76423 might actually be Lego's strongest 6-wide steam train ever

[LordsofMedieval]

I don't really go in for 6-wide, but I appreciate that, as a price-saving measure, it's a good play scale for Lego. And I actually think the pending 76423 "Hogwarts Express & Hogsmeade Station" might be their best effort ever on a steam train in this scale (this includes Emerald Night).

Note:

• Correct number of wheels on the tender and locomotive.
• Properly angled front frame.
• Cylinders that at least try to capture the flared form of the source.
• Good tender shaping, with at least decent proportions compared to the engine (and it's not a two-wheel tender!).
• A train composed of more than one coach.
• Very strong balance between boiler and wheel size.
• An actual effort made to hide the flanges on the first and third driving wheels (le gasp!).
• Use of the small 'mine cart' wheels on the lead bogie to make the drivers look larger.
• Proper cab shaping.

I don't think the coaches are their best work, but the fact that this is an engine, station, train, and stretch of track easily makes this one of the most complete railroading sets they've ever released (right up there with the Magic Kingdom one). It's without a doubt the most play-friendly Hogwarts Express Lego has released (including the $500 variant), but I think, for the reasons listed above, it might just be their best steam train ever.

Thoughts?

 

Edited May 15, 2023 by LordsofMedieval

[Murdoch17]

I don't see the open hub wheels being used on the tender or coaches... maybe this signals a return to metal axles?

If so, you can add that to the list!

[Shiva]

For me, the pictures shown, look like https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=2878&idColor=11#T=S&C=11&O={"color":11,"iconly":0} .

[LEGOTrainBuilderSG]

Great set, especially for us! I like the mini (yet realistic looking) train station. It is also cool to see how part of the steam loco drive wheels are hiding under the plate like in most real steam locomotives. I wonder how they did that? 

[Shiva]

Looks like a new piece. Slope 45 2x4  2/3 with cutout, would be my guess.

It reminds a bit of https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=28192#T=S&O={"iconly":0}  Slope 45 2 x 1 with Cutout without Stud

[Hod Carrier]

It's a fair representation of a Hall, perhaps with better proportions than the Emerald Night. It is maybe the best we can expect as an official offering at this size, but I'm not blown away by it. The loco may be nice, but the coaches are horrible and the station is a take-it-or-leave-it for me. I expect it to be a roaring success.

I appreciate that this is damning with faint praise, but that's my feeling.

[LordsofMedieval]

7 hours ago, Hod Carrier said:

It's a fair representation of a Hall, perhaps with better proportions than the Emerald Night. It is maybe the best we can expect as an official offering at this size, but I'm not blown away by it. The loco may be nice, but the coaches are horrible and the station is a take-it-or-leave-it for me. I expect it to be a roaring success.

I appreciate that this is damning with faint praise, but that's my feeling.

I think if I get the thing - which is my no means certain - I actually might smash the coaches into one car. They wouldn't be great then, but the proportions would be a little more realistic.

[Shiva]

That's what I would have done too 2 small coaches, into one bigger coach.

[*thomas*]

It's a great set to get started into LEGO-trains. It has a station that - altough a bit small - at least looks like a real station instead of all those other 'platforms' and 'stations' we have got over the past few years. 

The carriages are short and 'childish', but at least we have two of them. Adding some magnetic couplers and/or moc'ing your own longer coaches doesn't seem that hard.

 

[JopieK]

Very nice! Great set. Nice basis and we can certainly MOC-around it!

[Darkkostas25]

Agree that even combining this and the previous also will be a win-win situation. I love the evolution in the design of this model through the time  it's getting better (wheal mostly for engine depiction of it goes with time only better looking )

[R0Sch]

On 5/16/2023 at 12:08 AM, Murdoch17 said:

I don't see the open hub wheels being used on the tender or coaches... maybe this signals a return to metal axles?

If so, you can add that to the list!

Yep, metal axles indeed! Both Tender and wagons, so 7 in total (same element ID 4298979). I couldn't be happier about this comeback. Sadly no magnetic couplings again.

[Murdoch17]

2 hours ago, R0Sch said:

Yep, metal axles indeed! Both Tender and wagons, so 7 in total (same element ID 4298979). I couldn't be happier about this comeback. Sadly no magnetic couplings again.
SNIP

Huzzah! Huzzah! "And there was much rejoicing"

...too bad about the couplers, but you can't win 'em all.

[RedBrick1]

I am very much looking forward to seeing how people mod this. 

Edit: I've seen a mod where the builder added siderods and moved the cylinders up just a bit. It looks great! If the boiler could be dropped lower by a plate and the whole thing extended by a few studs, it would be near perfect in the 6-wide scale. 

Edited June 8, 2023 by RedBrick1

[R0Sch]

1 hour ago, RedBrick1 said:

I am very much looking forward to seeing how people mod this. 

I would at least merge the two tiny wagons into one longer double axled wagon. Engine needs to be longer and taller to accommodate the conductor who currently only fits while sitting with his butt hanging out.

[LordsofMedieval]

20 hours ago, R0Sch said:

Yep, metal axles indeed! Both Tender and wagons, so 7 in total (same element ID 4298979). I couldn't be happier about this comeback. Sadly no magnetic couplings again.
 

Although I don't use them much, it's very nice to see them walk back the plastic axle thing. We pay too much for this product for them to get cheap on 30 cents worth of steel.

