcTRAINber printed brick.

For judging, we have set up a couple of rules to give every creation the best chances of winning. We decided on 3 categories on which we would assign points:

Credibility of the prototype. This means we will be looking at how much the build represents the real life prototype. Both the diorama itself, but definatly also the train that is on it. If you are sending in a fantasy model, we will look at how credible the build is; would it fit in, does the backstory make sense?

WIP story. This refers to both showing off your building process, but also to how and why you decided to model a certain prototype. The better the story and the more updates you give and the more elaborate your building story is, the better.

Diorama Factor. This is all about how you build your diorama. is it extra funky, does it have strange connections, is everything build on it’s side, is everything off grid… The more creative, the better, but as always with OcTRAINber, it’s about quality first, and quantity second.

Every of the three categories were assigned points between 0 and 10 by our 4 judges, independent from each other.

Due to unforseen circumstances, Glenn Holland had to decide to not take up his Jury duties this year. We were very sad to hear so, but in the person of Erwin Jacobs (Ervvin) we found a very fine replacement.

Prizes will be handed out on basis of total points given by all four judges. This means that the Grand Prize Winner will be the entry with the most points aggregated. When there is a tie with a Digital Build, the Real Life Entry will always have priority, because of the mission statement of BMR. The other four prizes will be on bases of choise by the winners, with the builder with the most points having priortiy, then the one with the second most points, etc.

So now that we have established the prizes and the judging, let’s go on to the awards!

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Hod Carrier: „Home Signal“ – 100,5 points

Robwd12: „Point of Rocks Station“ – 102 points

OcTrainber 2020: Point of Rocks Station (1)

Popider: „Mini Ludmilla“ – 99 points

FlipUS: „Hogwarts Express on Viaduct“ – 98,5 points

MTM_Leipzig”: „Marten Brewery“ – 95 points

Thomas Reincke: „DB Trolley Klv12“ – 93 points

ocTRAINber 2020: Klv12 geht auf große Fahrt

Denis Garnier: „Gantry“ – 92 points

WINNER: SMALL DIORAMAS

Britishbricks: „The Quarry“
104,5 points

Erwin	Falk	Gerbrand	Cale
The diorama has a really organic feel to it, and feels like something one could see at a modeltrain show!	+ Very detailed + very realistic/natural + interesting building techniques + technically well done + Motors in engine and dispenser + lighting + good WIP story + Nice presentation, inkl. Video	This builder shows an amazing WIP story, where you can see that even his terrain kept on evolving. The use of mock-ups is pretty inspiring as well. The quarry itself really looks like one of those model railroad diorama’s, and I can see myself play with it the whole day. The only thing it lacks is a little bit of backstory, but hey, beggards can’t be choosers.	There are several neat details to this diorama. The track has that barely maintained, sparsely used, industrial track in the middle of nowhere look. There is animation and lighting, The structures are as ramshackle and rundown as the track serving it, and the little engine servicing the quarry is quite charming.

WINNER:MEDIUM DIORAMAS

Narrow_Gauge: „Woolshed Flat“
111,5 points

Erwin	Falk	Gerbrand	Cale
Narrow_gauge: The round shape and rotating base make it a real display piece. I keep on finding new details to explore.	+ interesting building techniques + very good WIP story + very Nice presentation + Train model designed specifically for diorama + Train motorized despite small size/gauge + Landscape itself rotating	Amazing WIP story, that does everything a WIP story should do: Show the lowest lows and the highest highs of a build. The builder really showed how he came to his design. For a pizzadesign this is very credible, and its definatly a diorma. Impressive stuff. No wonder the builder tends to end in the top 3 of OcTRAINber every year he enters.	Alexander is no stranger to OcTRAINber, he has won previously, and for good reason. His models are always stellar. His Woodshed Flat diorama is no exception. It’s an amazing little fully operating layout. His back story and documentation is second to none, and there is just so much great detail picked into the small space.

WINNER: LARGE DIORAMAS

Scruffulous: „The 17th Hole“
116 points

Erwin	Falk	Gerbrand	Cale
WOW, what else can I really say, I love everything of this!	“+ funny idea for a diorama + nicely composed landscape + very detailed, fun stuff + great train model, built especially for the diorama + Wip story + good presentation ⁃ trees	This builder shows that you can achieve the full 30 points in OcTRAINber. Thanks to the backstory with pictures, the layout is very credible, even though normally a train running through a golf course should make no sense. The WIP story really shows the hurdles the builder had to take, and also the corners he had to cut due to time constraints. As a diorama it also sticks out, it really is a stand-alone piece with a story. I’d like to ace that hole, or whatever you should call it.	Just epic! I’ve never been to Australia, but this is what I imagine Aussie railroads to be like. The scene just goes on forever, the landscape has that perfect Australian character, and the back story is as good as the model. The diorama is huge, but all the detail is there in perfect ratio. Amazing!

