Building BMR Freight cars

[CrispyBassist]

I cranked out a couple BMR flat cars following the tankers I built: 

BMR Flat Cars by Matt Csenge, on Flickr

The first is the Southern Pacific car in dark red that BMR offered stickers for. I had a custom order with OK Brick Works and asked for the SP heralds in addition. I came up with the tarped load using the fabric piece from the Indiana Jones Race for the Stolen Treasure set (7622). 

Southern Pacific 142588 by Matt Csenge, on Flickr

Second is the Turtle Creek Central car in reddish brown. When cleaning I came across a sheet of TCC decals that were included in an issue of Model Railroader Magazine from 2002. While the sheet was made for HO and N scale models, the heralds (as you can see) fit perfectly on 2x2 tiles! The aforementioned OK Brick Works logo took care of the rest of the stickers. 

Turtle Creek Central 132 by Matt Csenge, on Flickr

So far I've got a pretty good train going!

Lego Freight Train by Matt Csenge, on Flickr

Edited April 2, 2018 by CrispyBassist
Fixed link.

[CrispyBassist]

Got another new one that I just finished, this one is a 50' version of the BMR PS-1 boxcar in Boston & Maine colors:

B&M 50' PS-1 Boxcar by Matt Csenge, on Flickr

I really wanted to do a boxcar with the doors open and a couple hobos ridin' the rails, and I wanted the open door to cover part of the stickers. I chose the 50' version, because the door of the 40' version would cover too much of the sticker. The hobos seem to be enjoying the breeze!

B&M 50' PS-1 Boxcar by Matt Csenge, on Flickr

I also did some work on my New Haven MOW gondola that I run with my wrecker. More pics of both can be found on Flickr (since it's not a BMR car :-) ). 

Freight Cars by Matt Csenge, on Flickr

[supertruper1988]

Those look great! for the 50' did you just add 8 studs of length? Any more mods to the structure if I wanted to build a closed door version?

[ecmo47]

How cool is that! Any shots of how you built the open door since that is a pretty significant departure from the BMR plan?

[CrispyBassist]

23 hours ago, supertruper1988 said:

Those look great! for the 50' did you just add 8 studs of length? Any more mods to the structure if I wanted to build a closed door version?

Exactly, just 8 more studs.

12 hours ago, ecmo47 said:

How cool is that! Any shots of how you built the open door since that is a pretty significant departure from the BMR plan?

Boxcar Open Doors by Matt Csenge, on Flickr

Here's one side. I made them slightly different so they were open different amounts. 

And here's a just for fun one of all my freight cars together:

Lego Freight Train by Matt Csenge, on Flickr

(Don't mind the clutter, I really need a layout to get them out on...)

Edited May 11, 2018 by CrispyBassist
Added photos. Edited rather than posting since it was still the last post.

[JEB314 (James)]

I posted this c.14 hours ago, but don't think many Train Tech people have seen it...

I think this is probably the most appropriate place...

(Mods, I'm not selling anything personally, I'm just raising the word, but if I'm not supposed to do this, please feel free to remove this post / ask me to edit it accordingly, thanks.)

14 hours ago, JEB314 (James) said:

Hi people,

Over the next 24(ish) hours until midnight est there is an amazing opportunity to get EVERYTHING from the BMR (Brick Model Railroader) Shop at 10% off!

 

The discount code is:

BMRFLASH6318

 

Here is the link to their shop:

http://brickmodelrailroader.com/index.php/shop/

 

(I have no vested interests in this, just thought I HAD to share such a rare opportunity to save money on such amazing stuff!)

 

[Jeffinslaw]

While these aren't from BMR, they do fit in quite nicely with their other offerings! They even use similar design wheel sets! If you are interested in building a few, you can purchase a set of instructions from my eBay page. Link is in the description of one of my photos in my Flickr stream.

