ME Models Rail Update - March 2016

[Eric J. Olson]

Dear ME Rail Fans and Supporters,

We hope everyone is doing well. We know that there are quite a few people out there wondering when we are going to deliver metal rails to the hobby. The following is a pretty good update for everyone that will show you what we have been working on for the past couple of months. It has not been easy. The good news is that we are poised to help move our L Gauge hobby another step forward.

BRING YOU UP TO SPEED

We would like to restate what has happened since the 2015 holidays. On Christmas Day, our ABS manufacturer had a major health ailment/event occur, which required a lengthy hospital stay and recovery period. Our manufacturer shut down operations to allow for recovery and stabilization of their personal health. We did not feel it was appropriate to air our personal ‘ME family’ situation, but some of you may have already known or may have found out about this from a discussion in February on Eurobricks, and some of you may have known if you contacted us individually. Having said that, if you placed an online order from mid-December until now, you now have the specific reason for our delay of delivery to you.

We did receive a portion of a very large order in December from our manufacturer, right before the shutdown, some of which was used to fill our remaining 2015 orders and some additional KickStarter rewards. With our manufacturer resuming production as of March 1, we have started to receive the remaining parts of our December order. We will be filling online orders from the end of 2015 up through the present and will continue to send KickStarter rewards until we have delivered ALL of our outstanding obligations.

We have also started to stock some new inventory on our home site www.me-models.com that is now available for purchase.

METAL RAILS

As of March 8, the metal rail system is almost ready for production. We are continuing our test trials to make sure that everything will be in working order as we get ready to release our metal rail product.

Going back to 2010, we conducted research and development on applying in-laid metal strips to our ABS rail system and also worked on developing a full metal rail configurations. As you know we made the full metal rail configuration part of our KickStarter campaign. We have spent the past year and a half of trying to create a process that keeps the tolerances between the mating of metal and plastic into one functioning unit. After having limited success, we have decided to go back and review a few of our original ideas, as well as, take under advisement additional ideas to deliver a viable metal rail system. We would like to thank Steve Barlie for his assistance and technical insight in helping us deliver on what we feel is a sustainable system. We have included some pictures of one of our new molds so everyone can see the progress and the direction we decided to pursue. With the conclusion of testing, the ME Models’ Metal Rail System will be ready for sale through our website very soon.

We now have the capability of delivering the R56 curve, ½ straights, standard straights and double length straights that we promised as a reward via our Kickstarter campaign. As an added bonus and as an additional reward for everyone’s patience, we would like to announce that we will also be making the R72, R88 and R104 9-volt electric curves.

The final update on tap is in regards the German E-44 engine that was also part of the KickStarter campaign. For the 9 backers at this level, we have included pictures of the NEWLY DESIGNED and upgraded model.

MOVING FORWARD

Our goal is to finish shipping all pledges from KickStarter as soon as we have enough metal track inventory built.

We are at the finish line. We know it has taken some extra time. We truly appreciate the flexibility and patience from everyone involved. We cannot thank you enough for allowing us to continue to be the ‘go to’ track manufacturer for the “L” Gauge Train Hobby.

Sincerely,

ME Models

P.S. The full KickStarter update includes the images: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/memodels/me-models-railway-system/posts/1446579

[ericb]

Good morning and thank you for the update. I know too well that there are more important things in life than rails for LEGO trains. Hopefully this experience hasn't brought on too much stress for the ME Models team.

Have a great week,

Eric

[Rail Co]

Cannot wait till I can order some of those metal rails to increase my 9v Layout with!

-RailCo

[lanesteele240]

Great news. I need more ABS large radius track and it is time for me to buy some more. Now that you have the metal track situated, some large radius turnouts would be awesome. Im sure you will sell a bunch

[kieran]

Makes me happy that this is coming

[ecmo47]

I received my order today for one 1/2 circle of 56r ABS curves that I placed back in January. I was surprised to also receive one package of double straight track and sample pack of silver rail and dark brown cross ties. From reading above, this looks to be meant for the Kickstarter folks which I was too late to participate in. I am happy to pay for these items as I do not feel that I deserve them. I am certainly looking forward to future products and am very happy with the new possibilities I have incorporated into my layout with your current products. THANKS!!

DSC01405 by Scott Roys, on Flickr

Edited March 15, 2016 by ecmo47

[funkdis]

Really liking the new style of metal rails.

If they rails come as one rail segment rather than rail + sleeper, that would be an absolute win.

[coaster]

I still have concerns about the metal rail solution. The 9V motors pick up the power from the wheel flange, not the rolling surface. The metal rail doesn't overhang the plastic one at all nor present a side surface for contact, so I'm concerned that conductivity may be intermittent. This is why for the curves and switches I'm working on I'm using a custom profile that matches the effective Lego geometry, like this:

I also still don't understand why you are doing the rails and sleepers as separate pieces rather than single rail segments, especially now that you've departed from the all-metal rails and generated a brand new tool.

[UrbanErwin]

Mmh, now it is getting interesting, 9V R104 and R88, yes please!

And please keep the track and sleepers as separated pieces, it opens a lot more possibilities for ballasting and MOC building.

Do you have an indication for the prices and a potential delivery date?

[Eric J. Olson]

To try and answer all in one shot, they're being tested as we speak, so as soon as that is done, we will be able to start filling pre-orders (KickStarter) and open the selling gates. I would imagine that this process will be done soon.

