What got you into lego trains!

[Henrik Ludvigsen]

When I Was 6-7 years old I used to get up very early in the morning - especially the weekends. My mom and dad Was not very excited about that, so I Got an extra room in the basement. In this room I had my LEGO track setup. My first locomotive Was the 133 - since then I have been hooked on LEGO trains.

My collection is now almost 100% complete.

I used to play with the old blue tracks ... Since my childhood I have dreamed of appearing in the Guinness Book of Records. This dream Was forunded one very early saturday morning... The dream became a reality on the 13-05-2013 where the Danish RLUG and myself made a track measuring 4000,25 meters - entirely made of my collection of the old blue tracks.....

Now I am planning a new track measuring 42195 meters (the same distance as a marathon run...).

But I am still hooked on trains and buy one or two everytime a new set is released.

Henrik

Edited September 10, 2015 by Henrik Ludvigsen

[BricksMcgee]

It's Lego and it's trains. What more do you need?

Yep, this covers it ;)

Had some traditional model trains as a kid, and had a few LEGO trains too. Just carried on from there. Really like that I can take stuff apart and rebuild if I get bored (not that I do!), and I can fairly easily change my track layout/scenery if I want to.

[davidmull]

Are any of u guys into hornby trains? Just curious as there way more detailed and real life looking.

[BricksMcgee]

I used to have quiet a few. They are more realistic but I enjoy LEGO more, but there's still a lot LEGO railway modellers could learn from traditional modellers - more natural landscapes and track layouts, for instance.

[Hod Carrier]

LEGO was a huge part of my childhood. There were never any LEGO trains, just a biscuit tin full of plain bricks, plates and a few automotive and architectural pieces, but I could always somehow manage to conjure up a bus, plane, train or whatever I fancied from among the limited parts I had available. My Mum said she always knew when I had woken up on the weekend because the first thing she heard was me emptying out the LEGO bricks onto my bedroom floor so that I could assemble that weekend's toy.

This childhood link has meant that I've always had a soft spot for LEGO and, whenever I've happened to be in a toy shop, I have had always looked to see what the company was offering. However, I'm among the people who believe that LEGO sets are rather restrictive and don't really allow for the imagination of the player. For me, the challenge had always been in working out how to build the toy I wanted from the parts that I already possessed. So regrettably I have rejected the various trains that LEGO themselves offer and instead downloaded LDD to design trains for myself. Indeed, I feel as though I've turned my back on all the normal LEGO train scales and settled on 4-wide for my Dutch model EMUs and am currently tinkering with an as yet unrevealed microscale model with lots of play potential.

As for why trains? Well, I work on the railways here in the UK as a driver, so I have more than just a passing interest in the industry. I've always thought about having a model railway but don't really have the aptitude for it. LEGO, on the other hand, is easier to manipulate. For me, it is a known medium and doesn't require expensive tools or the need to learn new skills. It's so much more easily accessible and, as I've been discovering through my own efforts and those of others, the level of realism and detail possible is almost unlimited. LEGO is so much more than square bricks.

Edited September 13, 2015 by Hod Carrier

[Sorrelon]

I started this whole Lego madness when I was 3 years old, with Smuggler's Shanty set of Pirates theme. I quickly expanded to other themes as well, and some of those sets contained small catalogues and brochures that contained pictures of sets from other series. That's when I first saw of Lego Trains. The next time we went to a toy store, I grabbed one of the big catalogues, took it to home with me and watched the train diaromas in awe. Those cranes and cargo trains, as well as passenger trains and stations were all too awesome for me. I was about to burst with happiness when my family agreed to buy a cargo train set for me. However, no matter how many toy stores we checked, we couldn't find one. Turned out that none of the Trains and Harbor sets were imported to my country back then. I was so dissapointed, and while I still tried to build trains out of the other sets I had, none of them looked like the ones I used to see on the catalogues.However, things changed with RC Trains sets. The main Lego distributor in my country back then decided to import Trains sets as well. Perhaps because of the hype accumulated inside of me since my childhood, I bought every single RC Trains set that came out in Europe and still have all of them now. Well, except Emerald Night and Horizon Express. I'm still pursuing both of them and hopefully get them soon.

Edited September 18, 2015 by Sorrelon

[Electricsteam]

I started this whole Lego madness when I was 3 years old, with Smuggler's Shanty set of Pirates theme. I quickly expanded to other themes as well, and some of those sets contained small catalogues and brochures that contained pictures of sets from other series. That's when I first saw of Lego Trains. The next time we went to a toy store, I grabbed one of the big catalogues, took it to home with me and watched the train diaromas in awe. Those cranes and cargo trains, as well as passenger trains and stations were all too awesome for me. I was about to burst with happiness when my family agreed to buy a cargo train set for me. However, no matter how many toy stores we checked, we couldn't find one. Turned out that none of the Trains and Harbor sets were imported to my country back then. I was so dissapointed, and while I still tried to build trains out of the other sets I had, none of them looked like the ones I used to see on the catalogues.However, things changed with RC Trains sets. The main Lego distributor in my country back then decided to import Trains sets as well. Perhaps because of the hype accumulated inside of me since my childhood, I bought every single RC Trains set that came out in Europe and still have all of them now. Well, except Emerald Night and Horizon Express. I'm still pursuing both of them and hopefully get them soon.

