ecmo47

Even though 8-wide trains are my focus now, I'm looking forward to see what changes you have made. I hope you included some trans-blue in the base to jazz it up a bit.

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

It's been a long time since I did this but here is my Flickr album with a foot placement photo. I though I had better base pictures but this will have to do for now. I mixed in some Trans-blue tiles and some gray to liven up the all-white base.

This is the first time I've heard of having to oil roller bearings. What would you recommend? I've seen posts about what a mess graphite powder is. I would guess that more friction is generated by side-frames that are too close to the wheel sets. I was very happy overall with the operation of all my 8-wide equipment. This is the third show I've had the F-7's at and the first time that they ran very well throughout the event to include a 4-unit lashed-up. BrickWorld Chicago was the first event and while the powered units worked well, the dummies with technic rod axles which created way too much drag. They got converted to roller bearings. Next upgrade may be s-Brick controllers which I have in my two GP-40s but that isn't the perfect solution either.

Not a record by any means, but I was trilled to get this 16 car (counting the dummy A and B units) train running consistently. The front F-7A and B units both have two powered trucks each. Control was via the old Lego PF system. I ran both engines on the same channel but one was red and the other blue. It was not hard to manipulate both thumb wheels on the controller at the same time to get the train rolling from a cold start. I could have added more cars but we ran out of rare-earth magnets. This train ran for over an hour and was about 22 feet long. (posting a direct link to the video doesn't seem to be working so click on the photo below to see it on my Flickr album) Untitled by Scott Roys, on Flickr

What Capparezza said! Thanks for the tips on how to lay monorail track and the other great gouge in this thread. With all your help, I've been able to create this plan for a show this weekend. Now if we can just get TrixBrix to create add-on files for their slip switchs, regular switches and cross-overs, we would really be in business!

Next question. Why cant I get monorail tracks to rotate? I tested out 9v track and it will works fine. The rotate clock-wise and counter-clock wise options are high-lighted but do not work. I keep getting a "snake" with the curves instead of an arc.

Thanks! For others, here are the youtube links that I found: Part 1: Part 2:

I have designed my first layout on Blue Brick. The one thing I cannot figure out how to do is highlight sections of the layout and write text in them. I'm sure it has to do with the layers but, thus far, I have not been successful at any text or different colors of highlights. Thanks in advance.

Toss the ME stuff in the trash can right now! It was ok when it was the only option but it fails on the smallest of excuses. It must be glued to have any longevity. Invest in the BrickTracks injected molded curves. https://www.bricktracks.com/products

Were your switches ballasted? We had a slip switch on the mainline at a show recently and it worked pretty good. The problem is the geometry isn’t exactly right. Once you ballast them and get the connection points firmly secured, its about a MM too short. There will be a slight gap on one side or the other of the center piece.

Nice review! Yes, the single stand version that EKae and I reverse engineered is not as stable as your "official" version but works very well. No issue if you keep the stand short, but dicier as you make it taller. This would be a fun project to go back and redo with some of the new parts that Lego now has out that were not available 3 years ago (!) when we all worked on this beauty. Mortesv hinted at a different way to do the fins but never publish the idea that I recall. Maybe an updated set of instructions could capture the blue variant from Rogue One.

Yes, this is Stephan's design. This was his entry into the 2014 Railbricks building contest. It won first place in the locomotive category. That was pretty much the last thing that Railbricks did as they ceased publication right after announcing the winners. I won third place (and a T-shirt) for my third place finish for a water tower. I contacted Stephan and he graciously sent me his LDD file on the train and I built it in the fall of 2014. You can see it here along with my water tower on my very first public layout in the February of 2015...5 years ago already! Here is a link to Stephans Flickr page: And another logging train with an awesome Barnhart log-loader:

Somewhat off topic but what would the scale of these loco's be? Since these are 8-wide and "narrow-gauge", a standard gauge train would probably be some where around 12 studs wide. The Lego minfig would really be too small populate the cab.

AH! I'd recognize D&RGW T-12 #168 in any form! Great job capturing the essence of the locomotive. Very fitting as the Cumbres and Toltec recently got it under steam after a long rebuilding. https://cumbrestoltec.com/about-us-2/168-2/