Looking to build a 12V steam engine

[Staalis]

I'm thinking of building a 12V style steam engine for the upcoming holidays and place it on a table by the X-mas tree as a part of a Lego winter town. As I only have 12V trains (7725 and 7760 along with various cars from the same era) and tracks I guess one of the grey era models would be the best choice. Ultimately I would of course want to build the 7750, but I will run into trouble with getting some of the parts and receive them in time for X-mas.

Which grey era steam engine, apart from the 7750, would you recommend me to go for in terms of looks and finding parts on Bricklink and so on? There's a decent tender i the alternative build for the 7725 that I'm thinking of but I'm undecided on which engine to go for.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Edited December 8, 2010 by Staalis

[gwilisandt]

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Edited February 4, 2015 by gwilisandt

[BillytheKid]

I would advice set 7710. It's an easy design and properly you might have all the parts to build it already.

[Staalis]

Thanks for the replies. I think that I might go for the 7710, but with a black motor, and adding the tender from the alternative 7725.

More suggestions are welcome though.

[Staalis]

I ended up building the 7710 on a black base and with black wheels. I then built a tender based on the alternate 7725, but two studs longer as the motor is in the tender. Pretty basic, I know, but at last I now have a Christmas Train.