Hello,

I decided to share my latest project with You, so I registered on Eurobricks. I hope You will like it, any advices or comments are welcome. :)

After my dark ages, it was trains that got me back to Lego. I had no train sets in my childhood (it was very expensive if available at all in my country back those days), but I always longed for one so badly, I would have given all my other sets even for a push-along. :) In 2010 it did begin with a 7938, which I found cool, being that this was the first Lego train that I've seen in real, but something was missing from it. Then I looked at the pictures of the trains from the 80-ies, which I used to know from brochures and which still look so nice and familiar to me, and it all came suddenly clear: I have to collect kits from the gray era, which were so unavailable for me as a child. I don't want to purchase all those kits, as not all of them are so tempting to me, but I definitely have my wanted list. :) Some 1,5 years ago I could even purchase the queen of the gray era, a 7740 set in a really nice condition. It was my biggest dream once! The set was complete with instructions, even the stickers were applied in a proper way - but it was still not *that* experience, which I longed for: there were minor scratches and wear marks on the set, which is unavoidable for a set of this age, unless You are a millionaire to buy a sealed one and be the first one to put it together... Something I would love to do once! :)

After a happy year, I had to sell the 7740 and buy a washing machine instead, when moving to a new home. Then I started thinking. How could I ever build an old train so, that each and every element is clean and brand new? Sealed sets cost a fortune, I will never have the chance to buy one - that's for sure. Then a few weeks ago I stumbled upon a blog, which gave me the idea:

http://questforbricks.wordpress.com/category/quest-for-inter-city-train/

And this got me thinking again. What if I would not insist on having an original set, but simply pick one, which contains relatively common pieces, most of which are still available/produced today? What if I would buy these pieces as brand new or unused, whereever it is possible, and when all the parts are in the box, then just sit down and build it, as if it was a Christmas back in 1986? :) This idea was so tempting, that I began to choose the right candidate and then jump into Bricklink and inspect the availability of new/unused parts. The choice was quite simple: the little brother of 7740, let's build 7725! I was always amazed of this little red passanger train too, and I don't really consider it to be any inferior to 7740. Actually, talking about a Lego train with small track radii, shorter vehicles look even better in the curves then do the longer cars of 7740 or 7745. And - the whole train being red, consisting of quite a lot of common pieces - I liked the idea more and more. So I started it. :) In this topic, I would like to give You updates about my progress and about any problems or concerns which did or will occur during collecting the parts. I hope that some of You may like it and give some comments and advice on this matter. :)

Edited September 9, 201410 yr by ClassicTrains

Sounds great! Looking forward to it!

Thanks! :) Actually, it has already begun :) After my first BL orders have arrived, the "magic" box looks like this (all the parts are new or unused, even the OldGray ones - they look terrific)!

box

Edited January 26, 20187 yr by ClassicTrains

awesome.. i love the 7725.. my first train.. and it still goes perfectly!

Great idea! When I was a kid, I had two big lego-loves: classic space and trains. On the train field, I never got much further then a few push along trains Ii still own one of them), but I would have loved to got this one (or, better yet, the 7740) back in '81, when I was 11 years old... Oh you betcha... Please take pictures of your progress!

7725 was my first 12V set! I think it was a budget alternative to the 7740, about half the number of pieces, the only minifigure was the driver, no station just a small circuit of track. I recently bricklinked a motorless version in alternate colours to run 'in multiple' with the original - it seems like a multiple unit after all - to make a train six cars long. There are however some suprisingly rare parts - the 3x3 grey slope is only used on this set, the 7760 shunter and one classic space set, which was therefore relatively expensive! Of course I could not wait to collect all the pieces so I tended to build as much as I could whenever the orders arrived. It was quite something seeing it come together, I am sure you will enjoy it too!

You can check it out here if you are interested:

http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=86586&hl=7725

Nice. Look forward to see it completed.

The 7725 was also my childhood train. And although I dreamed of the 7740 I could never save enough money for it. But I enjoyed the 7725 very much nonetheless. I spent many days playing with it.

On 9/9/2014 at 6:19 PM, Heppeng said:

I recently bricklinked a motorless version in alternate colours to run 'in multiple' with the original - it seems like a multiple unit after all - to make a train six cars long. There are however some suprisingly rare parts - the 3x3 grey slope is only used on this set, the 7760 shunter and one classic space set, which was therefore relatively expensive! Of course I could not wait to collect all the pieces so I tended to build as much as I could whenever the orders arrived. It was quite something seeing it come together, I am sure you will enjoy it too!