I forgot about those little booklets D: why doesn't lego mae those anymore.... those little things were some of the coolest to look at when you open a brand new set

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It's been awesome reading your stories! I really want to get back into lego a little more and get a REAL train done!

[dr_spock]

I forgot about those little booklets D: why doesn't lego mae those anymore.... those little things were some of the coolest to look at when you open a brand new set

Probably costs or the Internet or save the trees. I used to love looking at those booklets of 7740, 7725, etc. and day dream of building a layout some day. Still dreaming.

[marook]

Hi All,

LEGO was a huge part of my childhood, and I got some 12v sets along the way.

My dad made an loft as part of our room where I could have a more permanent layout build from time to time.

From the highschool years my LEGO was put away, and only the Star Wars UCS sets were bought and displayed. Some years ago I got my LEGO back from 'the dungeons' where it had been stored, and started to see if my daughter would play with it. When Friends came out, she found interest in LEGO and started to realise that my old 'classic' bricks could be used to extend it.

When she turned 10 1,5 year ago, she wanted a Horizon Express - the dad was amazed! To everyones surprise she got one (from her dad) and actually build it 95% herself. Now we needed a layout to drive it on... the rest is history, and this past week it was actually on display at the annual 'Model Train Gathering' here in Denmark.

My railroadbridge along with it. Pictures here.

The last 6-8 months we have been visiting the local LEGO Store to get PaB cups and sets.

[THERIZE]

Are any of u guys into hornby trains? Just curious as there way more detailed and real life looking.

i don't have hornby mainly because its hard to get in mainland europe. But I have some other model railway trains.

[ALCO]

Almost as long as I can remember I have played with Lego's. I mostly had airplanes and pirates but I have always loved trains and had many model trains and toys just no Lego trains. My best friend had all the trains and I thought they were cool but I wasn't that interested in them because they were all European trains and nothing North American so I didn't find them very interesting. Then last year, (15 or so years later) my older sister introduced me to LDD and that was my "awakening." I began building trains in LDD, mostly North American steam. I also went to a couple Lego Train shows presented by the local Lego train club in my area and thought I didn't ask for it, I was given the Emerald Night for Christmas and I was totally hooked!! Since then I was given the Maerks train for my birthday and bought the blue cargo train 60052. I'm really into North American Steam, but I have built a couple diesels too. I've loved following the forum here and learning new techniques and tricks! My latest is a Class C Shay in which I learned from and borrowed from Steven Pakbaz. here: http://rebrickable.com/mocs/StephenPakbaz/shay-engine

[ShaydDeGrai]

I've always liked trains in general, particularly steam engines. My grandfather was an engineer on the Flying Scotsman so trains were kinda in our family blood (or at least soot from them were in the family lungs). Both my sister and I had pathetic little second-hand model railroad sets growing up (she got Lionel, I had HO scale stuff; our parent's deliberately had us playing in different scales to keep us from fighting over the rolling stock, there was no question whose car belonged with which train).

Still, I had Lego Train envy as a kid, I had a friend who had one (I think it was the 120-1, 4.5v freight train set but I'm not sure) back around 1970 and I _really_ wanted one of my own, but it was one of those luxury items that was just not to be.

Thirty years later, I was standing in the newly opened Lego Store and I see the My Own Train large stream engine (3741) staring back at me from the shelves. I remember all those years of hoping I'd get a Lego Train for Christmas or my birthday or whatever and coming up empty because my folks figured that silly things like eating and having a roof over our heads were more important. I probably muttered something inappropriate around young children then, and proceeded to buy one of everything train related in the store; track, rolling stock, engines motors, lighting kits, speed controllers, etc.

I've been a sucker for LEGO Trains ever since. I don't have the room for a permanent set-up, but every year I make damned sure there's at least one Lego Train merrily chugging away under my Christmas tree (usually it's either the Emerald Night or a variation of it I've Mod'ed to make it look more like the Flying Scotsman (A3 incarnation)).

Edited October 15, 2015 by ShaydDeGrai

[xboxtravis7992]

I had long been into trains, Shining Time Station hooked me as a kid and local museums kept my interest. I even snuck out of highschool once just so I wouldn't miss the chance to watch UP 844 roll through my town...

