Ashi Valkoinen

Last year at BSBT 2022 a price of 150 EUR / pair of switches were estimated by Michael. According to logistics and prices going up it can be surely above this price. Honestly, thinking about the quality of the points I have seen and used last year in Schkeuditz, and the quality of the large radius curves (R104) and double straights I do own I'm totally fine with this pricing, including the fact that they didn't raise crowdfounding for this project but did it at their own, risking theit money, not the community's. For double straights were a 3 boxes / order limitation at JB-Spielwaren (Germany) when they released the product - I expect the same limitation for the points, too.

I am really happy to tell, that finally I made some photos to the album titled "LEGO and REAL" with my GySEV/ROeEE railway company FLIRT units. GySEV workers helped me to arrange a quick setup at their storage yard, where a FLIRT3 (435 series) and FLIRT (415 series) were presented for me. I redesigned my train fleet in March, 2022, but barely had time to visit the western part of Hungary where the company GySEV operates. But now! GySEV Stadler FLIRT: GySEV Stadler FLIRT3: GySEV Stadler FLIRT3 and FLIRT together! Hope you enjoy these photos! I really enjoyed the journey taking them - and for the coupled setup unfortunately I had only half an hour, because the trains had strict schedule to arrive and leave!

I'm happy to present my latest creation, the ARmz passanger car of the Hungarian State Railway operator, MÁV-Start. This type of passanger cars were made in Hungary, the ARmz is a 1st class coach with a short bistro section, which can serve a limited selection of foods and drinks onboard. The LEGO-MOC meant an extra adventure to take, the angled yellow stripes (this is for the 1st class) and the colourful pattern with different angles gave me really hard task to complete. The windows are 6,5 plate tall and 4 studs wide, while the separation between two windows are 6,5 plate × 6 plate black parts - again a nice size to fit with LEGO-bricks. And of course, I like to keep the interior free of SNOT-techniques to give seat to my minifigures, so everything on the side should have been done in the depth of 1 stud and the half-plate thin part of minifigure neck bracket. As usual, no decals were used to get the patterns. Basically my hardest limitation on the pattern is the non-existence of medium azure brackets and half-plate item - the bottom horizontal blue lines would be better to be built in 1,5 plates + 1,5 plates, while the upper ones at the angled roof part as 0,5 plates + 0,5 plates. However, I can live with this compromise, but if medium azure half-plate LEGO-parts will be available, I'll redesign the side wall to get more accuracy. Other side of the train: Car end 1. - side 1.: Car end 1. - side 2.: Car end 2. - side 1.: Car end 2. - side 2.: And this passanger car is third coach in a full consist I was working on - now with the previous inland intercity cars I can have a short train with two 2nd class cars (one for bicycle transport, too) and this 1st class car with a short bistro section. From left to right: IC+ ARmz, IC+ Bbdpmz, CAF Bpmz coaches and Siemens Taurus locomotive, with Hungarian State Railway livery. This patterns cost a lot in parts and weight - the coaches consist of 1500+ parts each, interior lights with their own battery box included also. The locomotive (just as my others) works with two PF train motors, a big battery box and V2 IR receiver to have enought power to pull these cars - actually, it can pull even 9-10 cars on R104 tracks with no problem.

Hello! We mostly share information at our blog page (mlvk.blog.hu) and I also share these at my facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ashivlgaugerailway/ I will do my net show at Békéscsaba city (12-14.05.2023.) We will have a show together (with all the lug members) in the last weekend of october in Martonvásár city.

Fortunately UK is totally out of my interest, except my swiss Traverso which has nothing to do with my homeland, Hungary, I build things only related to Hungarian railways. :) However I see that UK-style trains are quite popular, the angled bottom part thanks to the different clearences compared to continental Europe make them look unique.

Yeah, I totally forgot about in the post above, but yes, the walls are angled as well. The bottom is 8 wide, the top is reduced to 7.

Welcome to the FLIRT-family! It looks clean and really fitting the original one, nice work!