WINNER: DIGITAL DIORAMAS

2007_boy: „Newcastle Castle, Black Gate and Railway Viaduct“
116 points

Erwin	Falk	Gerbrand	Cale
Excellent use of colours, the fact the base isn’t round too really adds! I keep on returning to see what I’ve missed.	+ wonderful buildings + incredibly creative story + incredibly realistic build, „off the grid“ + very thoughtful use of different techniques + nice vehicles + great presentation & storytelling + Wip process This model defines a league of its own in terms of both creativity, presentation, designing and building skills!	Stunning WIP story, stunning diorama with a lot going on, and pretty credible as well, seeing how the prototype looks like. Also, with a lot of interesting building techniques and also a lot of off-grid building, AND incorporating 7 wide building plus the Legoland / Miniland athmosphere (without making it feel unbelievable) this one really tops the charts for me.	A digital model that does not look like a digital model. The rendering quality is top shelf. The structures are huge but so well detailed, the train is full of character, the landscaping works perfectly with the scene, and there are some great hidden Easter Eggs scattered around. Everything is so well presented, and well thought out. I would love to see this as a real model.

WINNER: GRAND PRIZE OVERALL

Scruffulous: „The 17th Hole“
116 points

OcTRAINber 2020: The 17th Hole - "Hole overview"

Both 2007_boy and Scruffulous had exactly 116 points, proving that big diorams, real life builds and digital builds are all succes factors. Knowing the layouts that our community builds, shouldn’t be a big surprise to anyone! Since there was a tie between both, as per the rules we have decided that Scruffulous, who build an amazing IRL diorama, will be the winner of this years OcTRAINber!

Excel File

Different from previous years, we also have compiled an Excel file with all of the aggregated scores, and remarks from all judges. This to inspire all contestants and to give them feedback, so that hopefull next year they will be on top of the boards as well. You can download the file here.

Final words

We cannot say this enough, but we would really like to thank all contestants. We as BMR had a blast seeing all those entries, and we as judges were actually happy that with many of the entries and categories it was such a close call.

We are very gratefull for our two sponsors, BrickTracks and FX Bricks. Without them this would have been a contest without prizes, and what’s a contest without prizes?!

Last of all, we would like to congratulate all the winners of OcTRAINber. Also, we will contact you on short notice on picking your prize and shipping it to you.

https://i2.wp.com/i.imgflip.com/4hsbrg.jpg?w=474&ssl=1

Building Techniques, Products, Track

BMR’s Knuckle Couplers: Uncoupled

January 15, 2021 Cale Leiphart Leave a comment

Article by Sal Ciofani

I have been using Kadee O-Scale knuckle couplers for almost ten years. Because they are designed for traditional model trains, in order to connect them to LEGO trains, I had to literally bolt them on to Plate, Modified 3 x 2 with hole. So when I heard Brick Model Railroader announced they were releasing Kadee couplers with custom molded, LEGO compatible draft gear boxes, I was very intrigued.

From the beginning, one of the great advantages offered by Kadee’s couplers, besides the realistic look, is the ability to automatically uncouple cars and engines by use of magnets. This makes realistic switching operations in rail yards or at industries, without the “Hand of God” pulling cars apart, more realistic and enjoyable. There are a variety of ways to uncouple cars equipped with Kadee knuckle coupler from uncoupling “pics”, permanent magnet uncouplers, and electromagnet uncouplers. In traditional model railroading the most popular and simplest way to uncouple cars is with an uncoupling “pic”. Kadee sells #241 Dual Tool – Manual Uncoupling Tool & Built In Spring Pic, any pointed object, such as the LEGO Spear 93789 or a sharpened pencil will work. I personally use a Wooden Manicure stick, I prefer the type with a flat tip. To uncouple cars simply insert the “pic” of your choice between the knuckles of cars and twist counterclockwise to open the couplers and push them to the side. While holding the couplers open with the “pic”, pull the rest of the train away from the car being left.

Examples of useful tools for manually uncoupling BMR Kadee Knuckle Couplers.

Kadee couplers are equipped with curved a metallic air hose detail that doubles as the coupler trip pin. The magnet attracts the trip pin and moves the trip pin to the side, opening the knuckle and allowing the cars to uncouple.

With the couplers positioned over the magnets mounted under the track, the magnets move the couplers to the open position. The locomotive (left) can now pull away from the car (right) leaving the car over the magnet.

Couplers open and pushed out while over decoupling magnet.

While the coupler is over the uncoupling magnet, the magnet will hold the coupler in the delayed position, knuckle fully open and coupler pulled to the knuckle side of the car. When to adjacent couplers are in the delayed position, the locomotive can shove the car to the desired spot.

With the couplers still positioned over magnets, the couplers are held in the delayed position.

The locomotive can now shove the car into it’s final position to be left without the couplers recoupling.

Shoving car with couplers in the delayed position.

The couplers will fully uncouple when slack is allowed in the joint between the two couplers. To avoid this when retrieving a car that has been left beyond the magnet, or otherwise passing over the magnet when uncoupling is not desired, it is important to maintain tension when pulling, or compression when shoving a train over the uncoupling magnet.

