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Unfortunately, I think that selling HE at half price simply signified Lego immediately halting all operations to do with AFOL train themes. Remember, storage costs money as well. That was 5 years ago. Before that, we had a serious train offering every 1-2 years. The sad fact is that lego simply isn't committed to AFOL train fans anymore. I'm not quite sure for the reason, since supposedly sets like the Super Chief were very profitable for them. Perhaps not enough AFOLs accepted the switch from 9v to PF, which is why the new sets weren't selling so well.

I agree that the HE wasn't as well perceived as the others, if only for the fact that Lego was selling it at half price at the end of its run (presumably trying to get rid of stock). Here's my perspective: - I really enjoy models that are based on real-life vehicles. I mostly collect trains, but I've also bought the mercedes arocs and volvo l350f. The Maersk train is a clear winner here. From a design perspective, there simply isn't anything that I would change with the set. My only real gripe are the stickers. Additionally, I'd prefer the locomotive and rolling stock to be sold separately (2 is much too little! I loved what lego did with the "my own train" line, the super chief and BNSF years ago), but this pertains to ALL recent train lines (including EN and HE). - Although the EN isn't 100% flying scotsman, it is very close (including the pullman coaches). The slight differences in livery and compromises made in terms of scale and detail don't really bother me (although I do dream of one day making a whole fleet of long, properly scaled pullman coaches). In terms of design, the EN has some problems with how the wheels run, but those are relatively simple to fix. I'm also not a fan of the motor being so exposed, but I plan to incorporate a motor into one of the pullman coaches anyways, since I have 9v track. - There are a few things that bother me about the HE (even though I enjoy it in general and bought two sets). One issue is that when you connect them back-to-back, the linkage between the two sets isn't proper (no shared bogey). The TTX rolling stock that accompanied the BNSF avoided this by including additional pieces to allow for both types of linkage. Another problem is that there's a hole in the roof below the pantograph. Thirdly, the compromises in terms of scale are much too obvious. Although I forgive such things more in rolling stock (i.e., the EN coach), it annoys me more in locomotives, or in the coaches of a high-speed train. All-in-all, the HE locomotive looks more like a caricature of the real-life train it's based off of than the Maersk train or EN due to how short the locomotive and coaches are. Of course this is lego, and it's possible to rebuild the set as you see fit :) I ended up modding my Super Chief locomotives to be longer and slightly changed the front to suit my preferences, and I'll probably end up doing something similar with the HE. It's just that the HE doesn't look as "sleek" due to these problems, which is especially important for a high-speed train.

Thanks for clarifying!

Yeah, with the second picture you edited in it's quite apparent that the black axles are the same length as the center wheel axles and the connection is at 90 degrees, meaning no steering geometry. An odd choice, considering that placing these axles behind the wheels, shortening them and connecting in a similar manner to 8880 seems relatively simple.

Are we absolutely sure the steering is not Ackerman? I'm specifically looking at the off-center black axles in FRONT of the front wheels. I know usual Ackerman implementations would put these behind and slightly shorter than the pivot point of the wheel, but if they're slightly longer and go past the pivot point, this would still be possible (although impractical, and I don't quite see the space for it). Also, someone mentioned that this model is rear wheel drive - are we sure about this as well? I thought that most (if not all) cars with front wheel steering have front wheel drive to help with manoeuvring.

Also didn't realise about Ackerman in 8880 and the previous cars - they were a bit before my time. From what I can tell, the 8880 was the most mechanically full-featured super car and probably will be for a long while to come (4-wheel drive, 3 differentials, 4-wheel steering, ackerman steering). Have any cars had Ackerman steering since then? I'm curious how difficult it would be to mod the porsche to include this.

Hmm, it looks like you're right - I haven't seen this photo before.

