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TM
BRICK RAILROADING MAGAZINE
INSIDE:
Brickworld and NMRA Train Coverage
Building Brick Roads
BRICWORX Instructions
Coming in September...
BrickJournal
, the magazine spotlighting the LEGO hobby, will be releasing
its third issue with articles from events such as Brickworld and San Diego
Comic-Con, instructions by Christopher Deck and Mariann Asanuma, and
a cover model by Bryce McGlone! There’s also an interview with Jørgen Vig
Knudstorp, the CEO of the LEGO Group as well as a couple of surprises, so
pick up an issue!
Available at
Barnes and Noble in the
United States and at the
Twomorrows website
(www.twomorrows.com)
everywhere!
CONTENTS
Issue 4 - October 2008
BRICK RAILROADING MAGAZINE
The Whistle Stop.....................................................................4
Update: New Train Bufers.......................................................5
Builder Spotlight: Louis Bronne...............................................6
Get Connected!.......................................................................9
Flashback: 165 Cargo Staion................................................10
Reverse Engineering Challenge.............................................12
It’s Not What It Seams...........................................................15
Brickworld....................................................................16
NMRA Naional Train Show...................................................20
Builder Spotlight: Brian Williams...........................................24
Instrucions: BricWorX Freight..............................................34
9V Trains: DCC Primer............................................................44
Brick Built Roads...................................................................53
Trainspoing....................................................................56
Modern Steam Train Contest.................................................58
FRED’s View...........................................................................59
© Copyright 2007-2008 RAILBRICKS.
LEGO® is a registered trademark of the LEGO Company, which does not sponsor, authorize or endorse this publication.
All other trademarks, service marks, and copyrights are property of their respective owners.
All Aboard!
The RAILBRICKS Team
Welcome back.
Senior Editor:
Jeramy Spurgeon
The last several months I’ve tak-
en a sort of sabbatical from MOC
building, mostly due to the fact
that I have been trying to sort
through nearly 150 lbs. of LEGO
bricks. I’ve placed a self imposed
restraint on building anything
until I get completely sorted. Yes,
completely. One thing that I’ve
quickly realized through sorting
is that you get very intimate with
your brick.
Not in that way, geez.
What I mean is that you really get
to know what you have and, by
sorting, you even discover little
surprises and treasures. I found
myself churning through possibilities as I found pieces that I never knew
I owned and contemplating new ways to use pieces that have been in
the LEGO palette for many years. I’m very close to inishing the big sort,
then I can start building again. The one project that I am really eager to
revisit is the 4-8-4 that I began....
a year ago!
I hope to have it done by
next issue, which coincidentally will focus on the Steam Era of trains. Be
sure to check out the Steam contest in this issue so that we can show of
your entries in RAILBRICKS #5.
Staf Editors and Writers -
The “Think Tank”:
Erik Amzallag
Steve Barile
Benn Coifman
Tim David
Didier Enjary
Eric Kingsley
Holger Mathes
John Neal
Mark Peterson
Larry Pieniazek
Jordan Schwarz
Content Contributors:
Mike Gallagher
Philippe “frogleap” Label
Joe Meno
Brian Williams
Copy Ediing/Prooing:
Chris Spurgeon
As always, this is a community built around sharing ideas, so if you have
an idea for an article, submit it to
.
Copyright © 2007-2008 RAILBRICKS
Permission is granted to copy, distrib-
ute and/or modify this document un-
der the terms of the GNU Free Docu-
mentaion License, Version 1.2 or any
later version published by the Free
Sotware Foundaion; with no Invariant
Secions, no Front-Cover Texts, and no
Back-Cover Texts.
If you’ve enjoyed reading RAILBRICKS, please consider a small donation
to help support our eforts. Visit
and click on the do-
nate button on the left side of the page.
Play Well!
-
Jeramy Spurgeon
Printed issues of RAILBRICKS will be available at
.
Instructions and Tips & Tricks articles within RAILBRICKS fall into one of
three categories and are labeled with the following icons:
B
I
Intermediate
A
Advanced
Beginner
NEWS
Update:
New Train Buffers
by Jordan Schwarz
The new train bufers
, featuring fully enclosed
magnets, are now available from the LEGO Shop at
Home online Pick-a-Brick assortment. RAILBRICKS has
compared the performance of these new bufers with
the previous generation of magnetic bufers. One of
the appealing features of the new magnets is their
attraction power. Initial tests showed that the new
magnets are much stronger, most likely due to their
need to attract
through
plastic.
The new bufer design features studs on the upper
and lower faces of the plastic enclosure holding the
magnet. This ofers at least one signiicant enhance-
ment over the previous design: a 1x2 tile or plate can
be used to connect two bufers together semi-per-
manently. This permits a very strong connection be-
tween the bufers. Builders can now construct long
and heavy trains without having to worry about the
bufers not holding the train together.
For this application, 1x2 tiles ofer better clearance
than 1x2 plates. The connection between the bufers
will be much stronger if tiles are used to connect the
studs on both the upper and lower faces of the mag-
net enclosures as shown in the photos. In testing, buf-
fers connected this way performed exactly like stan-
dard bufers and saw no performance degradation of
any kind.
The old magnetic bufers could easily couple to buf-
fers with a 1-plate vertical ofset. This becomes less
of a possibility for the new design. The new bufer
mechanism does permit limited rotation up or down;
this allows the bufers to maintain a solid connection
even as the train travels over uneven trackage. The
limited rotation is not quite enough for a new bufer
to couple with another bufer with a 1-plate vertical
ofset. It can be done, as shown in the picture. How-
ever, in this case the magnetic couplers do not con-
tact each other perfectly. As a result, the wheels of
the trucks can lift of the rails slightly, increasing the
possibility for derailment, especially if the tile connec-
tion technique is used to hold the bufers together.
The new bufers should only be coupled to bufers at
the same height if possible. When used this way, the
performance of the new bufers is entirely satisfacto-
ry, and the new bufers do an excellent job coupling
to old-style bufers as well.
The studs on the new bufers ofer new possibilities
for builders to take advantage of. Perhaps a new de-
coupling mechanism can be designed, or steam line
connections between cars could be simulated. If you
have a great idea for the new bufers, be sure to write
RAILBRICKS and let us know!
5
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