How I Build My L-Gauge Modular System Table Risers

Well, I didn’t mean for it to be over three years since I last posted an update to this website, but here we are!

To build your LGMS table risers, you will need: some 1 & 1/4” PVC pipe, 1 & 1/4” PVC caps (I forgot to take a photograph before I connected the caps to the pipe sections) some 1/4-20 threaded rivet nuts, some 1/4-20 threaded adjustable foot inserts, a PVC cutting tool, a power drill with a 23/64 drill bit, and some superglue. I will provide links to these items at the bottom of this article.

Early 2020 marked my last days of displaying a large LEGO® train layout on my own. Since then, the vast majority of my public displays have been with my local LEGO® Train Club, or with a group displaying under the L-Gauge Modular System banner. LGMS is similar to conventional model railroad modular standards such as N-trak and Free-Mo, allowing anyone to build a compliant module and display it with other participants. For more information, visit lgms.org.

One of the difficulties of LGMS is the need for participants to provide their own benchwork. Many users have found that 30x60 inch plastic folding tables from restaurant supply stores fit the bill, however they’re a bit lower than they need to be to meet the 32 inch railhead height specified by LGMS. Also, these tables need to be height-adjustable (plus or minus one inch) to deal with uneven floors at shows. What’s more, however you raise your tables, your method needs to be robust enough that it can handle someone bumping into the table, or being moved/adjusted by other participants if you happen to not be available when it needs moving/adjusting. This means blocks and shims aren’t allowed. Now, ask a different person and you’ll get a different answer, but I feel it pertinent to share MY method of raising my LGMS tables. So let’s get started!

The first thing to do is remove the plastic feet from the bottom of your tables. This will allow the threaded foot insert to travel up inside the metal leg, rather than having the plastic foot sitting on top of the threaded foot insert.

Take a length of your 1 & 1/4 inch PVC and place it over the leg of the table. Mark a height of 32 inches, the specified railhead height for LGMS.

Now, subtract an inch from that 32 inch mark to allow for height adjustability. Following that, Take your ballasted track and subtract its height from the new 31 inch mark. If you are on MILS, the Modular Integrated Landscape System (which is NOT required for LGMS) you’ll end up with a cutting mark at about 6 inches of PVC pipe. In my case, my non-MILS ballasted track gives me a cutting mark at about 6 & 1/2 inches of PVC pipe. Note that your measurements may differ depending on the leg construction of your folding table, among other factors.

Now that we have our PVC measurement, we can cut 4 pieces from the PVC pipe. These cuts don’t need to be super-precise, but try not to stray more than a quarter of an inch off the mark.

As you can see from the last image, the tables don’t need a LOT of PVC to raise them to the correct height, but they do need a bit!

Now that we have our four cuts of PVC (if you’re making risers for multiple tables, you will of course need four risers per table) add a PVC end cap to each one. I find that these are a press-fit, no glue required. Once the cap is attached to the PVC pipe length, take your power drill with the 23/64 inch (this is the measurement specified for the rivet nuts I bought, if you use different rivet nuts, you may need a different hole size) drill bit and drill a hole in the center of the cap. If you’re a little off from center, it’s fine.

Now, add some superglue around the edge of the freshly drilled hole, and pop a rivet nut in there. Make sure you don’t get any superglue on the inside of the rivet nut, where the threads are.

Once you’ve allowed sufficient drying time for your superglued rivet nuts, you can spin the threaded foot insert into the rivet.

And that’s it! Now we have a set of risers to raise our plastic folding tables up to the specified LGMS height. To apply, simply set up your folding table as normal, then lift one end of the table to place a riser under each leg, and repeat at the other end of the table.

I’ve been using these table risers for a couple of years now, entirely without incident. Again, ask another LGMS participant about how THEY raise THEIR tables, and you’ll get a different answer, this is just the method I’ve found that works best for me. Below are some links to the threaded rivet nuts and the threaded foot inserts I use. Everything else you need should be easily found at your local hardware store. Thanks for reading!

Threaded rivet nuts (1/4-20):

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077GQLQZ8

Threaded foot inserts (1/4-20, 2 & 1/2 inches):

https://furniturelevelor.com/product/475-k-poly-pro-base/

Footnote: I use longer lengths of PVC pipe to raise my home workbench folding tables to a comfortable working height (for 6 foot tall me) of 42 inches. If it’s good enough for my friend who works in catering that recommended this technique, it’s good enough for me!

Using LiPo Batteries with LEGO® Trains

The equipment I use to run Lithium Polymer batteries with my LEGO® trains. From top-to-bottom, left-to-right: The LEGO® Train itself (of course), a reputable battery charger, a custom-soldered Power Functions to JST battery lead, a LiPo battery (yellow) that is plugged into a Low Battery Alarm (red circuit board with green lights) and a “fireproof” bag to store the batteries when they are charging or not in use.

DISCLAIMERS:

First of all, I am not an electronics expert. For anyone interested in using LiPo batteries who is as unfamiliar with the topic as I was, I STRONGLY advise you to do some research on the matter. This article by a Canadian hobby shop is a great introductory guide, and even though they do mention that there isn’t anything to worry about if you handle your LiPo batteries with care, I will loudly repeat the “with care” part, and urge you to exercise caution. When you read up on the subject, you’ll surely find at least a few horror stories about these batteries exploding. A forum post I saw put it very succinctly: “Only a few factories in the world produce these batteries, and the quality control just isn’t there.” In short, never leave LiPo batteries unattended while they are in use or charging, store them safely and securely, and check their health as often as you charge them.

In fact, I might go as far as to recommend NOT using LiPo batteries if your trains are at risk of being dismantled by children. I would only recommend this power system for “serious” adult LEGO® train hobbyists who are already well-invested in the hobby, and find themselves at a point when the readily available power options are no longer working for them.

Next, this is not a final, absolute, way-and-the-light guide. This is just what I’ve found to work for me, if you ask another LEGO® train builder you might get different answers. Your Mileage May Vary.

Third, this is not an endorsement of any particular product. Again, these are just the products I’ve found that work for me.

Fourth, running your LEGO® trains on RC hobby batteries means a bit of modifying parts, which some LEGO® purists frown upon.

Fifth, Lithium Polymer is not the only battery chemistry available for rechargeable hobby batteries. Some folks use Lithium Ion, there’s also Nickel-Cadmium, Nickel-Metal-Hydride, and more! Even if you select a different type of rechargeable battery to use, this guide may still be useful to you.

Finally, now that I’ve given you all these warnings, you understand that you’re not allowed to blame me if the batteries burn your house down. Good? Right, let’s continue!

My first attempt at using a LiPo battery with one of my trains. As you can see, the battery was MUCH too large!

My first attempt at using a LiPo battery with one of my trains. As you can see, the battery was MUCH too large!

My journey towards Lithium Polymer batteries began when I found that conventional/disposable 9 volt batteries were not enough to keep my new 8-wide locomotives moving. I was using a custom cable that had two 9V battery leads connected to a Power Functions plug, but the two Power Functions “L” motors in most of my diesels demanded more juice than the 9V batteries were prepared to give (My one locomotive that used a single PF train motor did run comparatively well on a pair of 9V batteries, but by no means am I looking to power ALL my trains with the train motor). The “L” motors would prefer something like 850mAh, and most 9V batteries only put out around 500mAh. Some might say “Well just use the Power Functions AAA battery box, or the official LEGO® rechargeable battery!” Perhaps, but the way I build my 8-wide locomotives makes it quite difficult to fit a 4-stud-wide battery box in a 5-stud-wide locomotive hood. Doing so with the two official LEGO® LiPo battery boxes I owned made those two locomotives quite fragile, and charging them took FAR too long! At most shows, I could only run those locomotives for about an hour a day. As though that isn’t frustrating enough, using the Power Functions AAA battery box would mean the train has to be built in such a way that the box can be removed for battery changes, and even if you’re successful with that aspect of the construction, conventional rechargeable AAAs can take multiple hours to finish charging. For all these reasons, the readily available methods of providing power to my trains were unsatisfactory, so I decided to get my feet wet with more advanced power options!