Hello all, this will be my first post in 2023 - the first two and half months of this year were busy with the LEGO train hobby, preparing for a big show held last weekend, and also some of my other hobbies such as larping took my time. Now I present my latest train MOC, the Stadler Citylink (tramtrain) in the livery of MÁV-Start, the Hungarian State Railway company. Fig.1.: The tramtrain resting at my station. This vehicle is quite interesting in real - it runs in the cities of Szeged and Hódmezővásárhely on tram tracks, powered from overhead wires, but runs as a train on train tracks between the two cities using diesel engine. Really a hybrid. The LEGO-build was really pain with this one - as a low floor tram, it has quite small wheelsets compared to my LEGO-trains, and they turn out under the tram at a very low height. Making the frames to host the wheelsets, especially the powered ones was a really nice challange to complete, keeping the white-grey colour border at the desired height. I think, using the small rollerskate part for SNOT-ting, the gray hoses and white figure neckbracket to connect and keep the frame thing was a nice idea, but it took time to get there. As usual, handling R40 geometry was a must for me. Fig.2.: The tramtrain on a custom made 9V crossover - the "S"-curve with a crossing inside the turn is the most difficult geometry a train can face on R40! The vehicle is powered with two, old type 9V battery boxes, these are in placed on the roof where the real vehicle has her diesel units, the battery boxes are connected paralel with right polarity to the SBrick in the roof of the middle car using PF-extension wires. The LiPo 9V batteries I used here are quite good, giving 1000 mAh storage each, but they cut above 500 mA current drawn, it caused sometimes stops when the tramtrain went a dozen of loops around. Placing electrics to the roof allowed me full interior design. Fig.3.: The tramtrain completed and the first photo taken - note the black 9V battery boxes in the roof (surrounded by slopes). Fig.4.: The tramtrain fully on R40 curve. Fig.5.: On layout. For future I plan to add indoor lights and front/tail lights as well - but first I need to figure out, how to hide those additional cables in the roof. Comments and critics, as always, very welcome!

I have tried it last August, the P40 switches did fit to the place of my R104 right TrixBrix and R104 left double slip TrixBrix. I didn't need to alter anything, just quickly replaced them. You can't switch the rails with the train wheels, if you arrive from the wrong direction the switch rails will derail the train.

This year was really busy getting my railway signalling and security system alive, but for the end of the year, I can present some new traincars as well. For first, I accidentally participated OcTRAINber, when I realised, that the traincars I was planning to build at that time when the contest was announced fit the contest itself. I was quick - instead of the given two months I finished my cars before 30th of September, so in the last hours I could enter them to Brick Train Awards. And ironically I won the Best Passanger Waggon globally at BTA, but at OcTRAINber better entries were made. :) So my OcTRAINber entry was a single, 26,4 meter long passanger car, refurbised based on new bicycle needs in Hungary. The shape didn't change too much (and maybe that's why the transformation factor was low for the judges), but the colour pattern and the insidings did a lot, and the newer colours with diagonal patterns and the usage of dark azure colour were pain to build both digitally and in real life. Fortunately both the old colour pattern and the new cars exist next to each other (in time and sometimes in the same train), so they weren't built only for the competitions, but also to extend my Hungarian fleet. Bmx 21-05 series (behind) and Bdmpee 84-05 series (in front) The traincars are identical in dimensions, both have indoor lights powered from old 9V battery box, a PF extension wire and two pair of PF-ledlights. All patterns are made with original LEGO-bricks, no painting, decals were used. My other project was to build an InterCity car with the new IC-pattern of the Hungarian State Railway. It is quite complex with the different diagonals and narrow patterns. It becomes especially pain at the top of the sidewall where it joins the angled roof - it is impossible to build horizontal layers of 1 plates and including the angled part, too. So to close the gap between the top of the sidewall and the roof part, I used rigid 3 mm tubes, and the different colours of tubes are connected with an original LEGO-part - the metal axle for the running wheels! CAF passanger car - Bpmz 20-91 series. Note the pattern on the side wall (I kept it 1 stud wide, so full interior is made) and the joint of the sidewall and the roof. Closeup photo of the prototype - the hose tubes are connected to the body only at the two ends of the traincar. Your comments and critics, as always, welcome!

Basically I didn't created this setup to sell it - it is for my own entertainment and one more play experience addition to our LUG when we have public, joint display. Andyes, it is European, since I am modelling XXI. century Hungarian railroad. We have also some signal masts where there are three or more tracks next to each other, or if for any reason traditional signal poles doesn't fit next to the track, but these masts are rare and using them on my layout wouldn't be authentic. Thank you. It is about time, dedication and unfortunately funds. I built up everything on my own, got a little support (LUGBULK-baseplates), and collected these for 13 years by now. :) It means a lot of work (now with the signalling system building my layout up before an event takes 12 hours compared to the previous 10 hours), but it pays off nicely. We can switch between being a driver or traffic manager, we can shunt or drive mainline trains, a lot of fun which pays for the hard-work part. :) Thank you!

