R56 and R104 Pre-Orders Shipping and Other News
It has been a little over one year since we launched the Fx Track system and we are truly grateful for the amazing support and enthusiasm that we've received from our customers and fan community. Over the past 12 months, the Fx Track system has grown to include 2x straight track elements (S8 & S32) as well as 4x curve track elements (R56, R72, R88 & R104), and there's much more to come!
Despite delays due to COVID-19 countermeasures in Hong Kong and China, the first production batches of R56 and R104 tracks have arrived in Canada and Germany. This means that we will start shipping pre-orders this week! We have a lot of orders to get through, but we should be able to get most shipments out within the next two weeks.
We have other new elements on the way, including pre-production samples of the R64P curve track and S3.2 straight track as shown below. These special elements are used with the upcoming P40 switch tracks to make parallel sidings and S-curves which align to the LEGO® system grid.
We know many fans are eagerly awaiting the amazing P40 switch tracks. Shown below are pre-production P40 switches--these are not CAD renders but actual physical products.
The P40 switch is a complex engineered product made from 36x individual components in both ABS plastic and metal. While these samples are a huge step towards a finished product, they require a few small changes in order for the P40 to be manufacturing-ready. After the fabrication of the individual components that make up the switch is complete, we will ensure that all the components can be assembled consistently and in a timely way by assembly technicians without difficulty or special jigs.
Our engineering team has worked hard to establish the assembly process to support reliable and effective assembly in a volume production environment. After this phase, we aim to schedule production for a summer 2022 release.
The great news is that the assembled switch performs just as good as it looks. Rolling stock (especially long passenger coaches) thread through the switch smoothly and elegantly. We know you folks having been eagerly awaiting the P40 switch and we can't wait to release them.
One last aspect of the P40 switch product we have been considering is how we configure it for sale. Initially, we thought that we would sell a complete "kit" consisting of both a Left and Right P40, 2x R64P curves and 2x S8 straights. However, we thought that it is better to offer the P40 in the following 3x product variants or SKUs:
- 8040: 1x P40L and 1x P40R pair
- 8140: 2x P40L
- 8240: 2x P40R
This scheme will allow train fans to buy exactly the number of Left and Right switches they need without having surplus track elements when forced to buy switches in Left and Right pairs only. Furthermore, we have decided to sell the R64P special curve as a separate SKU with 8x elements per box just like our other curve tracks. The reason is that R64P is not only useful in combination with the P40 switch, but can also be used independently to make S-bends and other interesting track arrangements. Finally, the special straight track elements S1.6 and S3.2 will be sold as a combined SKU with 10x of each element. We believe this scheme will make it easier and more cost effective for fans to build layouts so that they can buy exactly what they need.
The Fx Track system offers the LEGO® train hobby the highest quality injection molded track elements with metal rails. The magic of the Fx Track system is the metal rail; delivering power and control to trains without batteries and at a level of performance impossible to match with battery based systems. Of course, our work is not done until we have addressed the obvious gaps in our product family: motor drive and power accessories. This is a bigger story to tell, so we shall defer our discussion until next time. Rest assured, we are making awesome progress on products such as our motor bogie, power station, and electrical accessories--stay tuned to our site and sign up for our newsletter to be the first to hear about our upcoming products.