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!
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__’s BR05-003
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’s Pontarlier Rotary Snow Plough
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
Hod Carrier’s Articulated Railcar
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!
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
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…
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Submissions for OcTRAINber 2021 are now closed. Thank you to all who have built a model, there has been some amazing work shared.
In the next few days we will be compiling all the entries and setting up for judging. There is clearly some work to do as you fans did not hold back and really poured on the coal. We will be announcing further details soon.
Hello train builders. October is here and you may have noticed that we’ve been a bit quiet on our annual OcTRAINber build challenge event this year. Life as, it sometime does, has kept us busy with things other than LEGO® trains. However, we didn’t want the community to miss this years OcTRAINber. So, we decided that for the fifth year in a row, OcTRAINber must go on!
Last years OcTRAINber, “Dioramas, Dioramas Everywhere”, was a big one. Both in scope, and work for builders and us judging. Since we have not had the big pre announcement of theme, and run up to October allowing builders to plan big projects ahead of time, we have decided this year to head in the opposite direction and pick a theme much smaller in scope.
This years theme will be “Critters”.
“Sweet Toot” a critter style locomotive built by Plymouth for the Domino Sugar co. Now preserved at the B&O Railroad Museum.
Loosely defined, a critter is a light-duty or industrial switching locomotive between 300 to 1000 h.p. weighing less than 100 tons, although most tip the scales at less than half that weight. These small locomotives are usually built to fill a specific need for each customer. This results in these tiny engines often having an odd look about them. They can be found in most industrial settings, such as a steel mill, but can be seen hauling coal at a power plant, clay at a brick factory, as well as junk yards and lumber mills. Some are used by the railroads as shop switchers to move dead locomotives around for maintenance or repair. Critters have been manufactured in standard or narrow gauge. Critters can be diesel electric like their “big brothers”, some are pure electric running on trolly poles or even battery power, and others are gas mechanical with a transmission.
Reading shop switcher 1251 certainly fits the spirit of the critter locomotive.
While smaller steam locomotives are not typically thought of as “Critters”, there are abundant examples throughout the steam era that fit the critter mold perfectly, so we’re going to throw them in as well.
A battery-powered shop switcher at the Chessie System/C&O terminal in Huntington, West Virginia is seen here during May of 1984. The little critter was built by General Electric in 1917 for the Chesapeake & Ohio and today resides at the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum. Rob Kitchen photo.
But wait, there is more. Locomotives are fun, but rolling stock can be great too. And what use is a locomotive if you have nothing to pull with it? So we adding small rolling stock categories in as well. This can be anything from a mine cart, to a small caboose. Any type of rolling stock that is a bit smaller than usual.
Lehigh Valley 2606 is a classic “Bobber” style caboose. Short in length and with only for wheels. These cabooses were not the best riding cars, but they are iconic of early 20th century railroading.
Like the previous installments of OcTRAINber, the idea of this building challenge is to actually challenge builders. To get us out of our comfort zones. We Trainheads build a lot of trains, but we too often focus on the big fancy trains. The big freight locomotives and the first class passenger trains. But there is a whole world of interesting railroad subjects that while smaller in stature, are just as hard working and important. This is your mission, to build the little unsung heroes of the train world. Unleash the Critters!
Rules
Ok, we do have some rules to go over first. Our intent is to keep things simple here and let you have as much creative freedom as possible, but do have to keep things orderly and fair, so bear with us.
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 2021 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 do not count as entries! These threads will open on October 1st.
We will be accepting entries from Midnight on October 1st to Midnight on November 15th (meaning November 14th, at 23:59 PDT). That’s right, you have six weeks of OcTRAINber. Why the late deadline? Well in the past we’ve announced the theme ahead of time, giving builders time to plan and order parts if needed. Since we did not have a pre announcement this year, were giving you all an extra two weeks bast the end of October to get your entries in.
Digital entries are allowed. Keep in mind though that digital entries are competing in the same categories as real physical models. So to be fair we will be looking at digital models as if they are genuine physical models. Ask yourself, can this be built in real life? If not, then it may not fair well in judging. This is where showing your “work in progress” will really be important.
Categories
This year there will be six categories you can enter in. Three for locomotives, and three for rolling stock.
Locomotives
Any locomotive weighing less than 100 tons and producing less than 1,000hp, not typically used in main line revenue service. Think industrial, mining, shop switcher. Think small.
Steam – 0-6-0 or smaller. Usually a tank style locomotive. Sometimes fireless. We are also accepting compressed air powered locomotives here.
Internal Combustion – Anything using an internal combustion’s engine for power. This can be gasoline, diesel, propane, distillate, etc.
Electric – Any locomotive using straight electric power, either from 3rd rail, overhead wire, or by on board batteries.