Pacific Fruit Express by Jeffinslaw, on Flickr

-Jeffinslaw

[CrispyBassist]

Back again with another duo of BMR freight cars! This time it's two State of Maine boxcars, one for the Bangor and Aroostook and one for the New Haven, since both railroads owned these cars. 

State of Maine Boxcars by Matt Csenge, on Flickr

I chose dark blue after seeing Dawson Santoro's on Flickr. The cost of the handle plates in dark blue is pretty high on Bricklink, so the New Haven got black ends to keep the price down. 

Aside from the color, the only major deviation from the BMR plan was for the charcoal heaters on the underside of the car. These cars were outfitted with heaters to keep the potatoes they transported from freezing in the winter. 

On 6/6/2018 at 7:46 PM, Jeffinslaw said:

While these aren't from BMR, they do fit in quite nicely with their other offerings! 

Wow, these reefers are gorgeous! You're right about them fitting in with the BMR cars. I'm impressed with the quantity you have too!

[ecmo47]

Here is some good news for the crowd. Looks like then new Harry Potter set #75952 (Newts Case of Magical Creatures) will re-introduce a part that we have all been wanting: Part # 48336, reddish-brown plate with handle on the side! Yes, we can finally build the PS-1 box-cars in a very prototype color and not break the bank! Here is a shot of the set with the suspected parts circled in red. One could assume that the set has at least 4 in it. I wish I could say that I was the eagle-eye that spotted it, but Cale Leiphart noted it in a Facebook post and I thought that ya'll might like to know.

Edited July 9, 2018 by ecmo47

[Cale]

4 hours ago, ecmo47 said:

Here is some good news for the crowd. Looks like then new Harry Potter set #75952 (Newts Case of Magical Creatures) will re-introduce a part that we have all been wanting: Part # 48336, reddish-brown plate with handle on the side! Yes, we can finally build the PS-1 box-cars in a very prototype color and and not break the bank! Here is a shot of the set with the suspected parts circled in red. One could assume that the set has at least 4 in it. I wish I say that I was the eagle-eye that spotted it, but Cale Leiphart noted it in a Facebook post and I thought that ya'll might like to know.

I can now rest a little easier at night knowing that I have not drained the world of this valuable resource.

 

Time make more boxcars.

 

Cale

[supertruper1988]

On 7/7/2018 at 3:29 AM, ecmo47 said:

Here is some good news for the crowd. Looks like then new Harry Potter set #75952 (Newts Case of Magical Creatures) will re-introduce a part that we have all been wanting: Part # 48336, reddish-brown plate with handle on the side! Yes, we can finally build the PS-1 box-cars in a very prototype color and and not break the bank! Here is a shot of the set with the suspected parts circled in red. One could assume that the set has at least 4 in it. I wish I could say that I was the eagle-eye that spotted it, but Cale Leiphart noted it in a Facebook post and I thought that ya'll might like to know.

Goodie! just gotta wait till they show up on bricks'n'pieces to order a boat load 

[CrispyBassist]

On 7/7/2018 at 11:05 AM, Cale said:

Time make more boxcars

On that note, time to build more boxcars before Cale re-drains the world of this valuable resource!

[Jeffinslaw]

Well guys... have some bad news on part 48336 in reddish brown. Received an email from LEGO support that TLG is only producing enough of those pieces for that one specific set and they are not available for sale on their own. So that's a bummer.

- Jeffinslaw

[ecmo47]

  Sounds like we need to riot in the streets of Billund! Who's with me?

[Roadmonkeytj]

After reviewing these three pages ... Im sold take my money now ... I have to have boxcars.  Congrats to all the builders in this thread ... These are impressive ... I think I actually recognised a few of them from Brickworld too lol.

[ScotNick]

On 8/5/2018 at 2:27 AM, Jeffinslaw said:

Well guys... have some bad news on part 48336 in reddish brown. Received an email from LEGO support that TLG is only producing enough of those pieces for that one specific set and they are not available for sale on their own. So that's a bummer.

