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Five years of LLMTC celebrated big at LLMTCworld

December 15, 2023 Enrico Lussi Leave a comment

2023 marks the five-year anniversary of the LLMTC. We decided to celebrate this anniversary by organizing a huge event for all of our members and all the friends we made in those five years. This article will give you a in depth look at the event, and how the LLMTC came together.

What’s the LLMTC?

The Lowlands L-Gauge Model Train Club is a small group of LEGO train enthusiasts, dedicated to modelling railways in 1:45 scale, or as close to it as (in)humanly possible. While trains are our main focus and what binds us together, several members also build diorama’s, cars, and other landscape elements to the same scale as our trains. We usually aim for 1:45, although the restrictions of the bricks sometimes result in variations between 1:48 and 1:43. Effectively the trains tend to be 8 studs wide.

Figure 1 the well-known logo of the LLMTC

The founding members of the LLMTC first met at LEGO World 2017, and decided to form a building group the next year, with the goal to build both trains and layouts that would be able to connect to each other at events. LEGO World 2018 was their first show together as a group. Standards and rules where established early on, similar to what you see in “traditional” model railway clubs. But LLMTC was entirely dedicated to building in L-gauge and scale 1:45. We’ve always considered ourselves a model railway club, which happened to be building in L-gauge, rather than a LEGO user group who build trains. After LegoWorld 2018, many other events followed. like LegoWorld 2019, NLGM Wörrstadt and Schkeuditz. Along the way, other builders joined the group, and the group became closely in contact and involved with many other LUG’s, projects like open L-gauge and events like the BrickTrainAwards.

The idea of LLMTCworld

The idea of organizing our own club event resonated from back in the long and dark covid days, when a lot of events where cancelled and you couldn’t host a large audience of visitors. Initially, we held a small gathering back in 2020, which was members only. This grew into the 2021 and 2022 ArnhemWorld event, where we would invite a small group of befriended builders like the Noppenbahner.

Figure 2 Pieter Post his station during nighttime driving at ArnhemWorld 2022

For this year, we decided to go big and make it possible for everyone who builds trains in 1:45 scale to join in, and therefore get one of the large gatherings of L-gauge builders in the Netherlands. This show would result in a lot of friends, which made in those five years, to travel all the way to meet up with us again. And for some, it was the first time to meet up with us in real life after working together through the internet for many years.

Looking for a venue

One of the biggest challenges we had for organizing LLMTC-world was the venue. In previous years we would organize our ArnhemWorld event at a high school in Arnhem. Unfortunately, this wasn’t possible during the planned weekend for LLMTCworld. And thus, the rebranding from ArnhemWorld to LLMTCworld.

After a long search for possible event locations, we were able to find a hall in a bus depot that wouldn’t be in use for the weekend we where planning to host LLMTCworld. This did provide some challenges, biggest of them all, there weren’t any tables available to use at the venue. We had estimated we needed around 65 tables for all the layouts and the staging yards.

Figure 3 the still empty bus shed, a few hours later L-gauge builders would meet here to start setting up their layouts.

This estimation was followed by a few weeks long calling and emailing renting company’s, looking for the best and cheapest possibility. Tip for others who are considering organizing l-gauge related events, tables are expensive! A venue with tables makes organizing an event so much easier. We spent a lot more time and, quite frankly, a lot more money than we anticipated for getting all the tables we needed.

After this was taken care off, there were still a lot of smaller tasks on our to-do-list. Organizing stuff like diner, layout planning and general stuff takes a lot of time, and we would advise anybody who plans on hosting an event to keep this in mind.

Layout planning.

Tamás & Erwin where in charge of layout planning, and Tamás had spent a lot of time before the event puzzling all of the modules together in BlueBrick. But, as will be familiar to anyone who has planned an event of their own, there will always be things you didn’t consider beforehand. In our case, we found out there was collum for a car lift right where we were planning to build our branch line. But after some re-configuring of the track plan by Erwin & Tamás, we made it work. The layout we ended up with on the day was probably even better than the one we had planned initially.

Merch

What is an event without some cool merchandise? This year Erwin and Raised decided to design a unique T-shirt and logo for the event. This years’ design was a festival shirt with our main logo featuring the one and only Carlos! The front of the Shirts showed Carlos in the special LLMTCworld logo, the back named all the builders who took part in the event.

Setting-up

On Friday we gather early at the venue to start cleaning up the place and unload all the tables we rented. We used multiple camper vans from different LLMTC members to drive back and forth between two different rental companies, different hardware stores, and the venue. Ties, our chief Bob the Builder, spent a lot of time making filler sections between tables, so that layouts wouldn’t need to be place above gaps in between the tables. That’s one of the downsides of building all your layouts off grid and in strange angles.

And Ties got another special task on Friday. It turned out that Erwin’s banana yard was right below a small leak in the roof. So, Ties has to be creative on fixing that one. Luckily, we found a scissor lift in the parking lot, and the leak was fixed before any trains had to swim their way across Erwin’s yard.

At the end of the day most of the layouts were set-up and we were able to start unpacking our trains and fill up the yard.

Figure 5 setting up on the Friday evening of LLMTCworld.

Saturday

On Saturday we started early again, finishing the last small gaps in the layout. Builders who weren’t able to get there on Friday arrived early on Saturday morning, to set-up their layouts and to unpack their trains. By around 11:00 the entire yard was packed full, and the layout was completely set-up. Now it was finally time to start driving some trains!

Figure 6 express trains going back and forward on the main line. Picture by Thomas Reincke. Models by Raised, Erwin and Raimond.

