Building BMR Freight cars

[Glenn Holland]

Thanks for another good write up. Glad to see you're still enjoying our cars, and of course finding a few areas for us to improve. These have already been taken care of as we're ordering more books this week for a restock.

Couple notes - We're still trying to get our next two cars out this year, but if we can't, they should be ready in January. We are planning a dual release, which will include a 60' bulkhead flatcar (from yours truly) and a 50' boxcar of western origin, designed by Cale. We would have liked to have these out much sooner, but we hit some serious dead-ends in our research with both cars and had to design that 2-8-0 for Brickmania. The 2-8-0 steam locomotive you mentioned is a USATC S160, and is going to be produced exclusively by Brickmania (not Brickarms :) ) as a full kit. It will be available from them on Friday, December 21st. BMR also tested it's own locomotive (also planned to be released as a kit) which we will formally reveal in January with more information.

 

[CrispyBassist]

Just wanted to share with y'all another load I recently put together for the BMR flat car:

Turtle Creek Central Flatcar by Matt Csenge, on Flickr

I've had the aero tubes set aside for this for a while, though I've mostly seen corrugated pipe loads on bulkhead flats or gondolas. Perhaps they're being shipped to the construction site for some kind of Hyper-circuit thing ;-) 

[Pdaitabird]

@CrispyBassist You actually found a use for those Mars tube things! The flatcar looks great.

[ecmo47]

Nice! That looks very authentic.

[sed6]

I'm curious what the boxcar weighs. I just built a boxcar that's 10.8 ounces and wonder how that compares. Anyone able to drop one on a scale for me?

Thanks!

Edited April 3, 2019 by sed6
cnat spele

[Matt Dawson]

On 4/3/2019 at 3:42 AM, sed6 said:

I'm curious what the boxcar weighs. I just built a boxcar that's 10.8 ounces and wonder how that compares. Anyone able to drop one on a scale for me?

Thanks!

I'll check one of mine tonight - might as well as it's prepped for an exhibition on Friday!

[A Wild P42]

Nice! Can train cars get any more realistic?!

[ecmo47]

Hello, everybody! I know that it has been a long time since I updated this thread. It’s not that I haven’t been building  8-wide freight cars, I just haven’t got around to writing about them while the memory is still fresh. Today, I am going to discuss one of the latest BMR offerings, the ACF 70 ton covered hopper. This is the first model by Matt Csenge,  one of the new designers at BMR. This is BMR’s second hopper offering. The first was the USRA 55 ton hopper by Cale Leiphart. This model is longer 6 studs longer and about 6 plates higher, so you don’t have to worry about getting a “do-over”. This model will stand alone quite well!

One quick note on the parts list. On page 43, the part number for the 2x2 corner brick should be 2357, not 3008 and the part number for the 2x6 brick should be 2456, not 3003. Sorry we missed those in the editing process.  I’m going to go through the build chronologically and will make comments about parts and build sequencing as I go along. My hope is that my experience will be valuable to other builders that my not enjoy the laborious process of determining which parts and processes to use on some of the more difficult shades.

This model has seven different colors and 12 different road names. The main body colors are as follows: Reddish Brown, Orange, Yellow, Black, Dark Red, White and Light Blue Grey. I chose Dark Red and Orange for my builds.

Step 2: There are no orange 1x8 tiles so you will need to get eight 1x4 tiles to replace. There are no structural issues with this replacement.

Step 4 (and many others): Part #48336 (Plate modified 1x2 with handle on side, closed end) does not exist in orange. You will have to substitute part #2540 (1x2 plate w/handle on side) so round up a total of 36 of them for the build. On the dark red model, part #48336 is available but it is a little rare and very hard to find in any significant quantity. If you build in dark red, round these up first. You can substitute #2450. It is fairly common but averages about .50 cents each.

Step 7/16:   Part #85861 (1x1 round stud w/open hole) is pretty rare in orange. Fortunately, there are two really nice parts that can be substituted. The first one is #24866 (Plate, Round 1x1 w/flower edge). It’s common and cheap and adds a bit of extra detail. Buy some extras and consider them for the top of the rod that will be place in it. The other part is #33286 (Brick, Round 1 x 1 x 2/3 with Flower Edge (4 knobs on base). This part is a little more robust but adds great detail to the base of the rod. Buy 10 for enough to detail both the top and the bottom of the vertical rods.

Step 23: The 6L bar with stop ring does not come in orange or dark red. You will have to get some 3mm rigid hose to replace these parts. The orange only was produced on 8L (75c08). Dark red comes in three lengths: 8, 14 and 26. All are about equally scare but not uber expensive. I’d recommend that you get six 8L pieces. This will give you enough to do step rungs in color if you choose to go that route at the end. You will have to cut these to length a little less then 6L if using the flowers as the hole does not go all the way through the part. Also, on this step, part #4085 (1x1 with clip vertical) does not come in dark red so go with reddish-brown which blends nicely with the dark red color variations.