Hello all, I'm glad to introduce my project I spent approx one year to work on. Those who follow my railway MOC model topic here, on Eurobricks, should be familiar with my work, and could know I do own a big station with additional storage yard (fig.1.) to store all my long, 1:45 scaled railway models. Fig.1.: My train station in BlueBrick layout software 1. Why and what? My station displays a renovated mainline station - not a dedicated one, just a station, which looks quite average on refurbished Hungarian double-track lines. A modern station comes with working light signals - and this need started my project. I owned two completed mainline signals back in 2013 (fig.2.), using polarity reversal bricks to switch four pairs of modified PF ledlights (modification allowed that only one of the ledlights turned on, depending on the applied voltage's polarity, this modification was nicely described be Viktor Péter Kovács in RailBricks #9). These signals were operated by hand, both turning them free and red after trains, which could cause a lot of error, leaving them accidentally free after a train passed. Also my station needed 5 entry signals, 11 exit signals and one shunting signal for my storage yard. It is easy to see, that without some automatisation these can't be handled light by light. It is important, that my project is about making a system which handles my station, giving play experience by setting routes and managing train traffic, but it is not about automatisation of the trains. Train drivers should drive their own trains (9V, PF, PU, custom) according to the appearing signal aspects set by the "station driver". Fig.2.: My old signals - both of them powered with two pairs of PF ledlights. 2. The real life prototypes Before continuing, I need to explain the Hungarian signalling system in short - and also the logic behind it, and the difficulties it causes. Excluding any branchline special signals, focusing on mainline block signalling, there are two types of signals - main signals (red-white-red pole, they give a speed order to pass and forecast for next main signal) and repeat signals (yellow-white-yellow pole, forecasting only if the corresponding main signal is free or not, these are used where the tracks' curvature doesn't give enough distance to note the signal aspect of main signals). Three colours are used - green, yellow and red. Red always means to stop, giving no forecast of the next main signal. Yellow allows to pass at the maximum speed permitted for the train by other conditions (track, vehicle), forecasting next main signal will be red. Blinking yellow allows to pass at the maximum speed permitted for the train, forecasting next main signal will be allowing passing by 40 km/h (speed for normal switches in turning direction). Green indicated to pass at the maximum speed permitted for the train, the next main signal will be also allowing passing by maximum speed permitted for the train (so it forecasts next main signal being yellow, blinking yellow or green) Yellow-yellow (two lights) allows to pass with the maximum speed of 40 km/h (implying some switches in turning direction will be ahead), next main signal is expected to be stop. Yellow-blinking yellow allows to pass with the maximum speed of 40 km/h, next main signal will allow also passing by 40 km/h. Yellow-green allows to pass with the maximum speed of 40 km/h, next signal will allow maximum speed to pass by. As you look at my track configuration, you may see, that all these variations mentioned above should be considered when putting ledlights to my signals. Fig.3. shows my station with installed signals and the secured neighbouring blocks. This signalling logic also means, that I should know if zero, one or two sections are free after a main signal, including the route (turning on points, or not). Fig.3.: Shematic track layout of my station including the neighbouring signalling blocks, too. 3. System components Why are the neighbouring openline tracks considered? When I allow a train to leave my station (setting a free exit signal for it) it should mean that at least the first section is free and no other train is there. So I should have control over that section - detecting trains entering and leaving them from both direction. Train detection was also needed to turn the signals automatically back to red when a train passed, reducing the chance of accidentally leaving them free by manual operation. I chose the products of SBrick mixed with LEGO-elements. SBrick offer very nice, Bluetooth-controlled light hubs (SBrick Light), which can control 24 independent channels or 8 RGB channels, changing light colours. Since I didn't need the RGB-option (different colours are at different points in the real signals), I could use all the 24 channels of each hub (and since my signals needed 3 or 4 lights each and I have 24 of them, it was quite useful). The other SBrick product, the "+" smart brick can handle inputs and outputs - only for the Power Functions era. But besides train motors, technic motors, ledlights the PF-era had two types of sensors and I used the distance/moiton sensors to detect trains. These were never really put into commercial, the WeDo 1.0 elements were available for schools for education purposes. Fortunately Bricklink and eBay had them... And all these inputs (distance sensors) and outputs (SBrick light ledlights, PF M-motors to set points) are connected through the surface called SBrick Pro. I connect to the SBrick hubs with my PC, running the code simply from browser. You can write all your code on this surface, using some Scratch-based language (before this project I never did any programming). You can add scripts to different events (like if the distance sensors' values change, on stratup, pressing virtual buttons you added to your "remote control"), writing texts, and of course, managing the outputs. Each physical ledlight, motor or sensor is paired in the code with different variables (like strings describing the signal aspect, number values for distance sensor measurement, logical variables to store occupation of segments, etc). And yes, it took one year to write the code from zero (as I said, I never wrote any code before I started this project), collect the physical elements and building them into my layout. It was tested at five events this year, these events brought a lot of problems (and I had no option to test it before events since my layout is 11+ meters), but for the last event, our lugs annual exhibition at Martonvásár city (Hungary) finally it worked 2×10 hours at opening days without any major issue, so now I can finally proudly present it (fig.4.). Fig.4.: The remote control created in SBrick Pro for my station. I used the following components: 4 SBrick+ hubs + 2 WeDo 1.0 sensor on each 2 SBrick hubs + 5 PF M-motors on them 6 SBrick Light hubs + 88 SBrick leglights on them for different signals some PF extension wires 3 9V speed regulator to power SBrick+ and SBrick hubs from 230V AC. 4. How does it work? a) Setting a route Routes can be set selecting the big metallic buttons on the remote control surface (one button for each neighbouring openline section and one for each station track), while direction is selected with the top corner buttons (from left to right, or from right to left). If the route can be set (no occupied segment is involved and it is not conflicting any other existing route), the program: set the points via SBrick and PF M-motor, it virtually locks the points (no other routes can be set including the locked points), and after this sets the corresponding signals free. The buttons of sections involved in the locked route stay red. Removing a route (if you don't want it or the train already passed it) can be done with the bright blue buttons next to each route displayed the bottom left corner. Removing a route can't be accidental, for safety it requires "two-hand operation", keeping spacebar pressed while saying okay to the warning message. After this is done, a counter start giving safety time before the route and the switch locks get cleared. b) Motion sensors Sensors of WeDo 1.0 can detect objects in front of them from approx. 