0-4-0 No. 1 is a compressed air locomotive built by the H.K. Porter co. of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Rolling Stock
Any non mainline revenue equipment, typically shorter than 30ft in length, and often running on less than 8 wheels. If it’s big and carries freight or passengers, then it’s not what we’re looking for.
Bobber Caboose – Bobber cabooses were short 4 wheel cabooses.
MOW – Maintenance of Way equipment. The rolling stock used to maintain the railroad. And yes we know some MOW equipment can be huge, but that’s not what we’re looking for. Think speeder car, track tamper, dump cart, tie crane, etc.
Industrial – Any car used in an industrial setting such as a factory, mill, ship yard, mine, etc.
Used in Maintenance of Way “MOW” service, this Central New Jersey speeder car would transport work crews around the railroad to help maintain track, signals, and other line side items.This industrial style car was used to transfer coal to coke ovens in a Coke Plant.
Best Motorized Model
We will have a special award for best motorized model. This can can be from any one of the above categories (we can’t wait to see how you try to motorize a bobber caboose), so all entries are automatically entered for this. Assuming of corse you have some type of motorization. Motorization is not a requirement though for the main six categories.
Some Notes on Entries
Keep in mind that OcTRAINber is a ‘quality over quantity’-building event. This means that we rather encourage you to build one amazing build than several sub-par ones. Build your best, not the most.
We’ve also tried to give you a wide berth in the definitions for each category. We want to encourage you to explore as much as possible and come up with some really interesting stuff. But we also know that it could be easy to stretch those definitions into something not really in the spirit of the theme. Sure an EMD SW1 could technically fit the letter of the rules, but is it in the spirit of the theme. Remember to think small. The theme is critters, and we want to see your best, small modeling.
Just like previous years, we want to encourage you to show off your Work in Progress or “WIPs”, so we can make OcTRAINber a month that is all about trains within the Lego community. Therefore, extra credit will be given to the best WIP stories and/or pictures during the event.
Points
Points will be awarded in three categories: Credibility, WIP Story, and Build.
First of all, credibility of the prototype. This means we will be looking at how much the build represents the real life prototype. 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?
Second of all, the 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.
Third and last but no less important, the build itself. How detailed is it, how accurate is it, does it look like what it is intended to look like. Does it use pieces in a clever way. Does it use clever build techniques. Does it make every ones jaw drop in amazement.
Prizes & Winners
We haven’t finalized on prizes yet, but since this is a building challenge, we will for sure have some, just like in previous years.
We will pick the winners after we have announced the official close of the competition and have stopped accepting new entries, which will be some time after November 15th. Once the judges (who, just like last year, will be announced in an upcoming article) have come to a sound conclusion regarding the winners, we will post one final article announcing them, and then we will be in contact with those winners regarding their prizes.
Final Words
For the past four years, OcTRAINber has been organized by Gerbrand van den Eeckhout, a.k.a. Raised. Unfortunately due to a growing family life and career commitments Gerbrand felt the need to step down from organizing this year’s event. We are extremely grateful here at BMR for all the hard work Gerbrand has put into OcTRAINber and we will miss his presence in this year’s challenge. With out him, OcTRAINber would not be what it is today. So let’s all give Gerbrand a big thank you making OcTRAINber the event we all know and love.
Thank you Gerbrand, and we hope some day you find the time to once again have a hand in this challenge. Until then, we will do our best to continue what you started and keep it awesome.
So, that’s it for now. OcTRAINber has officially started. Now the only thing you have to do is start building, and unleash the critters! Happy OcTRAINber!
Gerbrand on the left , and Cale Leiphart on the right, visiting the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania in 2019.
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!
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
We’re halfway through the month already and we’ve seen plenty of unique and interesting looking WIP stories so far. This is shaping up to be a great year so far, and we’re looking forward to seeing the final entries!
Of course, what would any OcTRAINber challenge be without prizes? We have some new prizes this year from our good friends across the community.
PFx Brick XL Package
This prize was donated by Fx Bricks, and includes the following:
Good news! It took a bit longer than expected from our side (and we again apologize for this), but we can finally reveal the winners of this years OcTRAINber!
First, let us again say that we really enjoyed all the builds, the WIP stories and all those beautiful pieces of foreign rolling stock. I’d say it’s no strange thing to say that the community really added the TRAIN in this years OcTRAINber again! And yes, just like last year it was a challenge to judge them, but just like last year, in the end we managed.