What do people mean when they refer to "suspension geometry"? Is it steering geometry (i.e. something like Ackerman steering geometry) and suspension in the front wheels? As far as I know, no Lego car model ever implemented Ackerman geometry, and I'm not too bothered by it. Hand of God would be nice to add play value, but I understand that this is a model meant to replicate the real car as closely as possible. Given this, however, the lack of suspension in the front is really off-putting for me. For the price and given the marketing I really expected this set to be mechanically more exciting and to give some more insight into the design of actual, proper car-related mechanisms. Yes, there is the interesting gear shift solution, but the fact that the designers couldn't include as basic an element as front wheel suspension is disappointing. For me, since I don't know much about cars, it would be interesting to see how the mechanism of the wheels turning, pivoting in various ways due to the suspension and being connected to the engine would all come together.

Thanks everyone for your comments! As for the detail of the windshield, I must credit that work to another builder - markervip from the LUGPol forums. I meant to credit him in my original post, but I wasn't able to find his locomotive. Only now I realized that he modelled the EP07 locomotive rather than the EU07 (they are both very similar) and was able to find it. His work is available at the following link (in Polish): http://www.lugpol.pl...pic.php?t=14701 but it seems to be suffering from the same problem that my post was - hotlinking to pictures hosted on brickshelf, which is offline. I've edited my post to duly give him credit for his work. On another note, I was finally able to find a decent picture of the locomotive from the side. It seems that I have made mine about 4 studs too short. This is an annoying problem, since I originally made it the longer size, but due to some schematics that I found (which don't seem to be accurate at all), I changed my design to be shorter. Is anyone aware of a resource were to-scale schematics of trains (and - in particular - the EU07) are available?

I think brickshelf is fine with hotlinking, but their whole website has been down for maintenance. I made an account on imgur and changed the link just in case - thanks for the advice!

Sorry about that, looks like brickshelf is down at the moment. Hopefully they'll be back online soon!

Thank you! Yes indeed, the bars are quite low. I again plan on buying black tubing and then cutting it down to size. And yes, it is going to be powered. There is gearing under the wheels going up into the train, where a motor will reside. Some members of the forums have created methods to pick up power from 9V track with metal wheels, so I plan on implementing something of the sort. Alternatively, the train is more than wide enough for a PF batter box (but I'd much rather have some interior detail!).

Hi Everyone! I've been lurking around the forums for quite a while now, posting every now and again, but haven't really introduced myself. Well, I'm an AFOL currently studying for a Ph.D. in computer science and have been playing with lego since I was a small child. In my early teens my family could finally afford to get us some lego trains and I fell in love with them immediately. I currently live in the UK, but I spent most of my life in Canada and was born in Poland. I also studied in Poland, where I used to take the trains daily to my university. You can see where I'm going with this :) I love the old Polish locomotives that are still in use today, especially when they contrast against modern carriages. I've designed an EU07 locomotive in LDD and wanted to share it with everyone. I'd very much welcome any comments and criticisms - I'd like to make any changes to the designs before I actually order the bricks (although I'm still undecided whether to order the pieces for this locomotive or 2 Horizon Express sets). The end result with carriages that I'm going for is something like this: http://www.bahnbilde...-als-12231.html (I've always wanted double-decker cars!). The livery and exact model of the locomotive that I'm building, however, are based on this: http://www.bbajko.fr.../EU07-368-2.jpg Well, here's the locomotive, I hope you like it! It's my first real MOC and the first train I've ever built in 8-wide. Please don't mind the pantographs - I intend to cut the tubing down to size, which I unfortunately cannot do in LDD. I would also like to credit markervip from the LUGPol forums for the idea to make the front windshield! His original post (in Polish) is available here: http://www.lugpol.pl/forum/viewtopic.php?t=14701

Do you plan on selling any more of these pick-ups? Unfortunately I didn't make it in time for the first batch ;)

Hey, how are things going with the new pickups? Are you allowed to post your bricklink address here? I'll be on vacation during the next 10 days and hope there will still be some left by the time I'm back ;)