After misunderstanding the power ratings of these LiPo batteries intended for RC hobby equipment, I bought a 3S 2200mAh 35C model. Roughly translated, that’s a 3-cell (the S means the cells are wired in Series) longer-life (2200 Milli-Amp Hours), high-discharge (The “C” rating refers to how quickly the battery can be drained of its charge) battery. It did work, but the train was going faster than I thought the motors were happy with, and I was warned by my LEGO® train colleagues that I could damage the LEGO® electronics with that much power. So, for round two, I purchased a 2S 850mAh 25C LiPo battery, which only puts out a maximum of 8.4 volts, but the milli-amperage is more than enough to keep a train moving at full speed for well over an hour. As a friend said, mAh is the “gas in your tank” rating. I could have selected a 2S LiPo battery with a higher mAh rating, but most of the higher-rated batteries use an XT60 discharge plug, with wire much thicker than that of the Power Functions wiring. The smallest LiPo batteries use a JST discharge plug, which is much easier to cram inside a LEGO® train. Also, note that the “C” rating isn’t really important for use with LEGO® trains. RC hobby equipment like model aircraft or miniature off-roading vehicles can discharge a battery in minutes because of their high power usage (hence the thick cable of the XT60 plug), whereas the power demands of LEGO® motors are comparably low. Even a 20C battery has many times more discharge-over-time capacity than what a LEGO® motor actually needs!

The larger battery in the back is the first LiPo battery I purchased. It turned out to be much too large and much too powerful. The large cables leading to the yellow plug coming out of the 2200mAh battery are XT60 leads, which are MUCH thicker wire…

The larger battery in the back is the first LiPo battery I purchased. It turned out to be much too large and much too powerful. The large cables leading to the yellow plug coming out of the 2200mAh battery are XT60 leads, which are MUCH thicker wires than Power Functions cables, and therefore not easy to bend around. The smaller battery in the foreground is one of the batteries I use now. Notice how small it is, barely six studs long not including cable leads, a little over 3 bricks high, and barely two studs wide. It will easily fit inside most MOCs, and the cables are thin enough that they can be easily manipulated to cram into your builds. The multicolored wires leading to the white plug on each battery are the “balance” leads, which allow the charger or the low battery alarm to determine how much charge is contained within each cell of the battery.

Now that we’ve established what these batteries are and what they do, let’s talk briefly about the major accessories needed to run them!

First, a quality charger. I chose a charger from a manufacturer that has a function on their website where you can enter the serial number of the product you’ve purchased to ensure that it’s a genuine model. There are a lot of “clone” chargers that may not be built with the best quality, do some research to ensure you select one that suits your needs and comes from a reputable company.

Second, you will need some low battery alarms. These are tiny circuit boards that plug into the balance lead on your batteries, with indicator lights to show the health of each battery cell. When the battery reaches a specified low voltage the alarm will sound, and it’s loud enough that you can hear it even in a crowded expo hall!

Third, you will need some JST plugs with leads. This is the part that requires soldering. Cut a Power Functions extension cable in two pieces, giving you two plugs with wires coming off of them. After cutting the wires to size, solder the JST leads to the Power Functions leads, as shown in the image below. Once the soldering is done, wrap electrical tape around each solder point individually before taping them together. The idea of wrapping them individually is to prevent the hot and ground wires from touching each other accidentally.

The process of making a custom battery lead involves cutting apart a Power Functions extension cable and soldering it to a JST battery plug. The one I’m making in the picture is very short, but I do have some longer ones. On a Power Functions plug s…

The process of making a custom battery lead involves cutting apart a Power Functions extension cable and soldering it to a JST battery plug. The one I’m making in the picture is very short, but I do have some longer ones. On a Power Functions plug seen on the right with the cable going left, the bottom wire is the Hot wire, and the top wire is the Ground. The two center wires are for control signals to be sent to the motors, and are not needed for making a battery lead. After soldering the wires together, tape them up, taking special care to ensure that there’s no way any of the bare wires could accidentally touch each other.

Lastly, I would recommend the “fireproof” bags available for LiPo batteries. I use these to store the batteries when I’m not using them. I’ve heard from some RC hobbyists that say you can leave a LiPo battery sitting on a shelf in the garage without issue, but I prefer to keep my batteries in the recommended temperature-controlled climate. Some outlets say you should put the battery inside one of these bags while it’s charging. Mind you, I doubt the bags are truly “explosion proof” but I figure that if you’re around when things go wrong, the bag should buy you some precious time to get the burning battery outside. On that note, I once again urge you to NEVER EVER EVER leave the batteries unattended while charging.

Here is the battery, low battery alarm, and battery lead all crammed into the body of one of my locomotives. Not visible are the two Power Functions “L” motors, and the IR receiver.

Here is the battery, low battery alarm, and battery lead all crammed into the body of one of my locomotives. Not visible are the two Power Functions “L” motors, and the IR receiver.

So what does a typical session of using these batteries look like? Well, it starts a couple of nights before a weekend train show. I will charge all my batteries to full power, which is 8.4 volts, or 4.2V per battery cell. I have all my batteries numbered, and throughout the show day, I will use them more or less in numerical order. When a battery sets off its low voltage alarm, I remove the battery from the locomotive, remove the low battery alarm from the balance lead, and set the battery to charge. Each battery gives me about 2 hours of train running time, and charging takes around 45 minutes per battery. By the end of a show day, I’ll usually have a backlog of batteries that need charging, so I’ll bring the charger and batteries home to finish topping them all off for the next day. When the show is over, I will charge the batteries only up to the “storage charge.” As mentioned earlier, the full charge for a 2-cell battery is 8.4 volts. The low-battery alarms will start flashing at under 7 volts, and the alarm will sound at 6.4 volts. The “storage” charge level is 7.4 volts (3.7 Volts per cell), because this is where the chemistry of the battery is most stable. After charging all my batteries back to “storage” charge, I will stow them in the fireproof bags until the next time I need to use them.

Finally, the big question of cost. How much does it cost to run these batteries compared to, say, disposable batteries? Well, the batteries themselves cost around $6 or $7 USD each. Compare that to a single pack of disposable 9V or AAA batteries that have to be discarded after one use (rechargeable AAAs or 9Vs will be more expensive, but worth it if you prefer to use those kinds of batteries for your trains). The charger rang up at about $60 USD, and the Low Battery Alarms are around $3 each. In my case, a charger, several alarms, a couple of “fireproof” bags and a dozen batteries brought my initial purchase price to a bit under $200 USD with tax and shipping and so forth (remember that I’m running a somewhat large show layout with over a dozen locomotives and two trains running at all times). After using these batteries for only three or four shows, I’d say they’ve MORE than paid for themselves over using disposable batteries. Oh, and did I mention that the LiPo batteries do not gradually slow the train down as they lose power like conventional batteries do? I get maximum power & speed from full charge all the way down to the alarm going off.

Cost aside, the performance is far superior to any other battery I’ve tried. I would even go as far as saying I prefer it to the 9 Volt metal-rail system. I would absolutely recommend these batteries to anyone who has a lot of trains to power and hasn’t been happy with the official LEGO® options. With the right caution and know-how, LiPo batteries are a fine solution to the problem of powering your MOCs. Good luck, happy building, and thank you for reading!

Track Planning for LEGO® Trains, Part 4: Planning Your Layout

Over the course of the first three installments of this blog, we have established a functional knowledge of the track parts available to us and how they fit together. Now it is time to start applying that knowledge to building a layout. Before we put pencil to (virtual) paper, much less lay down the first baseplate, there are a handful of questions to consider:

1 - What are your overall goals with having trains in your LEGO® setup? Are they the main feature, or just adding a moving party piece to another theme? This will help determine how much table space you want to allocate for the tracks themselves.

2 - Do you intend to play with the rest of the layout (I.E. minfigs, cars and trucks, spaceships, buildings, etc) or will everything aside from the trains be a static display? For instance, if you’d like to play with your road vehicles and buildings, you may want to consider NOT placing the main line of your tracks in between the edge of the table and the play area, lest you want your play time interrupted by a passing train every few seconds.

