ecmo47

Here's your prototype!

Car 14 and 15 joined the lineup today. I've been working on these 2 tankers since before BMR came out with their plans. I first was inspired by this shot of a Lionel Gulf tanker: From that screen shot I made this LDD file: I ordered parts and made two of these but was never fully satisfied with the results. Mostly the frame didn't look complete. I'll add here a couple notes on parts. First, LDD will tell that 6x6 dishes exist in blue. Sadly, they do not. Rare parts in blue are the 4x4 dish (5.00+ each) and the plate rail seemed scarce in quantity 6 months ago bit seem to be fairly plentiful now. About the time BMR released their plans, I was working with Legoman 666 for some decals and came across a couple internet photos of prototypes to get a good idea of lettering. Since both these photo's match the BMR AC&F 10K tank, I dismantled my creations and rebuilt them per the BMR plans with some of my own mods. The biggest reason for the delay is what to do about the ends. Dark Blue didn't look too bad but I wanted to see if painting would look decent. I first tried hand-painting one and it was a disaster! I determined that spray painting would be the only way to possibly achieve a smooth finish. To do so, I dug out a 30 year old Badger brand hobbyist model spray gun powered by a can of compressed air. After several attempts to get the paint consistence right, I managed to get four LBG 6x6 dishes smoothly covered. A darker color (like the Dark Blue ones) may have been a better choice. Very pleased with the final results as shown here. I'm assuming that this is the same set of decals that Legoman 666 made for BMR and they are selling in their store.

I've got both Lego versions and have built the Mortesv designed one. The Mort MOC is far superior to both. The old 10019 is quite fragile and the engines fall off/miss-align at the blink of an eye. The newer Tantive IV just does not look right to me but is at least swooshable, something the 10019 is not. Mort's MOC is swooshable with the Ekea modified backbone that ties the engine block to the fuselage. By far, the Mort MOC is the best looking. I'd sell the Lego version to finance the MOC.

You did a great job of capturing the essence of the proto-type! I will say that old #185 looks like it's missing a set of drivers up front and it should have been a 4-6-0.

OKBrickWorks does all the transfers for Brick Model Railroad guys. They have made custom stickers for me. Prices are very reasonable.Here is a link to their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/OKBrickWorks/ Legoman666, the owner of OKBrickworks, is a poster here and I'm sure will chime in soon.

Not in the PennLug realm yet but was happy to get all 13 of my BMR cars moving at once this morning thanks to an Emerald Night Double header with a Maersk pusher at the end. It measured 19 feet total.

That is really cool! Any pictures with the rest of your fleet? I just noticed that you used two LBG 1/2 barrels (Part #4424) which are super-duper rare and will cause grumbling for anybody that uses your LDD. Also I wonder how it would look if all the hull studs were plated.

Cute little station but I'd extend the roof a stud or two past the gable walls to make eves.

^ Looking good! Has a nice weathered look.

The shape of the circled container shape would have been inspired by the containers on the underside of the rebel transport.

Our LUG had a show over the weekend and we were able to display two of Cavegods mighty AT-AT's. I built mine back in 2015 and it hasn't been out of the box in two years so was happy it got to see the light of day again. Mine is the one on the left. A fellow club member completed his (with CJD223's instructions) just the day prior and was able to bring it on the second day of the show for it's inaugural display. I've always wanted to see a couple of these guys together and the display was a real crowd pleaser. The AT-ST in the middle is the Anothergol's version 1 design.

In the course of revamping all 32 pairs of trucks that I own, I decided to make a change to the tanker frame. If you have built it, you will know how fragile it is, especially the four 1x8 tiles that are not secured on one end. The change was to remove the center 1x6 struts are replace them with 2x6's, along with the 1x3 with 2x3's. Easy change. The results are hardly noticeable.

