MagCloud now offers worldwide shipping on single issues. This has been one of the biggest requests from our readers. Read more about it here: http://magcloud.wordpress.com/2010/07/19/celebrate-magclouds-birthday-and-new-features/

To further celebrate their birthday month, MagCloud is also offering 25% off all publications. With worldwide shipping, now is a great time to stock up on issues of RAILBRICKS!

Speaking of issues, we realize that we are way out of schedule. But don't fret, we are working on something!

Ah summer, a fine time to get out, enjoy the fine weather, and run your trains around the garden. See more on Timmy's adventure here.

A word of caution, I've heard the sun's UV rays will break down ABS, though there are ways of working around this problem.

Sava Railways has once again unlocked the company vault, and four new Sava Railways steam engine blueprints can now be purchased at SRW Locomotive Works. These blueprints are of a Double Porter 2-4-0+0-4-2 Garratt, a Ten Wheeler 4-6-0, an Advanced Pacific 4-6-2 with a fully SNOT cheese slope boiler, and a Double Pacific 4-6-2+2-6-4 Garratt. They are available a la carte, or as a single collection at a discount.

As always 10% of all SRW Locomotive Works sales are donated to RAILBRICKS.

Visit SRW Locomotive Works today!

Flickr user Karwick presents a wonderfully detailed Steel Buffer-Stop for use at the end of rail line spurs.

Details like this, in my opinion, are what model railroading is all about.  I love to see powerful locomotives, detailed rolling stock, and well-constructed buildings, but details are really what make layouts come alive for me.

The parts usasage on this build give it a nice thin look, though it still feels massive enough to stop a run-away wagon.  Karwik also presents some heavier alternative buffers in his gallery, which also contains some nice detailed town elements as well.

Matt H. just tipped me off to this fantastic truck design by Space2310. Probably about as small as you can make a powered truck. It's narrowgauge too! For two studs between the rails. But it is not just a truck,

Look at all of that detail in the vingette (and a novel ballest trick too). But that's not all of the innovations, look how the PF battery box is hidden,




Click on the pictures for the respective Flickr page. Space2310 has also included a video showing the train running around a loop.

So Brickworld 2010 has come and gone. This was the fourth year for the event and it was just as awesome as ever. For us train fans there were several highlights.

Scott Wardlaw brought his amazing Union Pacific Challenger and matching train set and took home the Brickworld Best Train Award again this year.

Joel Ellenbecker hosted the Train Racing event again this year. My Pennsy #460 won the steam division for a second year in a row.

RAILBRICK'S own Jeramy Spurgeon and Mark Peterson brought their Central Indiana LEGO Train Club layout again this year. Their fantastic sweeping curves were put to good use during the event as several of us tested our trains on them.

But the best part had to be the chance to hang out with some of the best train builders in North America. These people are what made the event truly special. Thank you to all the train guys who came out to play this year.

My Brickworld Flickr Gallery

Brickworld Flickr Group

Cale

Hi LEGO Fans,

the LEGO Community Development would like to know which of the already existing elements would be needed most urgently in missing colors. Some optimism presumed the number one of the resulting list could end in a "color change" and might be produced in the future.

To participate - the way is as follows:
Suggestions need to be send by email until the 30.06.2010. These suggestions will be sorted and afterwards published for a voting. The final chart will be send to the LCD Team.

For easier handling the suggestions should be aligned to the description of the BrickLink catalogue:
http://www.bricklink.com/catalogTree.asp?itemType=P

Suggestions only will be accepted in a color which is still in production. So e.g."Fabuland brown" is invalid because production of this color was stoped in 1997. An overview about the actual colors could be downloaded here:

http://x-brick.de/ambassador/colorpalette/2010LEGOcolorpalette.pdf

An example:
Part No: 50746
Name: Slope 30 1 x 1 x 2/3
New color: brick-yellow (tan)

The suggestions should be send to this email address:
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

On behalf of Alex MacKenna and Alban Nanty

Original post from Eurobricks.

Hello all,

As I am not sure that everyone reads the change log on the site, I thought I should mention something about the new release here as well as some instructions on how to use the new features.

In addition to several bug fixes, the new features include things that many of you have asked for.

Up until now it has been tough trying to find small GIFs in the part library window at the top right corner. This is because everything was set to scale. As some GIFs were getting bigger, it became increasingly difficult to see the small ones. Now, you have several options to display the GIFs in the library the way you like them. Right click in the part library window and select one or a combination of the following 3 options.