15-20 cm. For the largest distance they have a value of 10, while if you put something very close (<1,5 cm) it gives the value of 0. Since they are mostly placed 2 cm from the tracks (to make sure wide steams can also pass), a value of 3 is set at treshold value, if the value given by the sensor goes below this value it is counted as detection. For first, the code checks if a train is expected to be there. All sensors check one position, but trains could arrive from both direction, the sensors can't decide, which direction the train came from. The program evaluates the logic variables - direction set for the section, is any route set for the involved sensor and the neighbouring signal aspects - if it finds out that the train shouldn't be passing the sensor, gives a high pitch warning on the PC, and also resets any free signals back to red which would possibly let a train to the section where an another train violated the red signal. If the train is expected to be in front of the sensor, the signal belonging to the route and direction will fall back to red. After the train passes the sensor, there is a safety checking - seven detection cycles ran with timing, all should find the sensor value above treshold before saying the train really passed. If the automated looping mode is turned on (letting trains go through the station), after the train passed the sensor and clearence timer is also out, the cleared section's signal will automatically set free. All routes can be resetted in once with the bottom right bright blue button. This is necessary if some errors pop up, or someone passes a red signal - in this case to clear the error message reset must be performed. A reset has also a clearence time, and all sections' must be checked if they are occupied or not and this information is asked by the software. Setting a section clear is also a "two-hand operation" to avoid making a section accidentally free while there is a train on it. 5. Experiences a) Problems I used this setup on five different events from this year's April. At the first three events there were too much false error detections - these were related to bugs in the code. Sometimes the routine for checking a train started twice or more times thus leading to "redrunning" errors. To find out, where my code runs into a bug, I started to write some values on the remote and also making error codes and messages for different events to spot out my errors. Later I left this parts in, since now these error messages clearly can point out, where and what happened in a case of redpass. The varying width of different trains and setting sensor cycle time was also hard to do - I must deal with 12 wide steams (with rods) and sometimes 6 wide short sets. The steam engines always crashed into my sensors, so I put them more far away from the tracks, resulting in non-detection of 6 wide trains. And if the sensor doesn't catch a train at all, it will go on error at the next sensors, since it won't expect the train to be there, if the previous one haven't counted it before. The code issues have been solved, but I don't now what to do with different widths - at least at our own events we have train varyings between 8 and 10 studs of width, there are no oversized models and no original LEGO set trains. Also setting too frequent sensor value writing to variables lead to out of memory error, while setting it less frequent brought the possibility of missing short and fast trains. b) Play experience It is really nice to manage the traffic! When it finally started to work properly (at the fifth event), it was really cool to leave it in automated mode (it lets trains going through the station, and if a section get's free, it lets the next train) or set an ending or starting route for arriving and departing trains. The best part was BSBT 2022 in Schkeuditz, most of the participants really liked, that they need to drive their own trains according to the appearing signal aspects and not only following an another train as close as possible. :P I also created a loop-operation mode for myself if I'm not collaborating with someone else to create a layout. In this case the two group of block signals are logically connected, forming a third section between themselves (fig.5.), creating a double track loop, with four sections of each (three openline, one station section). Fig.5.: My Stadler KISS EMU on the outer loop, between two block signals. The inner loop's block signal gives one green, indicating that the following two sections are clear. You can note the SBrick Light hub and SBrick+ blocks in the middle, the WeDo 1.0 sensors on the sides of track, between the signals of the group. c) System components Bluetooth has is limitations, and pushing 12 different hubs to this project was quite overkill and unexpected even from the SBrick-team - but it works. For first I had many connection issues, it was really lucky moment when all the 12 hubs went online and connected to my PC, but later I found a "wizard" option, which seemed to be doing nothing, but after quitting from it all connections got resetted and all hubs went online instantly. So no more angry waiting, pairing and swearing at it. SBrick lights are really nice, they can be powered both from internal batteries or 230V AC with power supply cable, for a use like mine the plug-in power supply is preferred. The option of programmed handling of 24 different channels is superb. SBrick hubs are now well-known over the world, they do well, the SBrick+ hubs can handle the input, unfortunately the newer sensors have no more PF-connectors, so these SBrick+ hubs work only with the rare WeDo 1.0 units, it is quite a hard limitation. You can see my system in action in the following video: ...and I felt really honored to have a mention from @michaelgale and Enrico Lussi at their articles from BSBT 2022: Michael Gale's article at BrickNerd Enrico's article at BMR 6. Future plans The system will be fully done, when the P40 switches of FXTracks will come out and I can replace all my old R40 9V points to fancy new R104 ones (fig.6.). I am too lazy to motorize all my 9V points currently, and when I competely rebuild my layout to incorporate the new points I'll do the missing motorisation progress, too. Fig.6.: Comparison of my current layout using R40 switces (bottom) and the future layout with FX Tracks R104 switches (upwards). Your comments and critics - as always - welcome. Feel free to share your impressions! :)