We only have one rule when it comes to driving trains, and that you always drive on the right-hand side of the track. Some builders who weren’t used to that had some difficulty with that, resulting in weird situations where you would be driving towards each other on the same track. Beside that, your able to drive whenever you like, taking whatever wagons and route that you would like. Especially when it comes to freight wagons, a lot of the wagons get mixed up when driving. Most of the time you would be pulling or shunting freight wagons from 3 or 4 different builders at the same time. And that’s what makes driving at events like these so much fun.

I personally love shunting in one of the different stations or the big yard, reorganizing the freight wagons and making giant mixed freight trains that others would be able to pick up with their locomotives.

Figure 7 shunting action at Wörrstadt Hbf. Picture by Joop Atkleppie, station by Nick Kleinfelder, models by Tamás and myself.

Evening

Traditionally on Saturday evening, we host special activities. One of these is the traditional A(k)awards ceremony, where the host (Raised), would hand out professionally made award bricks. There was also a quiz with in depth questions, like who has the longest running unfinished project.

To celebrate the first release of the collaboration premium building kits from HA bricks, Raised and Erwin gave a presentation of how they designed the model, and how the experience was to work together with HA bricks to turn the model into a premium building kit.

Figure 8 the host of the A(k)wards Raised with his professionally made presentation.

Sunday

Sunday was the second day of driving trains on the layout. It was quiet in the morning since most the drivers where still hungover from the Saturday evening. But after lunch, most people where awake and present again, and everybody was able to fully enjoy driving their trains on the railway lines. To get a better understanding on what it’s like to operate your trains on this event, let’s step into my SSN 01 1075 with Rheingold coaches (don’t mind the door that keeps falling off, or that buffer, they weren’t important) and let’s drive across the railway line! If you’re wondering how this train looks like when it’s driving on the layout, take a look at this video which shows the combination in action at LLMTC-world:

We start off at the main staging yard. This location is always packed with trains who are ready to go, or are getting some small repairs. This time Erwin is getting another huge container train ready to go on the mainline, so in between his shunting actions we kindly ask if we are allowed to leave, and the switches are kindly set in the correct position. We depart the yard and pass Essendorf station from Thomas Reincke. Since we know Erwin will be leaving the yard soon, we better step up the pace and continue onwards. Passing Raised his polder landscape and Tijn his farm we come across halte Wattenweiler from Thomas Reincke. Since the railway line in this station is in a bend, we are really able to pick up speed.

Figure 10 GTW Herman Brood by Erwin passes the polder landscape by Raised and starts entering the farm module from Tijn.

After we pass some curved NOIS modules Nicolas made, we come by the railway crossing from Daniel and the farm module from Jelle. After these, we come to a slow and gentle stop at Krokant Centraal, the new station that I’m constructing. Since the magnets from Erwin his freight train decided not to work today and leave Erwin looking for lithium magnets, we’ve got some time to stop here and take pictures. After a departure we come through the Banana yard from Erwin, a landscape module by Ties and the layout Tamás built, which uses grand curves to give a nice smooth feel to it. This layout is also the junction for the first section of the branch line (more about that later). After Tamás his layout we enter the Darwin interchange by Erwin, this layout is full of switches and weird crossing and has a triple function. It functions as a return loop for the main line, as a second junction to the branch line, and as the perfect location for spectacular accidents as different train lines cross over each other.

Figure 11 the Darwing interchange is always the perfect location to see trains doing weird things. Like this locomotive from Sergió.

The first junction into the branch line leads into Donát’s station. This has sidetracks for multiple trains to wait before they enter the mainline. The second junction into the branch line has multiple small modules connected to each other. First is a small module I’ve built together with Tamás about a year ago, second is Daniel’s module with a railway maintenance shed and lastly comes Gruninger’s layout where steam locomotives can get fresh coal and water.

Figure 12 our excursion train in the station module Donát built.

After this, both branch line routes join together, and continue up to Wörrstadt Hbf built by Nick Kleinfelder. This station is, like mentioned before, the perfect place for some shunting activities, but is also a great place to take pictures off trains against the perfect backdrop of the classical and historical station building.

Last but not least, this branch line ends up in the tunnel module Erwin is working on. After this tunnel comes the smaller branch line yard which was mostly used to house freight wagons during the shunting activities at Wörrstadt Hbf.

Figure 13 Tamás his SJ B 1289 leaving Erwin his tunnel module.

Line-ups

On Sunday afternoon we decided to celebrate the five-year anniversary of the LLMTC with some line-ups that would show what a diverse range of trains we have been building in the last five years. First was the special LLMTC line up, with some of the most recognizable models built by LLMTC members in the last 5 years.

After that, we wanted to showcase some diversity, and highlight all of the unique colors and shapes we are able to incorporate into the models. So we gathered all the black and red tea kettles together in Wörrstadt Hbf. Can you spot the differences?

Lastly, we gathered all the nez-cassé locomotives that were present at this show, a whopping 15 in total, at the banana yard. Since the entire railway was blocked for these line-ups, others had the opportunity (or where forced to) to stop and take some pictures of their own models at different locations around the layout.

Figure 14 black and red steam locomotives owners club

Figure 16 all the nes-cassé locomotives together, a whopping 15 in total.

Video

Like always Ties recoded a lot of the trains running on the huge layout and combined this to a amazing video. Nothing shows events better than the talented video’s Ties makes. I highly recommend watching this video!

Looking back

Looking back at the weekend and the months before the event, there were a lot of stressful moments trying to get everything to come together, but it was worth it. Organizing this event took more time than we first anticipated. Both Raised and I spent a lot of evenings calling each other to discuss stuff we had arranged or still needed to arrange. Tamás had the difficult task to plan all the layouts together and spent a lot of time fighting with our beloved BlueBrick program.

However, seeing all these people come together during the weekend and seeing all those trains run on the layout that we spent so much time on, was more than worth it! This even was easily in the top 3 events I’ve ever been too, and was a perfect way to celebrate five years of LLMTC. Let’s hope we can celebrate the 10^th anniversary of the LLMTC in an even bigger way!

