Winter Village Express-- A new project at LEGO IDEAS-- Coming Soon&#33

[James Mathis]

I've converted the automobile to a truck. In the image below, the truck requires the purple pieces, but all else is a rearrangement of the existing parts from the automobile build.

Edited November 14, 2014 by James Mathis

[zephyr1934]

Here's the original as-shown piece-count break-out:

total: 1846

locomotive + tender + IR receiver + train motor + battery box: 504

Lego probably would not include the PF equipment, instead making them an optional upgrade. So I would suggest changing these parts to "optional", which should also do a good job at lowering the price point. I was also thinking after my last post that maybe the snow banks "as is" would be more thematic (but perhaps figure out some way that the same construction could be fouling the track or beside it in two piles (with little or no rebuilding) to add some play value.

For a winter village set, this does seem to be missing some of the hot cocoa and excessive hints of xmas presents or what not. But again, those are things that I think the lego designers could easily add in and not worth sweating over now.

#9, #21 or #27.

#9 with red wheels and details would probably be best.

I'm looking at this shot: http://www.brickshel...y.cgi?i=3539623

-- Bryan

I would agree to a point that an 0-6-0 might be the way to go. Then Lego could use the full set of 6 driver wheels in one build. Thew following is NOT a criticism of your build, but rather a reflection of the mass market view that lego is pursuing. To that end, I think the two things this locomotive needs to make it a "typical" steam engine are the large driver wheels and a cab. While it is sacrificing historical accuracy, could you add a cab and redo the wheels? Then tell the fan community that with a few small changes they could mod the set to have a Brotli/Adler locomotive? Then insist to match the red wheels, lego needs to add in the red motor side pieces.

Now to be a devil's advocate, how could lego have a winter train without a station? Many of the winter village customers would never consider buying a train. I would wager that lego would do a winter village station with no train before the other way around. Unfortunately for a station with a train, the train would have to be pretty tiny (a tank engine on top of a PF train motor + one car... maybe a combine coach/baggage?)

Still worth doing to get lego thinking of the potential (the next lionel- a lego train running under the xmas tree). And who knows, maybe a train one year and a station the next.

[James Mathis]

"hot cocoa and excessive hints of xmas presents"-- !! I should work to be better with the "atmosphere". I thought about putting a keg on tap of something warm and spicy. For non-train items, I probably took more inspiration from the standard 1) CITY train sets that offer simple waiting platform, luggage/cart, and truck/car and the 2) Lone Ranger train that offered the "action" fall-over water tank tower.

As for the train station first or train first... I've seen several Winter Village themed train stations on LEGO IDEAS-- I hope one makes it through to review! Chicken and egg syndrome? I felt that if the train came first, then at least a simple waiting platform might suffice since the layout would already be populated by pre-existing Winter Village buildings. Last year's Winter Village Market already has a lot of the food vendors, so I wasn't that focused on the "hints of xmas" scenes; but, in retrospect, I should have poured a little sugar on top, or at least a little gingerbread, man.

The locomotive is key to success. There's a lot to choose from, and I chose to go for Winter Village inspired colorful-- like a candy cane, but a little more over the top. That Brotli set is a full spectrum Christmas Tree. I had also thought that #19 from the Hobby Train set (see previous page in this thread) might work to be low piece-count and fit the part of the Winter Village style.

Recent official LEGO train steam history: Toy Story, Ghost, Emerald Night, Lone Ranger Constitution. Next?

I like your idea of making only one "pile" of snow that gets split into halves and moved from block the track to split 1/2 on one side and 1/2 on the other side. Lower piece count and still has the same effect.

Thank you so much.

[dartmar]

I see your plan is getting along nicely and getting shape. You could axe the station to keep the brick count down. Just a little platform. Maybe Lego will add a trainstation to the WInter Village themselves if a train would exist.

Try to find ways to get the brick count low by cutting corners on the build of models. Also try to use common bricks so there is no need for new molds.

[James Mathis]

Take a look inside this Winter Village Express Train. See how it is built. I've updated the project at LEGO IDEAS.

https://ideas.lego.com/projects/85295/updates

Hope you enjoy the view.

And, as always, thanks for the critical comments.

mahalo,

James