Hi,
I would like to introduce myself, my name is Roni, living in Vienna. My main hobby actually is another - railway photography for more than 25 years (in railway online communities I am known as Roni ;-)). I had gifted all my childhood Lego bricks in early teenage years to my cousins from Sarajevo as they had fled from the war.
In 2020, I came across the topic again watching well-known Youtube channels, in September 2020 I finally could not resist: the Bluebrixx VT 11.5 TEE was my first brick set since the early 90s. A Lego Crocodile followed, and I collected parts for morningstrummer's Big Boy. I started designing my own vehicles and buildings right away.
I order parts via Bricklink or take them from sets - I'll take anything that fits, no matter from which company.
As a concept, I don't build fixed sceneries but create scenes to take photos of and then change everything. Some objects are kept permanently, some are being recycled. I built the first MOCs in Studio first, but don't do that anymore. I am a computer scientist by profession and did not want to spend my spare brick hobby time in front of the screen as well. If I do anything on the computer, it is a rough sketch to measure some dimensions. The models themselves are only being built spontaneously and by hand. This offers much more fun, you can optimize details for weeks - I can only recommend letting go of building instructions. It is potentially cheaper than constantly buying something new - although MOCs all in all are quite expensive, of course. However, once you have a basic supply of parts, it becomes easier. With other words: please don't ask for instructions - they simply don't exist. Of course, I will gladly show you anything and help where I can. I am also planning to show the most important objects from every theme here in detail over time.
Disclaimer: In first place I want to have fun with my hobby. Where I want, I put in the effort, try to build as close to the original as possible. Most of the stuff is not meant too seriously, with lots of obligatory puns included. :0)
My historic scenes are not meant to accurately depict the society of that era. I am open to all people of the world.
And finally: my hobby activities are 100% non-commercial. My Youtube channel is not monetized. There are too many restrictions for hardly any gains at all - I don't want that in my hobby.
Sceneries include:
Brickstone City 1957 (Recreation of Cheyenne, Wyoming, for the Big Boy)
Brick Fort 1980 (Indian Railways with steam, electric and eventually diesel engine - I like Indian Railways very much, have friends in India)
Brickenstein 1957 (transport of an Indian broad gauge steam engine from Vienna to Trieste port via Semmering Pass - actually happened)
Brickabest-Keleti Orient Express 1920 (Steam locomotives and carriages, terminal station influenced by Budapest-Keleti (Eastern Station) and other stations of that era, city and vehicles)
Schneebrickbahn (1:16 scale model of an Austrian Schneebergbahn rack railway steamer, working Technic rack loco)
I also built several MOCs of mostly Austrian ÖBB trains (5145 "Blue Lightning", 1042 and 1045 in reddish orange ;0)) and modified several commercial trains.
As mentioned, MOCs and themes will be presented here in detail over time.
Brickabest-Keleti station with BBÖ 310 and 30. Best friend of the scale model photographer: a small fog machine. Also using the real winter sun, no artificial lighting. :-)
View behind the scenes of Brickabest city centre on Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbK52jtLaDE
For many, this is the most beautiful engine design of Austrian origin: Class 310. I changed the headlights since.
The first driving video of the complete Orient Express (some details have changed here since as well): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYcv2O1SfEY
As you can see, I am building big with large curves. Minimum radius for my larger models is the now widely available r104. Second hack to make brick-built railways run more smoothly: put a carpet under the tracks. I especially purchased some artificial lawn for that purpose.
I hardly built any cars until now, but I like those early vehicles ;-)
Yes, I just purchased the new "main station" (already 59,95€ from Müller in Austria), for the new pigeons! ;-P
Welcome to Brickstone City, my first building - consisting of 2200 profile bricks, 1500 light bluish grey, 700 medium nougat...
The Union Pacific streamliner bus and passenger train cars were my first vehicle MOCs. Also lots of self-produced stickers, nowadays I am making decals as well.