Couples under tension while passing over uncoupling magnet.

The couplers in the open position remain connected when the connection remains under tension with the locomotive steadily pulling on the train.

*Couples in compression while passing over uncoupling magnet.*

The couplers in the open position remain connected when the connection remains under compression with the locomotive steadily shoving on the train.

To ensure the magnet can adequately attract and move the trip pin to fully open the coupler, the trip pin must be adjusted as close to the magnet surface as possible, without interfering with between track obstructions like grade crossings or switch tracks. This is relatively simple to do with a gentle squeeze of Kadee #237 Coupler Trip Pin Pliers – For HOn3, HO, S, On3 & O Scale Couplers, needle nose pliers can also be used, although that method requires twisting the pliers to affect the appropriate bend.

Using the Kadee #237 pliers to bend the coupler trip pin down.

Using the Kadee #237 pliers to bend the coupler trip pin up.

To facilitate ensuring proper adjustment of trip pins, I have made a simple modification to BMR’s coupler height gauge.

To add a trip pin gauge I removed the bottom plate (shown above the coupler gauge) and added the parts shown below the coupler gauge.

Parts needed for coupler height gauge modification. move 4×8 plate.

BMP Coupler Height Gauge with added trip pin gauge. Note the coupler on the right has the trip pin adjusted to work best with uncoupling magnets, the left coupler’s trip pin is shown as it comes.

The modified BMR Coupler Height Gauge in use. The trip pin gauge helps to adjust the coupler’s trip pin is as low as possible while ensuring the trip pin is high enough to clear obstructions between the rails, such as switches and grade crossings.

For those who want a more hands free or automatic way of uncoupling their railcars, there are a number of ways to accomplish this with magnets, between the rails magnets, under track magnets, and electromagnets. The first magnet I tried was Kadee #308 Under-the-Track Hidden Delayed-Action Magnetic Uncoupler – HO, S, On3, On30, O Scale. The magnet is slightly wider than the 4 stud track gage of LEGO track. I cut the magnet and intensifier plate down to four studs wide to fit between the rails while leaving enough clearance for the LEGO train wheels to pass without causing derailments. I removed a fraction of an inch from either side of the magnet to keep the polarity even. In order to allow the magnet and intensifier plate to fit flush with the top of the rail of a LEGO R/C straight track, I needed to shave off and file the studs on one of the ties. I then super glued the intensifier plate to the studless tie and placed the magnet atop the plate. This magnet worked well, although, I was not completely satisfied with the look of a large magnet mounted between the rails.

Kadee #308 Under-the-Track Hidden Delayed-Action Magnetic Uncoupler mounted between the rails.

As the name implies, Kadee’s #308 Under-the-Track Hidden Delayed-Action Magnetic Uncoupler – HO, S, ON3, ON30, O Scale, is intended to be mounted under the track. For larger scales (O scale and bigger) Kadee recommends stacking the magnets with a single intensifier plate. I tried stacking several magnets atop an intensifier plate, six in total, with no real success. The stack of 6 magnets is as tall as a section of track on a standard MILS base, making it impractical to incorporate into a MILS module without increasing the height of the MILS module.

I stacked six Kadee #308 Under-the-Track Hidden Delayed-Action Magnetic Uncoupler – HO, S, On3, On30, O Scale. Not only is the stack too tall to fit within a MILS module, they six magnets did not have enough pulling power to activate the coupler’s trip pin.

During the Brickworld Virtual Halloween show, the suggestion was made to try Kadee #809 O Scale 3 Rail Between-the-Rails Delayed-Action Magnetic Uncoupler. The package includes four skinny magnets that are stacked 2×2 and placed on an intensifier plate near each rail. This method provided great results but requires a deep area between the rails to accommodate the thickness of the double stacked magnets. This means standard LEGO track will not work, or will have to have ties removed from between the rails. I had some Me Models rails that I used during my testing, which would be an ideal solution, if they were available. The area at either end and between the magnets could likely be filled with LEGO ballasting to help blend the uncoupling track section in with the surrounding track.

Kadee #809 O Scale 3 Rail Between-the-Rails Delayed-Action Magnetic Uncoupler.

Kadee also offers Kadee #810 O Scale Thru-the-Ties Delayed-Action Electric Uncoupler Kit, which is an electro magnet kit to allow the user to electronically control when the magnet is active to uncouple cars. This would be useful for installing the uncoupler in mainline locations and other areas where accidental uncoupling would be problematic. I have not had any experience personally with electromagnetic uncoupling. Electromagnets will require a power source, and a button or switch to activate them.

Neodymium magnets were also suggested during the Brickworld Virtual Halloween show. I selected K & J Magnetics BX884 1 1/2″ x 1/2″ x 1/4″ thick Neodymium Block Magnets. BINGO! I ordered four of the BX884 magnets and stacked them 2×2 and placed them 4 studs apart underneath a section of ballasted track. The magnets are just shy of 5 studs long and about 1.5 studs wide. I used 2x bricks between and at either end of the magnets, and snot bricks with 1x tiles on the outside to prevent the magnets from moving around. With one plate of ballast between the bottom of the LEGO track piece, and the top of the magnets, I placed tiles on the baseplate where the magnets would sit. I added plates as necessary to complete the boxes to securely hold the magnets in position.