Although the first Hogwarts Express was my "first train", what really got me into Lego Trains was the Emerald Night. It came out at the point in my TFOL years that Bionicle had (for the time) lost my interest, and Star Wars was the only thing which had kept me into Lego. The Night and the Cafe Corner were what made my transition from my early Lego years to the brick addiction that would lead to being an AFOL. Once the Maersk Train came out, the hook was well set!

[ronenson]

As a kid, my parents got me a used 720 with blue 12V track. I later got a 7760 as well from my parents. I played with those quite a lot.When we got our son the 7939 for his birthday, the lego train virus got me again, and I started to build some of my own. Now I could afford much more than back when I was a kid, so I build a nice setup in the attic. I think it was the 7777 lego ideas book that gave me a lot of inspiration back then, I still have that. I converted the 720 and 7760 to PF, and expanded on that. Lego trains have some sort of magic to it, at least that's how I feel about it.

Edited October 15, 2015 by ronenson

[billbarman]

I've always been obsessed with trains, even from a really young age. One day my grandparents dug out my mom’s old 004 master builder set from 1966. I had a lot of fun playing with the Lego, however what really struck me was the booklet that somehow was still in the box 30 years later. It contained a lot of photos of multiple blue track train sets from the 60s. I was 3 or 4 at the time was fascinated, I didn't realize that stuff hadn't been produced in decades! From that point on, I became infatuate with Lego Trains.

I would often build Lego trains of my on out of parts I had during the mid 90s, my parents thought was too young for the 9v stuff out the time. However, this changed Christmas of 1999 when I received the 4561 Railway Express set for Christmas. I had never really seen the 9v stuff up until this point (the only Lego trains I had really seen were the old 1960s ones I mentioned before) and was thrilled to have it. Although the design was kind of odd to me at first (I always was a fan of steam and the small locomotive didn’t really look like anything to me) I grew to love it and had a blast with that set. In the catalog that came with 4561, I saw the 4565 freight and crane railway. As soon as I saw it I was obsessed. My parents called every store and checked every web site looking for it, but by 2000, it had disappeared from store shelves.

Then in 2002 I got the set 10205 large black steam locomotive and tender. This really thrilled me as it was a big steam engine (although it would have been better if it had connecting rods and valve gear) but nevertheless I was thrilled. I would get other stuff through the 2000s, such as the Super Chief (which I loved to death) and 2 passenger cars to go with it, 1022 and 1025.

Eventually all this stuff got wrecked and mixed in with all the other parts I had. It’s not that I stopped caring for it or wasn’t into it anymore, they got wrecked one by one time (especially because of brother, 7 years younger then me). I was too young to take the time to sift through all my pieces and make them again.

Then in 2006 I wanted to start over so I managed to get a 7898 Cargo set, which I loved, and the 10173 Holiday train later that year, but they suffered the same fate as my earlier trains as the years went on.

Then in 2009 when the Emerald Night came out, I knew I had to get it right away, that was the lego train always dreamed of. I got the Maersk when it came out in 2011 as well, and knew to keep them safe so they wouldn’t suffer the same fate as my previous trains. However, I became frustrated having only these two trains built when I knew I had a lot more so in 2014 I went on a tirade sifting through my thousands of pieces to rebuild my collection. I also discovered brick link and ended up order the stuff I just couldn’t find. It took months but I managed to re build literally every single train from my childhood. I thought the time was right to start adding to the collection and since then, have bought the 4.5v 7722Steam Cargo train, 3225 Classic Train, 10001 Metroliner, various 9v rolling stock, and yes, even the 4565 freight and crane railway I wanted all these years.

[Bricktown]

I like trains since my youngest age. But one day I've found out that lego was making train.

For me, the 4512 freight train was the triggering factor.

I still remember going to "Toys r us" for Christmas when I was about 7 Years old at the time. Rushing to the Lego shelf of the store, seeing that train, being astonished and telling my mother that it could be the best gift.

The best feeling was to find it under the Christmas Tree.

Right after building it, I decided to build a city. That's how everything started :).

[baard]

Blue era trains was the love of my childhood, 12V trains and a at that time sizable collection together with my brother allowed us to build large layouts.

After the Dark age, my love for trains was restarted with the http://brickset.com/sets/4565-1/Freight-and-Crane-Railway that I came across in a store in Thailand.

From then on I have collected all the trains except some of the express trains (white, with custom made front piece).

Attempts at building landscapes around my Moc trains are being made. Current WIP is Oppdal train station in Norway.

[leg01982]

7715 was the first lego train I was given when I was about 6-8ish, and loved it. A couple years later I had a battery pack and motor which was amazing. Then about 5 years ago I saw an old catalogue with 4555 which I had always wanted when I was a kid, since then I have been expanding my whole collection. Just wish I had somewhere to play and display it!