1. Large icons (zooms in or out of icons, same function as the regular right click had previously)
2. Respect proportion (toggles scaling of parts on or off, switching it off will help you to find those small GIFs, but it is handy to have on when looking for the right baseplate)
3. Bubble information (when placing the mouse cursor over the GIF you get a bubble, also known as a "tool tip", with information about the GIF)

Settings for this 3rd feature can be found in the global options menu, under the part library tab. Here you can chose which information you want to see in the bubble.

While you are on that tab, you will notice that the parts folders/categories have been extended, and that you can now place them in any order you like above the part library window. This way you can sort them from left to right, from most used to least used. You can also change the background color of the library window.

On top of that, all the GIFs which have been created since the last release, are available for download. Although this release was more feature driven, I think the library was still extended by 70 or so new GIFs. Thanks to all who contributed! If anyone wants to try making GIFs using LDD let me know. I will be sticking to MLCad for a while. Enjoy!

Download BlueBrick here : http://bluebrick.lswproject.com

The new LEGO Passenger Train set is now available from Shop at Home for customers in the US, priced at $129.99 USD and with 669 elements.

This set makes use of the Power Functions transmitter and receiver. The engine is powered by a 6-AAA battery pack in roughly the same form factor as the more-expensive lithium-ion battery. It will be interesting to see what sort of run-time (or lack thereof) is available from the 6-AAA pack.

Also available is the Train Station, $49.99 USD and 361 pieces. We're still waiting on the Cargo Train and Track Crane / Crossing sets to become available in the US.

Peter Norman, or swoofty over on Flickr, has announced a new contest for the Flickr LEGO Train MOCs group.  The rules are pretty simple - build a purely electric locomotive.  You've got until July 31st so start building!

Of course should I find the time and energy to build and enter, even if it will be my very first electric locomotive MOC, your chances of winning dwindle.  Go on, prove me wrong.

Fana’Briques is both a LUG (LEGO User Group) and an annual event held since 2006 in Rosheim, France. The event is special in that way it is purposely open to foreign people. Rosheim is not far from the german border (less than 15km - 10mi) and the event is supported by «Ritte Ritte Ross», a local organization which promote bilinguism (German and French) in the area.

In 2007, among various layouts (train and city, GBB, Star Wars), visitors discovered
a real life size LEGO Bugatti car side by side with the real one!

In 2008, Fana’Briques with 2200 visitors reach a new level.
It is also the year of the first appearance of BaB’s (another french
local LUG located in Lyon area) bullet train speed contest on homemade
track and custom 150W power supply, project on which RailBricks will dedicate an article in the next
issue.

The 2009 figures - 60 exhibitors (from belgium, germany, switzerland, the netherlands and france),
on 1500m² and 3700 visitors during two days - make the event an international one and a place you have to exhibit or attend.

It is a complete experience, as you can find, on site, a shop, playgrounds for both grownups and youngers, new products presentation by LEGO designer, BrickFilm workshop and, that is certainly the most important, friends to share a snack and dinner at a nice sunny place.

Fana’Briques will be held this year on 26th and 27th of June.

Official website : http://www.fanabriques.fr

I think I’ve built my masterpiece, I doubt I’ll ever be able to top this one. Just over a year ago, after the Emerald Night came out I decided to build a better Pacific. My chosen subject was the Southern Pacific Railroad, 4-6-2 ‘Pacific’ type steam locomotive. Several of these locomotives survived into commuter service and were preserved at the twilight of steam in the US. Two were operational in the past decade (2467 and 2472) and a third is under restoration (2479).

I had planned to use the banded drivers from the Emerald Night and finally power a steam engine via the drive wheels. But then I saw Cale’s PF Y at Brickworld and pffft, now I had better propulsion to pursue. I stuck with the SP pacifics though.

Find the rest of the story on Lugnet and EuroBricks.

full gallery

Just a reminder to everyone who will be in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin area in July, that the 2010 National Train Show is coming up in just over a month.  This year is the National Model Railroad Association's 75th anniversary, which should make the show and NMRA convention (held at the same time as the National Train Show) well worth the visit.

As in past years, brick-built train fans will be displaying alongside the more traditional modelers.  If you are interested in displaying, head on over to Brick Railroader and join the discussion.

