LEGO Trains 2022

[samsz_3]

Hogwarts Express has leaked!!!

Wow. It's 10 studs wide. The bogie wheels are the normal Emerald Night drivers. The driving wheels are new - I'd say they look about 6 wide not including flanges? It's on a custom display stand and the track is 8 studs wide (6 between rails)

This thing is huge. However it's probably scaled larger than most people's trains. Most AFOLs moc UK stock in 7 wide (some do 6 some 8), as our stuff is smaller than in Europe and America.

1 carriage, loco tender and carriage are all regular red

Personal note:

Man I'm impressed by this but also...Lego had the opertunity to make a set that would appeal to train fans and HP fans...and they didn't. On the one hand the price makes more sense but on the other... It's just not compatible with anything.

Unless Lego have a plan where they will move there train standard to 10 wide on 8 wide rails I really don't get this. Everyone on this forum knows how hard designing a steam locomotive is, having to make something look good, scale well and go around curves. It's not easy. But TLG were the best candidates to do it they can make new pieces etc... All these years asking for bigger wheels and wider rails...they could have started that move with this set. And they didn't. The only use I can see out of the new wheels is for those wanting to make single wheeler locomotives. 

In the past few years TLG have been moving towards making sets for new adult collectors to the hobby rather than long standing, moc building AFOLs. That's fine, it makes them money. But come on, this is just a big "we don't care about you" to train fans.

Edited August 8, 2022 by samsz_3

[Murdoch17]

10 minutes ago, samsz_3 said:

Hogwarts Express has leaked!!!

Wow. It's 10 studs wide. The bogie wheels are the normal Emerald Night drivers. The driving wheels are new - I'd say they look about 6 wide not including flanges? It's on a custom display stand and the track is 8 studs wide (6 between rails)

This thing is huge. However it's probably scaled larger than most people's trains. Most AFOLs moc UK stock in 7 wide (some do 6 some 8), as our stuff is smaller than in Europe and America.

1 carriage, loco tender and carriage are all regular red

Why would they do 10 wide?!? I was hoping for the first decent Hogwarts Express engine EVER, but alas, it was not to be. I guess new wheels are something to be excited about, though. (even though they are most likely impossible to use on regular switches / curves, at that size!)

Edited August 8, 2022 by Murdoch17

[samsz_3]

https://imgur.io/a/a0ASBQR

https://www.reddit.com/r/Legoleak/comments/wjlfgn/i_ordered_lion_knights_castle_but_lego_sent_me/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share

Link, mods remove if not allowed. Someone got it accidentally shipped to them directly from Lego so it's not copyright breaching I think?

[TeriXeri]

Overall , the front wheel spacing looks 4 stud inbetween based on the black plate, but those wheels are a lot wider.

For rails themselves, it's looks like 1x2 jumpers and then a 4 stud tile spacing (so 5 total).

Very large set indeed but as it looks right now a very big static model.

Edited August 8, 2022 by TeriXeri

[samsz_3]

Looking a bit closer, track appears to be 7 wide. Sleepers are jumper, 4 long tile jumper. And the axles are grey (odd). All the drivers are flanged so the new wheel won't be coming in unflanged . Pony truck doesn't look like it can even pivot, however the chassis looks to be 4 wide presumably with bushings on either side so could be modded to 6 wide rails - but it wouldn't turn.

[Chromeknight]

For those saying the wheel spacing is 6, count again. The rails are mounted on jumper studs and there’s a 1x3 tile between them, giving the same 4 stud spacing as regular trains. You can confirm this by looking at the pieces between the front pilot truck wheels, 4 studs.

  The boiler is 6, the footplates 9 and the piston boxes 10. All of this is in line with what scale builders have doing over the past decade.

[samsz_3]

2 minutes ago, Chromeknight said:

For those saying the wheel spacing is 6, count again. The rails are mounted on jumper studs and there’s a 1x3 tile between them, giving the same 4 stud spacing as regular trains. You can confirm this by looking at the pieces between the front pilot truck wheels, 4 studs.