- Jeffinslaw

Actually just ordered at bricks'n'pieces and they are available in reddish brown for 11c/piece
Just wanted to let you guys know.

 

Cheers, Nick

[supertruper1988]

5 hours ago, ScotNick said:

Actually just ordered at bricks'n'pieces and they are available in reddish brown for 11c/piece
Just wanted to let you guys know.

 

Cheers, Nick

Yeah I made 3 orders to have a few on hand. I think 600 should do for my train building 

[ecmo47]

Thanks for the tip! I tried to order more then 200 by calling customer service but they would not allowed to do that. We're stuck with ordering in batches of 200 which is going to cost unnecessary postage. Oh, well, A few extra bucks to able to get these in quantities is fantastic! Now just need to get part #2540 (Plate, Modified 1 x 2 with Handle on Side) back in a new set.

[supertruper1988]

55 minutes ago, ecmo47 said:

Thanks for the tip! I tried to order more then 200 by calling customer service but they would not allowed to do that. We're stuck with ordering in batches of 200 which is going to cost unnecessary postage. Oh, well, A few extra bucks to able to get these in quantities is fantastic! Now just need to get part #2540 (Plate, Modified 1 x 2 with Handle on Side) back in a new set.

Even with tax and postage its still less than $30 for 200 which is $0.15 each

[Cale]

22 hours ago, supertruper1988 said:

Yeah I made 3 orders to have a few on hand. I think 600 should do for my train building 

Just ordered 200 myself, which is enough to do 6 boxcars.
 

Cale

[CrispyBassist]

On 8/29/2018 at 7:44 PM, ScotNick said:

Just wanted to let you guys know.

 

Again, thanks for the heads-up! Just ordered 200 as well. Maybe all of us ordering as many as possible will clue Lego in that it's a high-demand piece...

[Lord Insanity]

Those boxcars are amazing.  I would love to build a few myself.  While I can probably work out the important stuff from the pictures I would like to actually support the designer.  Any possibility for another print run of the instructions to show up for sale?

[ecmo47]

Gosh, it’s been a year since I last a wrote a review of a BMR Premium Instruction kit! This will be for the Northeastern Caboose that was released back on 2 April 2018. I order this set right away but I didn’t get to building it until now due to other commitments and some plan old laziness. I would have to think that the BMR guys thought long and hard about producing a caboose since they tend to be very specific to an individual road and it would be hard to appeal to an audience wide enough to make the effort worthwhile (I.E will it generate income). Cale and Glenn solved this problem by choosing a prototype that was used by many of the eastern roads.

This kit has a couple of “firsts” we have not seen before. The first “first” is that it has a full interior to include beds, lockers, stove and sink. The second “first” is that it has an optional light kit that will illuminate two exterior coach lights and one interior light. I have not yet installed my light kit (because of a complete bone-headed assumption) but it looks easy to do.

The kit includes all the usually BMR goodies: 52 page instruction book divided into 5 major sections, 4 wheel sets, and a small pack of Brickarms pieces. If you order decals and/or the light-kit, they will be included in the box. The 5 sections are history, building instructions, blue prints of the model with views of all sides, side views of all decal options with body color notes, and the parts list.

Before ordering, I would highly recommend that you look at this BMR article on the release of the kit as it details the many road names and body color combinations that the kit can build.

https://brickmodelrailroader.com/index.php/2018/04/02/northeastern-caboose-premium-instructions-are-open-for-preorder/#more-3597

There are no less then TWELVE decal options currently available proving the wide appeal of this caboose in the east. I initially picked a set of Norfolk and Western decals for their red design but switch to the blue design when I was able to build another red caboose. More on that later.

Obviously, the design you pick will greatly affect your parts buy. The parts list is for a red caboose with a black roof which will cover two of the twelve possible decal options. Slight parts list modifications will be in order to build three more models that have red bodies but different colored roofs. After that, the additional seven design will cause major departure for the parts list colors with blue, green/yellow, dark red, yellow and a red/white/black body design. I went with the blue Norfolk and Western design with a Light Blue-Grey (LBG) roof. It was not too hard to simply go through the parts list and change all the red parts to blue. I made a photocopy of the parts list so that I could mark all over it as necessary and track my parts buys. BMR does not us the term “body color” in this parts list because it would get way to confusing with all the different color options.