[Kivi]

I have been fascinated by anything at least remotely related to trains and railways since my earliest years, but back then in my childhood (late 80s/early 90s) LEGO trains were way too expensive and difficult to get by, so I had to do with H0 models. So when I grew up and became AFOL, I had to make up for what I missed as a child.

[engineer003]

TRAINS!!!! I have had trains for as long as I can remember. I am now 58 and got my first train set when I was a child of about 8 years old or so. I have 3 brothers and we all played with and built layouts. After marrying my beautiful wife and having our children, the oldest a boy, I continued with trains with him. I have a large HO train set that we have moved all over the country as we transferred for my job. When we were in LA we had a large G scale layout outside, which is now in our basement. And I continued the Lego tradition with my son and now our 2 grandsons. Besides the HO and G scale layouts, we have a large 10 train Lego layout as well with all of the modular too. The basement is full of trains!! there is a Lego layout in one of our extra bed rooms, and there is a very large bag of Duplo trains in our family room. So when the boys come to visit, they choose which floor to play with the trains, and then we build for hours. The grandsons are 8 and 4 and love to visit and stay with Grandpa and Mom Mom. Our oldest (and still running] Lego train is from 1982, back when battery power was the norm.

Oh, and as I am an electrical engineer, all of the layouts are electronic and run including the Lego layout.

[nesquik]

The first LEGO train I owned was 4559 Cargo Railway, which I got for Christmas around '99.

But the reason I wanted a LEGO train was that one of my cousins owned 4565 Freight Crane and Railway which, being young at the time, was an utterly cool looking train set. Of course looking at it now coming up to my thirties, it has nowhere near the same impact on me from a design perspective, but I would love to own it today just for sentimental purposes.

Opening 4559 on Christmas day was an experience I'll never forget, because after years of owning BRIO and Hornby trains, this was the first product that genuinely felt like a 'real' train set. That must sound strange, but I think LEGO fit the perfect balance between the two other systems, as you could make the scene as realistic as you wanted, but still had the option to build and tear it down as you wished with large pieces. I didn't care how ridiculous the carriages were, and instead just imagined this was a train of the future.

One reason that it took me so long to get a LEGO train was that they were so hard to find - and it didn't help that I had my heart set on trains that couldn't be found anywhere. The store inventories in the late '90s were a shambles; we (my family) could travel between three different toy shops of an afternoon, and each would have completely different sets. So, begrudgingly, I settled for 4559 because the store we bought it from was desperate to get rid of it!

A feature I do miss is the ability to open up the front box 'flap' so that you can see much of the contents and additional artwork. It also served as a way to reuse the packaging, because you removed the contents with the box laid flat, and the flap closed.

After millennium, I added 4532 Manual Level Crossing to the layout - and yes, even that was about three years old at the time! But I was ever so excited to have one.

I look back and feel totally fortunate that I grew up with LEGO in the early '90s, while continuing to grow my collection up to around 2001. I miss the sheer variety of train sets that were available then, and the lovely silver packaging they had. I completely understand that there is little marketable opportunity for producing so many of these add-on products, but as a child it was like heaven. Also, although there was a steady decline in design quality towards the end of the decade, it's incredibly refreshing to remember just how few licensed themes there were back then.

[paul_delahaye]

7720 for a birthday/christmas present back in the day started my collection. Actually turns out I also had set 151 in a massive box of hand me down bricks I got given, but I've only more recently discovered this was what it was.

My 7720 is in dire need of repair/rebuild. It's in one piece, but many of the old bricks are chewed (pre brick seperator) damaged, broken or faded. At some point I'll invest some time into fixing the old engine up.

[3797]

I don't really remember, but most likely this picture:

However, my first LEGO train was the Metro Liner that I got for christmas back in '91. I actually already had the yellow trainstation 4554 since about october of the same year. My first 9V speed regulator came with set 4564, which was released in 1994. Up until that time, I had to use a universal power supply to power my Metro Liner. One of those:

[TF Twitch]

Trains, Pirates, and Space were my favorite themes as a kid in the late 80's and early 90's. I had a long dark age from around 2000-2010, and the Emerald Night was my first Train set and what got me back into the bricks. Since the Emerald Night I have made several variations of the set, along with other steam locomotive MOCs. I prefer steam over diesel/electric since there are more moving parts and technical skill involved (in my opinion) to make sure that everything works together.

[Snapshot]

Although I had Lego as a youngster, it wasn't that developed then and I was more into slot cars (initially Scalextric leading to scratch-built 1:32 and 1:24 cars).

Jump forward 40+ years to 2010 and I'm messing about with Lego stormtroopers, taking the series of which my avatar is part. I'm looking for something more complex to build than the City construction vehicles of the time and discovered Brick Express's Large Prairie.

"Oh, no" I told my wife "I'll be happy with it as a static model." Obviously, I wasn't and things went a bit expensive from there.......

Edited November 10, 2015 by Snapshot