RAILBRICKS Call for Articles

[TaltosVT]

All,

I hope everyone enjoyed the last issue of RAILBRICKS magazine. As editor of the magazine, I really enjoy interacting with rail fans and putting together each issue.

One of my personal goals as a RAILBRICKS team member is to attempt to put out issues of the magazine on a quarterly basis. To reach this goal, however, I need your help. While some members of the RAILBRICKS team enjoy writing articles for us, we really rely on submissions from LEGO train fans around the world. Without your articles and model instructions, we don't have a magazine.

With Issue 12 finished, I've begun looking forward to our next issue. I would encourage anyone who had been thinking about submitting an article, idea, or set of instructions for publication in the magazine to do so. Many members from EuroBricks have submitted articles in the past, resulting in some great material.

If you have a finished article, or an idea for an article, please feel free to email me at editor@railbricks.com. Likewise, if you are interested in writing an article, but don't have any ideas, please feel free to reach out. We have a lot of ideas for articles that we don't have time to write ourselves.

As always, I look forward to seeing what the community can come up with!

-Elroy

P.S. On another personal note, after four years, I'm finally starting to get my building area back together again. Hopefully I'll have some models of my own to share with everyone in the next few months. :-)

[JopieK]

Email sent, I had this idea for articles I could right for our fellow train fans (in parts for about 4 issues):

1/4. general idea of Arduino and why it is very nice for the LEGO Fans

2/4. how to create an Arduino controlled train (without modifying any LEGO): Arduino as a PF sender

3/4. how to control switches and points with Arduino: Arduino as a PF receiver

4/4. how to merge things into a larger system (level crossing, etc.)

[Hrw-Amen]

I have plenty of ideas, and did look at the Railbricks submissions thingy on the website, but it did seem a little over complicated and so I have not submitted anything as I am sure I could just not come up to that standard of writing and my photography skills are pretty rubbish. But if anyone in the Railbricks team want to use any of my stuff (Poor as the photos are.) feel free to borrow them from my flickr pages. Here is the link. (I hope?) http://www.flickr.com/photos/hrw-amen/

I do enjoy reading railbricks though.I only wish that it was possible to get it in a printed format at a reasonable price (Sort of like the Brick journal sold on the LEGO website.) as it is always preferable to have a nice printed copy to refer to. I know online is cheaper and I know that you can get a printed version but it is so expensive. But myself I just like having a hard copy to sit up in bed and read or to take reference from when I am building. It is just having something substantial in your hand seams more real somehow. Perhaps that is why I don't use the L-Draw or other building software?

[Toastie]

Email sent, I had this idea for articles I could right for our fellow train fans (in parts for about 4 issues):

1/4. general idea of Arduino and why it is very nice for the LEGO Fans

2/4. how to create an Arduino controlled train (without modifying any LEGO): Arduino as a PF sender

3/4. how to control switches and points with Arduino: Arduino as a PF receiver

4/4. how to merge things into a larger system (level crossing, etc.)

Hi JopieK,

this would be awesome! I think this would be a perfect series for RailBricks.

Regards,

Thorsten

[Bamos]

Elroy

When would you need articles submitted by to meet your deadline? I have a few ideas.

Bill

[WesternOutlaw]

Railbricks is one of my personal favorite LEGO publications. The content and articles are of a high quality nature and the builders who feature their MOCs are excellent. I highly encourage any of our train fans to submit an article or two for the cause.

[zephyr1934]

Railbricks is one of my personal favorite LEGO publications. The content and articles are of a high quality nature and the builders who feature their MOCs are excellent. I highly encourage any of our train fans to submit an article or two for the cause.

You do not have to have an article in hand, all you need is a good idea to start with. It could be just one or two sentences when you contact Elroy. You can start talking with us early on in the idea process, before you have invested much time (but if you already have 8 pages written that's fine too). Some potential topics include,

• Here's a great trick to ...
  
• Here's a profile of our club (or show, or ...)
  
• I have this neat MOC and would love to give the behind the scenes tour
  

We are also open for suggestions of topics (if you do not think you would have time to write it yourself) and if you are unsure of your English proficiency, do not let that get in the way of suggesting a great idea.

PS, thanks T.B.

[roamingstop]

There are some great threads on here whuch could be reused.

How to modify a pf motor to look 12v like with bbb wheels and zephr connecting rods

Upside down building

Charactoristics of a good marshalling yard

Exploration of narrow gauge mines of the world

City trams of the world

[Hrw-Amen]

How about an article exploring the different angles people have taken on the Octan tanker wagon. I know that I have made some and I know that lots of people on here have also made them. Whilst they all follow a general theme they can be quite interesting to see what others have come up with as a solution to a common idea?

An article on the benefits of building 6 studs wide, 7 studs wide, 8 studs wide and so on up to ten wide. Any issues, the way they look and perform?

One thing that bugs me no end is all these trains with pantographs and let no overhead power lines. I know there was an article a while back, but something to bring it up to date explaining the basics so we can build them easily. That would be good especially with the Horizon Express coming out soon,

[TaltosVT]

These are all great ideas! Keep them coming!

Hrw-Amen brought up some good points:

I have plenty of ideas, and did look at the Railbricks submissions thingy on the website, but it did seem a little over complicated and so I have not submitted anything as I am sure I could just not come up to that standard of writing and my photography skills are pretty rubbish.

The guidelines are sort of a best-case scenario. They really are just guildlines, not hard and fast rules. The closer you can get to the guidelines, the easier it is for us to edit, but as Zephyr mentions above, don't let the guidelines or language get in your way. I've recieved articles in all forms, e-mail, text files, finished PDF, Word documents, etc., and by many authors who write English as a second or third language. What we're really after is good content.

Photographs are a bit tougher. I have some control over color-correction and cropping, but I can only work with what I am given. For photos, the larger and clearer the better. We can scale images down, but they are very difficult, if not impossible, to scale up without losing resolution. Anthony Sava wrote a nice article in Issue 7 about his process for photographing. I know The Brothers Brick have covered that topic as well. In truth, I have trouble photographing MOCs as well, due to the lighting in my work area.

I do enjoy reading railbricks though.I only wish that it was possible to get it in a printed format at a reasonable price (Sort of like the Brick journal sold on the LEGO website.) as it is always preferable to have a nice printed copy to refer to. I know online is cheaper and I know that you can get a printed version but it is so expensive. But myself I just like having a hard copy to sit up in bed and read or to take reference from when I am building. It is just having something substantial in your hand seams more real somehow. Perhaps that is why I don't use the L-Draw or other building software?

We look into the printed issue from time to time. Right now, MagCloud print-on-demand is still our best option. We don't have enough volume to pay to have issues produced in a "real" print run. I agree though, having a printed issue in hand is really nice.

I've also been tentatively looking at various options for things like Kindle readers and tablets. Right now it seems like the PDF version is still best for online viewing, but I'd be interested in hearing readers thoughts on that.

-Elroy