Thanks for the mention and the note anyways - I kept the challange in my mind, but my October was really busy, too (happy energy sector, yay). It was really fortunate, that I pulled out the challange _before_ October, after the 30th of September I had seen no chance to build.

Really good news about the points. Guys, save your money after Christmas. :)

I think you guys need more faith. Remember the delays with straights, different radius curves, etc.? It is still situation in China (and how they manage the covid with complete city or region lockdowns), so let Michael work it out. My personal impression was that they want these products (and the following up product linr) to come alive at the level as those who have been waiting 10+ years for large radius 9V switches. Remember they haven't started the tracks with crowd-funded campaigns, but with their own investments.

It is quite hard to switch thanks to the mechanical lock, not that hard to throw like old LEGO 9V points, but something similar.

My review about "Bauspielbahn Treffen - BSBT 2022" LEGO Train Fan event held this summer in Schkeuditz, Leipzig, Germany. I wrote mostly about my impressions, the things I liked very much at the event, the facts suprising me about the LEGO train hobby and how are other people managing their LEGO train projects and also my conclusions about the connection between TLC and LEGO train fans. https://mlvk.blog.hu/2022/09/08/eng_review_of_bauspielbahn_treffen

The only reason I wrote "eternity" is that I had many trams and passanger cars (each of them has at least 200g load for each axle) running on a permanent display between 2017 and 2021 (with some lockdown months). These cars run 2-3 km (real km!) a day, imagine what running distance they have for years.