The boxes created to hold K & J Magnetics BX884 1 1/2″ x 1/2″ x 1/4″ thick Neodymium Block Magnets. Note the SNOT bricks with 1x tiles.

The K & J Magnetics BX884 1 1/2″ x 1/2″ x 1/4″ thick Neodymium Block Magnets in the boxes.

The K & J Magnetics BX884 1 1/2″ x 1/2″ x 1/4″ thick Neodymium Block Magnets in the completed boxes. When the baseplate is attached and the whole MILS module flipped right-side-up, the magnets will rest on the tiles.

It took a bit of checking to make sure I had the magnet polarities oriented correctly to properly open the BMR Kadee couplers. To correct the polarities only requires flipping one, or both, stacks of magnets over so the correct polarity is pointed up, being careful not to let the one stack from attracting the other. Neodymium magnets a very powerful, the BX884 magnets have a pulling force of 26.2 pounds each. They can be quite difficult to pull apart, and can attract each other from a fair distance. It can hurt getting a finger or skin pinched between two neodymium magnets, and they can break if they come together with too much force.

Once assembled, the results are fantastic! The BX884 magnets operate the BMR Kadee couplers smoothly and reliably, even under one plate, LEGO Track with filled in tie spaces, and 1×4 tie tiles. The double stacked magnets also fit easily within a standard MILS module concealing them from view.

The K & J Magnetics BX884 1 1/2″ x 1/2″ x 1/4″ thick Neodymium Block Magnets will be my magnet of choice for uncoupling magnets in my layout. I plan to incorporate at least one of these BX884 uncouplers into my current LGMS module and have it available for people to try out at shows, such as Brickworld Chicago, Brickworld Milwaukee, and Trainfest.

A MILS Module with the K & J Magnetics BX884 1 1/2″ x 1/2″ x 1/4″ thick Neodymium Block Magnets seamlessly integrated with other standard MILS modules.

About BMR, LEGO Train News

2020 IN REVIEW: BMR TURNS FOUR YEARS OLD

January 1, 2021 Cale Leiphart 2 Comments

Happy New Year to our followers and supporters. The Brick Model Railroader team hopes you had a wonderful holiday season.

Today we celebrate our fourth birthday. 2020 was filled with many new experiences, new challenges, and new opportunities. We’d like to reflect on some of that today.

Brick Model Railroader launched on December 31st, 2016. We were just a rag tag bunch of LEGO® train enthusiasts with an idea to crate a sort of hybrid blog for LEGO trains. We wanted to take what was great about the old RAILBRICKS, the in-depth articles on the LEGO train hobby, and give those types of articles a new place to be read, free of the constraints of a bound publication.

Our mission for the Brick Model Railroader website was and still is to serve the LEGO Train Hobby as an online news resource, and to help promote and grow the hobby of LEGO Trains in all it’s forms. Of course we have since added to that, primarily with our line of Premium Instructions, train parts, and decals. But the main focus of the website here will always be sharing everything great and news worthy about the LEGO train hobby with our fellow hobbyists.

We’ve grown quite a bit from our humble beginnings. And 2020 would continue that growth. So let’s take a look now at what we’ve done this past year.

The BMR Team Adds New Members

In 2020 we added several new members to the BMR family. From Europe we added Gerbrand (a.k.a. Raised) and Enrico Lussi. Both have contributed some great articles to the website and have become our window into the European side of the LEGO train hobby.

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.

We also added three new contributors form the USA, Aaron Burnett, Matt Csenge, and Chris Stone. All three are excellent model builders and also pretty good writers as well.

Aaron Burnett, who has been previously featured on BMR

Matt standing between Frisco no. 1621, a 2-10-0, and Chicago, Burlington & Quincy no. 9908, Silver Charger in St. Louis, Missouri.

Chris Stone: winner of OcTRAINber and featured previously on BMR

We look forward to more great LEGO train articles from our team, and we are looking to add several more in 2021.

Events We Attended in 2020

2020 proved to be a challenging year for events. The Covid 19 pandemic forced the cancelation of numerous LEGO fan events and model train shows across the globe. But the team at BMR was still able to attend a small number of events this year.

Our first event of the year came in January with the Amherst Railway Society’s Railroad Hobby Show at the Eastern States Exposition Fairgrounds in West Springfield, Massachusetts. The New England LEGO Users Group was there displaying their amazing Lego train/city layout at the show again. Fellow PennLUG member Nate Robinson and I traveled up to participate in the display, represent Brick Model Railroader, and experience the show.

Enrico and Raised attended the De Nederlandse Modelspoordagen (Dutch Model Railway Days) in February.

Electrrics at the Dutch Model Railway Days.