This one wasn't supposed to happen and it's all Legoman666's fault. I was working with him on some custom decals. In the course of our conversation, he sent me some files that he had already made for the BMR boxcar. One was the N&W one above and one of the others was for the SCL Silver Meteor. The coloration of his sample was all red. I google Silver Meteor and came up with this beautiful LGB product. I wrote back to Andy and asked if he could change the color to match this one. He had a sample back with in an hour and mailed it to me in a couple days with the rest of my order. I wasn't going to build it build it so soon but I had a snow day yesterday and was able to rummage all the parts out of my stash. One of the experts on eastern roads isn't sure this is a true prototype. The all red lettering on reddish-brown is probably the right color but I've already got two RB cars and I am a sucker for flashy boxcars. Now I need to get back to expanding the layout by 4 feet and securing some motive power to pull all these guys......

Yes, It is possible. Insulated 10 gauge wire fits the Lego clips quite well. I like use bare 10g wire inside 3mm rigid hose because the wire can slide inside the tube so when you bend it back around to the beginning, the bare wire can slip inside the start of the 3mm tube. If you use a black piece of insulated wire, you will have butt ends that will not look as finished.

Forgot to add this tidbit. Order some of these new parts for your trucks, You will know where they go!

Is that what the N&W roundel design is called? Makes sense!

The holidays are over and it's time to get back to doing some building! I've got some projects in the works but thought to update a couple things. I've been tweaking my trucks. I had built a bunch of trucks based on the plans in PS-1 boxcar. I was never very impressed with their "rolly-ness" and was glad when Cale explained in a post above why they switched designs. The design included in the Premium instructions after the boxcar are more solid and do tend to roll better but do require individual attention to ensure that nothing is rubbing up against the wheels. I did glue the wheels to the axles which I find necessary. I first used Gorilla Brand super glue which was not good. It would film up all nearby Lego surfaces. I switched to a drop of Krazy brand glue. (Yes, the real-world inspiration for Kragle.) Here is a poor picture of the trucks: The one on the left is the original design. You can see how the 1x2 technic bricks are not supported as good as they could be that could lead to the binding of the axle. The middle truck is the new design and on the right is a slight modifiecation of the newer design. I shorten the 2x6 plate (LBG in the center truck) by one stud so that it would clear the boxcar under-carriage better. One thing that is possible with the newer design is that you can make the 6L tube holding the bearing boxes one plate-width higher. It cheese wedge is still not exactly centered on the middle of the wheel but at least it doesn't look like it's dragging on the rails anymore. I haven't check to see if this added height causes binding issues on any of the current BMR models. Last but not least for now is this kinda new addition to the fleet. I've had the car built for a while but just got it lettered with some sweet transfers from legoman666. He sell this design and a couple others. I had him make a set of customs decals for another car that I'm working on and could not be happier with the experience. VERY reasonable priced for the custom work.

Not really. Many of the small detail parts (4085,4081, 6019 48336) do not exist in Dark Green or Olive. Best bet would be to build it in one of the grays and high-light with greens as desired. Haven't check tan yet.

How did you get the tree truck to curve? You need to tile the stairs. That will help the step distance on the top step. Very interesting build!

Got a couple dozers mostly finished. I say "mostly" since I only have one pair of treads as my Brickmania order has not arrived yet. Nice little build as per usual. I made a few modifications to account for parts I didn't have and changes that I wanted to make. I didnt have any of part #20482 (Tile with pin holder) in black that made up the head-lights. (Didn't like the gold ones.) I used the below combinations of parts: I also revamped the blade lift mechanism to better represent the triangle lift arm that is characteristic of the D4. Last, but not least, I added one 1x1 black tile to the 1x1 w/clip that represented the engine cooling fan. It just made that little sub-assemble a little more solid. Here they are tied down to a flat. These cats are not factory-fresh as the paint has already been rubbed off the blades! Here is a picture of the BMR family so far: I've got plans for two more box cars and need to get designing my own Rio Grande caboose with that cool Bright light Orange color scheme. A BMR Facebook post hinted an eastern road caboose is in the works for 2018. Next up will be upgrading my trucks as several sets do not roll as freely as they should.