Steps 24-28: The corner ladder stacks will get bumped out of alignment very easily. If you do not want to constantly readjust them back into position, consider a spot of super-glue. I use Loctite gel-control brand that does not fog up parts.

Step 30:  Part #92593/41740 (Plate, modified 1 x 4 with 2 Studs) does not come in orange. Just use a 1x8 plate instead. If the exposed studs really bother you, put a 1x1 tile on it. Order two extra 1x8 plates (3460) and 4 extra 1x1 tiles (3070b). You could use dark orange, but I would not recommend it here as the end will be very conspicuous as part of the side structure.

Step 31: If you have them, part 3245b/c (Brick 1 x 2 x 2) makes a nice substitute for the two 1x2 bricks.

Step 33 (part 1): Leave the 1x1’s off for now. They will get in the way of installing the sub-assemble built in steps 54-71.

Step 33 (part 2): Part #3021 (Plate 2x3) in dark red is a little hard to find and can be expensive. This is your second “key” part in dark red that you need to base you Bricklink orders around.

Step 38/43: These parts recommend “body” color but are so buried that you will have a very hard time seeing them. I would call the headlight bricks (4070) uncommon in orange and dark red so if they are the last on your “to buy” list, just use black ones.

Step 49: Part 3045 (Slope 45 2 x 2 Double Convex) is a little hard to find in dark red. Third “key piece”.

Step 51 and 52: I’d recommend leaving these parts off until the end. Your model will not sit flat if you install them and this fact will be critical for the next assemble installation. Part # 42446/28974 does not come in orange. I used LBG and am considering switching all of step 52 parts to that color.

Step 57-68. The parts list calls for 26 of part #87987 (1x1 brick with 1 stud on the side). I recommend using 13 of part #11211 (Brick 1x2 with two studs on side) to ease the building.

Step 72: Leave these parts off until after you get the sub-assemble installed. With the studs every whichy-way on this model, you will need to twist, push and squeeze to get everything fully seated in place. After some struggles on my first model, I jumped to steps 85-89 to build and installed the center roof beam. This assemble ties the whole model together but requires some finesse to get it in place. Once in place though, you will have a very solid model and you can install the side pieces without fear of knocking ½ of them off.  Once done with both assembles, install the vertical slats made in this step. Also, you can now install the four 1x1 bricks that you left off back in step 33.

Step 78: No part #99780 (Bracket 1x2 -1x2 inverted) in dark red. Use reddish brown.

Step 83 (labeled 93 incorrectly): I found that the roof panels would not seat over the 1x2 plate very well. I substituted a 1x6 tile for the 1x2 plate and 1x4 tile. This sloped roof assemble will stay in place nicely with the studs on the 1x2 plate with handle on the other end.   

Step 89: The double stud jumper (#34103) does not come in orange. You have three options for replacement. The first and easiest is use a 1x2 plate and not worry about the 1/2 stud gap not filled on each end. Option two is to use a 1x2 stud jumper and glue a 1x1 tile to its end. This will fill the same space as the 1x3 double stud jumper and provide a small but useful lip for the roof panels to rest on. The third option is to use a dark orange one which looks ok. It’s not too obvious on the ends.

Step 105: Since there is 3mm tubing in both dark red and orange, you can use them for steps instead of black. I am going to use sand red and dark orange robot arms both of which are a little rare but not expensive. Install the remaining parts from step 51-52.

Step 108: Part #26603 (tile 2x3) does not exist in dark red. You will need order twenty-two extra 1x2 (3069b) and 2x2 (3070b) tiles to replace them.

Step 109: Part #33909 (2x2 tile modified with 2 studs on one side) does not exist in orange. Part #87580 (2x2 plate w/center stud) is good replacement.

That should do it for the build. Here are a couple tips/techniques for decal installation. First note is that for the CE&I decals, Andy has already provided the proper spacing for the long Chicago & Eastern Illinois wording and other groupings of lettering. After Matt clued me into this fact after I got the first side done. I took off all the 2x6 panels and install an extra plate underneath them and reinstall them on the model. This will raise those panels above the ribs. Now you can install that complete lettering strip in one shot except the “C” and the “S” which will have to be applied separately. The alignment will be prefect (or perfectly slanted!) . The other technique that I used was to remove all the 2x6 panels and secure them to a 2x16 plate. That way, they are all side-by-side and it is much easier to keep your alignment straight and you are not trying installed lettering between the ribs. Proper spacing is not provided for the Soo Line model so the second technique would be recommended.

Hope this walk-through was helpful in building your covered hopper, regardless of color.  Please feel free to comment here or over on Brick Train Depot’s board over on Discord . Till next time, Scott