Figure 17 the entire crew that made LLMTC-world possible!

I hope that every builder who came by or attended the event had as much fun as I did. To see so many friends come together is truly breathtaking. This all started 5 years ago when a small group of similarly-minded train builders came together just do one show. Now, five years later, we’ve done more shows than I can remember, we’ve traveled to other countries just to attend LEGO train events and we’ve been involved in some amazing projects.

Thank you to all that have joined us, worked with us, and befriended us! The fact that we’ve been doing this for five years now is something I could never have imagined. And the fact that we’ve been able to meet and work with so many different builders and friends, is truly a privilege.

I would also like to thank HA bricks for sponsoring this event! It was great to be able to talk to Hein from HA bricks about the latest projects he has been working on. And we are really looking forward to his next products releases!

And I would like to leave with a small story when we attended a “normal” railway show earlier this year. We were talking with some members of a “normal” model railway organization and they asked us where our club house is, we responded that we don’t have one and that we all just built individual modules and models that we bring to events. This already baffled them and we spent a long time explaining what our modular standards where. I proceeded to tell them about our collaboration with other organizations like the Noppenbahner, BrickModelRailroader, BrickTrainAwards, the LNUR, Len Eisenbahner and our work with companies like TrixBrix, HA bricks, PfxBricks, Buwizz and many others. And they just couldn’t fathom it. International collaboration on this scale just doesn’t happen, not in their world at least. What we have in the L-Gauge community is very special, and we are supper grateful to have been a part of that for the last 5 year.

Thank you all for reading, take care and see you next time!

Special thanks to Ties for spell checking the entire article!

-ciao Enrico

LEGO® News

OcTRAINber 2022: The Results

November 19, 2022 Chris Stone Leave a comment

After two months of dedicated building, OcTRAINber 2022 saw a somewhat smaller but very high quality set of entries. This year’s challenge was quite a big one, and it’s safe to say that everyone who participated rose to the occasion quite well. Today, I’m quite proud to announce the winners of this year’s OcTRAINber: Rebuilds & Retrofits challenge.

Last weekend, Cale Leiphart, Matt Csenge, and myself were joined in judging by a staple competitor and many-time OcTRAINber winner: Alexander, also known online as “narrow_gauge”. Together, the four of us reviewed these great entries and picked out the winners. Alexander’s got a keen eye for the LEGO train modeling hobby and his contributions, both to the judging and the hobby, are stellar. Many thanks, Alexander, for participating in the judging this year!

Before I get to the winners, let’s take a quick review of what they’ve won this year, shall we?

The Prizes

BrickTracks has contributed several sets of switches for the winners. Each winner of the four main categories will receive one R104 Switch Track Set, while the Grand Prize winner will be getting three!

BMR Gift Card

Each of the four category winners will receive a $30 Gift Card for the BMR shop, and the Grand Prize winner will receive a BMR Gift Card worth $40!

Without further ado, let’s get to the announcements!

This Year’s Winners:

Winner: Buildings and Structures

Gilles Lessard’s “Heavy Hauling Hearts” Flatcar Bridge

Gilles Lessard has brought us the story of a flatcar that was eventually repurposed into a pedestrian bridge at a Golf Course, and has built both an excellent model of the flatcar in its rolling stock days as well as its later life ‘photo stock’ days after being converted into a bridge; including two seasons in his diorama to represent both the wintry weather in which he skied under it as well as a wedding photoshoot he found in his searches for more reference material.

This is both an excellent pair of models, and a great fit into this year’s theme. Congratulations, Gilles!

Winner: Steam Locomotive

Ts__ certainly seems to have been hit heavy with inspiration and drive this year, having built two physical models and digitally designing a third. This odd duck of a locomotive was initially built as a streamlined cab-forward steam locomotive that burned, of all things, coal dust, before later being rebuilt as a more traditional engine to make something useful out of it after its performance proved unsatisfactory.

Ts__ has captured all three time periods of this locomotive in great detail, but furthermore has managed the impressive task of making them actually run; a feat I was quite honestly not expecting from the streamlined engine. It’s crazy to see just how big of a change this steam engine went through!

Winner: Rolling Stock

Denis Garnier’s curious little snowplow started life as both a tender and an unrelated electric locomotive, before the railroad essentially kit-bashed them together into this 3-axle rotary snowplow. Denis has modeled both the tender that provided the frame as well as the snowplow created from it, both with an excellent level of detail and a system to motorize the snowplow’s blower. The shapes and textures of both models are exemplary, and do a great job of representing two pieces of rolling stock that look entirely different at a glance – but have their common components clearly represented to those who give it a closer look.

Winner: Other Locomotive

Scruffulous’s Victorian Railways Rail Tractor

Scruffulous’s Rail Tractor is an incredibly well-realized set of models depicting a very interesting transformation of its constituent parts. Apparently a fan of repurposing the frames of their I Wagons, the Victorian Railways solved a motive power need by installing a tractor onto one of these frames to power it via chain drive, and then built a cab around it.

Scruffulous’ models are all amazingly detailed, the Rail Tractor is motorized, and the 3D printed parts he’s created for the handrails really feel like they add to the model. The detailing of the springs and the bearing boxes is inspired, and the shape of the tractor on the front of the locomotive is unmistakable. Fantastic work!

Winner: Grand Prize

Through both his builds and the WIP story, Hod Carrier has shown an incredibly fine example of what serious LEGO model railroading is all about. Two trains, three units each, and an amazing amount of work to faithfully recreate a multitude of complex and subtle curves and shapes. Not content with that, the models are motorized and the passenger version includes an interior; in addition to the fantastic new method of close-coupled articulation he’s developed to keep the space between the cars to a minimum.