3 - Do you expect to run your trains realistically, or have them run in circles without needing much attention? This will help determine how simple, complicated, or realistic, you want your track plan to be.

4 - Do you own more than one train that will run on your layout? If so, do you want to store the trains in a visible part of the layout, a hidden section, or simply take the trains on and off the tracks as you like? The answer to this question will help you establish the number of storage sidings you’ll need, and where they should be placed.

5 - If you own multiple trains, do you want to run them simultaneously or have them take turns? Simultaneous running of multiple trains usually demands multiple independent loops of track, while running one train at a time needs only one main track and perhaps some sidings to store the trains not in use.

6 - How much space is available to you? What kind of tables do you plan to use? The space you have to fill with trains will be the strongest power dictating the design of your layout.

7 - Is this a permanent layout or will it need to be taken down and put away on occasion? A permanent layout can use fixed benchwork (a model railroading term for the structure and surface supporting the layout) while a temporary layout may wish to use tables that can easily be taken down and stored.

While this article won't directly answer each question for each individual reader, we'll try to cover all the possibilities to help you make informed decision. Thankfully, rebuilding a LEGO® setup is considerably easier than rebuilding a conventional model train setup, so mistakes are easy to correct and changes only take so long to complete!

We'll start by seeing how roads and buildings can fit together with our LEGO® Train tracks. Let's say we have one table to build our layout on: a 30 inch by 60 inch (76.2cm x 152.4cm) folding table, a size easily found at major retailers. As discussed in previous track planning series installments, LEGO® train tracks fit to a 5 inch (12.7cm) grid, so our layout will fit very neatly on this table. Note that there IS 4-stud border between the edge of the track and the edge of the table, which I like to keep in case of minor derailments. Track directly on the edge is more prone to being bumped, and derailments don’t have anywhere to go before hitting the floor!

Next, we'll add some 5"x5" baseplates (12.7cm x 12.7cm, or 16x16 studs) underneath the tracks to see how many squares our design takes up on the grid:

Note how on the curves, the 16x16 baseplates in each corner do not actually have track on them. You COULD place a small build in such a corner, but remember that the train will overhang the tracks by a couple of studs on the curves!

Finally, we'll add some road plates and modular buildings (represented by tan baseplates):

The Dark Bluish Gray baseplates are roads, the 16x32 plates underneath the tracks represent grade crossings. The tan baseplates are buildings, such as the Modular series. The green baseplates represent free space for other builds, such as some scenery in the form of foliage (although note that the corners touching the tracks will need to be clear). The white space is effectively unusable as it’s too close to the tracks.

Unless you want to change from a layout with continuous operation (read: a complete circle of track), you will quickly find the 30”x60” table to be too small for a layout more complicated than a basic oval. Let’s add a second table to our setup, with which we can either form a square layout, a long and thin layout, or an “L” shaped layout. Below are some examples of each option. We’ll continue using the color-coding of dark bluish grey = roads, tan = buildings, green = scenery/available space, and white = space that isn’t all that usable. We’ll also add light bluish gray to represent other themes of LEGO®. The tables are shown as black outlines in Track Designer, while BlueBrick has a wide variety of tables that come standard with the software.

**IMPORTANT NOTE** Before you go placing three or four tables all squished together, be aware of the limits of your physical reach. That is, you don’t want to have something so far into the middle of the layout that you can’t reach it from the outer edges of the tables without damaging objects in between. 30 inches (76.2cm) is a reasonable reach-in for an adult, far less is advised if children will be playing with the trains. Even if you have a floor layout, be aware of the safe places to put your foot, should you need to access something towards the inside of the layout.

So far, our demonstration layouts have shown the possibilities of adding side tracks, buildings, roadways and scenery to our layouts. Let’s take these concepts a step further by introducing the idea of “Layout Design Elements,” or LDEs. In conventional model railroading, the term LDE originally referred to a prototype railroad location (such as a specific town, station, yard, siding, or industry) that is to be modeled as realistically as possible, with the same track setup, buildings, and proportions as are found on the original. This definition has become relaxed over the years, and can be taken to mean any chunk of layout that the builder would like to include with as few compromises as possible. Below are three examples of LEGO® LDEs, and some ways they can fit into a layout.

You may notice that the size of these example layouts is growing quickly. Unfortunately, for nearly all model railroad enthusiasts of every scale, space is at a premium. Whether you have a corner of a bedroom or an entire basement, it seems there just isn’t ever quite enough open area to build the train set of your dreams. Since this series on track planning is aimed at beginners, let’s assume you only have part of a bedroom available to set up your LEGO® trains. I have used my own 10 x 12.5 foot (roughly 3m by 3.8m) bedroom as a template. There is a door to the hallway in the upper right corner, the top wall is primarily made of folding doors for closets, and there is a window (not marked) along the bottom wall that we may not want to block with tables. I switched to the BlueBrick software for this set of images (except for the outline of my bedroom, which was hastily drawn in MS Paint), which gives us a grid of 10 inches (25.4cm, or 32 studs) grouped in sections of 3x3, because that 30”x30” (76.2cm x 76.2cm) space is the minimum area needed for a complete circle of standard LEGO® curved tracks. The first three images demonstrate how our two-table layouts could fit into the room, and the last image shows an example of what could be done if the ENTIRE room could be used for trains.

The “Whole Room” Layout in the last example above introduces a new style of layout we haven’t seen yet, called the “Around the Walls” layout. So far, most of the layout designs we’ve looked at have been “island” style, meaning that a complete circle runs more or less around the edge of the table “island.” For the last segment of this post, we’ll explore a few other styles of layout design, as well as a couple of new concepts that make them work. We already saw a Scene Divider in our example layout with the tunnel LDE; the tunnel helped to visually divide the layout into two distinct areas. Let’s take that idea a step further with the introduction of the “View Block.”

As its name suggests, the View Block prevents the person viewing the layout from seeing what’s on the other side, whether it be a wall, open space, more layout, or staging (we will define the term staging in a moment). The term “View Block” is roughly interchangeable with the term “Backdrop,” which refers to the view block as a piece of scenery. View blocks are typically made from a slice of wood, masonite, or styrofoam made to stand vertically. The backdrop can be painted onto them, or background photos could be printed or purchased and glued to the view block. All this COULD be done solely with LEGO® bricks, but that would likely be fragile and expensive. Here are some examples of View Blocks, all of which I photographed at the 2018 Amherst Hobby Show in West Springfield, Massachusetts.

As seen in the last photo above, “Staging” is typically an out-of-view area of the layout where trains are parked, waiting for their turn to run on the layout. It’s similar to the backstage wings of a theater, where performers wait for their turn in the spotlight. However, in the model railroading world, we don’t HAVE to hide our train-actors out of sight; we could park them in a visible freight yard, where they wouldn’t look out of place at all!

We’ll wrap up this 4th post of the Track Planning series by looking at a handful of example layouts that apply the new concepts we’ve learned. All of these example layouts use the 30”x60” (76.2cm x 152.4cm) table size in varying configurations. While you are welcome to copy these track plans directly for your own use, the goal here is to inspire you to design your own plan, based on your own desires, needs, and available space. Commercially available tables are entirely adequate for a LEGO® train layout, as LEGO® track isn’t usually nailed & glued to the table like regular model train track. You can even build your own tables if you like, although I personally do not have such skills, so I would recommend looking elsewhere for advice on building your own tables. Just remember that the minimum space needed for a half-circle of track on the grid is 30”x15” (76.2cm x 38.1cm) so be careful that you don’t select tables too narrow to fit the continuous loop of track you may want! Also remember to keep in mind your reach-in distance, and make sure there is ample aisle-way access to all areas of the layout arrangement.

If you haven’t read the previous installments of this series, they can be found by accessing the index page for this series. If you would like to be notified of when future installments in this series are posted, please follow me on my Facebook page or Instagram account. As always, thank you for reading!