Also in February Glenn Holland and myself participated in the Winter Great Scale Model Train Show in Timonium, Maryland. The winter show this year was held on February 1st and 2nd, and was the first time a L-Gauge Modular Standard, LEGO train layout was displayed at the show. The display was organized buy Monty Smith, with participation from several area LEGO clubs including PennLUG, Charm City LUG, and WamaLTC.

Bob Hayes concrete arch bridge from the Timonium show.

With the outbreak of the covid 19 virus Allin person events from March onward were pretty much canceled. However some LEGO fan events were able to hold virtual events online. Members of the BMR Team attended several of these, including hosting LEGO Train Roundtables at several of the Virtual Brickworld events.

New BMR Products

This year also saw the continuation of our original Premium Instructions products by adding several models to our regular lineup as well as the introduction of our new knuckle couplers.

This year BMR launched a band new online store.

Our old store served us well, but we were starting to out grow it. As we added new products, it was increasingly hard to navigate and find what you were looking for. Also the look was growing stale, and our products were not being shown off to their fullest potential. So in June we completed moving our store over to a brand new platform. One full of shiny new widgets, and hopefully a much better buying experience for you.

Click Here to Check Out the New BMR Online Store

With the new store, we also launched three new Premium Instructions. The Gunderson 60′ High Cube Plate F Boxcar, the American Car & Foundry 70-Ton 1958 Cu. Ft. Covered Hopper, and the Pacific Fruit Express R-30-9 and R-40-9 Reefer as well as a full complement of decals for each.

In October we launched a brand new product for Brick Model Railroader. Our Brick Train Compatible Knuckle Couplers. BMR, in partnership with BrickForge, created a replacement for the old LEGO® 9v era magnetic train couplers. These new couplers are now available for sale in our BMR online store.

We have even more cool new products coming for 2021, including our EMD SD40-2 Premium Instructions.

We originally planned to release the SD40-2 in December 2020, but we wanted to make sue we had a few last details completely sorted and not risk rushing out a product that does not meet the highest quality we strive for. So we’re pushing it to January for release. The first four road names offered will be Norfolk Southern, Conrail, BNSF, and Burlington Northern. All four will each offer a choice of two different paint schemes. Look for an announcement on sale date soon.

We will also be restocking all our other Premium Instructions next week.

Brick Train Awards and OcTRAINber

In 2020 BMR was involved with he Brick Train Awards, a virtual, global competition to showcase LEGO® train builders from across the world.

The awards started in 2020 as a response to much of the world being in lockdown due to COVID-19, giving a chance for LEGO® train fans around the world to meet and compete internationally. The competition is organised by Richard (aka Bricks McGee) of LEGO Northern UK Railway and Cale and Glenn of Brick Model Railroader, and supported by a range of generous sponsors from across the world.

The 2020 Brick Train Awards had 10 categories for judging the best LEGO® models for locomotives, rolling stock and LEGO® train displays. Each category is judged at a regional level, and the winners from each category then go head-to-head in global awards.

The Brick Train Awards will return again in February 2021. More details coming soon.

BMR’s own OcTRAINber challenge returned again in 2020. This year’s theme was dioramas. We had some really great entries, so good that it’s taken us a bit to get through them all. Yes, we know you are all still eagerly awaiting the results. Soy for the delay. Of course Rased, who runs the OcTRAINber challenge, has been busy with a brand new baby, so that hasn’t helped. But some things are more important than LEGO trains. Don’t worry, we will have our results soon.

Product Reviews

LEGO released two special train sets in 2020 and BMR reviewed them both. The first was the 40370 Steam Engine.

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.

The second official LEGO train set we reviewed this year was the 10277 Crocodile Locomotive.

It was quite a surprise to see a LEGO train set targeted directly at adult train fans, but it was certainly welcome, and is a great set to own and build. We hope this is a sign of more good train sets to come.

We also had the opportunity to review a new book on LEGO trains. The LEGO train project book by Charles Pritchett.

This is a great book for those new to LEGO trains who want to expand their collection or want a couple of interesting designs to use as inspiration.

We did have one more review planned for 2020, the North Pole Railroad train set from BrickTracks. But the US Post Office decided to hang on to our copy for a few extra weeks. So look for this after the new year.

BMR Started a Podcast

In 2020 BMR launched our own podcast.

We’ve been adding new episodes as time allows, and look forward to continuing it in 2021.

Modular LEGO® Intermodal Standard

And to round out the year in review, in 2020 BMR worked with Brick Train Depot to create a Modular LEGO® Intermodal Standard.

The purpose of this standard is to allow for builders to build and collaborate on intermodal equipment for LEGO® trains and train layouts. It defines standard lengths, widths, heights, and connections for LEGO container and trailer models that are based on real world intermodal equipment sizes.

This new standard will allow intermodal designs from BMR to interact seamlessly with those from Brick Train Depot. This is win for every one. It continues to create a healthy ecosystem for the LEGO train hobby, where builders can freely enjoy models from both of our groups, and any one else following the standard, with the knowledge the they will all work together seamlessly.

