Building BMR Freight cars

[Glenn Holland]

23 hours ago, BrianGT said:

Are there going be any restocks of the boxcar instructions in the near future?

Thanks,

 

We're planning to have more next year, hopefully very soon.

 

6 hours ago, zephyr1934 said:

You could try door rails,

 

 

This was my initial idea for a replacement. Door rails are far more plentiful, I just haven't gotten around to making a brown boxcar (I actually don't have a boxcar of my own at all) with the door rails instead of the old part. My guess is that it will only look odd because up until now we've ONLY used the handles as ladders. 

 

Time for me to build a boxcar I guess 

[Jeffinslaw]

11 hours ago, zephyr1934 said:

You could try door rails,

 

That looks like it would be a pretty decent substitution. Great idea.

-Jeffinslaw

[ecmo47]

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. 

 

 

Edited December 17, 2017 by ecmo47

[Stash2Sixx]

21 hours ago, zephyr1934 said:

You could try door rails,

 

Exactly what I have been using since the other ones are difficult to find in quantity at a decent price.

I've got a few cars started myself, but need to do a BrickLink order or two and then add the decals.  Also made a few mods to make the cars larger and modern.

Thanks for doing the reviews on these @ecmo47, I think it's awesome that the community can see how great these cars really are.

And BMR, keep up the good work! Preparing my credit card for 2018 now!

[ecmo47]

On 12/12/2017 at 1:35 PM, supertruper1988 said:

For the dozer build is it possible to swap for tan or olive green to do a military version?

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.

[ecmo47]

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. 

Edited January 17, 2018 by ecmo47

[legoman666]

2 hours ago, ecmo47 said:

Cheeseburger

[ecmo47]

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

 

Edited January 17, 2018 by ecmo47

[legoman666]

I like your trucks, but aren't those black pistols kind of pricey?

[ecmo47]

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

 

 

Edited January 17, 2018 by ecmo47

[fred67]

RE: the tanker car handrails: I'm wondering if it's not possible to just use black insulated solid core wire?

 

[Cale]

16 hours ago, ecmo47 said:

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

 

Yep. I've always heard it referred to as the "Hamburger" logo. It's actually one of my favorite N&W paint schemes.

Cale

[ecmo47]

On 1/16/2018 at 10:47 PM, fred67 said:

RE: the tanker car handrails: I'm wondering if it's not possible to just use black insulated solid core wire?

 

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.   

Edited January 19, 2018 by ecmo47

[fred67]

I see.  Having worked with romex for my homes wiring, I think it's possible to slide the wire in the insulation.  IOW, cut a piece that's a little too long, strip one end and pull the wire, then continue cutting to size.

However, your trains look absolutely awesome.  Given my budget, I couldn't possibly spend that much just for instructions, but the results are certainly spectacular.

[ecmo47]

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......

Edited January 19, 2018 by ecmo47

[ecmo47]

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.

[Glenn Holland]

That was done pretty deliberately. On the real ACF type 27, and most other tank cars, those cross members are pretty thin, as are the running boards. But, if you like a little more structural security, you've presented some good alternatives. :)

[CrispyBassist]

BMR Tank Cars by Matt Csenge, on Flickr

Just got around to taking pictures of my BMR tank cars. I definitely enjoyed the builds, especially after not building anything for a few months. I departed from the design slightly here and there, including a red 1x1 tile for the hazmat placard, chains (piece 92338) on the brake rigging, minifig axes for the journal boxes (though I'm not 100% sold on this), and three domes on the Esso rather than two (no particular reason here). I tried to number mine differently than the standard sticker set, but completely forgot in my excitement to sticket the Shell car. The redesigned trucks shown here look great, so I'll probably convert to those soon. Next up I'm planning two flat cars: Southern Pacific in dark red with a generic load, and Western Maryland in reddish brown. After that a couple more hoppers, a bunch of boxcars, and a special car or two all to make up a nice consist for my EF-1. 

As for the discussion on the bar clips for the trucks, I've found this method works real well without pieces popping off:

NH Osgood-Bradley Lightweight Coach Truck by Matt Csenge, on Flickr

The "bar holder" ends of the bar holders fit over the 1x2 plate with handle, making them much more secure. Substituting the 1x2 plate with handle and closed ends (48336) with the one with open ends (2540) would probably help even more. I run these on some of my passenger coaches and haven't had any problems with them falling off (then again, I haven't had any issues with the traditional bar clip method). 

[legoman666]

I made a Hamburger too after seeing Ecmo's. 

Kind of pricey in brown. I just used whatever brown I already had, so it's kind of mottled. 

[ecmo47]

^ Looking good! Has a nice weathered look.

 

[MaineBrickFan]

For those interested, BMR is taking orders for all of their premium instructions, which were out of stock. I built the flat car last week and loved it. 

[Jeffinslaw]

Here are some pictures of my USRA/AAR/PS1 custom boxcars. These were designed and built a long time before BMR released their PS1 instructions. I've got a ton of these things already built and will be building another ~9.

Union Pacific & SP&S by Jeffinslaw, on Flickr

SP&S 1 by Jeffinslaw, on Flickr

UP 1 by Jeffinslaw, on Flickr

UP 5 by Jeffinslaw, on Flickr

Here's a few of them altogether:

2018 So Far by Jeffinslaw, on Flickr

Thanks, Jeffinslaw

[legoman666]

Cale sent me the artwork for the next batch of decals and as I was going through them, I came across the Reading one and immediately started collecting the pieces. Looks slick in green!

[ecmo47]

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. 

Edited March 31, 2018 by ecmo47

[legoman666]

Looks good! I'm can't remember if Cale independently asked for Gulf Oil decals or if I suggested them to him.