Track Planning for LEGO® Trains, Part 3: Custom Track Pieces

The first two installments of this series have only used LEGO® train track pieces officially offered by the LEGO® company. We observed several times that the geometry of these pieces can be limiting to those who want more realistic trains or more complicated layouts. For this reason, a small industry of third-party manufacturers has appeared in recent years. Companies such as TrixBrix and BrickTracks are offering 3D-printed and/or injection-molded wider-radius curves, modified switches, and other pieces of custom LEGO®-compatible train track. But what does all this mean to the beginner? Are these pieces worth buying if you're just starting out? Let's cover the possibilities that all these custom track pieces unlock, so you, the reader, will have the information to decide for yourself!

DISCLAIMER: Some LEGO® enthusiasts are "purists" in the sense that they refuse to acknowledge, much less use, third-party pieces, nor are they willing to modify existing LEGO® parts. My viewpoint is this: companies that directly copy LEGO® designs, produce them in a lower quality and sell them as competition to LEGO® are bad. Companies that produce parts that LEGO® themselves do not manufacture (including track pieces, weapons, stickers and printed bricks, etc) that enhance and add to the official product line are acceptable. If you consider yourself a hard-and-fast purist, this article may be worth skimming, but otherwise, we'll see you in the next post in the series!

Wide-Radius Curves

When we talk about the Radius of a curve, we are referring to the distance from the middle of the track to the center of the theoretical circle created by that section of curved track. That is, the term "radius" applies to all curved track, not simply track that has formed a complete circle. The standard LEGO® curve track has a radius of 40 studs, commonly referred to as R40 for "Radius: 40." The image below shows how the radius is measured in bricks, or studs.

The distance from the center of the circle of track to the center of the rails is 40 studs, measured by the orange and blue 4-stud long bricks.

The distance from the center of the circle of track to the center of the rails is 40 studs, measured by the orange and blue 4-stud long bricks.

While this tight curvature is handy for building a complete loop of track in a relatively small space (relatively small compared to other large-scale model trains, that is), the small radius is A: not very realistic, and 2: doesn't allow for longer rolling stock. Official LEGO® trains are almost always under 32 studs long (the length of two pieces of track) which means the engines and cars are usually far too short to look prototypical. There is some discussion over the exact scale proportions of LEGO®, but the general consensus is that 6-stud-wide rolling stock is too narrow to be realistic. This is why many serious model builders create 7-stud-wide or 8-stud-wide trains (or more!), because it is a more realistic proportion to the 6-stud track gauge. However, a modern American passenger coach is 85 feet (or 26 meters) long. A LEGO® model of such a car could be 60 studs long or more. This would look ridiculous on an R40 curve, and in fact, may not even traverse such a tight corner without binding or derailing. Enter the wide-radius curve!

This image shows a half-circle made of standard LEGO® curves in the center, surrounded by half-circles made up of wider-radius curves. The number after the "R" refers to the radius of each curve, measured in studs. The size of each individual piece of curved track is shown in the lower right. For comparison, the radius of 40 is equivalent to 12.6 inches, or 32 cm. The radius of 104 is equivalent to 32.8 inches or 83.2 cm. Remember that the radius is measured from the center of the rails, not the inside or outside edge of the curve. I have only shown radii up to 104 in this image, but R120, R136, and R152 can be found as well.

LEGO® User Groups, LEGO® Train Clubs, and other LEGO® Train enthusiasts who build larger models can be seen utilizing wider-radius curves for their public display layouts. The upshot is that the realistic-length rolling stock looks better and runs smoother on the large curves. The disadvantage is the amount of space they take up. To a beginning LEGO® Train fan, these curves may not seem useful, but here are two applications I can think of that may entice the novice layout builder:

In this image, we see a quarter-turn of R88 curves on the left, and a quarter-turn of R40 curves on the right. The R40 design uses six straight pieces to fit the same space as the R88 curves. Using R88s in this instance would provide a gentler curve for the trains, as well as saving on straight track; a valuable resource!

The outer loop of this double-track layout uses R56 curves on the left side of the plan. On the right, both inside and outside loops use R40 curves. Note that the right side of the layout requires four more straight tracks to fit the outer loop curves around the inner loop. One might also argue that the curves on the left side of the layout are more aesthetically pleasing.

Although we won't explore their application in this article, it's also worth pointing out the existence of "grand curves," which are made by using straight track pieces with one side of the connection spaced half a stud apart. The effective radius of a grand curve is 238 studs (6.25 feet, or 1.9 meters); most likely far too wide for the casual hobbyist, but very enticing to clubs displaying at Expo centers with plenty of space to build such large corners.

Custom-Cut Switches

The keen eye may have noticed in the last track plan example, the switches at the bottom of the plan didn't fit together like standard LEGO® switches. That is because they are custom-cut "Crossover" switches, which have their diverging route trimmed and/or adjusted to allow for more potential track arrangements. Here are a few examples of custom-cut switches:

Shown above, across the top, are four types of LEGO® train track switches. On the left is a standard switch with the oblique diverging route, which accommodates connecting a curved piece to create two parallel tracks, as shown in the lower right. The next switch over on the top row is typically called a "half-curve" switch. The diverging route has been cut off with part of a piece of curved track glued on to replace it (or perhaps it has been 3D-printed in this shape), which means the diverging route equals two R40 curves. Add two more R40 curves as shown below it, and you have a 90-degree turn without having to use extra curves or straights to accommodate the oblique diverging route of a standard switch! Third from the left on the top row is a "crossover" switch. Consisting of two sets of points connected at their diverging route, this piece functions the same as the larger crossover discussed in the previous installment of this blog, however it takes up far less space, as shown in the lower right of the image. Finally, we have a stub-end switch, which can be used as any type of custom switch, depending on what sort of custom track pieces you attach to the diverging route.

With the advent of the plastic track, it is actually fairly easy to cut and glue your own custom switches at home. This process is more difficult with metal-rail 9V track, and to my knowledge has rarely been attempted with the older 4.5V and 12V styles of track. I may put up a set of instructions for creating your own custom switches in a future workshop blog post. For now, I will caution the beginning user against cutting and gluing their own custom switches UNLESS 1: you have enough switches that you can afford to sacrifice one or two to turn into a custom switch (I would recommend having at least two pairs of standard switches in addition to any custom switches you may buy or build), or B: you are 100% certain that you need this custom switch piece in your limited track collection.

Some third-party manufacturers have released these types of custom switches with the "throw" mechanism on the outside of the track, or the opposite side from the diverging route, which some builders may find desirable depending on how their layouts fit together. In addition to the custom-cut switches shown above, one can find wide-radius switches as well as "wye" switches or three-way switches. Check out the manufacturer websites linked at the beginning of this article for more information. We'll cover some more example uses of these custom switches at the end.

For what it's worth, LEGO® DID manufacture a double-crossover switch, set number 7996, for a couple of years at the beginning of the current plastic-track era. While appearing novel at first, it was a considerable flop. Most families (read: the demographic with the strongest LEGO® purchasing power) weren't buying enough track to justify the need of such a specific-use piece in the first place, and because the two sets of points at each end shared a yellow switch throw, it was impossible to set both routes for the "straight" direction. This meant that you could not use this piece to connect two loops and have them operate independently; one set of points would be set for the diverging route whether you liked it or not. Third-party manufacturers have since released more versatile and less expensive versions(available listings for set 7996 are priced well past $100 USD on reseller sites) of this switch style.

The short-lived, official double-crossover switch from LEGO®. Note how the pairs of points at each end share a switch throw. Even on the box art, it shows that one set of points is straight while the other is set for the diverging route. Very poor design. Image sourced from amazon.com

Half-Curves and Half-Straights

While the advent of the flexible track section (4-studs long, equivalent to a quarter-length of a standard LEGO® track piece) has made half-pieces somewhat obsolete, builders in 9 Volt and other systems may find that cutting a piece of track in half comes in handy for certain track arrangements, or perhaps turning a stub-end custom-cut switch into a half-curve or crossover.

