Route 66 Project relaunched @ Bricky Way 2024
Lego conventions, their preparations, safe transportation of all models to the exhibit’s location and setting everything up on site usually tend to cause a whole heap of stress for me, which is the reason why I am generally reluctant to take part in them.
However, when my friend Gabor Horvath revealed to me that he was going to organize a third Bricky Way event in Györ, Hungary, and proposed that we could set up a larger version of our Route 66 Project, I decided to get onboard once more 😊.
The perspective of teaming up again with Gabor and setting up a much larger layout based on the Route 66 / Out West theme that we had created together with ER0L in 2016 and further extended at Bricky Way 2018 - a layout the size of which I couldn’t possibly set up at home due to spatial restrictions - was super tempting and was what pushed me to go for it.
As usual, my building wish list was long and the number of new, single MOCs I was able to create was relatively low. However, the road structures, landscaping and train tracks were further optimized and extended. I figured out a way to make the old 12V train tracks look decent with the pieces I had, creating a double loop with complete embankments and multi-track railroad crossings, with one of them being located in one of the quarter curves.
New stuff
The following new MOCs of mine were not shown at any of the two prior exhibitions:
-a 12V Sante Fe Diesel Engine in a classic paint theme,
-the long dreamed up “Gunz N Alienz Store”
-and the HP BELCURD Tanker Trailer for my white long-nose semi truck.
Gabor created a new, huge prison complete with its prison bus and whose yard is full of amazing details. He also came up with background stories for most of the inmates 😉.
Gabor’s section was the short stroke of the L-shaped layout and included the Prison, Trailer Home and Car Repair Shop with its scrapyard along with the corresponding desert and Route 66 modules.
My section was the L’s long stroke, comprising six Route 66 modules with a four-track railway crossing, a prolonged Lerner Airfield Road, the Mojave Inn Motel, the new “Gunz N Alienz” Store and my former cargo aircraft’s nose as “aircraft scrap” in the desert, embedded in the 12V double loop, with the smaller road leading up to one of the Airfield’s gates.
Setting up the adjacent Airfield in due dimensions filled me with great joy, as I hadn’t been able to do this yet due to said lack of space. For the first time, the dimensions and distances between aircraft and the tower looked decent and realistic.
In addition, my long-time dream of building a nice Diesel engine based on the 12V system as a basis came true, with a Santa Fe engine (rather than my 9V CN models) as a better fit for desert scenery such as presented in our joint Bricky Way 2024 layout.
Going to Hungary would have been impossible without the tremendous help of my dear wife Catherine, who supported me, helped me, kept me company, navigated, prepared food and drinks for the 2x930k ride and took care of our dog who came along, a cute Sheltie named Lilly.
Thank you, Catherine – you are the Best!
Thank you all for looking and having read through all this!
Tags: Lego Route 66 desert aircraft airfield Lerner scrap trains planes trucks automobiles alien aliens extraterrestrial extraterrestrials UFO flying saucer Roswell highway motel Mojave Inn railroad crossing curved Santa Fe Diesel engine semi truck tanker tank car Amtrans DHL executive apron tower field Conair Con Air prison trailer home repair Out West Southwest Southwestern United States US cars pick-up paraphernalia underground Kryptonite dynamite gun guns gunz alienz N Star Wars 12V 12
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12V Santa Fe Diesel Engine
This one was born out of nostalgia, as the 12V system was what came with my first Lego train set when I was around 5 or 6 years old, and which I adored. Therefore, since a long time, I had been dreaming about giving this awesome older system a “facelift” by creating a Diesel engine that is in no way inferior to my 9V CN models, and by building decent looking embankments with thinner railroad ties as well.
It is built onto two 3-axle 12V motors from the 80s that still work well, which make for a 6-axle engine. The locomotive’s basic platform is 9-wide, with the guardrails and other elements being as wide as 11 studs.
It features a 9V Light & Sound battery box and lighting at the end of each hood and in the cabin that can easily be switched on and that function independently from the engine’s movement. As for the paint scheme, I opted for a classic Santa Fe one that I liked the best. The engine features a prolonged short hood which I like a lot, and which can be found on some older types of American Diesel engines. As the original rubber wheel rings for traction had disintegrated and/or were worn down completely from all the playing during my younger years, I replaced them with cut-out rings from a thin racing bike inner tube to obtain decent traction again, and this worked out well.
The engine is on the heavy side, and albeit its wheels’ great traction, it needs to work hard to pull the five massive and super heavy CITGO liquid gas tank cars through the loops’ classic diameter curves. Longer straight stretches of track help the engine to keep up a slightly higher, but still slow and realistic speed on the track configuration such as shown at Bricky Way 2024.
