REVIEW: 3677 Red Cargo Train

[WesternOutlaw]

One serious flaw

- the conveyor falls over. It needs a substantial baseplate.

Even attached to the track?

[andythenorth]

Even attached to the track?

Yup. It's on carpet, it detaches from the track easily. On a solid floor it will stand up better, but on solid floor the track slides as the train goes round...

[Piranha]

Yup. It's on carpet, it detaches from the track easily. On a solid floor it will stand up better, but on solid floor the track slides as the train goes round...

so that is why the instructions say not to build on carpet/grass

[andythenorth]

- the chassis of the boxcar is overbuilt, it's heavy and stronger than it needs to be. The equivalent red boxcar from cargo train deluxe is more lightly built and is strong enough. Not a big deal.

Looking at this again - I think the chassis is heavy by design - to balance against the roof which is heavy, and would cause this boxcar to overturn on curves at speed

[LegoMavrick]

Great review and great insight into these magic sets from Lego. Here in the UK this set is abit more expensive than 7939 and for me 7939 is the better one to go for. Maybe get both would sort that out!

[Kaila]

Just got this, was quite cheap @ $199 (considering it's Australia). The amount of track you get is nice and overall I'm feeling very happy. Call me strange but I especially love the Flatbed wagon and repair vehicle carriage. Would like to even pick up another separately ^^

Nice review btw, too bad your instruction books were a bit squashed.

Edited July 14, 2012 by Kaila

[lostdriveway]

Never been too impressed with this set - I only really like the box car so can't justify spending the money on the set just for that - would rather buy multiple box cars off brick link - hopefully they come out with something better next year!

[LovinLegoSince97]

good review! This set was my ticket into getting started with Lego trains. and pulling me out of a deep dark age.. It is perfect for that....Its not amazing, I wasnt thrilled by the rail cars.. I took apart my maintenance cars (I bought an extra lowboy and box car through eBay) and made maintenance cars into a lowboy type container car. Nowadays my 3677 engine just sits on a fake siding ..It had no PF as I took them for my Maersk locomotive! I also noticed my instructions and sticker sheet were bent up.....wassup with that! I, very recently coming out of my dark ages, noticed lots of differences in Lego. I did like the one-booklet format. It wasnt as easy to put together and that was part of the build...There are many changes, some for the better. Some, well, I miss. -- I remember mailing in my orders from the home catalog....and having to wait weeks (felt like years) to get it...Thats one of my early memories, coming home off the school bus and seeing if my set had come in! The golden years

Edited July 14, 2012 by LovinLegoSince97

[Hrw-Amen]

I think that this is the best of the normal PF trains to date. Admittedly not up with Maersk or EN, but better than the red passenger and yellow freight simply for no other reason than it is a diesel. I've said it before and I'll say it again having trains with overhead electric pick ups and yet no models of the towers on your layout just looks odd. Where do they get the power from, it is as if they pluck it from the air?

Anyway, I do like that sort of heavy industrial diesel unit and it is a bit more European than the Maersk. (Nothing wrong with the Maersk mind you.) Also I quite like the green box car, but then I like box cars. It was easy to MOD to 7 studs wide as well to fit with the rest of my rolling stock. Not so keen on the tipper wagon or the conveyor thing, it could have been so much better but I guess they were confined by the bit count / cost of the set. As for the maintenance wagon, well that was nice. I cannot see it getting that many outings but it is the kind of thing that looks good parked on sidings, just like on real railways.

[OctanTrucker]

Great Review. I can't wait to get my hands on this. Wish it had a crane to load the conveyor but oh well.

[Hey Joe]

Is that 'Flatbed and Repair Vehicle' a realistic piece of rolling stock? I can't recall ever seeing anything like that in real life and I used to be quite into trains. I'm American and it's obviously European but I've spent some time 'on the Continent' and have been to many rail museums there.

Also, how does the repair vehicle get off of the flatbed?

I like the set a lot (even though that loader thing is a little on the <insert that tiresome argument> side) and will probably buy it just for the rolling stock (which is unfortunately difficult to come by on its own). Hopefully I can sell the engine which looks a little too long for my taste. Who knows, I'll probably fall in love with it after I put it together, it really looks cool.

Thanks for the great review and thanks in advance for any replies to my query.

Edited July 17, 2012 by bjtpro

[Hrw-Amen]

Is that 'Flatbed and Repair Vehicle' a realistic piece of rolling stock? I can't recall ever seeing anything like that in real life and I used to be quite into trains. I'm American and it's obviously European but I've spent some time 'on the Continent' and have been to many rail museums there.

Also, how does the repair vehicle get off of the flatbed?

I like the set a lot (even though that loader thing is a little on the <insert that tiresome argument> side) and will probably buy it just for the rolling stock (which is unfortunately difficult to come by on its own). Hopefully I can sell the engine which looks a little too long for my taste. Who knows, I'll probably fall in love with it after I put it together, it really looks cool.

Thanks for the great review and thanks in advance for any replies to my query.