"The Wrangler" looks like it was taken out of a Lego city, but is a real building next to Cheyenne station.
The caboose is also my MOC.
Rack railway driving video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLnlHR0j8_I
Krauseltunnel on Semmering Pass.
I have changed the class 95 since, only large wheels were available back then. The scenery is real: https://www.irfca.org/gallery/Heritage/WienerLokomotivFabrikFloridsdorfAG/22_FK3875_95_106_Rh+33_IR_Reihe_WP_Bf_Breitenstein_Aug1957.jpg.html
Indian broad gauge steam engine on standard gauge rails.
A few winter scenes with commercial trains, the mountain in the background is a projection.
I try to light many locos, mostly using "fairy lights".
Indian electric WAP-1 and 8 coaches.
More soon :-)
Hi, Please see my introduction for general information - questions that are not mentioned there, are welcome - I will also gladly show any more details of the models upon request: I am about to post more detailed insights into my MOCs and MODs in separate threads by category. :-) This thread will feature railway rolling stock from the era. First, express steam locomotive kkStB/BBÖ 310 / ÖBB 16 - built 1911-1916, designed by Karl Gölsdorf. It is generally regarded as the most beautiful steam engine design of Austrian origin: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/KkStB_310 I took the last photos with the terminal station "Brickabest-Keleti" as the "Orient Express" "departed", lineside scenes will follow. A few unedited pics as a foretaste: All of this actually was not planned... I was building Indian trains - specifically a scene where a broad gauge steamer had been transported across Semmering Pass near Vienna to Trieste port in 1957 - when the Mould King SNCF class 231 with Orient Express carriage was announced. I thought to myself: owning a decent Orient Express would be nice. Plus a fitting pretty loco. Lastly, I purchased two of the Mould King sets. I can absolutely recommend them, also for the parts - the value for money is pretty unbeatable. Over 3000 Gobricks-Parts, lots of printed boiler rings, many spoked wheels, full electronic complement and r104 track circle. I use parts from all companies - however, some of the class 310 would not have been possible without the 231. The driving wheels are the largest ever available with 5 cm diameter (larger than XXL wheels from individual parts producers) - only those from the Lego Hogwarts Express display set are equally large. So I thought - but not so fast! The clever people from Billund placed the holes for the crankpins further from the centre than with any other available coupled wheels. And blind drivers of that size are not available from Lego anyway. Long thin liftarms are also not available individually otherwise - I don't know, why... I decorated it with black plates for the class 310. Length of the model is almost exactly 5 single straights = 80 studs / 64 cm, smallest curve radius r104. As you can see in the pictures above, I have changed the headlamp design since. As tea saucers 38799 have become available in trans-clear, black etc., round plates between 1 and 2 studs diameter are on option. 2 often seem too chunky, 1 too small - although the class 310 used huge headlamps like many kkStB engines. For buffers and other purposes, I would definitely like to see more intermediate sizes as future options. The dome can be removed, a Mould King rechargeable battery box with on/off button and USB port for loading are hidden beneath it. It is powering an ultrasound vaporiser to be filled with water next to the smokestack and the headlamps. For the locomotive to be able to pass r104 S-curves, the platform for the crew between loco and tender is round and movable. The tender can be fitted with a Lego Powered Up hub including rechargeable batteries and a Bluetooth speaker. Alternatively, the hub can be "supercharged" with two more AA batteries + a smaller speaker. The tender bogies consist of two Lego Powered Up train motors. The firebox contains a round light brick activated by turning it. Many of the metallic gold parts were taken from the Pantasy steampunk station, also recommended to strip for parts. I produce waterslide decals myself. They are printed by inkjet and then sprayed with a clear coat. A driving video of the first version with full Orient-Express. The carriages (also slightly changed since) will also be shown in this thread: https://youtu.be/zYcv2O1SfEY?si=NP5FLDuPEIE0PZk6 And a few more pics from last time - see you later! :0)