The parts list is a bit intimidating as it is eight pages long and consists of 145 lots to capture the details of 840 pieces! The interior uses about 199 parts. Most of the Reddish Brown and LBG pieces are for the interior so it’s pretty easy to pare down the parts list if cost is an issue.

There are a couple mistakes on the parts list that will hopefully be corrected on later printings. Here are the mistakes on the first printing that you need to be aware of when ordering parts:

1.       Page 4. Brick 1x2. *****parts list only shows 4 when 23 are needed*******

2.       Page 8. Part 54200, 1x1 slope 30. Only one is needed in "body color" or more specifically, the roof color.

3.       Page 8. Part 85983, 1x2 slope 30. Not needed at all.

4.       Page 8. Part 30663. Need 2 steering wheels, not one.

There are a couple of alternate builds suggested on pages 12, 14, and 26. The parts required at NOT included in the parts list. If you want to do these builds, you will need to add those parts to your buy list.

I guess now is the time to talk about the 3mm rigid tubing used extensively for detailing this model. Below is my suggested buying and cutting guide. Parts list just tells you how many of the installed pieces you will need. Obviously, you cannot buy 3mm tube that is 7.15 studs long. When buying, you will need 103 stud’s worth of black, 32 stud’s worth of yellow and 2 stud’s worth of LBG. The LBG piece is the interior sink drain so could easily be black if you don’t want to chase down yet one more piece.  For the curvy pieces of tubing needed, the instructions give you some nice tips on how to accomplish this. I resorted to my tried-and-true technique of slipping a piece of copper wire inside the tube. Look back to my advice on how I did the handrails for the tanker. For these short pieces, I cut the copper wire about 1 stud shorter then the tubing so that the ends of it would not be visible once installed. With the copper inside, it is very easy to shape (or re-shape) your curves to fit in the brackets.

As mentioned, I did the N&W blue caboose with a Light Blue-Grey (LGB) roof. Only two pieces did not exist in the required color from the original red. This first was an 8x8 plate (#41539) in yellow. I used two 4x8 plates (#3035) instead. The second part that didn’t exist was #47905 (1x1 brick modified with studs on 2 sides in blue. This part is used on page 22 to create door knobs. Use part #87087 (1x1 brick modified with stud on one side) and live with your caboose only having door knobs on the exterior.

Still with me? Let’s talk about the build for a few minutes. As stated, I did the blue version that has a yellow stripe along the bottom of the body. Since the 8x8 plate doesn’t exist in yellow I used two 4x8’s. After looking at the instructions, it was best structurally to install them horizontal to the track vice parallel.  This prompted another small change on page 23 where I replaced two 2x6 plates with a 2x12 to help tie the floor together. Overall, the instructions are very clear but there are a few places where I wish BMR would use contrasting colors to provide better visibility of details on the installation of various sub-assemblies.  The most troublesome depiction is on page 36. Here is a better picture of what they are trying to accomplish. Instead of the eight 1x2 trans-clear plates, you could use two 2x4 trans-clear plates which are not too hard to find.

Don’t wait until the end to install the decals. I applied mine once done with page 29 before I installed the trucks and the curved handrails. 

The most difficult part of the build was getting the end rails and ladders as even a possible. I do not have any magic solutions to get things lined up. It just takes patience and a fair amount of making small adjustments with some needle-nose pliers to get it looking right. 

Ok, time for some pictures of this fabulous build!

Bonus build!!