Prizes & Judgement
Due to a difference in prizes compared to last year, we have come up with some new winning categories for this year: Grand Prize for Real Life Entries, Grand Prize for Digital Entries, Prize for best Foreign Factor and Prize for best WIP Story. The winners of the Grand Prize are allowed to choose between the new Powered-Up Cargo Train and the PFx Brick Holiday Train Conversion Kit, with the winner of the Grand Prize Real Life having first pick. The winners of the categories get two prizes: First a choice between PFx Brick 4MB + XL Speaker and Bricktracks R56 curved tracks, and second a choice between Lego Rails and PF pack, with the winner of the Foreign Factor category having first pick in both. Oh, and ofcourse you can only win once. So if you win in one category, you are obviously out for any other prizes in this years’ OcTRAINber.
Just to shortly tell something about the judging itselve: All four of us (being Cale Leiphart, Glenn Holland, Holger Matthes and me) gave all entries points between 0-10 in three categories: Credibility, Foreign Factor and WIP Story. These points were added up (meaning you could get a max of 120 points for the Grand Prize, and 30 for a “Best of” Prize) and then compared between all the entries, with the one with the highest number of points wining. Yes, it’s that simple 😉
So now that we have established the prizes and the judging, let’s go on to the awards!
GRAND PRIZE REAL LIFE
It’s Hod Carrier with his amazing Ferrobus!
Everything just worked in this entry. The WIP story, the credibility, the scale, the little pieces of rust and chrome, but definately also the absolute amazing foreign prototype. Who would have ever thought that a bus would win in a train contest? Well played Hod Carrier!
GRAND PRIZE DIGITAL
Congratulations Bricknerd with his FM H15-44!
A great WIP story from day one, including microscale and Halloween versions of his build, but also one of the stranger diesels that have been running around in the US (if you are familiar with those boxes on wheels, that is) that was captured really well with some great sideways work. A true digital winner.
BEST FOREIGN FACTOR
That’s ofcourse no other than Alexander with his Lartigue Monorail!
Most probably the most wonky Foreign build of this year. Yes, some of us had once read about this thing. And yes, even back in the days when it was build it was weird. But seeing it build in Lego, with a functioning drive unit? Thats a whole other trainyard!
BEST WIP STORY
Lastly, it’s Donát Raáb with his Wiener Linien ULF tram!
Even though he came pretty late to the party, Donát Raáb gave us a really good insight in how he build that thing. Including puns like “Flag Day” and how he managed to keep it just also Ultra Low Floor like the prototype, it was awesome seeing his updates coming in day by day.
HONORARY MENTIONS
Just like last year, some builds came really close, but just not close enough. These are our honorary mentions. No prizes, but just a proper reminder to keep up the good work!
A Hudswell Clarke “Ganges” class with skips (part of his full narrow gauge consist) by Mike Pianta
KП4 by Erik
Korail V-Train (aka Baekdudaegan Canyon Train) by kellelely5
Lencse-005 by Nicholas Bond
DRG Class 99.22 HSB 99 222 by Robert D.
Lastly, we would like to again thank our sponsors; FX Bricks, Bricktracks and The Lego Company. Without them these awesome prizes would have never been possible. We are really gratefull for their effort in supporting the community!
And, ofcourse, we hope to see all of you again for OcTRAINber 2019!
Now that OcTRAINber 2018: The Foreign Challenge is officially over, we first would like to thank all the participants who made this such a great month again. It was amazing to see all the WIP stories showing up on the Flickr feeds, FB timelines, but also on the well-beloved Train Tech forums over at Eurobricks for example. So thank you all for that!
Now, let’s go over the timeline. In the next coming weeks our judges will go over all the entries and score them according to three criteria: WIP Story, Credibility and The Foreign Factor. This might take a while because BMR is a labour of love, meaning we all do this stuff next to our real life lives.
However, for now we would like to make a short round-up of all entries and also to show you some of the key statistics of this years OcTRAINber.
Now that the last weekend of October is (almost) over, it’s time for a preliminary recap post.
First of all, we have already seen a lot of great entries and some awesome WIP stories. Great to see everybody enjoying this challenge as much as we do!
Second, as we said in our first post, we do have the possibility for a grace period in case some BL orders were delayed. Question now is: Does anybody need this grace period? If yes, please let us know asap so that we can make this official. This can be done by just posting in the comment section below. If nobody replies, the deadline stays at October 31st, at 23:59 PDT.
UPDATE: We have decided to extend the deadline untill the end of Sunday November 4th. Hope this will be enough for all to finish your builds!
“We are allowing digital entries and real life builds, but everyone is limited to one entry only to keep things fair.”
To indeed keep things fair (definately with all these prizes) we have decided to stick with this rule and limit to one entry. This means that we would like to ask all contestants that entered more than one entry to decide which is their ‘official’ entry. Feel free to do this in the respective entry threads at the BMR Flickr Page.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settingsACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
You must be logged in to post a comment.