Crossings

No, not grade crossings, where the railway meets a roadway; two train tracks crossing each other! In previous lines of LEGO® Trains (read: 9V, 12V and 4.5V) the LEGO® Company offered 90-degree crossing tracks, as shown below. While no official product has been released for the new plastic track, one can find crossing tracks made by the third-party manufacturers listed at the beginning of this article, or sometimes homemade versions on sites like eBay. It is also possible to build your own 90-degree crossing using four pieces of flex tack and some other LEGO® bricks you may have in your collection. Do a bit of Googling to see which method you like best!

Note that this 9 Volt 90-degree crossing track is the equivalent of a 16-stud straight track piece for both routes.

Now that we've established a larger toy box of potential parts, let's put some of these custom track sections to use in a handful of example layouts!

If you haven't read the first two installments in this series, they can be found by scrolling down through my Workshop Blog page or Archive page. The fourth installment, which applies all our knowledge so far into actually designing a home layout, can be found here. If you'd like to be notified of when future installments in this series are posted, please follow me on my Facebook page or Instagram account. As always, thank you for reading!

Thoughts from the Workshop: Time for Hobbies

*disclaimer: this is more of an editorial/opinion/musing piece than a “how I built this thing” kind of post; I just felt this section of my website was the best place to post it.

Earlier this year, I picked up the latest edition of Model Railroad Planning; an annual publication produced by the staff of Model Railroader magazine that focuses specifically on planning model train layouts, one of my favorite aspects of the hobby. Among the articles was a piece written by a professional layout builder who designed and built a layout for a friend. This friend enjoyed building and running models of trains, but had little interest in the act of constructing the layout itself, much less planning the layout beforehand. However, his main reason for hiring a professional layout builder was his own profession: He was a surgeon, and as such, his time for hobbies was fairly limited.

Another article I read online some time ago explained how when people start earning higher income, they start “buying back” their time. This usually means hiring a lawn mowing service, or a maid, or perhaps having groceries delivered to their home instead of going to the store themselves. The reasoning is that their time is more valuable, literally. To a person earning $100 an hour, paying someone else to mow the lawn is simply more efficient than doing it themselves. To this surgeon who wanted a model railroad, it was a more effective use of his resources (time and money) to hire someone to not only build the layout for him, but use their knowledge and experience to build it right the first time, as well fit the layout to the surgeon’s needs and desires. This is as opposed to the surgeon using his precious time to learn to build his own layout, surely making mistakes and having to do things over again in the process.

This concept of limited time for hobbies really stuck with me. The surgeon’s approach made me think about how I’m allotting resources for my hobbies of Lego building and railfanning. Over the past few months, I’ve been evaluating the way I use my limited time to enjoy my creative pursuits, seeking to ensure that I’m getting the most of what I want from the activities I occupy my free time with. Below are some of my observations on the topic; I share them with the hope that I might spark conversation or self-reflection on the matter for other hobbyists (not just fellow railroad nuts!) so that we all might get the most out of our limited hobby resources.

Railfanning takes time. The actual act of capturing a train on pixels as it passes you doesn’t take long, only a few minutes in most cases… but there’s downtime while waiting in between trains. It takes time to drive to and from trackside locations, time is spent planning trips looking for good places to see trains, and time is spent editing and sharing photographs and videos after the trip. It also costs money. Money is spent on camera equipment; money is spent on food and gas, vehicle maintenance, toll roads, and hotels. Money is spent on museum admissions or train ride tickets, and those train rides take time!

In May of this year, I drove approximately 3.5 hours (7 hours round trip) to Tyrone, PA, to do some railfanning. After driving up Saturday morning, I spent a few hours trackside, stayed overnight in a hotel, and then spent some more time watching trains before departing for home on Sunday afternoon. I caught nearly 30 trains in about 12 hours trackside, and produced a fair number of images I was quite pleased with. I consider this a good use of my time; the drive was a little far, and the hotel stay did cost a few pennies, but I feel that the results were worth the driving time and expense.

On the flip side of the coin, one finds my experience from a recent Saturday: driving 4.5 hours (9 hours round trip) to BrickFest Live at the Meadowlands Expo Center in New Jersey, only to be disappointed by the event and spending less than an hour there when I expected to spend at least two or three. I don’t feel it would behoove me to speak ill of the event, but the bottom line is that BrickFest Live is aimed at children, not adults. There were less than a dozen AFOLs displaying their creations, the rest of the event was mostly building areas and games mobbed with kids. Granted, if I was 7, huge piles of Lego that I was encouraged to play with would be a dream come true. However, I am 27, and I have a much better (organized!) selection of bricks at home, and my workshop isn’t crowded with shouting children. I did see a dope castle, had a nice conversation with a man about his well-built boats, and I spent about $18 on parts just to feel like I got something out of the trip... but overall I wasn’t very entertained. My intention was to attend a Lego expo as a member of the general public rather than a registered exhibitor, and enjoy seeing hundreds of brilliant creations made by my fellow Adult Fans of Lego without having to worry about my own display. If the event website had been clearer about the nature of the event, I would have spent all that time staying at home and doing something more productive and enjoyable with my hobby. Now, certainly it’s a bit easier to see the balance of resources when it comes to traveling, but what about hobby time spent at home?

At BrickFair Virginia in 2017, I was approached by a sales rep for a company that ships out “build challenges” to their subscribers each month. He asked that I try their service from an adult perspective (most of their customers are families with children) to see how I liked it. Each month’s box contains a pamphlet with a story that ties all the build challenges together; you have to create your character for the story and build the various scenes and props using the Lego pieces provided in the box to bring the scenario to life. Once you’ve finished your creations as prescribed by the narrative (no step-by-step instructions, just general prompts like “build a museum for your minifig to film a movie in!”) you’re meant to upload pictures of each of your builds to the company’s Facebook group, so all the participants can see what others have built and win prizes for the best builds. I don’t care much for the story or the make-believe, and I found that the social media demands from the box (read: receiving endless notifications about the hundreds of other posts in each thread) weren’t enjoyable at all. The part I DO like is that the build challenges test my creativity and open my mind to new possibilities. Plus, receiving a box of random Lego parts each month is quite alright!

As part of my agreement to test their service, I offered to post a YouTube vlog of me trying out my first box. Filming the vlog was reasonably fun, despite having to do multiple takes of each segment, but editing the vlog proved to be far too much of a chore for my liking. Editing videos of trains is less time-consuming, and although I don’t concern myself with the analytics of YouTube, the train videos I have posted gain views far more easily than my two vlogs, which I have since taken down. I recognize from successful vloggers that it takes time and effort to build an audience, to create content that people want to watch and then gathering and keeping people who want to watch it; this is time and effort I’m not interested in spending.

The same issue applies to my workshop blog as a whole: I enjoy building things and sharing pictures and videos of them with the internet, but writing up a storm about HOW I built them, remembering to take step-by-step pictures, and then assembling it all into a blog takes time and effort. Instead I’ve found that I prefer to lose myself in the creative process, *then* share the final product on social media to talk about my creation with others… and bask in the psychological validation of likes and comments. Why should I spend my limited hobby resources on creating content that doesn’t bring me much satisfaction, especially when this content doesn’t rake in the psychological validation (likes and comments) as easily as the content I DO enjoy producing?

While I haven’t finished scrutinizing how I utilize my hobby time, I have already made some changes to get a better ROI from the resources I put in; I stopped pursuing a vlog because creating one wasn’t enough enjoyment, I focus on sharing finished products on limited social media outlets to curate a desirable quantity of psychological validation, and when I put in seemingly “wasted” time, I pursue a more valuable outcome to ensure that the downtime was worth the uptime. Yes, I spent two hours standing by the train tracks, but the train that eventually came by was worth the wait. Yes, I traveled a long way to an event that failed to meet my expectations, but at least I acquired some useful parts and had a pleasant drive.

