I'm not really into trains and haven't built any in decades. However, for a while I have had the intention of adding a few more bits to my English High Street. I want to turn it into a scene reminiscent of London and part of that will be a railway track running along the back of the buildings (preferably on top of Victorian arches).

I know that if you get a bunch of LEGO train builders together and get them talking about which width is better, you'll have a long discussion on your hands. I chose eight-wide. This obviously means I ended up with a train that is much too long to go around on LEGO's normal curved train tracks, but I was going for looks here and have no intention of ever running it on any sort of layout.

The train in question is a British class 158 Diesel Multiple Unit in the colour scheme of Southwest Trains (the train company that operates in the part of the UK where I used to live). I didn't want it to be too long, so I looked for a train with just two carriages, and I wanted a colourful livery. This fit the bill.

I hope you'll enjoy my little excursion into this theme. It was a fun build, although I already got a bit bored by the time I started building the second carriage .

Cheers,

Ralph

Edited October 18, 200915 yr by TheBrickster

Hi,

That is a very nice MOC, I love the details on the roof and the opening doors !

Cheers

Nice train. It's a succesful excursion.

Can we expect more trains in the future?

Well Ralph, for not building a train MOC in 20 years...I think you should have considered entering the Train Tech Contest back in September. This is a fantastic MOC and I the color scheme. You have really taken your amazing grasp of the SNOT concept and applied it in ways that make me go "Huh...how did he do that?" This is a great representation of the Class 158 and would look great on a larger layout. Great work Ralph!! :thumbup:

-Dave

Fantastic. The front end is spot on and I really like the fact that the doors open on your model. Nice details under the train too. Great job!

  *thomas* said:

Hi,

That is a very nice MOC, I love the details on the roof and the opening doors !

Cheers

Thanks. I have no intention of building a station for it, but it seemed a shame to build a train this big, with enough space for working bits, and not add working doors.

  Richie said:

Nice train. It's a succesful excursion.

Can we expect more trains in the future?

Thanks. I haven't got any plans for any at the moment. I've been telling people that I was never going to build trains for years and yet I did, so this time I'll not say never again

  Cyclone Breezerider said:

Well Ralph, for not building a train MOC in 20 years...I think you should have considered entering the Train Tech Contest back in September. This is a fantastic MOC and I the color scheme. You have really taken your amazing grasp of the SNOT concept and applied it in ways that make me go "Huh...how did he do that?" This is a great representation of the Class 158 and would look great on a larger layout. Great work Ralph!! :thumbup:

-Dave

Thank you. Very flattering comments. Unfortunately the radius of LEGO rails precludes having this model running on an actual layout. I suspect that the reason why most people who do build larger layouts stick to smaller six-wide models. I did see the train tech contest but simply didn't have the time to build this sooner. I was too busy finishing things for the Great Western LEGO show.

  missouri_bb63 said:

Fantastic. The front end is spot on and I really like the fact that the doors open on your model. Nice details under the train too. Great job!

Thanks. The various bits of equipment under the train and the front were the parts that I enjoyed building the most, so I am glad you like those.

Cheers,

Ralph