BSBT Train Yard, P40 Pre-order Update and more Train Yards!
We can't believe another year has passed since our first visit to Bauspielbahn-Treffen (BSBT) 2023 LEGO Train Event in Leipzig, Germany last August. We loved our experience so much last year that we're back again! This LEGO fan event dedicated to LEGO train fans is very unique and well worth a visit if you can make it. BSBT runs from Aug 11 to 13 with public viewing days over the weekend.
This year, we're back with not only with our showcase travelling demo layout, but we're also providing all of the track to build a massive 11-siding double-ended train yard! This yard (shown below) is exclusively built from our new P40 large radius track switches, our new special S1.6 and S3.2 straight tracks, plus all of the other straight and curve tracks to complete the yard sidings. We are so happy to support our friends from LEN-Eisenbahner (the train fans of LBrick.de who organize BSBT) again this year, and look forward to another amazing weekend of playing trains!
P40 Switch Production / Pre-Order Status
On the topic of P40 switches; firstly, we would like to thank everyone who placed pre-orders for the P40s and other new Fx Track elements--your support is much appreciated! Rest assured, production is progressing steadily. The P40 switch requires skilled labour to perform the assembly, testing, and final quality checks. Predictably, adjustments to the assembly procedure have been required to help the skilled folks doing the work. We are especially grateful to our manufacturing partner in Hong Kong for working closely with us to rapidly refine and adapt the process.
Our initial estimate for mid-August to start distribution for onward fulfillment has unfortunately slipped. We are now predicting early-mid September. To help mitigate the delay, we will likely opt for air freight shipment (rather than sea container) from Hong Kong to Canada and Germany for final fulfilment from Fx Bricks Canada and JB Spielwaren in Germany. We are doing our best to get these new products to you as soon as we can. It's a simple issue of production capacity and, right now, we've saturated our manufacturing pipeline.
Yard Topics
The Fx Track system geometry was designed to implement many standard railway track configurations such as crossovers, sidings, yards, etc. all aligned to a nominal 8-stud interval within the LEGO system grid. Beyond these obvious configurations, there are many cool track configurations yet to be discovered.
For example, we were recently exhibiting a train layout at Bricks in the Six in Toronto, Canada. Since we had a relatively compact table footprint to work with, we attempted to squash a small yard at one end of the layout. We needed this yard to maintain 8-stud grid spacing and fit cleanly on to MILS modules which our layouts are typically based on. After doodling with the track planning CAD software, we managed to design this compact yard, taking full advantage of the P40 switch track diverging geometry into a R104 curve.
Shown below is the actual layout that we had exhibited, also showcasing the amazing transformation of the P40 switch when it is ballasted/decorated to full effect!
We encourage anyone to spend some time experimenting with different track configurations, taking full advantage of the lucky alignments that are possible--especially with the S1.6 and S3.2 straight tracks which can offer fractional alignment intervals. If you have some interesting track arrangements that you'd like to share, tag us, we'd love to see them!