LEGO Trains 2025

[ScotNick]

What I don't get about the new WV train is that it feels like there was no train designer involved at all. 

The engine looks a bit like a tanker car with added cab and funnel and every further detail ommitted. The last WV train was a bid odd, but it had a charming character - somehow I can't say that about the new train.

 

[Kalahari134]

On 9/2/2025 at 1:01 PM, Toxic43 said:

I have had the pleasure of being a passenger on trains run at all 3 of the above. Sadly Lady McAlpine may not put on another public opening day due to her age/health. She was in very good spirits at the one last year though, so we will see. Very sad that The Beeches Light Railway was dismantled following Adrian's death. Although the Darjeeling Himalayan tank engine, 19B, survives and is currently being overhauled at the workshops of Statfold Barn.

I did get invited by Lady McAlpine back when Sir Bill was still alive, but at the time I worked weekends (at Legoland Windsor as it happens) so couldn't go, despite it being close to where I was living at the time.

Wasn't Beeches already dismantled in preparation for a move (and Carrabassett sold as it would be too big for the new line) before his diagnosis?

Someone I used to work for has hired Statfold in a couple of weeks so I'll be making my first visit

[RedBrick1]

The reaction to this on the other social platforms has been interesting. 

If you don't love it, you get hit with lecturing comments about supporting the brand/products. 

Personally, I just don't see the appeal of this set and don't mind people passing on it in favor of the many other Trains releases that are on the market. Money isn't an unlimited commodity. 

 

 

[Space78]

1 hour ago, RedBrick1 said:

If you don't love it, you get hit with lecturing comments about supporting the brand/products.

That's a joke.  Lego is the largest toy company in the world, has record profits and sales, and yet they need "support" by buying products we don't like?

[Mr Hobbles]

5 hours ago, zephyr1934 said:

Well that's a train I suppose. Interesting in the video all of the detail shots the model is holding the cars with motion (locomotive and polar bear). No doubt the light cars and the traction bands struggling with the two different radii of the tracks reduces the effectiveness of the motion functions. That 3D printed steam engine is an odd choice to include.

 

Lego has been experimenting with 3D printed elements for a few years now, specifically for elements that have motion built into them. I have a few of them. This particular 3D printed train has moving wheels, wheel linkages, and the smoke goes up and down when the train is pushed along and the wheels turn. This isn't multiple pieces that were put together, it was _printed_ together.

I do agreed it's an odd choice to include in this set though - it seems like something a more hardcore Lego fan would appreciate than the mass market Lego Christmas set purchaser. I can't help but think how many of these they've printed, they must have dozens of printers going 24/7!

[samsz_3]

It has been 9 years since the last train (I'm getting old), so it does make sense to release one for the new adult collectors in the black box era.

My guesses at design reasoning:

- Designers wanted to have the moving funnel (chimney/smokestack). This needed a set of non motorised wheels at the front for the gearing and mechanism

- Due to budget constraints the tender couldn't be bigger than 8 studs long and incorporate the train motor (10 studs long), so the motor had to go in the locomotive.

- Designers didn't want large train wheels on train motor (to fast/low torque), and as it isn't aimed at train AFOLs, didn't want to use a standard motor. This forced using the train motor as a bogie, giving a weird design.

[Ferro-Friki]

I like my trains realistic and all, but I understand and appreciate cartoonish, toyish depictions. This is none of that, it just looks bad in a sad way.

We can all agree that 18+ means nothing now, right? It’s just there (in this case at least) to comfort adults too self-conscious about buying toys for children.

And what is up with that 3D printed piece? That is not what Lego is about. We’re getting entire preassembled toys now? What’s next, a ragdoll with cloth garments sown on? And that finish… it looks like it has been chewed on by a child…

[TeddytheSpoon]

Now that reviews (including mine) are out...

It is disappointing that they couldn't add a pair of driving wheels or two to this. I feel like having the motor and battery hub together in the tender would have worked just fine, without sacrificing the other play features (moving chimney etc).