This will also hopefully be a welcome addition to collaborations between train builders. Builders can create intermodal models that will work perfectly with those from other builders from across the globe. This is key in being able to bring back the Train Club Container Swaps. Something I’m very much looking forward to.

Look for instructions from BMR based on this new standard to be released in 2021.

National Steel Car Co. 3 Unit all Purpose Well Car set. Model by Chris Stone. Instructions coming in 2021

Thank You for Supporting Us

Lastly we would like to thank all of you out there who have supported us this year, visited our website, and read our articles. We love sharing this hobby with you. We will continue to support this wonderful hobby and work to grow our community. Thank you for letting us be a part of your lives. We very much look forward to 2021 and all the cool things that await.

On behalf of the entire BMR Team, have a Happy new Year!

About BMR, Products

BMR BLACK FRIDAY SALE 2020

November 26, 2020 Cale Leiphart Leave a comment

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. Trains and the Holidays were made for each other. We here at Brick Model Railroader are getting into the Holiday spirit, and to start things off, we’re having a Black Friday Cyber Monday Weekend Sale!

Starting Black Friday, November 27th at 12am save 10% automatically on all our Freight Car, Passenger Car and Caboose Premium Instructions, all Decals, our Printed Bearing Tiles and our Ball Bearing Wheel Sets. Sale ends at at 11:59pm Monday November 30th (EST times). Just visit our the BMR Store at the link below and start shopping.

BRICK MODEL RAILROADER STORE

But wait, there’s more!

Every order will receive a free printed BMR 2×2 Logo Tile, while supplies last. And every order over $100.00 will receive a free set of our Ball Bearing Wheel Sets in the color of your choice. Wheel sets are available in

Black Wheels with Black Bricks

Reddish Brown Wheels with Reddish Brown Bricks

Reddish Brown Wheels with Black Bricks

Red Wheels with Red Bricks

Red Wheels with Black Bricks

Just let us know what color you prefer in the Special instructions for seller section before you check out and we will add them to your order.

The 10% off discount does not apply our new knuckle coupler packs.

If you celebrate, stay healthy and safe, have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday, and a wonderful weekend.

Contests

OcTRAINber 2020: The Grace period

October 31, 2020 raised Leave a comment

Over the last two months we have seen an amazing amount of WIP stories and entries for this years installment of OcTRAINber. We are really very happy to see so many Builders having fun with this years contest!

As we had communicated in our previous posts, there was a possibility of a Grace Period, if it was deemed necessary. In the last two days we have received several such requests, and thus we have decided to indeed do so.

Seeing how far most of the non-finished entries are, we think one extra week should be enough for everyone to finish their buids. This means we will extend the deadline to Saturday November 7th, 23:59 PST.

Everyone currently contesting can make use of this extension, meaning that if you in the next days decide on any changes in your already submitted build, you are allowed to do so. Just re-upload your entry in the respective threads (edit your post, or just enter your entry again with a note that we should judge this version of the build, not the previous one).

Good luck with the last days to all!

Events

TRAINS AT BRICKWORLD VIRTUAL Con, OCTOBER 31ST

October 23, 2020 Cale Leiphart Leave a comment

Feeling a little down that there are no in person LEGO® Fan Events this year? Do you miss doing train stuff with fellow hobbyists? Us too. But while we wait for the world to return to a more normal state where we can all attend shows safely again, we can gather together with friends at the Brickworld Virtual Con this October 30th, and 31st.

October Brickworld Virtual Con

LEGO Train Community Roundtable

There will be many activities going on over the two day schedule which you can find here, and we encourage you to take part in as many as you can. But we know you want to here about what train things thee will be. Fortunately there will be two sessions devoted entirely to LEGO trains. The first of which is the LEGO Train Community Roundtable scheduled for 11am central time, 12pm eastern on October 31st.

The Train Community Roundtable is a tradition for Brickworld. It’s a typically laid back session where train builders gather to discuss new products, hobby news, techniques, and many other LEGO train related topics. This time we hope to steer discussions toward trackside scenery and landscaping two tie in with our OcTRAINber contest on BMR. We’ll also devote some time a train builders to show and tell. If you have a model or project you’ve been working on, join in and show it off. BMR will be there with our own Cale Leiphart as host with the help of several other LEGO train fans.

L-Gauge Modular Standard Discussion

At 1pm Central/2pm Eastern October 31st we will have an hour long session devoted to the L-Gauge Modular Standard. For those new to the LGMS we’ll have an introduction to the standard with the what why and how. We also hope to discuss expansion of some of the standard’s definitions, such as overhead track clearances, new module types, etc. And lastly we would like to touch on future shows and events where LGMS style layouts are planned.

So join us on October 31st and let’s talk trains.