The amount of design work and research put into this somewhat obscure bit of rail history is impressive, and the final product seems well-worth the time put into it. Great builds, Hod!

Final Words

As always, thanks to everybody who participated in OcTRAINber this year; be it competitors or those who took the time to encourage the participants. This year’s theme was perhaps a bit daunting, but you all met the challenge well and produced some great models with fascinating histories.

I’d also like to once again thank Narrow_Gauge for joining us in judging these models. I’ve always loved seeing his amazing entries, and it was really cool to have his perspective involved in our review this year.

And, finally, once more, congratulations to all the winners of OcTRAINber 2022!

LEGO® News

OcTRAINber 2022 — Rebuilds & Retrofits

August 26, 2022 Chris Stone 1 Comment

Hello again, everybody! October isn’t quite here yet, but it’s just about time to get rolling for this year’s OcTRAINber. We’re going to be making a couple tweaks to the format this year that I’ll explain later in the post, but for now let’s get into the rundown on this year’s theme: “Rebuilds & Retrofits“.

Railroads have had a long history of taking old cars or engines and trying to use them for as long as possible. Railroad equipment is expensive, after all. Old equipment is kept repaired and patched up as best as it can be, but sometimes these old pieces of stock end up being changed for something very different. Locomotives may be altered significantly to help them better fit in a different role, such as a tank engine having its tanks removed and replaced with a tender. Sometimes old passenger cars end up heavily rebuilt for a non-revenue role and go on to serve as Maintenance-of-Way equipment. Some freight cars end up rebuilt as passenger service cars, or stripped down and turned into a bridge.

That, ultimately, is what this year’s OcTRAINber is all about. We’re looking for models of Railroad equipment that has been rebuilt or retrofitted to serve a different or altered function from its original intent. In addition, we’d like to see two LEGO models, one of both the before AND after – show us how the subject has changed!

Hammond Lumber Co.’s 2-6-6-2t #6 was later converted to a tender engine and sold to Southwest Lumber, where it was re-numbered to #12

The Challenge

Ultimately, we’re looking for major changes in the modeled subjects. While a boxcar with friction-bearing trucks getting an upgrade to roller-bearing trucks does indeed count as a retrofit, it’s not a very large change and won’t score many points. What we’re really looking for is something that has been changed to operate in a significantly different way, or something that has been altered to look drastically different.

We realize that this year’s theme requires building two models – but we’re very open to options. There are several acceptable ways to reach this criteria:

1. Build both versions of the model in LEGO Bricks.
2. Build both versions of the model digitally
3. Build one version in LEGO, and one version digitally
4. Build and photograph one version in LEGO bricks, then actually alter it to the second version and photograph that. Both versions need not exist simultaneously; they just need to be photographed and submitted together in a single entry

Southern Pacific removed the engine components from 9010 and rebuilt the nose, turning it into a camera car and re-numbering it to 8799

Rules

Entries must be original models. No stealing. This also means no Mods (thus also no sets), only original MOCs.
One entry per person, per category. You can enter as many categories as you like, but you can only enter one model in each category. We want quality over quantity. So pick your best model and make it shine.
Third party parts are allowed, clone bricks aren’t. We know this can be a thin line, just walk it wisely, and we’ll do our best to judge fairly on this.
We are making no rules for the scale you choose to model in. We are welcoming models of 6, 7, and 8 studs, and anything in between or beyond! However, we appreciate detail and accuracy. Reasonably sized models are usually better for that, but we don’t knock anything or anyone with serious skill.
NEW BUILDS ONLY. We are willing to accept anything unpublished or anything that was not published before August 1st 2022 as new. We want to inspire and promote a challenging build, entering an old model doesn’t quite work in that regard.
Entries MUST be made on our Flickr group in the appropriate thread. This is the ONLY place we will be looking for entries, nowhere else. Sending photos to us on social media or showing us in person does not count as entries! These threads will open on September 1st.
We will be accepting entries from Midnight on September 1st to Midnight on November 1st (meaning October 31st, at 23:59 PDT). Due to the scale of the competition as well as helping efforts to expedite the judging, we’ve opted to start OcTRAINber early instead of having it run long into the holiday season. This also means there will be no extensions this year, so make sure you’re all ready by the end of October!
Digital entries are allowed, and will be competing in the same categories as the physical models. As mentioned before, we are accepting “mixed-media” entries due to requiring two models, so you are welcome to submit one Physical and one Digital model to complete an entry.

A second deck has been added to this New Haven flatcar to facilitate maintenance on the electrified lines

Categories

There will be four categories to enter this year, with a winner for each. There will also be an extra Grand Prize winner, as we’ve done in some previous years, for a total of five prizes.

The Categories are as follows:

1. Steam Locomotives

2. Other Locomotives (E.G. Diesels, Electrics, Rail buses, anything that provides its own motive power)

3. Rolling Stock (E.G. Freight, Passenger, MOW, etc)

4. Buildings and Structures (E.G. repurposed stations, rail cars that have been repurposed as bridges.)

If you are building something that could go in multiple categories, for example a flatcar (rolling stock) that has been repurposed into a bridge (structure), then we’d recommend entering it in the category that best fits what it has been adapted into. In this example the flatcar has been turned into a bridge, and should be entered as a structure.

This ATSF Boxcar was converted into a bridge over a canal

Judging and Scoring

Entries will be judged primarily on these three criteria:

1. Accuracy to Prototype — How well do your models represent their real-life counterparts? Proportions, detailing, and functionality all help out here.

2. WIP Story — Include pictures and information on the real-life counterparts to your build, show the build process, and highlight the differences between the ‘Before’ and ‘After’ versions of your model.

3. Transformation Factor — This is focused on how significant of a change took place. Something like changing the trucks out to reflect a bearing type upgrade will score much lower than something that has been changed to operate or be used in a significantly different or unique way; or has been altered to look drastically different.