I am not sure how it gets off the flatbed, however over here (In the UK) I have seen many maintenance trucks in depots whilst passing by on trains. I cannot say that I have studied them in any great details, but I have noted that several seem to consist of various types of flatbed with a little cabin at one or both ends and numerous bits of gubbins in the middle, usually a small crane or hydraulic platform, that kind of thing. I have also seen some of those road vehicles with the wheels that fold down to go onto the tracks. Whether they actually go onto the flatbeds or just drive along behind, get hitched up and towed or what I don't know. It would be interesting to find out in all honesty how these things work and what they are actually used for as there seems to be a prolific amount of them dotted around the south coast of the UK. Perhaps someone on here knows a thing or two about them and could enlighten us?

[LovinLegoSince97]

I wanst a fan of the maintenance car or the loading hopper... ... ...

I see this in the states all the time, although its not setup like theirs... semi trailer rolling stock. Lego rolling stock

Ive also never witnessed a maintenance car in the states,we have a rapid transit and freight in our city...maybe its a European locomotive thing...Lego is based in Europe

Edited July 19, 2012 by LovinLegoSince97

[AFOLEGODT]

Hi,

I also liked the 3677 engine. It's a pity however that the designer did not prepare it for PF lights (unlike 7939 Cargo Train) although there is more than enough room. Fortunately it is really easy to it with minor modding, let's see my approach:

There is not much difference to see at first sight. If you look at the dark bluish gray window shutter you will see I added a little more dark bluish gray and the overall look is more consistent in spite of my mod:

Looking from the other side reveals the connections for the two extra PF light units, look is still consistent:

The relevant changes in the back:

And in the front:

I think it was definitely worth it and the engine is still a great design.

[Wedge09]

Nice review

I will take inspiration from this set

[kyphur]

I also liked the 3677 engine. It's a pity however that the designer did not prepare it for PF lights (unlike 7939 Cargo Train) although there is more than enough room. Fortunately it is really easy to it with minor modding, let's see my approach::

......

I think it was definitely worth it and the engine is still a great design.

Great mod, too bad the lights will brighten & dim with the speed of the Engine. It's unfortunate that there isn't enough room to connect the lights directly to the battery...

[AFOLEGODT]

Great mod, too bad the lights will brighten & dim with the speed of the Engine. It's unfortunate that there isn't enough room to connect the lights directly to the battery...

Hi! I am sure you misunderstand the workings of PF components: I connected both lights to the second channel of the PF receiver, so I can control them with the second knob on the controller, separately from the motor. This is true for all PF light mods so far.

[kyphur]

Hi! I am sure you misunderstand the workings of PF components: I connected both lights to the second channel of the PF receiver, so I can control them with the second knob on the controller, separately from the motor. This is true for all PF light mods so far.

Oh, my bad... I needs ver connect the lights to the second channel as that reduces the numbers mber of trains I can control at a time.

[Professor Brick]

I got interested in this set and did a little sleuthing. I'm pretty sure the locomotive is modelled on the NS class 6400 produced for the Dutch state owned railway in the late 80s and early 90s. They were light and medium duty haulers and about 120 were produced according to Wikipedia. Following privatization a bunch were bought by a German firm (at that point it was Railion) and painted in the bright red livery. Apparently a number found their way into track service, engineering and maintenance. Maybe that says a little something for us North Americans about the origins of this set.

Interestingly a couple of these locomotives were recently purchased by the consortium that owns the Chunnel trains and they haul malfunctioning high speed trains out from under the channel. Sorry cant find that particular link but the Wikipedia article is below.

www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NS_Class_6400

[Lazarus]

This was one of the first locos i built when i got back into lego. I converted the whole thing into 9v and lost the batt box and recvier from it. I really like the loco, it is a big bugger. Dont really like the wagons bar the MOW truck on the back i am using that for something else. But i hate the other trucks still thinking of what to build for a rake of wagons for this.

[melbs]

since this was on sale at S@H i got one

[PsyKater]

Yes, it is about to be retired soon.

[1974]

It's a pity however that the designer did not prepare it for PF lights (unlike 7939 Cargo Train) although there is more than enough room. Fortunately it is really easy to it with minor modding, let's see my approach

I think it's because the TLG designer probably did just like you. And then later found out it's actually an illigal technique. I'll let you figure it out

I can live with that though and have PF'ed my 3677 front and back. I really like the 3677. It's the best looking trainset in a very long time

[Electricsteam]

Thats very odd... I don't think I got the truck when I bought it or the instructions for the truck

[Hechristensen]

Nice review, but I don't really like the set. The engine feels too long, would've looked better to me 2 or 4 studs shorter, and the cars all have this 'big brick plasticky feel'. The single piece conveyor belt is also a sad example of everything that LEGO should not be.

- Sok.

I think you are right.

Also the batterybox once again kills the finish of the model. As seen on the locomotive, it is impossible to hide it on a 4 stud wide model. Get those PF out of the trains LEGO!