Construction of some lighter flatcars and a few hopper cars is at any case on my building wish list and should diversify future and certainly lighter consists 😉.
Tags: Lego Route 66 desert aircraft airfield Lerner scrap trains planes trucks automobiles alien aliens extraterrestrial extraterrestrials UFO flying saucer Roswell highway motel Mojave Inn railroad crossing curved Santa Fe Diesel engine semi truck tanker tank car Amtrans DHL executive apron tower field Conair Con Air prison trailer home repair Out West Southwest Southwestern United States US cars pick-up paraphernalia underground Kryptonite dynamite gun guns gunz alienz N Star Wars 12V 12
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“From Kryptonite to dynamite, whether you are looking for extraterrestrials, jetpacks, space suits, space crystals, alien grimaces, handguns, heavy machine guns or Star Wars figures, radioactive materials or loads of conspiracy theories… Come and enjoy your visit @Gunz N Alienz!”
This is another dream come true, dating back to as far as 2016, where Gabor, ER0L and I had first met up to present a more rudimentary Route 66 layout together, and where I first had the idea to build a spacy-looking motel and alien/UFO-themed store.
The building process started with making the billboard, which I considered a make-or-break, key element to this MOC. Converging clichés was the goal here by uniting a typical UFO and alien paraphernalia store (as one may find along the Extraterrestrial Highway and places like Roswell, New Mexico) with a gun store, a freaky store owner and even freakier clients 😉. 12V lighting with the good old 12 light bricks from the 80s was used to illuminate the shop windows and entrance area, making the building look especially interesting in darker conditions.
Oval-shaped windows such as incorporated in the Mojave Inn Motel unite the two models style-wise and give both of them an allure of “Outer Space”, with allusions to extraterrestrials and their often displayed, oval eye shapes. Weird posters, “alien heads” and figures along with some rubbish out front are placed strategically to underline the weirdness of the place.
Photos of the store’s interior will follow later on, as I will set up a shorter version of the layout at home again soon.
Thanks for looking and reading all this, guys! 😊
Tags: Lego Route 66 desert aircraft airfield Lerner scrap trains planes trucks automobiles alien aliens extraterrestrial extraterrestrials UFO flying saucer Roswell highway motel Mojave Inn railroad crossing curved Santa Fe Diesel engine semi truck tanker tank car Amtrans DHL executive apron tower field Conair Con Air prison trailer home repair Out West Southwest Southwestern United States US cars pick-up paraphernalia underground Kryptonite dynamite gun guns gunz alienz N Star Wars 12V 12
© All Rights Reserved
Route 66 Project relaunched @ Bricky Way 2024
Lego conventions, their preparations, safe transportation of all models to the exhibit’s location and setting everything up on site usually tend to cause a whole heap of stress for me, which is the reason why I am generally reluctant to take part in them.
However, when my friend Gabor Horvath revealed to me that he was going to organize a third Bricky Way event in Györ, Hungary, and proposed that we could set up a larger version of our Route 66 Project, I decided to get onboard once more 😊.
The perspective of teaming up again with Gabor and setting up a much larger layout based on the Route 66 / Out West theme that we had created together with ER0L in 2016 and further extended at Bricky Way 2018 - a layout the size of which I couldn’t possibly set up at home due to spatial restrictions - was super tempting and was what pushed me to go for it.
As usual, my building wish list was long and the number of new, single MOCs I was able to create was relatively low. However, the road structures, landscaping and train tracks were further optimized and extended. I figured out a way to make the old 12V train tracks look decent with the pieces I had, creating a double loop with complete embankments and multi-track railroad crossings, with one of them being located in one of the quarter curves.
New stuff
The following new MOCs of mine were not shown at any of the two prior exhibitions:
-a 12V Sante Fe Diesel Engine in a classic paint theme,
-the long dreamed up “Gunz N Alienz Store”
-and the HP BELCURD Tanker Trailer for my white long-nose semi truck.
Gabor created a new, huge prison complete with its prison bus and whose yard is full of amazing details. He also came up with background stories for most of the inmates 😉.
Gabor’s section was the short stroke of the L-shaped layout and included the Prison, Trailer Home and Car Repair Shop with its scrapyard along with the corresponding desert and Route 66 modules.
My section was the L’s long stroke, comprising six Route 66 modules with a four-track railway crossing, a prolonged Lerner Airfield Road, the Mojave Inn Motel, the new “Gunz N Alienz” Store and my former cargo aircraft’s nose as “aircraft scrap” in the desert, embedded in the 12V double loop, with the smaller road leading up to one of the Airfield’s gates.