As always, keep in mind that OcTRAINber is a ‘quality over quantity’ building event. This means that we encourage (and give higher scores for) higher-quality entries as opposed to several sub-par ones. Build your best, and don’t rush yourself to try to hit something in every category.

While we’ve tried to give several examples for things that will fit into the theme, the examples listed are not exhaustive. We encourage you to explore and find some really amazing things to enter, so if you find something that you feel really grabs the spirit of the theme then go ahead. If it’s something really out there that won’t fit into one of the listed categories, feel free to ask for clarification.

Final Words

The last couple years, the judging for OcTRAINber hasn’t exactly been the quickest, and that’s something we would really like to change this year. November and December are filled with Holidays and train shows, and mixed with the growing number of entries it’s been getting quite difficult to find a good time to get through everything once Thanksgiving starts to hit.

To help alleviate that, for all of you as well as for the judges, instead of extending OcTRAINber into November, we are going to start it earlier this year and will work to have the judging taken care of before the big holiday season starts up. Starting September 1st is certainly change, but we still end it in October, so it totally counts, right?

We will have more articles posted in the coming months with more information as needed.

OcTRAINber has always been fun for us, and we’re excited to see what you all come up with to enter this year. Thank you for reading, and we hope you have as much fun with the event as we do.

Happy building!

NYC’s #5344 Hudson has run both with and without the streamlined panels

About BMR, Products

St Louis Refrigerator Car Co. 36ft Beer Car NMRA 2022 Premium Instructions Update: New Special Limited Scheme for July 4th.

July 1, 2022 Cale Leiphart Leave a comment

BMR’s model of the St Louis Refrigerator Car Co. 36ft Beer Car is commemorating the L-Gauge Modular Standard LEGO® train layout that will be on display at the NMRA 2022 National Train Show Premium Instructions. If you have not reserved one, then read on and see what the car is about and be sure to reserve yours before the 11:59pm EST July 4th 2022 order deadline. And if you have already reserved a car, then skip ahead and take a look at a special bonus scheme for the car that we are only offering for the July 4th weekend.

Test model with printed parts seen at Brickworld 2022. Note red pin stipe has not been applied yet.

The St. Louis Refrigerator Car Company (SLRX) was a private refrigerator car line established on February 3, 1878, by Anheuser-Busch brewing company. SLRX was formed to facilitate large-scale distribution of Anheuser-Busch’s products via the U.S. rail network. The SLRX not only built its own bunkerless reefers, but maintained and operated them as well.

In 1919 the firm was acquired by Manufacturers Railway Company (MRS), another Anheuser-Busch transportation subsidiary that provided switching service to the brewery and interchange connection with the common carrier railroads serving St. Louis.

BMR’s Limited Edition model faithfully recreates one of the Iconic cars of the St Louis Car Company. This 36ft bunkerless refrigerator car was used from 1913 through to the 1950s. Our model represents this car in its post World War II scheme with white cars sides, an enlarged emblem, and a maroon stripe along the bottom of the car side.

For this model we are offering the choice of decals printed by OKBrickworks, or a printed parts upgrade on new, genuine parts printed by BrickForge. One decal set, or printed part set will be included in each instruction kit. Each decal or printed part set will come with an individual car number so that no two cars will have the same car number. We are also offering extra decal sets and printed part sets for those who want to build more than one car.

Special Liberty Bonds Paint Scheme Only Available for July 4th Weekend

Liberty Bonds scheme used during World War One

Of course the “Late SLRX” paint scheme we modeled on the standard car is not the only scheme these cars used over the years. And while digging through archives we found one that we thought was pretty neat. During World War One, many railroads had equipment painted in special schemes promoting causes in support of the American war effort. The Saint Louis Refrigerator Car Company did so by painting an undetermined number of cars in a special paint scheme to promote Liberty Bonds.

A Liberty Bond was a debt obligation issued by the U.S. Department of the Treasury in conjunction with the Federal Reserve. Also known as a Liberty Loan, it was a war bond, issued in four installments in 1917-18 as a means to finance the U.S.’ participation in World War I and the Allied war effort in Europe.

As a special bonus, BMR is releasing this paint scheme as an add on to the celebrate the United States Independence this July 4th weekend.

We are offering this special scheme in the choice of decals printed by OKBrickworks, or a printed parts on new, genuine parts printed by BrickForge. You will of course still need the standard Premium Instruction Kit to build the model as the Liberty Bonds Scheme is just being offered as a decal or printed parts add on. Each decal or printed part set will come with an individual car number so that no two cars will have the same car number.

Orders Close 11:59pm July 4th

This is Limited Edition Model and will only be available for a one time run of Instruction kits. Pre orders for this model will end on 11:59pm EST July 4th 2022. Once pre orders close, Instruction Kits will be produced to fill those orders. Expected shipping date will be late July to mid August.

Be sure to order your copy of this special model and the bonus Liberty Bonds paint scheme at the link bellow before it’s gone for good.

St Louis Refrigerator Car Company NMRA 2022 National Train Show Products

Layout Design, Layouts, Products

Review: Brickyard Building Blocks LEGO Compatible Baseplate

June 10, 2022 Cale Leiphart Leave a comment

Spoiler alert, this is a review of a non LEGO® product.

Today we’re reviewing baseplates produced by Brickyard Building Blocks. These are what many might consider a clone brand, but their baseplates are a little bit different than the LEGO style we’re all used to. That said, they have some unique advantages to offer builders and may be of use in your own train layout building. So let’s take a closer look.

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About BMR, Decals, Products

BMR is celebrating its 5th Anniversary, BMR is attending Brickworld, and We Have a Special New Car for the 2022 NMRA Show

May 31, 2022 Cale Leiphart 1 Comment

It’s hard to believe, but Brick Model Railroader is 5 Years old this year. Launched on December 30th, 2016 as a LEGO train news and informations website, BMR has grown to include a YouTube channel, a line of custom train instructions, and custom LEGO@ train accessories.

