coaster

Not at all - plastic tracks in R104 and R120 are in stock ready to ship. The smaller sizes we plan to start tooling in 2018, I just need to get pay back on the first tooling before I can invest in those (injection tooling isn't cheap). The metal rails and how they integrate into the tracks is the question before the house, but I believe I have a better solution. @3797 I'll try to be better about posting here. I don't want it to look like I'm spamming the board with ads. I am more active on our facebook page, and I did just add some nice pictures to our site. I kinda wanted the 9V progress to be a nice Christmas surprise! EDIT: yes, as justinwebb said, I'm with BrickTracks. I have nothing to do with ME Rails. As far as I can tell, they're done.

Nope, don't worry, we're still on it. I have another batch of prototypes due around Thanksgiving/beginning of December. Doing a simulated production run to see what bugs we still have to work out. Haven't updated the thread lately because i didn't have anything to report, but it's still an active project.

I'll see what I can do about adding a small magnet into the base. A small ceramic bar magnet inserted transversely where, say, North is to knuckle and South to the receiving end would be sufficient to auto-align the parts. Just need to figure out how the heck to place it. I'll fiddle with it a bit, and then maybe print a few to test it out.

While work continues on additional track, I've had a number of people ask about developing a new coupler for trains. US trucks don't typically have bumpers, and the old style coupler and magnet are becoming more rare and expensive on Bricklink. Furthermore, the pulling power of the magnets is limited, so long freight trains can be very problematic. As such, I've started poking around a design for a traditional Type E knuckle coupler that could retrofit onto existing car in place of the magnet. Here's what I've been thinking: View from above, coupled and uncoupled: The knuckles are spring loaded, so uncoupled, would pop to that approx. 45° open position. On closing, a pawl locks into a catch on the back of the knuckle. This can be released by pressing up on the leg of the pawl, hidden beneath the knuckle. The only real weakness is I have no room to integrate a magnet into the coupler for automatic alignment, so you probably wouldn't be able to just ram into some freight cars and shunt them around. Before I dive headlong into this though, I'd like to get some feedback and gauge interest in this. If it's a DOA project, I'm not going to waste any more time on it.

Hi Holger, thanks! I'd love to be able to mold the switches in ABS. It's just a little more to capitalize than I can afford right now. I do plan to kickstart them again, probably next year sometime. I want the tracks to get a solid footing/following first. We've got a handful of dedicated followers, but it's going to take more than that to make them happen. Of course, if I can find a benevolent benefactor to fund the project, I'll move full steam ahead! Anyone have $200k they're looking to burn?

Pre-orders all shipped earlier this week. If you haven't gotten yours yet, they'll be there soon.

I tried to keep the pictures as honest as possible. There is a bit of a matte finish to the plates. It's really not too bad, but I'll see if we can polish them a bit more.

Yeah, we're going to polish it a bit more. It's not bad, and probably acceptable to most, but I'm a bit of a perfectionist. And hopefully 9V someday soon.

Color is still a shade too dark, but we're otherwise there:

L-Gauge.org has instructions on ballasting, among other things.

Hi @Ludo, if you were to double these up 4x6 as you say, I would connect the back 2 studs to the 9V cable, and then connect the 2 wheelsets together with a 2x4 electric plate. The coupling would then sit on top of the electric plate, and the bogie plate finally on top. The 9V wire would then run through the center of the carriage, similar to powering headlights on an old 9V set. Does this make sense? I can mock it up in LDD later if it would help.

hey @M_slug357, haha, yeah, that's a pretty good idea. I've got designs ready, just need to get tooling going, so I'll definitely add the next few sizes on there. Was thinking it looked a bit sparse too.

Thanks Ludo! Among the additional curve sizes, switches, 9V, and power-pickup wheelsets, I've certainly got my projects cut out for me!

We had a minor hiccup where the material we ordered came in the wrong color. Was more of a dark grayish-blue than the Lego dark bluish-gray. That's since been fixed and we are gearing up for production! I've had a number of people ask, and I'm finally comfortable enough with where we are, so I've opened the site up for pre-orders: https://www.bricktracks.com/products. Expected ship date is 8/22.

That would be a completely different animal. You could utilize the old 12V system rail as ColletArrow suggested. Using that as your 3rd rail with power and then the 9V tracks as the common would get you a 3-rail system, but other than building reverse loops, I don't see what we'd gain from that. Could it be done, sure, but I don't think there'd be a lot of interest in that. It wouldn't be dangerous, no, unless you're planning to run this off a car battery.

Not at the moment. I've been preoccupied trying to get the tracks up and running. I hope to get back to this and have some prototypes by the end of the year.

As someone who has a compelling interest in these things, I keep tabs on everyone making track, so I know who you mean. I'll respect your request for silence, but I would suggest letting everyone know who it is. There aren't many of us, so it's not hard to figure out, and given there's no legal recourse you can take, public shaming goes a long way. Call them out here, put them on the defensive.

The colors of the samples are darker. The mold shop just used a stock gray for these samples. We have color-matched coupons, so production parts will match the dark bley as closely as possible.

Thanks all. @Ludo, I've looked at a couple distribution options, but I haven't gotten in touch with anyone yet. It's on the to-do list. @BMW, I noticed that too. The studs are about .001-.002" undersized. It's being addressed. EDIT: By the way, here's a picture of the "field test" of R104s at Brickworld. NILTC was kind enough to rip out a corner of ME tracks:

Hi Ludo, they won't cost anything. These corrections are within the original scope of work, so it's on the toolmaker to fix. Otherwise, the studs are a bit undersizeds, so that's being corrected as well. They work fine, but I'd like it to be better. The bottom clutch and connection with other tracks is perfect though. They'll correct the tool and then send me new samples. Once I approve those, it'll be full-tilt production! And at that point, I'll open it up for pre-orders.

As promised, here are pictures of the production samples. There are a few minor bugs to be addressed (such as the missing "BT" mark on the studs), but overall, they came out really well.

That is correct. I'll post pictures later this weekend. There are a few minor bugs, but they came out great. A couple easy fixes and they'll be perfect.

They'll be sold in sets of 8, and it'll be $29.95 for the R104s and $34.95 for the R120s.

Thanks. Hopefully this is the first of many molds to be made. Those trenches are what are known as runners. The plastic injects into the very center between the runners in what is called the sprue, and the runners supply the plastic to the forms. The small point contact where the runners meet the forms are called gates. After molding, the sprue and runners are broken off and recycled, leaving just the tracks.

Hmmm, I wonder what these might make...