Review: ME Models LEGO compatible train track
Posted by Huw,
If you have ever been frustrated by the unrealistically sharp radius of LEGO train track you might be interested in the LEGO compatible track produced by ME Models.
Brickset member Jamie aka paperballpark recently purchased some and posted this excellent review in a couple of UK LUG forums that I thought would be worth sharing with a wider audience because it's a product that's likely to be of interest to many:
Back in 2014 ME Models started a kickstarter campaign, to finance the moulds for wider radius LEGO-compatible train track. This campaign was successful, and they have so far produced plastic track with radii of R56, R72, R88 and R108. For comparison, LEGO track has a radius of R40. They also produced half, standard and double-length straight track. Metal track is still to follow at some point.
In January of this year I ordered some of the plastic track. Well, a lot of it. As some of you may know, I display a large train station at shows, and I wanted some wider loops to make the trains run easier. As some of the track has now been delivered (the rest is to follow - explanation below) and I've actually had time to put it together, I thought you might like to see what I think of it.
I ordered two packs of R56 and R72 track, and four packs of R88 and R108. The track comes in sections, so you have to build it yourself – a bit like the old 12V track. Each pack contains a half-circle of track, so my total order was for six full loops. Due to various issues (mainly that their supplier’s lead engineer suffered a ‘major heart ailment’!), I didn't receive half my order until about mid-April, and the rest is to follow. They sent it separately so that at least I received something, rather than waiting for it all. As compensation for my long wait, they included two packs of double-length straight track, which was very good of them.
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The track I've received so far is the R56 and R72 track. Each half-loop of track comes in a plastic re-sealable bag, with a cardboard fold-over header stapled at the top. I opened the R72 first. The bag contained 8 inner rail sections, 8 outer rail sections, 16 connectors for the ends, and 40 2x8 plates for the middle. The inner and outer track sections are marked 'I' or 'O' underneath for easy identification. Some of the 2x8 plates have a small hole in the middle for if you want to nail the track down (although you would only be nailing the 2x8 plate down!). There are no instructions for how to put it all together, but quite frankly if you can't figure it out, you should probably go back to your Duplo.
Putting the track together is relatively straightforward. The clutch is good, and the rails are open-ended underneath, so you can adjust where the 2x8 plates go under the rails. If you drop the completed rail, it will all spring apart, but to be honest I would probably expect that to also happen if LEGO produced track in this way.
The R56 curves seem to be under a little bit more stress than the R72 curves for some reason, as they are more willing to ping apart when you are putting them together. They will stay together though, once you have got them together.
The straight track is slightly different underneath, in that it doesn't allow you to put the plates just anywhere - there are round tube bits between the stud holes, the same as you find on normal LEGO. There's also no stress at all on the straight track, although the slightly longer connectors are a very tight fit on the rails.
The positives
I'll start with the obvious one - the different radii! These will be great for running trains on, and I can't wait to try them out at shows in future. The first one they will be at is Bricktastic in Manchester (UK).
The second is just how well-made the track is. The quality is really good, and from most angles the only difference you can see with a casual glance is the lack of the 'LEGO' writing on the studs. It's not quite LEGO quality, but it's very close. I don't have any clone-brand, so I can't compare the quality to them, but I suspect it's a lot better than most.
The ‘clutch’ is good as well. Again, having compared the 2x8 plates with LEGO 2x8 plates, it isn't quite as good as LEGO clutch, but it's certainly not bad. In addition, the colour-match with Dark Bluish Grey is almost perfect. I have Dark Bluish Grey (DBG) LEGO tiles in my collection which are a worse match than the ME Models colour. It’s worth noting at this point that they also do the sleepers and connectors in Dark Brown and Reddish Brown as well. I chose to stick with DBG so that it matches all of my LEGO track.
The track itself also clips together perfectly with LEGO track. The track ridges are different to LEGO track, due to the different moulding method used, but this isn’t really an issue, as trains run seamlessly between the ME Models track and the LEGO track.
The negatives
The fact that the track has been produced as separate elements means that it's not nearly as sturdy as the LEGO one-piece track. Whilst the construction of it is fairly straightforward, I suspect that unclipping the track from each other when rushing around following a show will give enough of a shock to ping apart most of the track. We will see, but my experiments with a couple of pieces certainly resulted in that happening. I could just be used to being harsh with unclipping though (for speed after shows), and I suspect that gentler unclipping will result in less pinging apart.