Building Techniques, Inspiration, Model Design, Models

Getting Started on Scale Model LEGO Trains

October 18, 2020 Chris Stone Leave a comment

Traditional Model Railroading has been called by some the “World’s Greatest Hobby” – and not necessarily out of the normal sort of pride that one tends to have towards their passions. Model Railroading encompasses a very large amount of skills and interests, even beyond just scale modeling – electrical work, carpentry, machining and fabrication, paint, plastic and foam sculpting, and more. A lot has been done in the hobby to help make it easier to get into and make some truly impressive things without requiring an in-depth knowledge or steep learning curve to be learned by a single person, but it can still be very daunting for a person to pick up once they start looking into everything involved.

LEGO Model Railroading is similar to this in a lot of ways. Beyond just building a model that looks good, if you want to design and run a LEGO locomotive you will need to learn a lot more than just good building practices. There’s some dabbling in Technic, learning about gearing, learning about articulation and swing clearances – and that’s just for the locomotives! The amount of topics to learn grows greatly as you expand into a full layout.

People looking to get into LEGO Trains as a modeling hobby have a bit more of a challenge than they would going into something like HO or O Scale stuff – you have to build everything yourself, and LEGO doesn’t sell true Scale model kits. This leaves a bit of a gap for where to start – how can someone just coming in get to a point where they can have and run models that look as good as the custom stuff that caught their eye? This generally seems to be the point where people realize that there is a lot more to learn than there seemed.

Of course, there are always options outside of the LEGO company. There are a lot of great builders in the train community who have been sharing huge amounts of resources and information for years. Custom instructions for LEGO Trains and train-related models are becoming easier to find and many very-high quality ones are available as well, which can also help more with teaching techniques and getting people started with nice detailed models.

Even with these available, there’s always going to be the desire to do something yourself. Maybe what you want isn’t available, maybe you just want to have the satisfaction or the skills to be able to do something like that on your own – and of course, there’s also those who love to learn new things for its own sake.

To help with this, I’d like to do a series covering how to build Scale Model LEGO trains – just the good, fundamental basics. A lot of this information may be common knowledge to more experienced builders, but my hope is to create a good starting point for new people coming into the hobby. By taking the many stages of good design in small, focused chunks we can examine each stage and learn some good practices and methods for dealing with the different phases of the design process. These are good starting points, but they are not necessarily definitive or even the best way to do it – They should let you get some good starting fundamentals. When building a model from instructions or mimicking techniques from more experienced builders, it can be relatively simple to see how something was built, but it’s good to know why it was done that way. Learning the fundamentals behind each of the design choices is a great way to get started towards great models.

That said, let’s cover the first, most fundamental topic of Scale Modeling.

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About BMR, Decals, Layout Design, Layouts, Products

OcTRAINber 2020: Entries are open + Prizes

October 7, 2020 raised Leave a comment

It’s already October 7th, and that means OcTRAINber is in full swing! We have seen some pretty amazing WIPs in the last month that show us extending OcTRAINber to also include SepTRAINber seems to have been a good idea, which we are very glad of!

Entry Threads @ BMR Flickr

As of several days ago, the entry threads have officially been opened up over at the BMR Flickr. Because most probably not everybody had been aware of this, due to a lack of proper update functions on Flickr, the threads will be shown underneath:

Real Life Entries – Small

Real Life Entries – Large

Real Life Entries – Huge

Digital Entries

The WIPs

As you can see, we have seperated the Real Life Entries in the three respective categories. We have chosen not do so for Digital Entries, becuase in the end BMR always tries to stimulate IRL builds. So if you enter a Real Life build, you have three times more chance of winning!

Also, we have opened up the “The WIPs” thread. Here you can post all of your WIP pictures, so that everybody has a good overview of all the WIP stories that are being posted!

Prizes!

Now, what would OcTRAINber be without prizes? It would just be OcTRAINber, but without prizes. And thats no fun. So, just like the previous three years, we have reached out to some of our favourite third-party L-Gauge related suppliers. We are glad to say the again reacted very positive, which means this year we can again give away a lot of amazing prizes!

PFx Brick + XL Speaker Package (x2!)

This prize was donated (twice!) by Fx Bricks, and includes the following:

Bricktracks R104 Switch Pack (x2!)

BrickTracks has decided to donated their amazing new R104 switches this year, also twice!

Bricktracks R104 Switch (Left+Right) and connecting tracks

BMR Knuckle Couplers (x4!)

All winners in their respective categories will get a pair of BMR Knuckle Couplers of their choice. Winners can choose one of the respective four versions:

Lego Crocodile Locomotive

And, like every year, we also have the current Lego Train Set as a prize. This year that means obviously the 10277 Crocodile Locomotive! And this year, this set will be sponsored Brick Model Railroader!

Lego 10277 Crocodile Locomotive

Krokodil Locomotief 10277 | Creator Expert | Officiële LEGO® winkel NL

Extra prize: OcTRAINber Printed Bricks!

We don’t have a sample yet, but all winners of OcTRAINber 2020 will win a printed brick, commemorating their win in OcTRAINber 2020. This will be a one-off product, which will finally give the winners some visual bragging rights. We are very excited by this extra prize, and hope to show the design of the Winners Brick as soon as possible!