Setting up the adjacent Airfield in due dimensions filled me with great joy, as I hadn’t been able to do this yet due to said lack of space. For the first time, the dimensions and distances between aircraft and the tower looked decent and realistic.
In addition, my long-time dream of building a nice Diesel engine based on the 12V system as a basis came true, with a Santa Fe engine (rather than my 9V CN models) as a better fit for desert scenery such as presented in our joint Bricky Way 2024 layout.
Going to Hungary would have been impossible without the tremendous help of my dear wife Catherine, who supported me, helped me, kept me company, navigated, prepared food and drinks for the 2x930k ride and took care of our dog who came along, a cute Sheltie named Lilly.
Thank you, Catherine – you are the Best!
Thank you all for looking and having read through all this!
Tags: Lego Route 66 desert aircraft airfield Lerner scrap trains planes trucks automobiles alien aliens extraterrestrial extraterrestrials UFO flying saucer Roswell highway motel Mojave Inn railroad crossing curved Santa Fe Diesel engine semi truck tanker tank car Amtrans DHL executive apron tower field Conair Con Air prison trailer home repair Out West Southwest Southwestern United States US cars pick-up paraphernalia underground Kryptonite dynamite gun guns gunz alienz N Star Wars 12V 12
© All Rights Reserved
Main description:
Route 66 Project relaunched @ Bricky Way 2024
Lego conventions, their preparations, safe transportation of all models to the exhibit’s location and setting everything up on site usually tend to cause a whole heap of stress for me, which is the reason why I am generally reluctant to take part in them.
However, when my friend Gabor Horvath revealed to me that he was going to organize a third Bricky Way event in Györ, Hungary, and proposed that we could set up a larger version of our Route 66 Project, I decided to get onboard once more 😊.
The perspective of teaming up again with Gabor and setting up a much larger layout based on the Route 66 / Out West theme that we had created together with ER0L in 2016 and further extended at Bricky Way 2018 - a layout the size of which I couldn’t possibly set up at home due to spatial restrictions - was super tempting and was what pushed me to go for it.
As usual, my building wish list was long and the number of new, single MOCs I was able to create was relatively low. However, the road structures, landscaping and train tracks were further optimized and extended. I figured out a way to make the old 12V train tracks look decent with the pieces I had, creating a double loop with complete embankments and multi-track railroad crossings, with one of them being located in one of the quarter curves.
New stuff
The following new MOCs of mine were not shown at any of the two prior exhibitions:
-a 12V Sante Fe Diesel Engine in a classic paint theme,
-the long dreamed up “Gunz N Alienz Store”
-and the HP BELCURD Tanker Trailer for my white long-nose semi truck.
Gabor created a new, huge prison complete with its prison bus and whose yard is full of amazing details. He also came up with background stories for most of the inmates 😉.
Gabor’s section was the short stroke of the L-shaped layout and included the Prison, Trailer Home and Car Repair Shop with its scrapyard along with the corresponding desert and Route 66 modules.
My section was the L’s long stroke, comprising six Route 66 modules with a four-track railway crossing, a prolonged Lerner Airfield Road, the Mojave Inn Motel, the new “Gunz N Alienz” Store and my former cargo aircraft’s nose as “aircraft scrap” in the desert, embedded in the 12V double loop, with the smaller road leading up to one of the Airfield’s gates.
Setting up the adjacent Airfield in due dimensions filled me with great joy, as I hadn’t been able to do this yet due to said lack of space. For the first time, the dimensions and distances between aircraft and the tower looked decent and realistic.
In addition, my long-time dream of building a nice Diesel engine based on the 12V system as a basis came true, with a Santa Fe engine (rather than my 9V CN models) as a better fit for desert scenery such as presented in our joint Bricky Way 2024 layout.
Going to Hungary would have been impossible without the tremendous help of my dear wife Catherine, who supported me, helped me, kept me company, navigated, prepared food and drinks for the 2x930k ride and took care of our dog who came along, a cute Sheltie named Lilly.
Thank you, Catherine – you are the Best!
Thank you all for looking and having read through all this!
Tags: Lego Route 66 desert aircraft airfield Lerner scrap trains planes trucks automobiles alien aliens extraterrestrial extraterrestrials UFO flying saucer Roswell highway motel Mojave Inn railroad crossing curved Santa Fe Diesel engine semi truck tanker tank car Amtrans DHL executive apron tower field Conair Con Air prison trailer home repair Out West Southwest Southwestern United States US cars pick-up paraphernalia underground Kryptonite dynamite gun guns gunz alienz N Star Wars 12V 12
© All Rights Reserved