As mentioned above, the R56 track is under slightly more stress than the R72. I suspect the only real result of this will be that it will be more likely to come apart when unclipping it, although it did make it slightly more difficult to put it together.
One small issue with the track is so small that I would never have noticed it if it hadn't been mentioned elsewhere on the internet. Because of how they have moulded the rails - to have enough space underneath to take the 2x8 plates - the rail piece itself is 'stepped'. This doesn't look to be an issue, until you look very closely at wagons running on it. The train wheels with metal axles don’t actually run on the top of the rails.
Instead, the flanges touch the bottom of the track. The gap between the train wheels and the top of the rail is probably less than one millimetre, but there’s definitely a gap. The wheels with technic axles are fine, as are the large driver wheels, because the rubber band around them raises them up enough so that the flanges don't rest on the track. Although this isn't ideal, it probably isn't really an issue, and I didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary when pushing the truck along the track. I’ve also not seen any mention of problems from anyone else on the internet, so I suspect that there’s no real problem with it.
Lastly, the track is not cheap to buy (and not cheap to get posted to the UK either!), but my reasoning was that I was only going to buy it once. And quite honestly, if you get into trains in any kind of serious way, you are going to be spending a lot of money anyway! Running a large layout of LEGO trains isn’t cheap, so those that do can probably justify the cost of this track.
Overall
I'm very impressed with the track. Even having only put together the few bits I have, it's clear that a lot of time, effort, and dedication has gone into producing the track and getting it as good as possible. Sure, it’s not perfect, but I wasn’t expecting perfection, and given that ME-Models are not a global super-brand, I think what they have produced is superb.
I formed that overall opinion after putting together the R56 and R72 track. Once I get the R88 and R104 as well, and run the whole lot at shows, I suspect I will be even more impressed.
One final thought though: I may have to reach for the kraggle, so that I don't have to put it all together again after unclipping it...
See the full gallery of Jamie's pictures on flickr.
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32 comments on this article
Tempting!
The track looks great. I normally add straight sections between single curved sections to increase the radius.
Does ME Models make curved points joining these wonderful large curved tracks? Do they make straight points without the double curved offshoot? Or, do they have any plans to add points to their product line?
And now on to convincing Lego to increase the width of standard Lego train to 8 or better 9 studs to make it more realistic and we are done :) Hey they have already increased their tiny planes from 4 to 8, so...
Thanks for the review - every so often I think about getting some of the medium radius curves, but as I don't have, or ever display, a large layout I've not been able to convince myself yet...
However, I am curious about the end pieces and whether they can be used to provide an effective interface between the latest tracks and the 12v system? Most of my collection is the latter because of the superior remote control elements, but I do have a 'Power Functions only' section with an awkwardly botched transition between the two...
@FlagsNZ No they don't make points. I don't know if they have any plans to do so; I believe they're now concentrating on doing the Metal rails they promised to in their kickstarter campaign.
@PeteM I'm afraid I don't know if you can use the connectors with 12v track, as I don't have any to try it.
I've just realised I made a mistake in the review - they didn't produce quarter-length straight track. They produced half, standard, and double-length. Oops!
ME Models seems to be located in Youngstown, OH. So shipping shouldn't be too bad for US customers. Their prices for the track sections seem reasonable to me, at least for the straight track sections. Especially considering you have to buy flex-track when you buy straight sections from Lego.
And there was me thinking you were a LEGO purist Jamie. Brilliant news that there a shallower curve is now available and it looks relatively well made, but is it permitted at dedicated LEGO events?
@legoboyUK That'd be up to the various event organisers. I've seen some displayed at at least one UK show in the last year though.
I wonder if they've got plans to make double crossover rail pieces...
I've wanted this for 24 years, but as a purist...
Looks nice, I don't own any trains (except for the first space monoraill) but always admire them at shows. For lego purists who still want large curves, I once saw a technique where they made a curve with only straight tracks, with one stud space between the outer connection (as in, the pieces weren't connected completely).
@Proteasome I've done that before, at Brick 2015. There's a couple of ways you can 'space out' the straight track, which will give you different radii - all of them huge. I think the one I did was the equivalent of something like 190 studs radius - that is, about 380 studs wide (3m). I think each half-curve used about 32 straight pieces of track. That was the tightest I could really do it.
It looks impressive, but it's really not ideal, as it's huge and uses an absolute load of track.
