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WesternOutlaw

Triple Train Engine Face-Off

Best 9V Engine  

101 members have voted

  1. 1. All things considered, what is your favorite?

    • 10020 Santa Fe Super Chief
      51
    • 10133 Burlington Northern Santa Fe
      32
    • 10183 Swiss Crocodile - Hobby Train
      18


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It's a hot day on the train tracks during this mid-summer day. Three engines are rolling down the tracks at full speed. Wait! A train whistle is heard loudly. The engines eventually come to a stop. Wow! These are some real beauties, some of Lego's finest 9V engines. I spy the Sante Fe Super Chief with an exclusive numbered brick. What a nice front-end with her studs-not-on-top design. But wait, the Burlington Norther Santa Fe has some wonderful new colors, dark green and orange, never used in a Lego train design before. But don't rule out the Europeans just yet! There's a lovely Swiss Federal Railways Crocodile Locomotive complete with three sections and red train doors. What great detail.

This triple engine face-off is certainly challenging for all the competitors. It will take the critical skills of the EB community to decide which of these engines is truly Lego's best 9V engine.

Will you help decide?

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BNSF for me, cos I got in 2004 xmas and its remained loved on my shelff ever since. My brother got the super chief, and we had train wars, trying to smash each others trains. Good times... :cry_happy:

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It’s Burlington Norther Santa Fe for me, though I’ll confess I don’t own any of them there something more industrial and workman like about it that I can’t resist.

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I went with the BNSF train, as It's sturdy unlike the Swiss croc (which is why I didn't build that model) and its good as a stand alone model (whereas the Super Chief only looks good with a second unit or a custom B-unit.

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For me the Super Chief 10020 is the best out of these three. The BNSF is also great, but you cannot take the roof off to look at the motor. Actually it has no motor at all. And I agree that the Swiss crocodile is not sturdy enough; and I have no idea how to add a light unit to that engine. Sometimes I always expect the crocodile engine to lose its "snout" and "tail" because those two things aren't attached to the central part well; it hasn't happened though. But I added some plates to attach the wheels better to the rest of the locomotive to make everything more sturdy. And - but that is no real criticism just a matter of taste - I substituted the white bricks used for the Swiss cross with red bricks. Now the crocodile engine looks more Austrian than Swiss. :classic: The Austrian Federal Railways also had such crocodile engines in service.

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No doubt the super chief. Looks very good, exspecially with all 5 wagons behind it. Only too bad it gets too heavy to pull them all (even with 2 9v motors).

The BNSF has some bad memories for me, but I like the unique colors.

The Swiss train is nice, cause it's length.

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It's the SWISS CROC OK! The Super Chief really looks plastic, which although obviously it is, it shouldn't look that plastic!

Edited by Calvin

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No doubt the super chief. Looks very good, exspecially with all 5 wagons behind it.

All 5?

The fun starts with 11 cars! :grin:

superchief.png

(I´m running it with 8 cars)

So it

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Croc is not in the same league. So, between lovely Super Chief and BNSF, I get SFSC.

Mainly because it was part of one of the best train sets in history (well, separate serial number sets but a whole thing nevertheless) that was 10020+10022+10025. And of course, color scheme and design: I love the detachable roof, BNSF is only a green block in comparison.

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The American engines have a neat classic flair. However, having seen them all 3 in action, and judging soley by the engine I voted for the Crocodile. I find it to be the most visually interesting, and watching it snake it's way around a layout is really neat.

Edited by Eilif

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Super Chief for me. It is considered "iconic" here in the States. Probably since no one but train buffs know about the crocodile and you can still see the BNSF engine across a wide portion of the country. Super Chief is a legend here (in train lexicon, not the set type) while the other two are not. 'Course, a Lego 20th Century Limited or Daylight would blow the Super Chief away...

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I'll also go for the Super Chief, without any hesitation. If we're comparing them set-wise though, it would be a much harder decision, bearing in mind that Hobby Train offers 1000+ bricks... But in terms of the beauty of engines recreated in LEGO bricks, it has to be the pride of the Atchinson, Topeka & Santa Fe line :thumbup: .

On a sidenote, I've just managed to snatch one on eBay for 35 Euro... I just HAD to share that with you guys, you won't believe how happy (AND lucky!) we both feel right now... I'm absolutely ecstatic that the first LEGO train we're going to add to our collection will be one of the most beautiful LEGO sets ever :cry_happy: "Over the moon" is simply not strong enough; just can't wait till I get my paws on that one! Btw, I've also found another good deal for ~50 EUR, so anyone interested in buying a Super Chief (in Europe) could drop me a line, so that I can give you the link.

As for that Croc engine... it's nice (European pride fits well here :) ), but I think that if I owned the Hobby Train set, I'd build that one and some of the other models, after which however I'd get started on my own MOC... most probably, a detailed tram for our city. It's just that, cool as it looks, the SBB (Swiss Federal Railways) engine isn't really a personal favourite of mine - I believe the set itself offers a few more models which are equally beautiful - if not even more so - and the best thing about it is the opportunity to build pretty much any kind of rolling stock you'd get the notion to.

I do believe that a comparison between the Emerald Night and these engines listed here would also be quite appropriate...

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Nice version of BNSF could also be made from hobby train bricks. It lacks some nice detail and especially wonderfull colors of BSNF but otherwise it's OK

p2260064.jpg

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I'm not a Lego Train Fan but I must say that, just for the look, the Super Chief is the best one for me :classic:

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Santa Fe!! About the nicest frieght locomotive! The BNSF is very very close behind though, mainly because...

Maybe i do like orange more than green...

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