Point being, we all have limited resources to put into our hobbies. It’s easy to see how far your money goes, but it’s not as easy to see how far your time goes. A simpler example to draw might be the difference between making dinner and ordering takeout. Making dinner could take, say, 15-30 minutes of your time. Ordering dinner takes less than 5 (we’re not counting the time spent eating, of course) but does the cost of doing so outweigh the value of the time gained back? Putting the question back in Lego terms, one might look at parts sorting. Personally I enjoy it, but many Lego enthusiasts do not. Sorting and organizing a Lego parts collection takes a lot of time (not to mention money spent on a wide variety of parts storage containers) but I say it pays off because not only can you find the piece you need for a build very quickly, but you know exactly how many of that part you have, should you need to order more. While the surgeon wasn't interested in learning to design and build a layout, the time spent planning a layout is something I take great pleasure in. What time is worth investing in your hobby?

Track Planning for LEGO® Trains, Part 2: Track Geometry and Tips & Tricks

In the first installment of this series, I mentioned a couple of times that the track geometry of LEGO® Trains is unique from most other model trains, and sometimes very limiting. Let's delve further into what the phrase "track geometry" means.

There are five pieces available directly from LEGO® for your train track needs: a 16-stud straight piece, a 16-stud curved piece with a radius of 40 studs (measured from the center of the track), a left and a right switch (~32 studs long each), and the 4-stud-long flex track piece. The rails are spaced six studs apart, with an extra stud on the ties, to make each track section 8 studs wide. Switches are of course, wider, but the dimensions of the individual routes are still 8 studs wide.

This photograph shows the whole range of official LEGO® train track parts. On the far left is a standard curve, and on the far right is a standard straight. The bottom center shows one piece of flexible track, and the top center shows four pieces of flexible track connected together, equaling the length of the curve and straight track, but with the ability to shift into unusual shapes. Also shown is one left-hand switch (set for the diverging route) and one right-hand switch (set for the straight route).

The five track pieces as they appear in Track Designer.

The five track pieces as they appear in Track Designer.

The five track pieces as they appear in Bluebrick.

The five track pieces as they appear in Bluebrick.

Other track pieces are available from third-party manufacturers, or one can modify the track themselves, but for the moment we'll focus on these five 'official' parts. You will find that the 16-stud straight can fit on a 16x16-stud baseplate, with a 4-stud margin on either side. In a similar vein, a quarter-turn of curved track will fit on a 48x48-stud baseplate. When you attach a curved track to the diverging route of a switch, you will see that the following straights create parallel tracks, spaced 8 studs apart. Now, remember from part 1 when I said I was adding a 4-stud border around our circle layout to make it measure an even 30x30 inches(76.2cm x76.2cm)? A 16-stud-square baseplate is 5 inches by 5 inches (12.7cm x 12.7cm)! Let's put all this information in a picture for a clearer understanding:

On the left, a full circle of 16 straight tracks fits on a grid of 5"x5" squares, or 16x16-stud baseplates, for a total of 30"x30". In the top center, a piece of straight track fits on a 16x16 stud square baseplate, with a 4-stud margin on either side. On the top right, a 180-degree turn of 8 curved tracks is the same width as three 32x32 stud (10"x10" or 25.4x25.4cm) baseplates, but we need an extra 16 studs vertically to completely cover the ends of the turn. In bottom right, a quarter-turn of curved track fits on a 48x48-stud baseplate (15"x15" or 38.1cmx38.1cm) with a 4 stud margin between the outer edge of the curve and the corner of the baseplate. Finally, a switch with a curved piece splits into two parallel tracks spaced 8 studs apart.

The point of all this is that LEGO® tracks adhere to a grid system, which can make planning a layout very easy. Now that we've established this grid, let's look at a few track arrangements that do not fit on the grid, and some space-saving techniques that DO fit on the grid.

New layout builders may find that their creative arrangements of curved track do not meet up properly when one is trying to close their loop (though the advent of flexible tracks can help alleviate this issue), and this is usually due to a funky arrangement of curves not aligning to the grid. 

Note that the examples on the left and right come close, and possibly a piece of flex track or two may help slightly, but the arrangement in the center will not work on the grid at all.

It is also worth pointing out at this time that model trains generally do not like opposite-direction curves back-to-back (these are defined as S curves, as they resemble the shape of the letter). Some of the LEGO® Train sets can handle it, but heavier pieces of rolling stock (read: trains that you built yourself) will bind on the curves or possibly derail. If you're going to put curves in opposite directions in a row, it's best to put a piece of straight track in between them, or at least a couple of sections of flexible track. 

Putting a piece of straight track in between opposite directions of curves brings us to a handy trick to save space and pieces in our layouts: one straight track can equal two curved tracks. Observe the following:

In the first example, a piece of straight track is placed between the two opposing-direction curves. A good practice. In the second example, there is no straight track between the opposing-direction curves. This could cause a derailment. In the last example, a piece of straight track has been substituted for the spot where the two curved tracks met, so each curve section is only three curved tracks long. We've also managed to save 32 studs (10" or 25.4cm) of vertical space by shortening this S-curve.

We've stated a couple of times that a curved track must be attached to the diverging route of a switch to align both routes to be parallel on the grid. Here's the info straight from LEGO®'s mouth, taken from a leaflet that came with the World City line of trains in the early 2000s:

But let's suppose you want your diverging route to curve off in a different direction. Again, we can replace two curved tracks with one straight track and save on parts and space:

We see in the first example a straight piece in between the two opposing-direction curves. The second example shows no straight piece and therefore an undesirable S-curve, and the third example has an even worse S curve by putting an opposite-direction curved piece right after the switch. A couple lengths of flex tracks could potentially align the track back to the grid, but the S curve between the switch and curved piece could cause a derailment. The fourth example shows a straight piece in place of the two curves, saving us some space and still aligning to the grid.

A good example of applying this information would be the turnaround loop. In the first section of this series, the return loop was built without using this curved-track shortcut. Here is the return loop in both fashions: once with the switches and curves set up in a standard fashion, and two arrangements with the one-straight-for-two-curves trick:

We don't need the grid to see just how much space was saved by the one-straight-for-two-curves trick!

We don't need the grid to see that a LOT of space was saved by the one-straight-for-two-curves trick!

Let's look at one more example of the application of this track trick before we apply our knowledge to layout planning. In the first installment of this series, we only looked at single-track railroads, or track plans with only one main route. If one wants to run multiple trains at once without interference, it is advised to have two independent loops of track, or loops that do not share any portion of their route.

These two circles of track are completely independent from one another. The grid is provided for convenience.

While having two independent loops for running trains is nice, one might wish to switch a train from the inner loop to the outer loop, or perhaps interchange some cars between the trains on each loop. This is where a "crossover" comes in. A crossover is a pair of switches linking two independent sections of track.

In this photograph from Pittsburgh, PA, we can see two crossovers directly in the shadow of the bridge, linking the outer tracks with the inner tracks. The train is rolling over two more crossovers linking the inner two tracks, and beyond that we can see two more crossovers linking the inner tracks with the outer tracks in the opposite direction.

We COULD simply link the two diverging routes of our switches and connect our independent loops that way, but once again, our layout wouldn't perfectly conform to the grid. Better to use two curved tracks (one for each switch, so the diverging route becomes parallel to the main route) with a straight track in between, or just one straight track to link those two switches and conform our layout to the grid.

The first example is what NOT to do: because the diverging routes of the switches are oblique without curved tracks to complement them, the outer loop of this layout is completely misaligned from the grid, and the outer track is too close to the inner track along the top of the plan. In the second and third examples, a properly aligned crossover (either with two curves and a straight, or one straight substituting for two back-to-back curves) means that BOTH loops align perfectly to the grid. Note that in each case, both switches are left-handed switches. Also note that a train traveling clockwise on the outer loop must reverse through the crossover to reach the inner loop, and vice-versa.

At this point, one might beg the question: "What's so important about lining up to the grid? Those two independent loops still fit together, even if they're not aligned perfectly to the 5"x 5" (12.7cm x 12.7cm) grid! What's stopping me from building something like that?" The short answer is: nothing! If you're able to make a track layout work without aligning your tracks to the grid, more power to you! If you're just building tracks all over the living room floor for an afternoon of fun, then the grid doesn't concern you all that much, which means most of the information thus far is simply to inspire ideas and help troubleshoot derailments and other minor issues. The point of the grid is that it's an easy reference point to ensure all tracks will fit together, AND, as we will see in future installments of this layout planning series, aligning to the grid makes it easier to lay out streets and buildings alongside our tracks. 