Thanks for the information and insight. Frankly, I don't know how you guys accomplish all that you do (and in the time that you do it) with the website, train shows, Premium kits, decal design etc, etc. You guys are certainly multi-talented! I need to go back and tweek my trucks. Many of them do not roll as freely as I think that they should and it may be the binding that you described. I'm going to rebuild a few to the new design and see if they operate better.

Well, I still have not got around to writing a review for the hoppers so it will be a jump straight to the 4th BMR Premium offering: the AAR 53 foot flatcar. The BMR guys did a nice video preview of the kit which you can view here: As the guys discuss in the video, this kit is unique in that you get two sets of instructions of the price of one. The kit contains instructions for the flat car, a separate instruction book for the D-4 cat, 4 wheel sets to make 2 sets of trucks, and a packet of Brickmania tread links for one dozer. Along with the instructions, BMR is offering 8 sets of decals to cover 4 different body colors. I have not tackled the D-4 yet so this post will just cover the flat car. The instructions continue to improve with each and every release. This one has more pictures, more diagrams, and building tip photos. The instructions follow the same format established with the PS-1 boxcar: Contents page, introduction letter, history with photos and diagrams, blueprint of the completed model, building steps, notes on color and parts substitutions, and a parts list. It is a very well polished product. Of the 4 BMR offering, the 53 foot flat car has the lowest parts count (409) and is the simplest build. Of that part count, 25% (108 pieces) are used for the trucks alone. The basic frame is standard "studs-up" construction and the side panels are "studs-on-the-side" sub-assemblies held in place by eight part #2436 1x2-1x4 brackets. I had several pre-built sets of trucks and so I only had to find the 300ish pieces for each the flatcar body. I was able to round up enough parts to build two cars: one in black and lettered for my favorite rail line, the D&RGW, and the other a modified Dark Red version lettered for the Milwaukee Road. There is not much to talk about in regards to the build. A bulk of the frame is built during the first two steps. The next 4 pages cover the side panels. This step was a little fussy as there are a lot of parts laid out that do not get tied together until later steps. After struggling through the first one, I built the successive ones from one end to the other which I found much easier. After installing the 2 side panels to the mere eight studs of connection points, the decking is installed which ties both parts together very well. The instructions note that you can use a wide variety of muted colors for the deck. I used Light Blue Grey as that was what I had on hand and like the contrast with the darker body color. The next couple pages cover finishing the spine and installing brake cylinders. I found a small error on page 16, step 9. I had to use two 1x1 round plates to attach the 1x1 brick with stud on the side (part #87087) to the underside of the decking. The instructions show only one on this spot. Maybe I just didn't install it right. The last step is constructing the trucks. The trucks are the same as the last two models (hopper and tanker). I'm still using the truck design from the boxcar instructions. BMR has not explained the design change but I suspect that it has to do with the pre-made wheel sets that they provide. In the old design, you could not install some of the needed Technic pins without detaching one of the glued-on wheels from the axle. This is not a problem with the new design. Lastly, on page 18, they provide some photos an how to install those pesky 3mm tubes to the mini-fig hands used to simulate the brake lines. I had not cracked the code on how to do this so was glad to see this building technique. One note on the parts list. For this model, the BMR guys decided to make the entire under-carriage the same "body" color. Perhaps this is the way the prototypes were but I found it unnecessary and made everything black except the exposed color parts. This reduces the "body-color" parts down to a small handful for tiles and a few other parts. From a previous building project, part #2436 (1x2 to 1x4 bracket) is scarce in reddish-brown and plentiful in black. I may make a my own "body color" parts list and post it here. Here is the shorter list of body color parts if you make the under body all black: Per the photo's, I used BMR's D&RGW and Milwaukee road decals. They are of the same excellent quality and a joy to install. There is no room for error though and the lettering is exactly one tile width wide. You will have to trim all decals right to the top of the lettering to get them to install correctly. One tip is to remove all of the 1x2 tiles that represent the stake pockets so you have the "under tile" area to maneuver your decal around in. The decals do fit in their designated areas (with careful trimming) but they seem like they are one font size too big. There is NO room for placement error. One change I would like to see is for a darker back ground on the white lettering decals. It sure would make the necessary trimming much easier. This is a relatively quick build and it will a lot of fun to see what additional flatcar loads that others come up with. BMR hinted that they may come out with another build of their own which would be welcome as always. In the mean time, I need to see if I can capture the pertinent details of the Allis Chalmers WD that my dad and grandfather used to farm with. Here is my 3mm rigid hose cutting guide. I'd recommend that you get three of 75c18 (Black)