I built this KCS caboose at the same time. Since it was in red, I switched the N&W build from red to blue. I'm not going to "review" this build as it was a limited edition (35 copies only) that BMR produced for those that participated in the Lego layout at the Kansas City NMRA annual convention. I was not able to be there but a friend picked up one of the few kits that were available after all the layout participants had a chance to get one. Mine set is #31. Since this was a special edition, the kit comes with some extra goodies to include some printed tiles, a decal set and a Certificate of Authenticity. The build is similar to the Northeastern caboose. It has a full interior and an optional light kit. My friend did not get the optional light kit so I decided to use the one that I bought for the NE caboose. Imagine my chagrin when I finally took a close look at my light kit and discovered that it is specifically engineered for the NE caboose and will not work on the KCS caboose. Despite the faux pas on my part, the build was enjoyable and straight forward. I made one change from the directions. I used the wire trick to make the handrails on the ends one continuous piece instead of two pieces. The wire allows for a sharper 90 degree bend. The new truck design is cool with the "exposed" axle ends. The finished product runs very smoothly. There is some related news that BMR just posted on Facebook. They will be releasing an "un" limited edition of this caboose soon. Here is the post

" It was one of the coolest kits we've done so far. Our own Glenn Holland did an amazing job with the design, but we only made a limited run for the 2018 NMRA National Train Show this year. Fear not however, if you were not fortunate enough to get one of these, we will be releasing a regular edition early next year, this time covering all three cupola variations of the International Car Company's Extended Vision Caboose in one Premium Instruction Kit, and offering OKBrickworks decals for a wide variety of railroads that used them."

 

 

[Glenn Holland]

Thanks for that nice review, Scott. Your N&W blue version did turn out pretty well, I think that's the only version of that scheme I've seen built. 

I'm also glad you liked the wide vision. We tried pretty hard to make that a very nice exclusive kit, and I hope we succeeded. I know it continues to be Cale's favorite that we've done so far. I definitely swung for the fences on the detail in it.

And yes, I am working on a regular release for the wide vision, coming early 2019 assuming no setbacks. I've found that the International Car Co. wide visions were so drastically different that an instruction kit warrants three separate models, so that's what were doing. Basically, it'll be three separate models in one book, which will exemplify each cupola position ICC offered on this design: centered, semi-offset, and offset. For reference, the Mopac shown above is the offset design. The three cars will each be from different railroads and have very different floorplans. Beyond these three cars, we'll offer extra decals for more railroads, they just won't be 100% accurate, given the prototypes likely has several different options in the floorplans and such. I'd love to release even more than three designs, but we have to start being practical somewhere :)

[ecmo47]

Looks like I’ll get one more review done before the end of the year on what appears to be BMR’s final offering for 2018. They had hinted back in September that they might have another kit or two out this year but with just two weeks left that does not look probable. That just means more for 2010 which looks to be shaping up as a big year if all goes as planned. Along with another caboose model, the guys teased a bulk-head flat car at the NILTC club show Dec 8-9, finalized a consolidated steamer design for Brickarms and will produce a full kit for a mysterious steamer. But I digress.

The 52.6 ft, 70 ton, drop-end gondola is the 6^th steam transition era offering from BMR (7^th if you count the NMRA special edition MoPac caboose). The box contains all the usual stuff you would expect; 52 page instruction book and 4 wheelsets w/bearings. No Brickarms pieces for the brake rigging this time. The instruction book has loads of pictures of both the prototype and the model, a 5-page history, blueprints, visual instructions for the car and the three different loads and the four different parts lists.  As is becoming the BMR standard, these instructions will build a multitude of different models. If my math is correct, you can build a whopping 156 different gondolas! Here’s the math. Three different variants of the end gates (both up, both down, one up and one down), 4 different loads (empty, I-beam, pipes, and girder) and 13 decal options. I’ve done my part and built 3 so it’s up the rest of you for the other 153 versions! The instructions will build you either the AC&F version or the one produced by Bethlehem Steel. The difference between the two is brake wheel placement so it’s just the change a couple parts. You can build in three different colors; reddish-brown, black and MOW yellow. The decals you pick will dictate your build color.  Most of the decal options are eastern roads but they did produce two western road options: Southern Pacific and Western Pacific. I built two black version, B&O and WP and will soon have a reddish-brown Wabash.