The 3D print is really interesting from an engineering POV - the finish is really good compared to other, similar parts I've handled. But it does feel like a gimmick.

It's a perfectly decent toy train, but like @ScotNick said, it doesn't have the same charm the last two did, despite their inaccuracies.

[dr_spock]

I think an industrial SLA printer with an extra large surface area for the powder can 3D print dozens and dozens of the small engines at the same time.  It would be interesting if they could give us a behind the scenes.

[Thomas Waagenaar]

On 9/12/2025 at 3:32 AM, dr_spock said:

I think an industrial SLA printer with an extra large surface area for the powder can 3D print dozens and dozens of the small engines at the same time.  It would be interesting if they could give us a behind the scenes.

It's not an SLA ("Resin") printer, I think you mean SLS? 

They don't even need extra large surface areas, as you can essentially just stack prints on top of each other too. Industrial SLS printers can have massive build volumes. Just imagine how many tiny trains you can stack in even a 30cm³ cube from the simple ones!

Only downside is just their massive cost... A simple generic one is already 40k EUR, let alone the industrial ones Lego will be using, won't surprise me if they're already 500k+ EUR a piece. 😅

And that might have, annoyingly, actually made quite a significant impact on the pricing too...

 

So personally, I'd rather have had them omit the printed niche part, and give us a more solid looking locomotive, with perhaps a slightly bigger tender and more accurate boiler?

I don't even mind the driving wheels just being 2 bogies too much, fits within the simplistic Lego holiday set approach, but they're just so unbalanced, too much wheel/bogie compared to how little locomotive there is, if that makes sense?

Edited Saturday at 04:53 PM by Thomas Waagenaar
Typos

[CDM]

Another leak:

June 2026 - "Trains"

Lego City 60506 (7+)

Lego City 60509 (8+)

No other details but maybe related to the airport subtheme....some sort of monorail-type tram or something? Anyway, we'll see.

[Murdoch17]

On 9/13/2025 at 11:52 AM, Thomas Waagenaar said:

It's not an SLA ("Resin") printer, I think you mean SLS? 

They don't even need extra large surface areas, as you can essentially just stack prints on top of each other too. Industrial SLS printers can have massive build volumes. Just imagine how many tiny trains you can stack in even a 30cm³ cube from the simple ones!

Only downside is just their massive cost... A simple generic one is already 40k EUR, let alone the industrial ones Lego will be using, won't surprise me if they're already 500k+ EUR a piece. 😅

And that might have, annoyingly, actually made quite a significant impact on the pricing too...

 

So personally, I'd rather have had them omit the printed niche part, and give us a more solid looking locomotive, with perhaps a slightly bigger tender and more accurate boiler?

I don't even mind the driving wheels just being 2 bogies too much, fits within the simplistic Lego holiday set approach, but they're just so unbalanced, too much wheel/bogie compared to how little locomotive there is, if that makes sense?

This WV price increase and cost of machines reminds me of the 1990s / early 2000s fiber-optic parts that LEGO lost money on with every set sold yet continued making them for over a decade. Like the 3D printing parts for a set, It's a great idea on paper, but if there are a ton of unsold sets because of the backlash to 3D printing, LEGO will get hurt and probably stop producing them and it will remain a one-time deal.

...who am I kidding, knowing their track record they'll just muddle on for a bunch more sets before moving onto the next big fad and leaving these behind. (Just like they did Life of George, Dimensions, Hidden Side, Galidor, Vidiyo, and SO many others!)

49 minutes ago, CDM said:

Another leak:

June 2026 - "Trains"

Lego City 60506 (7+)

Lego City 60509 (8+)

No other details but maybe related to the airport subtheme....some sort of monorail-type tram or something? Anyway, we'll see.

Who wants to take bets on whether the wheels will have metal axles on these trains? 

Edited 13 hours ago by Murdoch17