@thehornedrat - The requirement for LUG displays to be pure is not true. I can't find the reference to cite, but it may have been on the ambassador forum. LEGO doesn't mind if you use compatible parts from other manufacturers in displays as long as you don't tell people they are LEGO elements. Since a LUG display is private and can't advertise as a "LEGO event" anyway, they aren't bothered by any inappropriate brand connection to non-LEGO parts.
If I ever get seriously into building a layout with Lego, ME Rails would be like a best friend I think! Other scales have diverse curves, but Lego has yet to provide a real solution to bigger curves themselves (flex track with a rail joint every two studs, is not a solution I want). Lego needs to do bigger radiuses or a real flex track that won't be a wonky bouncy mess. Until then I'd be willing to sacrifice the "purist mandate" and use ME rails (and Big Ben Bricks, etc.).
Does anyone know where the rails are made and by whom? I couldn't find any information on the ME site, but maybe I haven't looked hard enough. Or did ME built a factory in Ohio?
@swogat The back of the cardboard header says 'Proudly made in the U.S.A.'
That's as much as I know.
Very cool! This company should make more custom pieces similar to this in the future. Very nifty interlocking system!
This is great, but now all we need is metal rail tracks for 9V users like me. While remote control sounds good, it is such a pain to have to switch batteries all the time, loose signal when the train goes under a bridge or behind a building, and the lower level of speed increment with the controller. To me, it was a bad idea for Lego to go to RC trains.
Very nice review. This is a clear cut example of a non Lego brand filling a gap in Lego's offering.
Wish someone would do this for monorail track--especially since used straight track is so expensive!
@eastonlionel They're looking at producing metal rails, so they should have some available at some point.
Your point about the annoyance of having to replace batteries all the time is one reason why I only use the rechargeable batteries.
I'm not really interested in Lego rail, but I like this idea of a community of small companies making Lego compatible stuff, both for niche markets and maybe even eventually to challenge Lego on full models. There are similar business communities around model trains and slot racing, and it would be cool if something similar built around Lego, instead of other makes just being perceived as inferior Chinese knock offs.
In fact conversion to LiPoly batteries would be mostly welcome - they are standard among the modellers and quite reliable.
PennLUG, which has one of the largest rail layouts, has built a few curves with some of these rails and found them to be quite excellent. Previously, a few of their "grand curves" were simply of many pieces of straight track half-clipped together and wedged into terrain for support. While it works, the trains have a jerky motion going around curves.
These pieces allow even such monsters as the Big Boy and Challenger to run a whole lot more smoothly.
I've been pondering on buying some for some time now. I guess it's time to sell off some lesser-wanted items to fund them!
There is certainly no requirement to use only pure Lego at shows. That would mean S-Brick couldn't be used, Brickarms weapons, Brickstuff lights, Big Ben wheels.... And if it hadn't been for Big Ben proving the demand for large train wheels we wouldn't have had the Emerald Night.
I used R88 at my display in London last year and my trains ran really well. I had noticed that the plain train wheels run on their flange but I've had no problems with that.
I certainly noticed tension but it was not consistent; out of a full circle 2 or 3 sections would have so much tension that they'd come apart when you touch them. A few expletives were used during setup...
@swogat: ME Models have not built a factory, they have a supplier with an injection mold machine ;-)
As for shipping outside the US, they have a reseller in Europe:
http://www.brickshop.nl/lego/me-models.html
Please excuse my ignorance :-) is the flex track really that bad? I have only used it on small scale, but haven't had any issues.
@Atbricks he flex track is ok if you just want to use a small bit, maybe to connect sections of track that otherwise wouldn't meet, but for anything on a large scale it'd be pretty horrible. If you wanted to make a large curve, there's no real way to keep it all in place, and it's a lot louder than normal track when trains run over it.
It's a clever technical solution to the problem of only having fixed radii track, but in reality it just doesn't work very well - a fact I think LEGO have acknowledged by not including any in the City train sets over the last couple of years.
I think this is definitely a reason to make a kraggle exception!
@PeteM for a transition piece you can contact the shop of 'cornerstone' on bricklink. He sells a 3D-printed piece to connect the 12V rails to the latest tracks.
He also has a website www.hoeksteentjes.nl which hasn't been maintained for a long time...
I'm afraid that Dutch reseller is making a serious mistake. They say "ME Models sets zijn samengesteld uit 100% nieuwe LEGO onderdelen." In English: "ME Models sets are composed of 100% new LEGO parts."
Which is simply not true....
Apart from this: I really like the large radius rails!