[zephyr1934]

I must say, I like this set. I built the engine last week with the intent to figure out how to add rods. A very nice little design, I like it, but it also feels smaller than 6 wide (even though it is 8 wide at the cylinders and 6 everywhere else). It is as if the retail Lego trains were O gauge this one feels like S gauge. It has good proportions and I like how they hid the flanges on the drivers. Very good for a set.

The cars are meh, and ordinarily I simply wouldn't build them. The station seems very nice for what it is, but I don't have a need for a station like that, so I haven't built it yet.

The engine is just so darn cute. Ultimately it stumped me though. Mechanically I could add side and connecting rods but it would require completely changing the proportions. Keeping the length would mean I'd have to move the cylinders out. If it were longer I could keep the rods within the 8 wide of the cylinders. Probably not that hard to do, but it then becomes a MOD rather than simply an improved set. Call me quirky, but I don't want a MOD of this engine, at that point I'd rather MOC something else.

I haven't modified it yet, but ultimately I have settled on just adding side rods, which is as simple as it gets (if you don't mind the friction: two axles, a few pins and rods). Without the connecting rods to the cylinder it will wind up looking a bit like James and I'm okay with that. I like the smaller size. In fact I am so taken with it that I am pondering ways to motorize it, but that will be a major MOD that won't happen immediately (and when I do, I'm going to strive to keep the outward appearance the same- keeping the proportions). Of course if I'm happy with it motorized then I'll need to come up with a nice design for cars, and so the rabbit hole begins...

[Murdoch17]

4 hours ago, zephyr1934 said:

I must say, I like this set. I built the engine last week with the intent to figure out how to add rods. A very nice little design, I like it, but it also feels smaller than 6 wide (even though it is 8 wide at the cylinders and 6 everywhere else). It is as if the retail Lego trains were O gauge this one feels like S gauge. It has good proportions and I like how they hid the flanges on the drivers. Very good for a set.

The cars are meh, and ordinarily I simply wouldn't build them. The station seems very nice for what it is, but I don't have a need for a station like that, so I haven't built it yet.

The engine is just so darn cute. Ultimately it stumped me though. Mechanically I could add side and connecting rods but it would require completely changing the proportions. Keeping the length would mean I'd have to move the cylinders out. If it were longer I could keep the rods within the 8 wide of the cylinders. Probably not that hard to do, but it then becomes a MOD rather than simply an improved set. Call me quirky, but I don't want a MOD of this engine, at that point I'd rather MOC something else.

I haven't modified it yet, but ultimately I have settled on just adding side rods, which is as simple as it gets (if you don't mind the friction: two axles, a few pins and rods). Without the connecting rods to the cylinder it will wind up looking a bit like James and I'm okay with that. I like the smaller size. In fact I am so taken with it that I am pondering ways to motorize it, but that will be a major MOD that won't happen immediately (and when I do, I'm going to strive to keep the outward appearance the same- keeping the proportions). Of course if I'm happy with it motorized then I'll need to come up with a nice design for cars, and so the rabbit hole begins...

Just out of curiosity @zephyr1934, are you potentially going to upload instructions for side rods like the you did way back when with Western Train Chase (7597) and Constitution Train Chase (79111)? Those 79111 instructions helped jump-start my train-making a decade ago!

Edited June 23, 2023 by Murdoch17

[zephyr1934]

19 hours ago, Murdoch17 said:

Just out of curiosity @zephyr1934, are you potentially going to upload instructions for side rods like the you did way back when with Western Train Chase (7597) and Constitution Train Chase (79111)? Those 79111 instructions helped jump-start my train-making a decade ago!

Yes I will upload instructions for the side rods, I just need to take the photos. But I'm only going to do the simplest MOD, I can explain it here in 5 steps.

1. remove the bars that currently stick out of the cylinders
2. remove the axle pins on the rear two drive wheels
3. insert two 6 long technic axles
4. reinstall wheels, make sure to quarter them
5. add 3/4 pins and 3H9L rods

A better mod would be to do a bit of disassembly and redesigning the frame. As built, the axle goes through four technic bricks, for friction sake it would be better to eliminate two of the technic bricks. There is also a technic pin blocking an axle for the front drivers, that could easily be moved. I figure anyone who will be encumbered by that friction will also know how to fix it.

The bigger mod to power the locomotive will probably require completely redoing everything under the skin. That would take a bit of work to document, so if I do I'd probably sell those instructions just to cover the required time investment to make the instructions. But if I don't make instructions I can share the key points and most folks in this forum would be able to do the rest.

[zephyr1934]

Okay, my simple MOD is complete. For those interested,

Lot of rods posted here

Instructions for MOD posted here

[Feuer Zug]

Nice work on the rodding. It adds quite a bit to the overall look. Too bad LEGO doesn't understand that.

[LordsofMedieval]

On 6/26/2023 at 10:55 PM, zephyr1934 said:

Okay, my simple MOD is complete. For those interested,

Lot of rods posted here

Instructions for MOD posted here

Now it makes me think of this:

Not that that's a bad thing. The B12s were/are lovely things. Weird, but lovely.

[zephyr1934]

21 hours ago, Feuer Zug said:

Nice work on the rodding. It adds quite a bit to the overall look. Too bad LEGO doesn't understand that.

Thank you and agreed, rods seem like a very simple and obvious part for Lego to produce. Yes, it is one more part, but they produce one new steam engine every year or two.

 

6 hours ago, LordsofMedieval said:

Now it makes me think of this:

Good call... though with all the red it still makes me think of this:

even though James is a 2-6-0