Since I haven't seen it before in this thread, I add up an image of a completed pair of P40 switches by FXTracks. This were added to my layout during the event Bauspielbahn Treffen 2022 in Schkeuditz. Truly said this product seems to be superior in producing quality and functionality compared to other competitors. The two switching rails is unique in the world of LEGO and 3rd party items, which grants better run for trains and also better electric contact, without the "gap" 9V motors face at TLC's R40 points. The two position of the points are mechanically locked, so if you approach to the point from the wrong direction your train will be derailed (I think, this is good, it avoids cutting the switches from the wrong direction, which can ruin on longer term original, TrixBrix and BrickTracks switches, too). The switching mechanism is small, space-efficient and the single pin hole on both side promises good motorisation possibilities (both side and _under_ the level of track ballast). I previously bought 3 boxes of S32 straights, those seemed to be bending the 16×32 baseplate I installed them on (really hard to notice), but when I set up the P40R point (this is connected with many studs to my black ballast), I noticed no bend at all. The S1.6 and S3.2 elements (needed for ladder yards) look like also smooth and professional - and the products clearly refer to original TLC's 9V products, they blend very nicely in.

Yes, it works until the target customers don't buy the additional packs of straight tracks to improve their home layouts. Unfortunately there is no public data about how do train sets sell and how do additional train track packs sell - do people buy additional track with their big train set, do they buy it later or how many percentage of them never buys any additional track for the layout? What is the lifetime for a plastic-pin connection, what is the lifetime for the metal axle? I'm running older metal axles (for the running bogies of 9V era, slotted metal axle) for an eternity by now, under 900-1200 g tran coaches (225-300 g for each axle!), and they show no sign of wear. Will the plastic last so long, when the main title is "environmentally friendly"?

It is not suprising that metal exles have less rolling resistance. I remember when they introduced the full plastic wheels TLC made a manipulative video to show us why the new ones are better. They built up a track with only curved tracks used and run the same train from the same battery, only with the wheels differing. The battery in the train with plastic wheels lasted longer. But what happened? The current plastic wheels can turn independently from each other. The older wheels, connected with an axle, have an extra resistance, which is called curve resistance - the sharper the turn, the bigger the wheel, the more resistance appears. This is because the two wheels turn the same speed (same rotation speed), but they need to run different distance on a curve (the outer longer, the inner shorter), so the outer wheel will be dragged or the inner slipped. This is causing extra resistance and this is the reason why TLC made the test video using only curved tracks. In your experiment, you used straight track and gravity to accelarate - since metal axles have less friction and mechanic resistance at all and there is no curve resistance, they will perform better. Adding a 180 degree sloping turn to your experiment with other straight part behind and measuring part times of travel times would complicate the things, but with better results.

Totally forgot to post about my latest LEGO MOC locomotive, the well-known Siemens Taurus loco with the colour pattern of GySEV/ROeEE railway company. While the Hungarian State Railway purchased 10 of this locos (the blue-yellow ones), at the same time GySEV bought 5 of these. After redesigning my MÁV-version for better proportions and details I looked around in my room and realised, that I did own most of the needed pieces for a GySEV version, too. First image shows the loco from sideways - both the LEGO and the real engine. Note that all patterns are made using original LEGO-bricks, no stickers or custom 3D-printed parts were used to reproduce the pattern. It helped me a lot, that LEGO introduced the 2×2 wedge plate in green colour, too. Solution for front-tail lights - I have only a photo made of the MÁV-version, but the building techniques inside are the same - SNOT tiles, wedges connected with the thinest element, the turntable top, original LEGO lights lit up the transparent slopes using light transmitting cables. Image on left shows the headlights, image on right the tail lights in action. Frontlights: Tail lights: With my GySEV Siemens Vectron locomotive: And a photo with the real thing: Comments and ciritcs, as always, welcome. :)

I guess that the remote control receiver between driving the motor and the power fed to the track could be their own product, the PFxBrick, operating with 12V DC or for further option operating it with 12V AC and getting commands through the rail.

I don't think that the production of 9V tracks will make the PFx brick out of use. On longer term - as Michael said here many times - the aim is some DCC-based train controlling system, powering the trains from the track but offering the digital control (analogous 9V lacks this option anyways), so there will be surely future for a smart brick inside. Maybe it will be a totally new product (since the powering will be switched from DC to AC), but you will still need the app for the digital control. The new P40 switches are designed to be powered both way, independently from the position of the switch, which mean all tracks on a yard will be powered at the same time which fits better the needs of DCC than simple 9V.

Thanks for the reply. One more question - for last awards Horváth Gábor's WB KISS 2 was entered for "Electric locomotive" category, am I right, that EMU-s should entered this year to the "Full train" category?