The team from Assembled (see my article about the site here; in German it’s Zusammengebaut) interviewed JK Brickworks recently while attending Skaerbaek 2019 in Denmark. JK Brickworks is made up of Jason Allemann and his partner Kristal. Their website is here. You may know Jason Allemann from his LEGO Ideas sets like #21315-1 - Pop-Up Book or #21305-1 - Maze.
Whew, lots of links in a short number of lines…. now that we’re on the same page, in the interview, Jason mentions that he has a friend working on additions to the train theme to include 9V compatible track. WHAT!?!?!?!
More background… Jason and his friend Michael Gale co-founded a company called Fx Bricks. Fx Bricks has an initial product called the PFx Brick. In a nutshell, it’s a programmable, LEGO compatible controller that lets you install and control LED lights, small speakers, and control motors in your trains, cars, buildings, and other MOCs. There are some great demonstrations of how the PFx brick was integrated into existing sets and MOCs to include trains, cars, a Friends rock concert, and the Lego Ideas Saturn V rocket.
Some PFx bricks display on their website
What does the PFx brick have to do with 9V trains? Well on the Fx Bricks website, it talks about upcoming additions to LEGO trains to include 9V compatible tracks of various shapes and lengths, a power system, a PFx brick like controller, motors, and interconnects. Per the interview, it looks like Mike Gale has the lead on this project. There is a short brief posted on the Fx Brick site here. If you are a train fan, definitely take a look at it. He also has some sample track pictures. Check out the one below. Can you tell which one is the 9V track and which one is the LEGO one? I had to zoom in to see the LEGO logo on the one in the background. Very impressive!
Here’s a close up shot showing the Fx track attached to LEGO track. It looks pretty compatible in terms of the connection. It also looks like it will fit into a train display without seeming like a different system. The difference just appears to be logo on the stud and it looks more shiny.
We have yet to see how LEGO bricks attach to the track if you want to add ballast and I’m sure at some point we’ll see a video showing that a 9V train can work on it.
A quick history… Fx Bricks is not the first to try. A few years back a company started off called ME Models. The company produced an all metal rail and connector pieces. You could then use your own 2x8 plates in-between the connectors. It wasn’t bad and the metal connection worked. I bought some of the first track and pledged in their Kickstarter campaign. Sadly I never received the goods I was promised from their Kickstarter campaign. I reached out, but never heard back on a status. They went dark for a while. Now they show up on Bricklink as a store and it says they used to offer plastic rails, but have been closed since 2018. Some pictures of the ME Models rails are below.
ME Models standard length track. I was unable to detach the bricks to show the metal rail by itself.
LEGO 9V on the left (the older dark gray) and ME Models on the right.
I’m pretty excited about this effort. Fx Bricks has delivered on its first campaign and is working on more PFx bricks. I’m hoping they can deliver on a track system. The brief talks about having a system in stock so hopefully they are considering supply chain management systems.
Recently I set up a track for my kids to play with and the batteries just don’t have the life span to handle a lot use. Being able to expand my small stash of 9V track would be useful for kids playing. I could see it being a big win for those displaying trains at multi-day long brick or train shows as well.
Good luck Fx Bricks!