Check out our nifty 5th Anniversary logo.

We’re are still committed to our original purpose of bringing you LEGO train news, showcasing awesome models built by those of you in the train community, bringing you informative articles on building techniques and layout design. Yes I know we’ve been quiet around here lately. Such is life, it sometimes takes you away from things you should be doing. But we ready to get back into the groove of writing some great articles for you. There is some exciting stuff coming up in the hobby this year, and we want to be there to share it with you.

Now let’s cover some of the other cool things coming to BMR.

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About BMR, Contests

OcTRAINber 2021: The Results

March 10, 2022 Chris Stone Leave a comment

Every year, OcTRAINber gets bigger and bigger, with ever more participants entering models of increasingly high quality. It’s been amazing to see all the creative, well-executed models each year, and boy did 2021 bring a LOT of good stuff to look at.

It’s been a busy season for those of us here at BMR, but at last we’ve finally got the results for all of you. Your judges for this year were Cale Leiphart, Chris Stone, and Matt Csenge from the BMR team. There were a lot of very cool Critters to look through, and I’m excited to share which ones have won. Before that, though…

The Prizes

The prizes this year are as follows:

Each of the main category will receive a Circuit Cubes Bluetooth Upgrade+ Kit plus an OcTRAINber Printed Brick printed by BrickForge.

The winner for Best Motorization will be receiving a Studly Trains Tiny Train IR Control Kit donated by LifeLites, plus an OcTRAINber Printed Brick printed by BrickForge..

https://lifelites.com/studly-trains/tiny-train-control-kit

Winner: Bobber Caboose

Trained Bricks: “Katy Caboose”

Cartoon designs do not generally transfer easily into a medium as ‘square’ as LEGO, but Katy Caboose was realized very well. Good work on the shaping of the roof and steps stand out the quickest, but the solid effort put into the rest of the texture detailing is impressive; as is the way Katy’s “mouth” is represented on the doors. Great work, Trained Bricks, and hats off as well for meeting our somewhat tongue-in-cheek challenge to motorize a bobber caboose!

Honorable Mention

The Brick Files: “Proto-Freelance Caboose”

What we loved the most about this little bobber caboose is the amount of texture and detail packed into a small space. This bobber features a full interior that is quite clever. It was certainly a close second for our favorite bobber.

Winner: MOW Rolling Stock

Asperka: “RhB Baudiensttraktor Tm2/2 – 2”

This impressively executed Critter somehow managed to get better each time we looked at it. Asperka managed to fit a Circuit Cubes battery and motor into a small cabin, powering a narrow-gauge drive, and still leave plenty of space in and around the model for all the appropriate detailing. The amount of open space left in the model for tools, and the fact that the cab windows are very minimally obscured, is amazing. Very well done!

Honourable Mentions

MOW turned out to be one of the most creative categories this year. We really sweated the voting on this one, and so we have three models we felt worthy of Honorable Mention.

Alex T: “High Rail Ladder”

MoW equipment in use — It’s silly, it’s tiny, and it’s based on a real prototype. You have to love this absurd little model.

Ewout Rohling: “NSWGR Inspection Bike”

OcTRAINber 2021: NSWGR inspection trike — Such a small model, yet so perfectly captures the details of the real prototype.

Hod Carrier: “The Honey Bucket”

OcTRAINber MOW 08 — Quite possibly the crappiest model in the OcTRAINber competition. The jokes write themselves with this one, and we could not stop laughing. Well played Hod Carrier.

Winner: Industrial Rolling Stock

BigZ31: “21T Coal Wagons”

OcTRAINber 2021 - 21T Powered Mineral Wagon #4

OcTRAINber 2021 - Andrew Barclay Fireless with 21T Wagons

These little 2 axle coal wagons have a huge amount of detail. But what impressed us even more was the motor, battery, and Power Functions receiver used to power the train they make up are so perfectly hidden with them. You would be hard pressed to tell where the mechanical/electronic magic is in the train. Well done.

Honorable Mention

BrickTheBrick: “Wagon with Excavator”

This model would have maybe been a better fit in the MOW category, but we still thought it was great. The wagon is well done, and mini excavator is on point for scale and detail.

Winner: Electric Locomotive

Thomas Reincke: “Ka 4015”

Thomas’ Ka 4015 is deceptively small. It rides low enough to the rails that the buffers are nearly halfway up the locomotive’s body, with great shaping, and also powered by Circuit Cubes – we’re seeing little bit of a trend! We were very impressed by how compact the motorization solution was. The engine sitting so low leaves little room to fit the electronics, but Thomas pulled it off with a very good amount of space left for his cab and crew.

Honorable Mention

Tenderlok: “Coke Quenching Locomotive”

LEGO® Coke Quenching Locomotive (1/33 scale) - 01

Sven aka Tenderlok took the bold step to build a critter in a scale larger than the default mini fig scale we are all used to and the result is a wonderful little electric critter.

Winner: Internal Combustion Locomotive

Ts__/ Thomas: “Köf II DB 322 607-3”

The KöF is perhaps among the most-often built LEGO locomotives, and it’s not hard to see why – it’s a very nice looking engine, and the fact that LEGO themselves own one for shunting work makes it a fun subject to model. With all the many, many KöF out there, it’s hard think of one catching attention the same way something a little more novel might.

With that said, Ts__/ Thomas’s KöF caught all of our attention immediately. The shaping, proportions, detailing, and texturing are all masterfully executed. The engine hood is a nice and slim 3 studs in width, features a tapered nose, and captures the complex yet subtle shapes of the side panels. On top of all of that, it’s powered as well. This model has certainly raised the bar for LEGO KöF builds, and it’s raised it quite high.

