2023 marks the five-year anniversary of the LLMTC. We decided to celebrate this anniversary by organizing a huge event for all of our members and all the friends we made in those five years. This article will give you a in depth look at the event, and how the LLMTC came together. What’s the LLMTC? The Lowlands L-Gauge Model Train Club is a small group of LEGO train enthusiasts, dedicated to modelling railways in 1:45 scale, or as close to it as (in)humanly possible. While trains are our main focus and what binds us together, several members also build diorama’s, cars, and other landscape eleme ..read more

Last month the annual BrickTrainAwards where held for the third time. A competition that is organized by the LNUR and LLMTC with participants from all over the globe. With around 700 entries this year it’s time to look back to the competition! Categories: This years competition had a whopping 15 categories where participants were able to enter in. Each category had it’s fair share of entries but there are always some more popular ones like the steam locomotives entries and the best freight wagon! The level of builts this year was a all time high which made judging all the entries a difficult a ..read more

The Brick Train Awards are back in 2023 this September. Now in its fourth year, this annual virtual event is for LEGO train fans worldwide! The awards began in 2020 to promote what the LEGO train fan community has been building, from locos and wagons to scenery. With the collaboration between multiple LEGO train fan communities, including BMR, we have established the Brick Train Awards into a well known activity in this community. There are 15 categories for the Brick Train Awards this year, from the prestigious best steam locomotive award to 3 categories for wagons, an award fo ..read more

Brickworld is soon upon us and I’v been working on a little project for the charity auction this year to settle a promise I made in 2019. And to explain, we’ll need to back up a little bit to 2015. The Esther Walner Memorial Charity Fundraiser Each year Brickworld attendees rally together to participate in what has become an exciting and unforgettable event. The Esther Walner Memorial Charity Fundraiser features unique items donated by individuals, groups and companies to help raise money for charity. Proceeds benefit several deserving charitable organizations, including Creations for Cha ..read more

NLGM means Noppenbahner L-Gauge Meeting and is organized by you guessed it, the Noppenbahner. It’s hosted in the town of Wörrstadt, Germany, where the Lego event is now almost a yearly tradition. And that brings something unique into the event, something I haven’t experienced before. The Noppenbahner are a group of German Lego train builders that build their models, just like most European builders, in scale 1:45. They have been around for a few years now and have built some of the most recognizable German trains in Lego. Including some TRAXX locomotives, a lot of German steam locomotives and ..read more

After two months of dedicated building, OcTRAINber 2022 saw a somewhat smaller but very high quality set of entries. This year’s challenge was quite a big one, and it’s safe to say that everyone who participated rose to the occasion quite well. Today, I’m quite proud to announce the winners of this year’s OcTRAINber: Rebuilds & Retrofits challenge.  Last weekend, Cale Leiphart, Matt Csenge, and myself were joined in judging by a staple competitor and many-time OcTRAINber winner: Alexander, also known online as “narrow_gauge”. Together, the four of us reviewed these great entries and p ..read more

With only a week and a half left in OcTRAINber it’s time to make that final push to finish the entries before the deadline. Already the sweet sights of many WIP entries have been coming out to be seen. It’s always so amazing to see the creative and amazing things that people choose to build each year for the competition! Build competitions are always filled to the brim with very high-quality models, and each year the quality gets better and better and it’s always difficult to choose a winner. Today I’d like to take some time to make my life harder in that regard, and talk about how to make a ..read more

Hello again, everybody! October isn’t quite here yet, but it’s just about time to get rolling for this year’s OcTRAINber. We’re going to be making a couple tweaks to the format this year that I’ll explain later in the post, but for now let’s get into the rundown on this year’s theme: “Rebuilds & Retrofits“. Railroads have had a long history of taking old cars or engines and trying to use them for as long as possible. Railroad equipment is expensive, after all. Old equipment is kept repaired and patched up as best as it can be, but sometimes these old pieces of stock end up being changed fo ..read more

This year, for the fourth time in a row, the LEN-Eisenbahner from Leipzig (Germany) organized one of the biggest l-gauge meetings in Europe. Where builders from all around the world come together to form one of the biggest community layouts that the community has ever seen. But what makes this event so special? And what goes on behind the organization of this event? This and many more will be shown and explained in this article. It is going to be a big one. So, get something to drink and enjoy a story that starts a long, long time ago, in a galaxy far away. Origin story, something that started ..read more

BMR’s model of the St Louis Refrigerator Car Co. 36ft Beer Car is commemorating the L-Gauge Modular Standard LEGO® train layout that will be on display at the NMRA 2022 National Train Show Premium Instructions. If you have not reserved one, then read on and see what the car is about and be sure to reserve yours before the 11:59pm EST July 4th 2022 order deadline. And if you have already reserved a car, then skip ahead and take a look at a special bonus scheme for the car that we are only offering for the July 4th weekend. Test model with printed parts seen at Brickworld 2022. Note red pin stip ..read more