We will look at one more type of railroad track arrangement and how we can use our straight-track-for-two-curved-tracks space-saving technique to make it easier, but first, here are a few more examples of crossovers between tracks. We will drop the grid from the example images for the moment.

So far, the only method we've seen for turning a train around is the reversing loop. Novice train enthusiasts may be familiar with the turntable, but these are difficult to build in LEGO®, and are usually just for the locomotive; not practical for turning an entire train. This is where the Wye comes in. Named after the letter Y for its shape, this track arrangement requires three switches to work. A good prototype example can be found at the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum in Chattanooga:

This satellite photo shows the wye at Grand Junction Station. A train enters from the lower left, and pulls up to the station along the top-left leg of the wye. After the passengers are loaded, the train pulls forward of the switch at the top center…

This satellite photo shows the wye at Grand Junction Station. A train enters from the lower left, and pulls up to the station along the top-left leg of the wye. After the passengers are loaded, the train pulls forward of the switch at the top center of the photo, then reverses along the curved track obscured by trees. The tail track in the lower right is just barely long enough to fit a locomotive and three passenger cars. Once the train is clear of the switch adjacent to the road crossing, it pulls forward along the lower leg of the wye, past the sidings of equipment on display, and returns to the track it came from in the lower left, now traveling in the opposite direction.

A wye can be used for turning trains, or to connect a branch line that is perpendicular to the main line. We can build a wye using three of our switch track pieces. Note that if you are using the old metal track instead of the modern plastic track, a wye will cause a short-circuit. We'll look at how to prevent short-circuits in the future. Here are three examples of a wye in LEGO®, two of which use the one-straight-for-two-curves trick that has been a main feature of this installment of the track planning series:

The first example shows the basic properties of building a wye in LEGO®, and the second two examples show the use of the straight-for-curve trick.

The first example shows the basic properties of building a wye in LEGO®, and the second two examples show the use of the straight-for-curve trick.

We'll close part 2 of our LEGO® Train Track Planning series with a few examples of layouts using wyes. Part 3 of this series covers the use of third-party track pieces. If you would like to be notified when the next installment of this series is posted, please follow my Facebook page or my Instagram feed. Thanks for reading!

Track Planning for LEGO® Trains, Part 1: The Basics

A question that pops up in the LEGO® Train hobby community somewhat frequently is interpreted as follows: "I've amassed a fair collection of LEGO® Train track pieces beyond what comes in the basic train set; how do I know what I can build with it all?" I see a few different ways this question can be answered. Option 1: Do what my engineering professor did when I asked him about a simple printing key-command shortcut, which was to hand me a 2400 page AutoCAD manual and say "Look it up." Alas, the "figure it out yourself" approach isn't very friendly, and may turn some people off from the hobby due to the overwhelming amount of information available about planning model train tracks. Option 2 would be to set up a side business where I design layouts for people based on their track quantities and available space (a common theme of the above question is whether a software exists that will perform this action automatically. No, such software does not exist). However, this would turn play into work for me, and create a pile of client relationships I'd have difficulty maintaining. So, I'm going with Option 3: Demonstrate the fundamentals of planning model train layouts using LEGO® train tracks. My primary source of income is education, so teaching others to design their own layouts seems like the best approach for me to take.

Track Planning at its core is the act of designing your model train layout before you build it, one of my favorite aspects of the hobby. Countless articles and books are available on the subject, but the information is usually aimed at model railroaders in conventional scales. This plethora of planning knowledge can be a bit inaccessible for beginners, especially those working in L gauge, which presents its own unique set of geometric challenges not found in most other scales. Many builders new to the hobby will simply lay out track until they run out of pieces (potentially leaving their idea incomplete) and they may find certain track arrangements don't fit perfectly or can cause derailments. Planning your track beforehand gives you the luxury of making mistakes on paper (or pixels), rather than in the physical world where such errors can be more disheartening than something that simply needs to be erased and re-drawn. Throughout this series, I will be drawing layout plans using two pieces of software. The first is Track Designer, a Windows 95 program written during the 9 Volt era of LEGO® trains, which is not easily found available for download these days. The second is BlueBrick, which is more recently updated and has more advanced features than Track Designer, and is the software I would recommend for anyone seeking LEGO® layout planning software. That said, even if you don't prefer to draw your track plans before you build them, the data I am presenting will still help you come up with functional, creative track plans for your LEGO® train collection.


This will be a multi-part blog series, and to start, we will cover some of the fundamentals of LEGO® Train Track Planning, beginning with... the circle!

This is the simplest layout possible that allows continuous running of a train. A LEGO® train track circle requires 16 curved pieces. For space planning purposes, allow about 30"x30" (76cm x 76cm) or 2.5 feet by 2.5 feet for this most basic circle layout. Well, in actual fact it’s 28.5”x28.5”, but for reasons we shall see later, I am adding a 4-stud border around each layout measurement in this first part of the series. Most LEGO® Train sets will include enough curved track for a circle, and perhaps a few pieces of straight track as well, allowing us to make an oval or a square:

Note that a 90-degree quarter-turn requires four pieces of curved track, and a 180-degree half-turn requires eight pieces of curved track.

Next, let's pick up a box of extra tracks from our nearest LEGO® supplier. This box has eight pieces of straight track, four pieces of curved track, and eight pieces of flex track. For the purposes of this article, we will mostly ignore the flexible track, but it's worth noting that four pieces of flex track can substitute for a straight OR a curve piece.

In the center of the picture is one length of flextrack. On the left, we see how four sections of flex track can equal a single piece of curved track. On the right, four sections of flex track equal one straight track as well. The red plates help ke…

In the center of the picture is one length of flextrack. On the left, we see how four sections of flex track can equal a single piece of curved track. On the right, four sections of flex track equal one straight track as well. The red plates help keep the sections of flex track perfectly straight.

With our extra track, we can now build a much larger oval.

This layout uses 12 pieces of straight track (five each on the long sides and one each on the short sides) and 16 pieces of curved track. The layout covers approximately 35"x55" (89cm x 140cm) of space, and gives us a longer run for our train. That said, it's a bit boring for operations. Once you've stopped your train at the station a few times and run it as fast as possible in circles until it derails or drains the batteries, there's not a whole lot else to do. Enter the switch track! The switch (or”turnout” in some regions) can split one track into two, or merge two tracks into one. Switches are available for purchase in a pair, one right-hand and one left-hand switch. But before we add switches to our layout, let's talk briefly about the two types of side-tracks we can create with switches.

One may assume that the main line track continues beyond the green squiggles at either end.

One may assume that the main line track continues beyond the green squiggles at either end.

On the left is a passing siding, (or “passing loop” in some regions). This siding has a switch at each end, allowing a train to enter and exit the side track traveling in one direction. It is called a "passing" siding because it is typically found on at a point where two trains must pass one another. For instance, we could park our freight train heading to the left in the siding, close the switches, and wait for the passenger train heading to the right to go by on the main track. Then we can open the switches and our freight train can re-enter the mainline and continue to the left. We may also use this siding to park our freight cars and run the engine around to pull the train from the opposite end, a technique that will be studied in further detail another time.

On the right is a stub-end siding; a train may only enter from one end, and then must reverse to return to the main track. This type of siding is typically used to park freight cars for storage, or for loading and unloading at an industrial site. The crane of set 60052 or the container forklift of set 60198 comes to mind.

*NOTE* LEGO® Train switches are spring-style switches. This means that a train coming towards the rightmost switch from the right of the above image (on either the main track or stub-end side track) is able to go through the switch regardless of which direction the switch points are set for. On the other hand, a train traveling in that same direction heading towards the middle switch will be forced onto the route for which the points are set (the direction of the switch can be changed by flipping the yellow lever). Also note that if you are using the older, metal-rail 9 Volt tracks, the switches are power-routing. Both outside rails of the switch will always be powered, but the inside rail of the route the switch is NOT set for will NOT have power, which means your 9V motor will remain stationary until you throw the switch.

