Texas Brick Railroad in Orange, TX

[SavaTheAggie]

Last weekend the Texas Brick Railroad set up a display for the 2014 Houston Fall Tour Train Show in Orange, TX, hosted by the Southeast Texas Model Railroad Club. For those interested, here are some photos from the event:

Full Gallery

FallTourShow_2014-08 by SavaTheAggie, on Flickr

FallTourShow_2014-10 by SavaTheAggie, on Flickr

FallTourShow_2014-19 by SavaTheAggie, on Flickr

FallTourShow_2014-22 by SavaTheAggie, on Flickr

FallTourShow_2014-31 by SavaTheAggie, on Flickr

This was our 4th time attending, 3rd consecutive, this particular event. Public attendance was up quite a bit from year's past, and very impressive for such a small show. This show was also notable for setup time - we set the entire display up in 3 hours exactly - tables, track, buildings, trees, people, details, and running trains. Add 30 minutes if you include unloading the vehicles. It usually takes between 5 to 6 hours to set up comparable layouts (7 tables) in displays past, and setting up in 12 hours for a larger display (10 tables) is not unheard of. Additionally, it only took 1 hour 40 minutes to tear down AND pack back up into the vehicles.

--Tony

[Redimus]

So jealous! There's no LUGs anywhere near me (especially as I don't currently have a car), and the only event I know of is half the country away (admittedly, that's not very far compared to half your country!).

And that's before I go into how jealous I about about the railway and rolling stock you and your group have, lol.

[SteveB]

Looks really nice. Very clean lines and well populated.

I was wondering about the 1/4 round sweeping curve vs. the R40 tight curves and the speed regulation. Are you able to leave the trains run unattended?

Also, is that a "lift out" or hinged bridge so enter/exit is easy?

Thanks

SteveB

[SavaTheAggie]

Thanks guys.

Steve - on layouts with only sweeping/"Grand" curves, we can run our trains at full throttle, but to save batteries we usually limit them a bit. With R40s involved we typically have to limit the trains further, most of our trains can't take R40s at full throttle. Only my Allegheny (slow to begin with) and my T1 are capable of taking an R40 at speed.

Still, we only run our trains at the maximum safe speed for the slowest curve on the layout (as opposed to actively controlling speed), and then we can walk away a bit. But to answer your question - yes, we can leave them be.

The bridge lifts out, and works great. The Allegheny is slow enough that only the other train has to be stopped in order to walk through. The only real finicky bit is putting it back - you have to make sure the track gets pushed down all the way.

--Tony

[Steph 104th]

Awesome layout with beautiful elements! The trains are lovely, the trees are great. As a farm boy I love your barn and windmill.

[patje]

very nice layout

beautiful details ...

2nd picture, I find this super

in that sense, you see something else

built with leaves.

think of the pine trees and the curve

Edited December 4, 2014 by patje

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

At first glance doesn't even seem Lego: the black slepers and the large radius have tricked me!

Amazing layout ang great train!

[v6TransAM]

That looks good.

Love the shot with the engines on the ready track

[garethjellis]

Love the photos of the wonderful layout. How much space does it need for those curves?

[cgarison]

Great Layout!

[ecmo47]

Wow!! Love the overall presentation. Did you use just Lego brand track? How did you acheive the wide, sweeping curve?

[zephyr1934]

Sigh... such a wonderful sight. Great layout, you make it look easy but there is clearly way too many hours in the scenery alone.

[kisper]

What an awesome sight to behold :) wish they had such events in my country :(

[SavaTheAggie]

Thank you all for the kind words, we had a lot of fun putting this one together.

To answer the questions about the large/sweeping/smooth curves - my club calls them "Grand Curves", because Steve thought "Large" just didn't capture their immense size and grace. They are built very similarly to the "Smooth Curves" found in RAILBRICKS Issue #1.

They are 8 baseplates long by 8 baseplates deep, or 256 studs by 256 studs (without the corners, of course). They're 100% standard LEGO.

It's a terrible video, but I made this explaining how I built them:

--Tony

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

Fantastic job!

[dr_spock]

Great looking layout. Any issues not having stanchions around the layout?

[SavaTheAggie]

This show was small enough stanchions weren't necessary, we could monitor the whole layout at once from the outside. We had a few kids touch a few things bit not accidents.

--Tony

[ecmo47]

Thanks for the video. It explained the method very well! I wonder if you could achieve the same effect by using one flex track segment in between each straight track? That would keep all the joints tight if that was an issue. I've been thinking about making my track base the same as your by raising it up one plate width. I just need to find somebody that has several thousand!

More questions:

- How is the articulated engine powered? Looks like it's pulling a 10+ car train which is quite a feat for PF!

- Any LDD instructions for that engine? I'd love to build one.

I just found your Flicker page and drooled over more photos of your layout. Duck pond? Neat! Garden? Fantastic (especially with Shakespeare and Thor rehearsing a scene). I think the detail that really makes the layout standout is the abundance of trees. Any advice on how to make big, sturdy ones?

Anyway, nice job! Lots of inspiring details.

[SavaTheAggie]

I'm glad you liked it. I don't much care for flex track at all, so I try to never use it, though I am saving it up for a permanent display shelf to keep my trains from moving. If memory serves a flex track + straight setup would be a smaller radius than this, but that was done in blue brick so I don't know for sure.

The articulated engine is powered by two PF XL motors in the tender, providing 1:1 power to all the tender's wheels. Our record is 32 cars, and we didn't go higher because the cars began falling over in LEGO's tight curves. If we had a layout that was nothing but these large Grand Curves I'm confident we could have gone to 50. (We do use rare-earth magnets though, 32 is impossible without them).

Sorry, I don't have instructions for that one.

In my Flickr gallery there is a set of instructions for making a "Winter Tree". That is the basic design for half of my trees. I use an aluminum tube the same size as LEGO flex tubing to make the trees stronger. I used to use the flex tubing, and that worked, but after a few shows the trees began to bend, flex, and droop. It'd be fine for a personal layout, but the aluminum tubing, while not purist, is much better for multiple shows.

--Tony