Unfortunately I won't be able to attend myself this year, so I'm counting on RAILBRICKS fans to take lots of photos to share with the rest of us!

I thought that Carl Geartrix's working TPO car was cool, and just yesterday I wrote about Mike Pianta's hopper with working suspension.  Today, I was pleased to see Eurobricks user Esben Kolind's Commuter Train with working doors!

Train builders are really stepping things up, building automation and detail into rolling stock in ways that I think we could only dream about before.  This build really shows the power of the PF system, and how it can be integrated into trains in interesting ways.  Check out the Eurobricks post to see video of the doors in action, and a full explanation of how they work.

Mike Pianta (Scruffulous on Flickr) presents his wonderful Victorian Railways GJF Bogie Grain Hopper.

In addition to the eye-popping color and well-executed decals, this piece of rolling stock also features working bogies with spring suspension, and loads of detail.

Also be sure to check out Scruffulous' other work, including his WT Water Tank Wagon and U Louvre Van.

Everyone here at RB has been so busy preparing for shows of one kind or another that a few big bits squeeked out. I'm sure you've already got your copy of the Toy Story train (some great parts in there). But have you seen the various previews of stuff just around the corner?

Holger has posted photos of the new PF train motor and AAA battery box. He notes, "the new LPF Train Motor looks much like the former from the outside, it has been reengineered from the inside. It has more motor power and is more efficient. The new train runs as long on AAA batteries as the former did on AA batteries." I've often complained that the rechargible battery box should have had studs on the side to stash it in hoods and one of the commenters echoed that view. BUT... it looks like you could ditch the box and suspend the batteries from above (i.e., just the light gray battery holder) or flip it over from below and build around where the (dark gray) box would have gone.

Next we see the first review of the 7939 city train by hmillington. Yellow bogie plates??? Some other interesting new parts as well, but you can explore those on your own.

For those who like the Toy Story train as is, here's one way to add PF to it. Though one poster mentioned that the motor axles might not line up in all of them (but technically savy folks can quickly fix it).

I know I've been a little quiet in the train community lately. It's not because I've lost interest in trains. Quite to the contrary. I was working on getting my club's train layout ready for a new LEGO fan event this year. BrickMagic

Brickmagic presented by BrickJournal and TwoMorrows Inc. was held last weekend May 6th through the 9th at the Hilton North Raleigh in Raleigh North Carolina. Brick artist Nathan Sawaya and LEGO A Love Story author Jonathan Bender were on hand as well as LEGO set designers Mark Stafford and Megan Rothrock. But most importantly (at least for us train fans) there were several train layouts on display.

PennLUG

My own club PennLUG was there with our largest layout to date at 20x21 feet. Our layout featured a wind farm, monster truck arena, the debut of our new brick built roads and ballasted track and for the first time one of our main loops of track was 100% Power Functions.

WamaLTC

WamLTC had an impressive layout with an idyllic park, a bridge spanning a huge underwater layout, and an expansive town.

GFLTC

GFLTC was also there with their very impressive Tampa, Florida layout and neat details like a working drive in theater.

You can see more on the Brickmagic Flickr Group.

Cale

Thorsten Benter has recently submitted a very well done set of instructions of Reinhard Ben Beneke's BR23 (with Ben's permission).

As noted in the previous blog post, you are free to download and print these instructions, but please do not sell them.

As noted by Tim Gould over at The Brothers Brick, some enterprising individuals are using freely available build instructions to turn a profit.

While we work to develop a policy on the instructions hosted at RAILBRICKS, it should be noted that the original designers RETAIN ALL COPYRIGHTS.

This means that you are welcome to download and print these instructions for your personal use, you should not sell collections of these instructions in any manner.

Please be respectful of the builders that have been willing to share these with the community.

Sava Railways has unlocked the company vault yet again, and the blueprints for the iconic Tequila Sunrise passenger train can now be purchased at SRW Locomotive Works.  These blueprints are of a Hudson 4-6-4 with Henry Dreyfuss inspired streamlinging, baggage car, passenger coach, tavern coach, and observation coach.  All the cars of the Tequila Sunrise feature full interiors ready to shuttle passengers through the American Southwest!  They are available a la carte, or as a single collection at a discount.

10% of all SRW Locomotive Works sales are donated to RAILBRICKS.

Visit SRW Locomotive Works today!