Wrap up

So, that’s it from us at the moment. Good luck with building, and happy OcTRAINber!

About BMR, Products

KNUCKLE COUPLERS ARE HERE!

October 2, 2020 Cale Leiphart Leave a comment

Brick Model Railroader is proud to bring you our latest product. Our Brick Train Compatible Knuckle Coupler. BMR, in partnership with BrickForge, has been work- ing on a replacement for the old LEGO® 9v era magnetic train couplers. These new couplers are now available for sale in our BMR online store.

Shipping will begin Monday.

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Inspiration, LEGO Train News, Model Design, Products

LEGO TRAIN PROJECTS book review.

September 18, 2020 Enrico Lussi Leave a comment

Recently author Charles Pritchett has released a LEGO train project book with 7 unique designs for LEGO trains. This article is a review about the book and the 7 designs which are included.

The Author

First about the author, Charles Pritchett has been building with LEGO for 35 years. He is also a professional graphic, UI, and UX designer. He has authored or co-authored several LEGO books, including Prehistoric Bricks: Building LEGO Dinosaurs and Other Extinct Beasts; Building LEGO BrickHeadz: Heroes; Building LEGO BrickHeadz: Villains; and Expanding the LEGO Winter Village. All these books ,including the Train Projects, are available on Amazon. The introduction paragraph gives an interesting back story on how Charles started with LEGO and how he came back from his dark ages.

After the introduction, the book starts off with an explanation on how the book is laid out and where you can gather parts for the designs which are featured in the book. It also gives a link the useful XML files to use if you want to upload the designs to Bricklink. This paragraph is useful for first time builders or builders who just came back out of the dark ages. However, for the more experience builders this paragraph is a bit useless and will be skipped.

The Designs

The book features 7 designs: a coal gondola, a milk tanker, an open hopper, a depressed flatcar with electrical load, a passenger coach, a powered box car and a locomotive. The designs themselves are featured in a way that is visually interesting. The instructions and the parts list are clear, simple, and easy to use. All designs, except the locomotive, also have a couple of alternative color scheme featured, which shows the design in an alternate version and can be a cool change if you’re building multiple of the same design.

All the designs are 6-wide builds and more in a City train style. They are all neat and cool designs and go perfectly with the standard Lego train city sets. But, for a more experienced builder, they are all more simple. \

Is this a bad thing? It depends. If you already have the City trains in your collection and want to expand them with a couple of interesting builds, these designs will then be perfect for you! If you’re an experienced builder and have been building MOCs for a while, then these will not really speak to you as a builder. For 6-wide builders in general the book shows how you can build interesting designs in a 6-wide space.

For the designs themselves, I haven’t got that many things to point out/say. There all interesting if you’re a 6-wide builder and if you built in the city train scale/theme. There all pretty good looking and straight forward and haven’t got anything really important to mention, except for the locomotive.

The EMD FL9

The locomotive is the final design featured in the book and is the most complicated/biggest built in the book., and is in my opinion the best looking. The design is an interesting one with a great shape and colour scheme. It’s an EMD FL9 diesel locomotive, sixty units were built between October 1956 and November 1960 by General Motors Electro-Motive Division for the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad (the “New Haven”). The locomotive is designed in the famous orange, white and black color scheme.

An Electro-Motive builder’s photo featuring freshly outshopped New Haven FL9 #2033 circa 1960.(source: american-rails.com)

Like mentioned above the locomotive is really good looking especially for a 6-wide model. The way the orange and white cross each other is achieved with a really intricated building technique using cheese slopes. The locomotive has got a lot of detailing on all sides to give it a really realistic look.

So, the design is good looking, but there is a small problem. The locomotive isn’t powered. For the motorization the locomotive can use the Powered Box Car featured in the book. I find this disappointing. First of all, I personally prefer if a locomotive can power itself along the tracks secondly if you look at the design featured in the book, it can easily be powered with Power Functions, 9V or Powered Up. I’m personally really disappointed that the locomotive design isn’t powered, and it feels a bit like a missed opportunity.

In Conclusion

In my opnion, this book is just about worth the 15 dollars/euro/pounds. It’s a instruction book which shows 7 pretty interesting design and that’s about it. I was hoping for a bit more background information about LEGO trains, and maybe a bit more history. There are already so many great and interesting LEGO train books out there. I feel it’s really a missed opportunity. It doesn’t even point out which power systems LEGO has made to be able to power your train.

In short, I recommend the book for 6-wide builders who want to expand their collection or want a couple of interesting designs to use as inspiration. For more experienced builders, this book hasn’t got that many things to offer. It is, however, interesting to read trough the instructions to get a general idea how the designs work and what you can achieve with a 6-wide build.

If your looking for a book that has got it all. Check out Holger Matthes his book. It’s a bit more expensive but has it all. From LEGO train history and power systems, to help and instructions for beginners and amazing builds for experience builders. Holger has written the book in a very calm and enjoyable writing style, which can make difficult and complex topics easy to read. The book contains a lot of interesting background story behind a couple of his most complicated builds.