  The boiler is 6, the footplates 9 and the piston boxes 10. All of this is in line with what scale builders have doing over the past decade.

The tile between the jumpers is 4 wide (see studs in front of it). And look at the cab roof as well. I'm quite sure it's 10 wide. But even if it was 9 wide, using those size wheels is not at all what builders have done.

[Black Knight]

This looks like it's a different gauge: The tracks are spaced 5 studs instead of 4... which makes it incompatible with L-gauge.

[RedBrick1]

Pretty disappointed. I was hoping that this would be the new Emerald Night. Instead, we get a nice-looking, but completely stationary model that is unusable on existing LEGO System layouts. 

[ProducePrincess]

Well the new Hogwarts Express seems to be following TLG's current design theory of making things big for the sake of it. With how much parts dense filler there is in the platform and stand to boost up the piece count it seems like the set was designed around a price point first and the source material second. 

[zachsterosu]

Just noticed the detachable crank on top of the boiler (around the middle). I wonder if that turns the drive wheels?

[dr_spock]

1 hour ago, samsz_3 said:

Looking a bit closer, track appears to be 7 wide. Sleepers are jumper, 4 long tile jumper. And the axles are grey (odd). All the drivers are flanged so the new wheel won't be coming in unflanged . Pony truck doesn't look like it can even pivot, however the chassis looks to be 4 wide presumably with bushings on either side so could be modded to 6 wide rails - but it wouldn't turn.

I think the 1x2 jumpers and 1x4 provide a track width of 45mm.  G-scale??

 

[M_slug357]

The box says batteries included… but its probably just light bricks…

 

[Ayato Zechs]

shouldn't be hard to mod to run on lego scale track and 104r curves

[Darkkostas25]

Dahm, I'm happy and upset. it looks great but maybe(mostly) not be compatible. New sets of wheels are GREAT! for some steamers it`s will fit and I hope there be blind wheels if not then it is for some steamers with a 4-wheel set (mallets/articulated but not duplexes)
Working old-style door! Whoo-hoo! and maybe some new windows rounded interesting what they used for couplers 

[Man with a hat]

I think it looks really impressive. A pity it isn't standard guage indeed. But bigger wheels are interesting. So I am a little in doubt here as it is quite a hefty price. Curious as well to see how it can be moddede to standard guage.

[Toastie]

Same coup again, TLG, huh? This is for the Harry Potter collectors, isn't it?

(Looks like a $500++ set - no problems here, I guess)

And not for the train-heads ... we are offered high-speed trains(ha!), version 5.1 and cargo trains(hahaha!), version 3.11. Which is nice, of course. I wonder, when they call one of these iterations "Me" or "XP" - naa the former is out, that is 978 +/-1 years ahead. Cargo Train 25 maybe? Whatever.

Have a nice day,
Thorsten

   

[Sunil766]

Agree with all you guys said, as a non-MOCer I am just disappointed that I wouldn't be able to use it on a layout. Shame. But hey... Maybe there's a Croc successor next year? 

Almost an insult having a track piece / stand to make it look like it's "in line" with the other 18+ collectors train but oops, it isn't. 

[M_slug357]

I feel like I could stomach both the price tag and the difference in gauge/size if the set had been rendered properly in dark red…

Anyone with a guesstimate on the new steam driver size? From the pictures, it looks like it’d be equivalent to xxL [insert number here] size drivers?

[samsz_3]

Based on some quick maths, the locomotive is 1:34 scale (10 studs:GWR hall width). This custom 7 wide track (i.e. rail, 5 studs, rail) is 1:31.5).

If you want to go on width of Lego track to standard gauge track that's 1:38.2 scale.

I can start to understand where the sizing has come from if they want to make the minifig dioramas in the carriage look good. However I think this could have been done leaving the wheels at 6 wide (so compatible with normal track)  and making the train in 8 wide.