As for "one piece" vs "loose parts", we have been kicking the idea back and forth. At present, loose parts will be an option...as for the single-piece units, we are trying to find the best solution to make that happen.

[112123]

Good news, I wait for more than 2 years have not been wasted, and also very much looking forward to seeing the new structure of the metal track.

[pe668]

I've stuck with you this long. I can wait little longer. ME large radius track is fantastic but I do crave metal for powered track.

[Paperballpark]

Well I got an email from Mike on 11th March saying my order should ship 'next week' (i.e. last week). Great!

Except it isn't showing as having been shipped yet...

EDIT: Just got a response to my email. Apparently it'll be shipped this week, as they had a delay on the last of their parts orders.

Edited March 21, 2016 by Paperballpark

[goody82]

I'm looking forward to purchasing some ME track. I love Lego, but I'm glad to be able to buy larger radius curves, i'm an RC man so this shouldn't be too difficult. Single piece tracks is appealing to me I have to say. I'm not a hardcore MOC/LUG train club guy at his point tho. Just a guy who enjoys having lego trains roll around the living room with better results than Lego 40s curves.

[TaltosVT]

I still haven't received my plastic track from the Kickstarter campaign. I've sent a couple of emails, but had no response. Eric, could you look into it for me?

Thanks,

-Elroy (Backer #9, full loop of ABS R88 if that helps track it down)

[Ashi Valkoinen]

Really, really looking forward for R104 and R88 9V curves. Long radius _and_ metal curves \o/

[Paperballpark]

I received part of my order over the weekend - the R56 and R72 curves I ordered. Still waiting for the R88 and R104, but I was told that they were being sent separately, so I didn't have to wait longer than necessary. Those should hopefully arrive within the next couple of weeks.

I've only clipped part of it together (house is currently a total mess as it's being completely redecorated), but I'm pretty impressed! I'm looking forward to the second batch arriving

[112123]

I received part of my order over the weekend - the R56 and R72 curves I ordered. Still waiting for the R88 and R104, but I was told that they were being sent separately, so I didn't have to wait longer than necessary. Those should hopefully arrive within the next couple of weeks.

I've only clipped part of it together (house is currently a total mess as it's being completely redecorated), but I'm pretty impressed! I'm looking forward to the second batch arriving

How about all metal tracks, are there any update?

[Paperballpark]

I've no idea - I didn't order any.

[Paperballpark]

Having played around with the track I have received, I thought I'd write a little review and post it on the forums of a couple of the LUGs here in the UK, so that others could see what it's like. That was picked up by Huw at Brickset, who kindly said he'd repost it on Brickset. You can read it here.

Edited May 8, 2016 by Paperballpark

[ShrikeArghast]

It's nice to see a company committed to saving electric Lego trains.

[Lego Dino 500]

When in the future do you plan on designing and releasing your own locomotives and cars? I saw the tabs on your site, and become pretty hyped.

[Aaron]

Still awaiting my two full loops of R104 curves from my initial KickStarter pledge, although the add-on kit arrived about a year and a half ago. And I like having the rails separate from the sleepers as it's the only way I can use light gray ballast on some of my track segments without having to use paint. If people really want single piece tracks they can just use glue. Also, any idea on when orders will be fulfilled? I placed one for a few packs of half length track segments last month, and I might end up ordering a lot more soon.

[Rotundus]

With the recent surge in narrow gauge modeling, it might be worth looking into producing a narrow gauge "universal connector" so we can make our own "L-n^x" straight track.

[zephyr1934]

All I have to say is that the curves are fantastic, I have two loops of R104 and two loops of R88 and they are great. The hardest part is resisting the urge to build trains that will not run on the normal R44 lego curves (so far only one has slipped though). I'm working on a project for NMRA coming up (more on that in a different post when it's complete) so I laid out a set of temporary loops in the basement and WOW just about any train looks so much better on the ME curves. You can also go faster and pull more through the curves.

I do have two quibbles about the curves though (bringing my rating down to 9.5/10). First, both the R88 and R104 have a single center receiver bar meant to fit between the 2 studs on a 2x8 in place so that this tie (sleeper) is exactly half way between either end of a track segment. Unfortunately, the R108 track has four sleepers so there is no center tie and you usually do not use the alignment bar. Related to this point, it would have been nice if there were four such bars for the R108 and three for the R88 so that you had a guide to align all of the ties. It is difficult to get the ties in just the right spots. Second, once built the assembly is fragile... probably strong enough for a home layout, but when I take it apart to put away a temporary layout the rails will often pull off of the track connector piece or a few of the ties fall out. Presumably a similar problem is what led lego to switch from the blue and white 12v track to the gray tracks with the clips. Since I will need to set up and tear down fairly quickly at the NMRA show, I took the plunge tonight and glued (well... plastiwelded) all of my curve segments. It is nice to be able to wave them in the air without falling apart. So far so good and definitely worth the hassle.

I also have a section of the silver and dark brown track. If I were starting from scratch I'd seriously consider that color combination, it looks really sharp. But I have way too much gray lego track to want to mix in another color scheme and there are no matching switches. Still, the possibilities of two tone track is certainly a bonus option.

Anyway, the ME models rails are fantastic! They might be a little more work but they are so worth it. Thank you ME for making these a reality!