The car is big! It’s 43 studs long (plus coupler length) and measures 13.5 inches (34.3 cm) long. It is 2 stud shorter than the 53’ flat car so it is not the longest car in the fleet. There are approximately 721 parts divided up into 70 lots. The various loads will add to the part count but more on that later. Thirty-five of the parts are various lengths of 3mm tubing. Cutting chart below.

The build is well thought-out and pretty clear. I say “pretty clear” as there is one graphic that is almost impossible to decipher. It’s on page 11, step one where you are laying out all the plates for the gondola wall. I had break out the magnifying glass in an attempt to see the part lines. Refer to the graphic on the bottom of page 12 which shows the back side of the gondola wall in much better detail. Once you get the sides done, go ahead and install the decals before you attach them to the frame. The bulk of the transfers go on the sides anyway. Once the sides are done, you will have to make the decision of how the ends will be. I do not know if there are enough parts in the parts list to build the ends in both the up positions and the down position. The “ends-up” position is a small wall. The “ends-down” is redoing the floor with grill pieces. I would suspect that you would have to disassemble one to build the other version. The only reason that I mention this is because there are some decals that go on the ends which brings up one small short-fall of the instructions. Decals for the ends are included but there is no specific graphic that shows you where they go. Coupled with this is that there is no flat surface on which to install said decals. The “problem” is easy to overcome. The included photos of the proto-types will clue you in to basically where the end graphics would go.  I pulled off a couple of the 1x2 grills and replaced them with appropriately sized tiles to provide a smooth surface for the decals. Back to the ends for a minute. Because of the graphics, I built both “ends ups” sub-assembles and set them aside and used additional parts for the “ends down” representation. The gondola with the “ends-up” install is a very sturdy model. With the “ends-down” it’s a bit more fragile and the sides will pop-off if not handled carefully.

As BMR did with the 53’ flatcar, they included three different brick-build loads for your gondola. I built two of the three loads offered; the I-beam and the pipes. The I-beam was fun to build and provides a colorful contrast to a black gondola. I made it 6 studs longer than the instructions and made it hang over one end, much like the pipes. Part of the reasons is that the gondola body is much stronger with at least one end installed as mentioned above. The pipes are currently installed in a black gondola but will move to the reddish-brown one once complete. Again, the color contrast will make it a sharp-looking model when finished. Installing the pipes was a huge pain in the you-know-what. It might help to install the pipes on the gondola bed without the trucks installed. My problem was that the floor and frame kept coming apart as I was attempting to get the pipe frame installed. There is one fairly significant mistake in the instruction in regards to the pipes. The lengths of the 3mm rigid hose is wrong on the parts list and it’s wrong on the short side. The lengths are corrected on the installation page so refer to page 32 for the correct lengths to get. One note, for the ease of pulling parts, BMR has a separate parts list for each load and the gondola (four total).  One other note on the pipes. The parts list calls for 239 black 2x2 round bricks (part #3941) I received my big bag o’ black bricks and soon discovered that there are at least three different center hole designs. I only mention this because it hard as heck to get the 3mm tubing though one certain design due to friction. Refer to the photo below. The brick on the right with a hole shaped exactly like a Lego axle is the one to avoid. The other two designs worked well. There is no part number difference so your just stuck with what arrives in your BL order.

There are a couple mistakes on the parts lists as noted below:

1.       Page 46: First part, #3023, is not needed.

2.       Page 46: The red 1x8 plate part number is 3460, not 3406.

3.       Page 47: The stud and mm measurement for the 3mm hoses are both wrong. The sizes list for the build on page 32 are the right ones (18 studs/144mm and 10 studs/80mm).

 That wraps up this review. I hope that it is informative and helpful for other 8-wide builders out there.