and_ampersand_and

Aren't those just 8x16 plates?

I've seen a lot of people complain that the locomotive looks too short compared to the coaches. An dwhile I agree it does look somewhat stubby, I think the length isn't necessarily a problem as much as the porportions of the boiler to it's overall length are. We can see that the locomotive + tender is slightly shorter than a single coach in the set. The Pullman sleeper coaches somewhat similiar to those that would have been on the Orient Express are 63ft 10inches long: https://www.kentrail.org.uk/phoenix_pullman.htm There's been a number of 4-6-0 locomotives that this set has been compared to, one of them being the Prussian P8. I was able to find the overall wheelbase (locomotive + tender), which is the distance between the front axles to the rear tender axles, as 50.92 ft. That's most of the length of the total locomotive plus tender, with only a few more feet before and after those axles: https://www.steamlocomotive.com/locobase.php?country=Germany&wheel=4-6-0&railroad=ps#1266 Therefore, it's perfectly reasonable for a 4-6-0 locomotive and tender to be slightly shorter than a single coach.

Jays Brick Blog claims that it will run on Lego track but is not designed to be motorized: https://jaysbrickblog.com/news/lego-officially-reveals-21344-orient-express-pulling-into-stations-in-december-2023/ Of course, we the community will find a way. But really disappointed they didn't design a way to do it by default.

Close, but a noticeable difference is the lower running board that doesn't slope down to the buffers level.

Awesome, thanks! Incredible work, it's so cool

Hi all, wanted to let you know that I've added support for 88005 Powered up Lights to Lok24's script. You can find the script here: https://github.com/and-ampersand-and/PyBricks-Train-Motor-Control-Script Lights will work plugged into either (or both) ports. The B side of the controller will always control them, while the A side controls any motors. Holding up or down will increase/decrease the brightness. The red button turns the lights off or fully own. By default, the lights start off, but you can change that by modifying `lightValue` in the user defined values section of the code. Shoutout to @BatteryPoweredBricks for help testing the script!

That's incredible! Definitely going to have to build it sometime. Do you have a video of the motorization running?

If it's 8 wide like the coaches, it's construction probably won't resemble either of those too much. We'll just have to wait for better pictures.

It's been mentioned before but bears mentioning again, remember this is technically a licensed set from the Orient Express company. They certainly had some say in how they set represented them. Everything I've seen from them suggests they really focus heavily on the service you get aboard the train. How luxerious the coaches are. This set emphasises that with the large coaches with detailed interiors, and having 2 coaches with different interiors showing the different types of cars on the train. It's very likely the focus on the coaches over the locomotive was the Orient Express' wishes.

From that site is a picture of a P 3/5H pulling the express, which is a 4-6-0 that others have already mentioned resembles the Lego set. It even has the extended coal bunder on the tender (although the tender has 4 axles instead of 3) That might end up being the basis I go for when I upgrade the set.

A few weeks ago, I noticed 88009 City Hub and 88005 Lights were out of stock on the US site. I contacted their customer support, who said they didn't know why both were removed. A few days later they replied again to say that the City Hub was back, but didn't know when the lights would be back. My local Lego store has plenty of City Hubs in stock but no lights.

Thanks for providing the updated script! I updated my github repo with it. I plan on getting Lights working with the script at some point.

Inspired by Marlow's efforts, I dove into the script and figured out why it wasn't working with PyBricks 3.2.x. Was able to modify the script enough to get it working with my train equipped with a technic motor with PyBricks 3.2.3 I don't have any lights, so I don't know if the script fails with them still. My guess is yes. You can find the file on my github here: https://github.com/andrewdschmidt/PyBricks-Train-Motor-Control-Script/blob/main/motorcontrol_modified.py Let me know if anyone finds any issues with it!

Sorry to bump an old thread, but I noticed the instruction link seems to be down again. Any chance I can get those instructions? Really love the model.