Winner: Steam Locomotive

Ewoutro: “Guinness Brewery No. 13”

The Guinness Brewery No. 13 feels just about as “Critter” as a steam engine gets. A narrow-gauge steam engine with the pistons mounted atop the boiler like a steam tractor, it also had special haulage carts it could be lowered into to do shunting work on the broad-gauge rail.

Ewoutro’s rendition of the locomotive is very well done, built to run on narrow gauge track as well as standard LEGO track through the use of a haulage cart, just like the real engine. This dual-mode operation is a very cool detail to see realized in a tiny LEGO model, and though it’s not powered, the execution and engineering put into it is impressive all the same.

Honorable Mention

BritishBricks: “The Bundaberg Fowler”

What a great model. The colors grab your attention right away, but dig deeper and this is a solid locomotive. A unique, inside frame, narrow gauge locomotive with plenty of character and detail, this is a very well presented model.

Winner: Best Motorized Model

Brett Wiebold: “Plymouth DLH 8 Ton #3 ‘PeeWee'”

We had a lot of submissions this year with very impressive and creative motorization implementations. It was very tough to choose a winner.

Brett’s “PeeWee” isn’t the model with the most motors, or the most functions, but it is a very well-executed Critter with a very unique feature: The drive train contains a 2-speed transmission. This transmission understandably means the engine is chock-full of gears and drive axles, in addition to a motor and power solution by Lifelite’s “Studly Trains”. Somehow Brett has managed to incorporate these into the engine detailing so that when you open the hood doors, it feels like you see an engine and not just a cluster of gears. On top of that, behind the front radiator grille he’s included a spinning radiator fan.

This blending of the motorization feature into the aesthetics of the build represents a very smooth and well-realized combination of both function and form, while delivering something novel in a small package. It was a hard-won victory, but “PeeWee” managed to win it.

Final Words

Firstly, we would like to thank you all for participating in OcTRAINber again this year. It’s always great to see how inspired everyone gets, and you too inspire us in turn.

We’d also like to thank you for your patience with the results. OcTRAINber’s been getting a little slower every year – and this year was no exception. It almost didn’t happen this year; with Gerbrand stepping away after OcTRAINber 2020 it took a little bit to find a balance with it again. OcTRAINber is very special to us all, and we wanted to make sure to keep the tradition going.

Looking forward towards OcTRAINber 2022, we are hoping to have this one run much smoother overall and we are also hoping to get the judging finished in a much more timely fashion. We’ve already picked out a theme (Which I for one am quite excited for, look for an announcement in September), and we’ve got ideas for how to get the schedule a little tighter so we can get the judging wrapped up before the mass of Holidays and Shows that eat up the end of the year. We understand that a wait this long is difficult to endure, and it’s on our minds.

Congratulations once more to all the Winners of OcTRAINber 2021. We will be contacting you soon regarding the Prizes.

Events, Models, People

Rail Car Secret Santa 2020 Part 4

December 18, 2021 Cale Leiphart Leave a comment

We’re back with the final installment of our look at the cars from the Secret Santa Rail Car Exchange I participated with in 2020. If you are just joining us, take a look at part one, two, and three of this series to catch up on the what, how, who, and why and see the cars you missed. We have some time.

Rail Car Secret Santa 2020 Part 1

Rail Car Secret Santa 2020 Part 2

Rail Car Secret Santa 2020 Part 3

Alright, let’s dig in to the next group of cars.

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Events, Models, People

Rail Car Secret Santa 2020 Part 3

December 17, 2021 Cale Leiphart Leave a comment

We’re back with part of our look at the cars from the Secret Santa Rail Car Exchange I participated with in 2020. If you are just joining us, take a look at part one and two of this series to catch up on the what, how, who, and why and see the cars you missed. We won’t start without you

Rail Car Secret Santa 2020 Part 1

Rail Car Secret Santa 2020 Part 2

Alright, let’s dig in to the next group of cars.

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Events, Models, People

Rail Car Secret Santa 2020 part 2

December 16, 2021 Cale Leiphart Leave a comment

We’re back to look at a few more of the cars from the Secret Santa Rail Car Exchange I participated with in 2020. If you are just joining us, take a look at part one of this series to catch up on the what, how, who, and why. We’ll wait for you.

Rail Car Secret Santa 2020 Part 1

Alright, let’s dig in to the next group of cars.

Roadrailer: Trevor’s build for Monty

Trevor drew Monty’s name, and the car he built to gift was perfect for Monty’s fleet. Trevor choose to model one of the more interesting pieces of intermodal equipment to come out of the 1980s, the Roadrailer.

The complete Roadrailer kit. The truck sitting beside the trailer is used when connecting one roadrailer trailer to another roadrailer trailer.

RoadRailers were specialty trailers that could easily be moved from the highway to the rails without having to be loaded onto a flatcar. The technology dates back to the 1950s. The trailers were built with integrated railroad wheelsets that could be lowered into position when the trailer was pulled behind a train. However it was not until the 1980s that the idea finally gained traction.

Modern roadrailers do not include integrated railroad wheels, but ride on regular trucks that do double-duty, serving as articulation points between multiple trailers in a train. Each regular truck is equipped with one fifth wheel at one end and a connector plate at the other end. The connector plate slides into a female receptacle on the rear of the trailer in front and is secured with a steel pin. At the head of a Road Railer train there is an adaptor truck equipped with one fifth wheel and one regular AAR Type “E” or Type “F” automatic coupler. Each semi-trailer has one king pin at each end. Because the truck (bogie) is significantly lighter than a rail flatcar or well-car, roadrailer freight trains are much lighter and therefore are more energy efficient than traditional intermodal trains.

