4560 Railway Express (Passenger Train) Extreme MOD

[Pelzer117]

Dear all,

to make it clar, that's not a MOD. THAT'S a MOD.

For all of you who want to skip the story of this "Mod" (if you can call it still a Mod), there it goes on >>>.

Spoiler

Apart from the one or other less worthy post, this is my first serious attempt at a Lego train MOC, so please be kind
The Dark Ages have actually always been associated with certain phases of my life for me (living out 18th birthday, get 20, meeting my wife, having kids etc.) and not a specific time period from here to there.
Since my father passionately collects his model railroads, the railroad theme in particular stuck with me, along with many other themes (e.g. STAR WARS and Bionicle).
I grew up in the 90s with the 9V era. The first two sets I got from my parents were the 4565 freight train and the 4560 Railway Express (or passenger and car train), which always somehow had a special place in my collection, as I rebuilt and "modified" the 4560 countless times.
The most recently modified 4560 from my teenage years (even before the Dark Age phases), has been storaged in my living room for years, waiting to be properly displayed. Somehow, however, it no longer satisfied my needs. After some conversations with the Eurobricks community and admiring the many talents here, I made the decision to make a proper model out of it. That was in December 2018.
Since then, quite a bit of time has passed and countless hours have gone into trials and countless redesigns (you're never really completely satisfied as a perfectionist) until I finally had got to a design that I liked.
The 10233 Horizon Express was found relatively quickly as inspiration due to the Wedge Brick 32084. That I was on the right track was confirmed by The New Metroliner 2021 by brickdesigned_germany (interestingly, we worked parallel in a similar direction).
HoMa's book was also a real help and so many other sources of inspiration here from the forum. So please don't be surprised if one or the other technique seems familiar, since I'm not a master builder yet, I had to learn a few things.

Now we come to the model. I wanted a reasonable MOD for the 4560, which in my opinion is clearly underestimated. 7W was a bit difficult, because I wanted to reuse existing parts. I didn't want 6w either, so I decided for 8w, because it would be easier to build. Is just now an "American" locomotive in 8w 😉
As mentioned before, the MODs that were available didn't really excite me and so I followed my own vision.



This was my "basic modell" from the time before my Dark Ages, which inspired me, to make a better version now:

>>> Below are the results of my first serious try of a train MOC.

Lower Deck Inside (on the left side a toilett, according to the TGV Duplex).

The Bistro inside:

 

 

Just for history, some older design trials:

Thanks for all the inspiration, instructions and also help from you master builders. I hope to have delivered a worthy (more or less 1st) MOC here. I look forward to your feedback and have deliberately first presented the digital design before I build it in real, in the hope of constructive feedback 😊

Edited December 22, 2021 by Pelzer117

[Toastie]

Ha! Hahaha! Nope - you are not telling the truth - this cannot be your first try after your dark ages... no way.

OK: Maybe your first published "try" on that ...

Very nice and interesting story behind your "first try" - it makes such a difference reading about what happened and "why" ... thank you very much for sharing that part. I really like the pictures from "before your dark ages" - and honestly? Already then you can clearly identify a skilled builder: The extended length of your modded train/carriages alone ... very nice!

Man, I love the details to the interior - particularly the "service" section ...

Do you have plans to make it "real"? It will be some investment, I guess - but totally worthwhile. I can imagine a layout/show where TLG's original passes by - and then your train approaches. Same color scheme but sooo different, I would hold my breath on that occasion.

All the best and thank you for sharing your story and the nice renders!

Thorsten

[JopieK]

I thought the original was horrible but you made it into a nicely stunning looking train! Very nice!

[zephyr1934]

17 hours ago, Pelzer117 said:

That's a great MOC and a fascinating history. You did a great job taking a literal toy train and turning it into something that looks like a real train (to be clear, I find nothing wrong with a set aiming to be a toy, I just highly doubt 4560 was ever meant for someone to say "I rode that train").

The only nitpick I have is that your presentation threw me off, it was not clear from the context that the first three pictures in your post were not the subject of your work. I'd suggest moving one of the actual MOC pictures up to start of your post, before any of your text so that a reader knows the quality of which you speak. The situation was not helped by calling this a MOD. With that title I was fully expecting something like the first couple of pictures (real MODs) what you built is a completely new MOC that might have more inspiration from the HE than 4560. But the homage with the trans light blue windows and capturing the feel of the drop train bases is quite a good nod to 4560.

So putting aside my quibbles, that MOC is even more stunning if that is your first time out. Great job!

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

Beautiful integration!

The difference between the two locomotives is striking, despite the fact that you have kept the lines!

[Guyinaplaguemask]

Very cool, I could totally see this in a large city display.

[Pelzer117]

Thank you all for the very positve feedback!
OMG. My topic was on the Eurobricks frontpage! THANK YOU!

@Toastie: it almost took me over 2 years to finish it. You can see it on the history trials, this really was my first - more serious - try for a train MOC/MOD after the dark ages. So thank you for the flowers.

@zephyr1934: thank you for your comments. I edited my topic and I hope it is now easier to see the main theme.

[_TLG_]

Very nice model!

[Pelzer117]

Update:
Since I saw the first pictures of the new in-progress Railjet 2 with the new low-floor cars, I had the idea to rebuild the 4560 more in this direction and still keep the original style and design. I found some inspiration here in the forum (NSB Class 73). This helped me to go in the right direction.

At first I tried to use only the narrow windows, or only the big ones in a row, or even without the blue stripes on the roof. As usual, there were a lot of try and error:

Spoiler

But I just can't help myself. Somehow the original color scheme fascinates me. So I tried to keep the TLG design.

Spoiler

In the end, I tried to reuse as many elements from the 4560 as possible, but still create a reasonably appealing and realistic train. What do you think?

Pic1: one side with 2nd class and bord restaurant in the middle

Pic2: other side with 1st class (yellow stripes), "b unit" (don't know if this is corerct) and the other side of the bord restaurant

Edited March 22, 2023 by Pelzer117

[Darkkostas25]

Dahm! it`s great! You have done an amazing job with this train! It`s now bulky but in the strongest definition of this word but still remains slick to emphasise its main goal of being the passenger train.
Love the usage of special parts that comes with this train and its transformation for a more proper and accurate train