At 7 wide the scale would be 1:48.5, at 8 wide the scale would be 1:42.4. They could have definitely made it 8 wide and had really nice scenes in the carriage, and it would have been compatible and looked about right for people who have existing trains/layouts.

This does lead me to ask why most British train MOCs are built to 7 wide...

[Vilhelm22]

Like everyone else here, I’m impressed…..but disappointed.  It looks amazing, but why couldn’t it be standard gauge?

On the subject of blind drivers, I’d like to remind people of how the large drivers come packaged.  They are F-B-F, all connected as one piece, which you then split up into the three wheels by pulling apart.  I obviously can’t guarantee it, but the new ones could easily be packaged similarly.

[zephyr1934]

12 hours ago, M_slug357 said:

The box says batteries included… but its probably just light bricks…

Powered up is NEVER batteries included and the image shows a button battery. It is almost certainly the lights.

 

6 hours ago, Darkkostas25 said:

Dahm, I'm happy and upset. it looks great but maybe(mostly) not be compatible. New sets of wheels are GREAT! for some steamers it`s will fit and I hope there be blind wheels if not then it is for some steamers with a 4-wheel set (mallets/articulated but not duplexes)
Working old-style door! Whoo-hoo! and maybe some new windows rounded interesting what they used for couplers 

It doesn't look like it has much in the way of traditional train parts. I think the windows on the car are snotted 1x4x5 windows.

 

6 hours ago, Man with a hat said:

I think it looks really impressive. A pity it isn't standard guage indeed. But bigger wheels are interesting. So I am a little in doubt here as it is quite a hefty price. Curious as well to see how it can be moddede to standard guage.

It is interesting the mix of lazyness (same uninspired smokebox and stack as the EN) and ambition (tapered boiler) that went into this build.

The car looks to be 54x10, which is the same proportions as 32x6. At that width I would hope for a longer car.

 

1 hour ago, samsz_3 said:

I can start to understand where the sizing has come from if they want to make the minifig dioramas in the carriage look good. However I think this could have been done leaving the wheels at 6 wide (so compatible with normal track)  and making the train in 8 wide.

They could have left the wheels at 6 wide and still built the train at 10 wide. I think the car to track width ratio would actually be pretty close to prototypical for the US and only slightly too wide for the UK. Regardless, well built 10 wide trains look amazing on standard lego track.

 

1 hour ago, Vilhelm22 said:

Like everyone else here, I’m impressed…..but disappointed.  It looks amazing, but why couldn’t it be standard gauge?

On the subject of blind drivers, I’d like to remind people of how the large drivers come packaged.  They are F-B-F, all connected as one piece, which you then split up into the three wheels by pulling apart.  I obviously can’t guarantee it, but the new ones could easily be packaged similarly.

I bet they deliberately made it non-standard gauge because there is too much in the design that is not compatible with R40 curves. Sure, most of the folks on this Forum could MOD around it (or run on R104 curves) but enough casual Lego builders would not be able to.

Which leads to another question, why isn't there a warning on the box saying it is incompatible with standard Lego track??? I bet there will be a lot of upset people who buy the set thinking they could run it on their layout.

As for the huge wheels, yes, it would be fantastic if they did F-B-F bagging... but would Lego really be that forward thinking?

 

[Darkkostas25]

29 minutes ago, zephyr1934 said:

I think the windows on the car are snotted 1x4x5 windows.

I`m about the front window near the front pair of doors not those 3 pairs well I hoped they rounded and bigger(wider) than the old 1x2x3 this new one may be 1x3x4

[samsz_3]

They didn't even taper the boiler properly. Each section is flat, and gets 1 plate higher. I'm fine with the engine in red, but the coach should have been dark red. The windows are really wide, nothing like a BR MK1 but I guess it's easier to see inside like that.

[TeriXeri]

Set is on LEGO official site now.