Though the use of road railers has waned in recent years, Triple Crown still uses them. The “TCSZ” on the trailer is the AAR reporting mark for Triple Crown Service. The trailer number beginning with 464 indicates that the trailer was built approximately 1999–2002, and weighs only 1,000 lb (454 kg) more than a regular highway-only trailer.

Frisco Express Reefer: Jeffry’s model for Bradley

Those of us who know Bradley, know he has a bit of a love for the St. Louis–San Francisco Railway, or as it’s more commonly known, the Frisco. Love may be an understatement, I swear he eats sleeps and breaths nothing but Frisco. So when Jeff pulled Bradley’s name, the road choice was obvious.

With the road choice nailed down, the choice of car type came next. Bradley has already modeled a very nice Frisco train depot, so Jeff played into that and built a piece of head end equipment to compliment Brad’s depot. And what head end car is cooler than an express reefer. Pun fully intended.

Jeff’s Frisco Express Reefer in front of Bradleys awesome train depot.

Express refrigerator cars were used to carry perishable crops like berries and melons to distant markets at passenger train speeds before spoilage could occur. Normally, they were operated at the head end of passenger trains, which required that the cars meet the same design standards as steel postal cars in terms of high speed trucks, passenger car brake systems, air, steam and signal lines, passenger car buffers as well as passenger paint and lettering schemes.

This car was built by American Car & Foundry, AC&F. The car is 50ft in length and featured passenger style trucks and of course is lettered for Bradley’s favorite road, the Frisco.

Matt’s Northern Pacific Wood Chip Gondola for Jeffry

Matt drew Jeff, and the resulting car is a really nice wood chip gondola. Here is some more info from Matt on his car.

My build was for Jeff Fonda. His railroads and era of choice were Northern Pacific (NP) or Great Northern (GN), and mid to late steam (40’s to 50’s). The first step was to find a prototype, one that hadn’t been modeled already by Brick Model Railroader (BMR) or Brick Train Depot (BTD) – meeting all three of these criteria would prove to be tough!

In the beginning I quickly realized that both these roads had woodchip gondolas, which was a type of car I personally hadn’t seen done in Lego before (which meant BMR and BTD certainly hadn’t done it). The problem was that the majority of the cars I was seeing were later than Jeff’s chosen build era. I briefly started looking at other types of cars, but since a woodchip hopper had been something I’d wanted to build for a while I came back and searched a bit harder. Eventually I found the NP 52000-52749 series of cars, which were drop-bottom gondolas built in 1937.

Northern Pacific wood chip car in Pasco, Washington. Photo by Ron Hawkins.

By now you’ve probably seen the photos of the car, and may be thinking, “Matt, don’t you know anything about math? 118837 is not between 52000 and 52749!” You would be correct. These types of wood chip cars, like wood chip cars on many other railroads, were in-house conversions from existing cars. The few 52000 series cars that were converted for wood chip service were renumbered to NP 118500-118540. Now you might think, “OK, but you’re still 297 cars off…” I also found the NP 118800 series of cars, which were very similar 40’ drop-bottom gondolas converted to wood chip service. In my research I learned that these wood chip cars were used in captive service to specific mills and the extensions were to increase capacity were designed by the mills, thus the design varied between each class.

W&R Enterprises HO Scale Brass Northern Pacific Wood Chip Gondola by Jeff Lemke Trains, Inc.

The resources I found for the 118500 series were very scarce, and the few photos I found showed the cars in 1980 being prepped for retirement and wearing much different livery than they would’ve in the 40’s or 50’s. I also found very few photos of model cars, and these were low quality and only from the side. The source I had found for the 118800 series cars had a number of very large photos of a very well-detailed model. There were some features of these cars that I knew I wouldn’t be able to get right, so I decided to merge the two designs. The fact that each mill had different designs for the cars that it was served by in my mind lent credibility to my design.

Once the prototype was settled upon, it was time to design the car! Some of the prominent details that I tried to capture included the corrugated ends and ribs of the gondola, the flat, smooth sides of the extensions, the rods to operate the door mechanisms, and the gap between the floor and the trucks, due to the need for the entire length of the car to be able to dump, which also puts the underbody details on display.

*Studio render of my final design, missing a few pieces and with large gaps between SNOT assemblies*.

The widest part of the car ended up being 9-wide since the corrugated ends needed to be an even width (8-wide) and the ribs and upper lip of the gondola extended beyond this. The design is almost entirely SNOTed, with lots of internal structure to hold everything in place securely. (It may have been a bit overbuilt, but that probably helped it get to Illinois in a minimal number of pieces!)

*Some of the internal assembly and SNOT holding the car together.*

Once the design was done, it was time to order parts and decals. Lately, my preferred method for ordering parts is to make a wanted list on Bricklink, use the auto-select function to automatically generate carts, then order two or three of these carts at a time. This way I don’t have to make a special order for the one or two missing parts if there’s any parts missing from orders, last-minute changes to the design, or if I simply forget a piece. (I ordered all the parts at once for a boxcar I recently built and was missing a single 2×2 tile in the end…) The downside to this method is that I can’t start building it when the parts start arriving (though I still did that anyways).

Partially assembled bits of freight car.

The last step before shipping it was to photograph the car for my records and to share on social media. Without a dedicated photo area or workspace, this involves dragging furniture around…

My makeshift photo area using a not-so-handy dresser.

Then the last step was to pack it up and ship it out! I’ve heard the motto “if it shakes, it breaks” from the ceramics industry, so I took that advice and packed the box with bubble wrap and paper so that when I shook the box I couldn’t hear movement. As far as I know it didn’t break in transit, so I think it worked!

Lots of paper… and some bubble wrap!

Lastly, here are some more shots of the completed car.

Part 3 Coming Friday

That’s three more cars down, and we still have 5 more models to go. Come back tomorrow to see the next group of cars.