Here are my 5th and 6th boxcars. They are heavily modified from the PS-1 plan to account for part availability and the style I wanted to achieve. The 5th car is the Susie-Q car done in Dark Turquoise (DT). The inspiration for this car came from Cale Leiphart, who is one of the BMR team. He has a beautiful Pittsburgh and Lake Erie car that he displayed at Brickfair, VA. His build is significantly different as it uses a lot of 1x2 bricks to build the sides. I followed the basic design of the BMR plan and was able to use some DT 1x2x3 bricks and 2x8 Technic plates to good effect. The part pallet is pretty limited in DT and those that you do need are very hard to find in quantity. I originally built this as a 40 footer (32 studs long) but when I received the decals, the "Susquehanna" was too long to fit left of the door. I then re-built it 36 studs long which would give it a scale length of 45 feet. I briefly considered going a full 40 studs long which would equal 50 scale feet as the PS-1 did have a 50 foot version. This idea was abandoned after evaluating my very small pile of left over DT parts. I may, someday, give this model a DT roof as most of those parts (1x2 and 2x2 tiles, 1x2 grills) are available that color. The 6th car is this Rio Grande model. Having spent by youth in Denver, Colorado, the D&RGW has always been my favorite road and this cool orange/silver/black paint scheme was just begging for representation in my fleet. Due to decal size it is also a 36 stud car. The biggest departure from the BMR plan is the "sliding" door on each side. I wanted a continuous black line running across the car and the BMR plan does not accommodate that. The support for the door is a bunch of 1x1 and 1x2 bricks with studs on the sides to hold the 1x6 tiles. I should note here that I filed down some studs from the DGB door rail so that the roof tiles would sit flat. You can see in this picture that I need to do a little more filing! There are couple more boxcars that I may build. One is the DRGW "Cookie Box". The prototype is silver which I would represent with Light Blue Grey since I already have a white boxcar. The other is a lovely green and yellow Rutland boxcar. That wraps up boxcars for now. Next up will probably be a review of the hopper car instructions unless I jump straight to the flat car with is supposed to be out soon.

Well that wasn't as bad as I feared that it would be! I'm glad that they got in the "where credit is due" part. Surprising that they just highlighted the Neb-B and cut all the discussion of all the other ships. I'm also a little surprised at the low quality of the filming. (That was just my devices problem)

Here is the 4th boxcar in my collection: Medium-Blue. This one departs from the exact BMR plan in several areas due to part availability. I'm not going to detail all of my modifications but here is a list of the parts that do not exist in Medium Blue (MB). 6134: Hinge Brick 2 x 2 Top Plate Thin 6636: Tile 1x6 (1x4 is the biggest MB tile) 3460: Plate 1x8 (1x6 plate is the longest in MB) 3832: Plate 1x10 (1x6 plate is the longest in MB) 3036: Plate 6x8 2454: Brick 1x2x5 (part #22886 1x2x3 Brick works well here) 32028: Plate 1x2 with slide rail. 30377: Part #30377 (Arm Mechanical, Battle Droid) This is the first car where I decided that, regardless of color, I was going to make all my door rails Dark Blue Gray. As noted above, the 1x2 plate with slide rail is not available in MB so that prompted the initial change. I found that DBG was a good color complement so used it for the various small detail parts. Initially the only MB car I could remember was the old "The Rock" design that appeared in the 1970's (I think). Later I was reminded of the RF&P boxcar (which is displayed in near-by Wilimington, NC) and was able to locate a set of decals for it. Once lettered, I was very happy with the results. It's a very eye-catching car.