Let's look at a few of layouts that use one or both of these siding types.

Each of these layouts uses nearly all the track in our collection so far: 16 pieces of curved track, plus one curved track per switch (this allows our diverging route to line up parallel to the main route) and all 12 pieces of straight track (11 on the right-hand layout). So now we have some more operational interest; we can deliver freight cars to the industries at each siding on the left layout, or we could drop off and pick up a freight car on the passing siding on the right layout. However, we're still a bit limited in our abilities; we can't park an entire freight train on the passing siding on the right layout, and if we want to service both sidings on the left layout, we either need to run our train with the engine in the middle of the freight cars, or run the engine all the way around the layout to get to the other end of the train, neither of which are entirely realistic. So, let's drop by our local LEGO® supplier again, and pick up another box of straight and flexible tracks, as well as 2-pack of extra switches. (Note: if you would like to buy single switches, or just straight track without the extra curves and flex pieces, you can find Lego track for sale on websites like Bricklink, Brickowl, or eBay.

This layout shows 21 pieces of straight track, but so far we only have 20. We can use our flexible tracks to substitute for that extra piece of straight track.

This layout shows 21 pieces of straight track, but so far we only have 20. We can use our flexible tracks to substitute for that extra piece of straight track.

Now we have a layout with some genuine operational interest: A large circle to run our train, a passing siding where we can park a second train, and two sidings where we can deliver and pick up our freight cars. We'll cover operations more thoroughly in another installment of this blog, but for now, let's try out some different layout shapes besides the basic oval. We'll temporarily throw out our track count for the sake of demonstrating the different shapes and options. Click on each layout to see a brief description of its features.

There are other shapes and styles of layouts available to model railroaders, but due to the limited track geometry of LEGO® trains, these options will be covered in another part of this series. We have also focused only on single-track mainline layouts so far, meaning that there is only one route for trains to take to traverse our tracks. Future installments of this blog will cover multi-track layouts and how to operate your trains realistically. To close this first section, we will look at a couple of classic layout shapes designed by the LEGO® company themselves!

In the 9 volt era, one could purchase additional boxes of only curved track, as well as boxes of only straight track or switches, but there was more: The LEGO® Company offered "Kits," or packs of extra tracks sold at a slight discount. For example, there was K4531, which added three boxes of straights (24 pieces), two boxes of curves (16 pieces) and two packs of switches (2 left, 2 right, and 4 curved tracks) to the basic oval offered with most sets (16 curved pieces), all of which added together meant that you could build this layout:

The enormous passing loop on the left hand side gives us two route options; a train traveling to the left at the top of the plan may go straight through the switch for a short route, or go through the diverging side and travel the long way around the whole of the layout. Also note the two stub-end sidings; the one on the left is long enough to hold an entire train!

This layout was a personal favorite of mine in my early days of LEGO® trains, as it was a pretty big layout to a kid. In fact, there was only one "kit" of tracks available to make a larger layout, and that was K4548. In addition to your basic 16-curved-section oval, this kit added SIX switches, FORTY-SIX curved tracks, and a whopping SIXTY FOUR straight tracks to create this nine by seven (2.74m by 2.13m) foot layout:

This layout is packed with operational interest: two stub-end sidings, a passing loop in the lower left, and a very long passing loop (which could be considered an alternate mainline route) stretching from the switch at the upper right of the plan, to the switch at the lower right, going around the left side of the layout.

The second installment of this blog series covers the geometric properties of LEGO® Train tracks, as well as double-track railroads and related layout planning elements. If you would like to be notified when future installments of this blog are posted, please follow my Facebook page or Instagram feed. Thanks for reading, and happy layout building!

Pick-a-Brick Wall 5-12-17: A little about filling your cup

My haul from visiting the Raleigh, NC Pick-A-Brick wall in February of this year. On the right you can see how I managed to fit many more bricks into the cups by building them... or DID I fit that many?

My haul from visiting the Raleigh, NC Pick-A-Brick wall in February of this year. On the right you can see how I managed to fit many more bricks into the cups by building them... or DID I fit that many?

Ever since my first visit to the Pick-A-Brick wall at the LEGO® Store, I've been an advocate of building inside the cup. That is, connecting the bricks together to use as much space as possible inside the diagonal-sided cup. But after my most recent visit at the beginning of May, as I was un-sticking around 200 green 4x4 plates from each other, my bloodied and scratched fingers begged the question "Just HOW MUCH more space am I saving by building inside the cup?" After all, building a good cup takes up a fair chunk of time at the store, and even more time at home to unstick all the bricks before sorting and putting them away. Is it really worth all that effort? Time to experiment!

I went to the LEGO® store armed with two large cups (50 cents off your refill!) and a small cup that wasn't going to be part of the experiment. I spent about 15-20 minutes building bricks together in one cup, taking time to fill in the extra space on the sides with vertical bricks, as can be seen in the pictures below. For the other cup, I simply dumped bricks in by the handful, doing nothing to conserve space other than shaking down the cup between handfuls of brick. For the sake of making the experiment simpler, I only used actual bricks, with the smallest pieces being 1x2s. No plates, no slopes, no miniature detail parts like levers or hinges. Once my large cups were ready, I filled the small cup, picked up set 40172 "Iconic Brick Calendar" and headed for home!

Upon reaching my workbench, I unpacked each large cup, keeping their parts entirely separate, and arranged the bricks in 8x8 squares for easier counting. 

By building inside the cup, I managed to fit 266 more studs worth of brick versus the cup where I just dumped bricks in. 1,124 studs worth of brick over 858. That 266 studs works out to 33.25 2x4 bricks. Now, I had used mostly 2x2 bricks in the unbuilt cup because that's what I went to pick up in the first place. So what if I had tried to fill the cup with ONLY 2x4 bricks? To answer this question, I dunked an empty large PAB cup into my drawer of 2x4 bricks, and topped it off until I could just barely close the cup, as LEGO® store rules dictate. Then I dumped the 2x4 bricks out on the empty table and counted them out. I managed exactly 800 studs worth of brick, or 100 2x4 bricks total. This means I lost out on 40.5 additional 2x4 bricks if I had built inside the cup.

So, the first half of the answer is obvious: Yes, building inside the cup does in fact afford you more bricks than if you simply dump the bricks in. The second half of the question is harder to answer: is it worth it? While one wants to insist YES, consider the time. It takes a good 15-20 minutes to build inside a cup, versus 2-4 minutes to simply dump the bricks in. Then it also takes time at home to disconnect all the bricks from each other (my fingers still hurt from unsticking all the green 4x4 plates) before they're ready to be used. Many economists have put forth ways to calculate the value of one's time, but I say simply use the hourly wage you get paid at your job. Let's say you spent an hour total on building and unbuilding two cups worth of bricks (15 minutes to build each one, and 15 minutes to unbuild each one). You acquired 81 more 2x4 bricks by doing this. According to the Pick A Brick website, those 2x4 bricks are worth 20 cents apiece, or $16.20 more of bricks. Measured by volume, you acquired roughly 25% more bricks for the same cost of filling the cup. Is that extra brick volume really worth your time? I say yes, but perhaps others might say no.

All-in-all, I fully intend to continue building inside the cup. Even if I'm not gaining THAT much more brick by doing so, it means I get to spend more time at the LEGO® store among my fellow nerds. Plus, the added fun of building LEGO® in the first place! After all, isn't that what it's all about?

My haul from my first PAB wall visit in May. Across the top you can see the towers I built inside the cups. Look to the bottom, and you'll see I managed to fit some bricks by building the 6x6x1 wall sections into boxes. It's not much, but it's 25 mo…

My haul from my first PAB wall visit in May. Across the top you can see the towers I built inside the cups. Look to the bottom, and you'll see I managed to fit some bricks by building the 6x6x1 wall sections into boxes. It's not much, but it's 25 more studs of brick than I would have had otherwise! The plastic bags are from two Bricklink orders that arrived on the same day.