You can check it out here if you are interested:

http://www.eurobrick...c=86586&hl=7725

Thanks to all of You for your comments! I keep You updated of course :)

Yes, I have just stumbled upon your custom 7725 a few weeks ago, when considering to build a modern (PF) version of it too. It looks really cool, and it was a good choice to remove the red stripe from the front pane, looks even better now! :)

Today I got two more deliveries - I think these were the most unefficient during the whole process of collecting the pieces! :) As I have decided to build the train from new bricks, wherever it is possible, sometimes I just cannot order a lot of bricks from the same seller to optimize my purchases. These light gray bricks arrived today, in one mail:

gray_modified

Edited January 25, 20187 yr by ClassicTrains

...any idea, why I cannot upload a second image, even if it is tiny, about 42 kB? The two pictures I wanted to post today were by far smaller than 100 kB together. :( So I can only write now, and post the picture somewhat later. The second mail from today contains all the four red corner slope pieces which are needed for the roof. They are also brand new, scratchless and beautiful! :) I decided not to build any of the train until all the parts are there in the box, but I know there are colour issues that I need to consider. First of all, old gray tends to get yellowish by time (and by UV mainly); fortunately, the pieces I purchased so far seem to be mostly unaffected by this, they have a really nice, almost blueish tint. (I checked, they are definitely not bley. :) But comparing these pieces to the train roofs - even the really nice ones - of my 4,5V sets, I can see now that my used sets do have a little bit of yellowing.) I guess, these newly purchased, unused pieces were kept somewhere in the dark till now. :))

I rather have concerns about the red parts. It is obvious that the red used today is not the same as it was in the '80-ies and '90-ies: current red is slightly darker. Most of the bricks I ordered have this new red colour, while some of the pieces were only made in the old colour. I can see it when comparing the window frames to other, newer pieces. The "old red" pieces will be: train doors, window frames and train weights (which are also underway already ;) ). We will see what it will look like; as BL does not make a difference of older or newer versions of common bricks, I cannot see any ways to purchase unused parts of *only* the old red colour. Unless You have some idea. :)

...any idea, why I cannot upload a second image, even if it is tiny, about 42 kB? The two pictures I wanted to post today were by far smaller than 100 kB together. :( So I can only write now, and post the picture somewhat later.

Because Eurobricks still thinks we're in the age of 56k modems and that images have to be tiny. It's the one thing that utterly winds me up about this site, the stupid and illogical restrictions on images. LEGO is all about images, yet they have to be presented in minute pictures that utterly fail to show off the subject.

...any idea, why I cannot upload a second image, even if it is tiny, about 42 kB? The two pictures I wanted to post today were by far smaller than 100 kB together.

Eurobricks has size restrictions on how much you can upload, especially for new members. If you make an account at Flickr, or Brickshelf, you should be able to upload images to there, and use the "Embed Image" function to embed as many as you need.

I rather have concerns about the red parts. It is obvious that the red used today is not the same as it was in the '80-ies and '90-ies: current red is slightly darker. Most of the bricks I ordered have this new red colour, while some of the pieces were only made in the old colour. I can see it when comparing the window frames to other, newer pieces. The "old red" pieces will be: train doors, window frames and train weights (which are also underway already ;) ). We will see what it will look like; as BL does not make a difference of older or newer versions of common bricks, I cannot see any ways to purchase unused parts of *only* the old red colour. Unless You have some idea. :)

Official LEGO sets actually suffer from this as well. Minute changes in the dye mixture can produce vastly different shades and colors.

Because Eurobricks still thinks we're in the age of 56k modems and that images have to be tiny. It's the one thing that utterly winds me up about this site, the stupid and illogical restrictions on images. LEGO is all about images, yet they have to be presented in minute pictures that utterly fail to show off the subject.

The reason the site only allows small images is nothing to do with 56k modems or peoples speed of internet but the cost of running a large server. Bandwidth has to be bought,the more images,the more Bandwidth,the more cost.With such a large user base it would cost a fortune if every person visiting the site would be basically chewing up bandwidth with each veiw. I hope this explanation of the reasoning helps.

On topic , great idea. I got back into lego because it helps me connect with an earlier part of my life and a project like this is as much about those great memories as it is the train.

The reason the site only allows small images is nothing to do with 56k modems or peoples speed of internet but the cost of running a large server. Bandwidth has to be bought,the more images,the more Bandwidth,the more cost.With such a large user base it would cost a fortune if every person visiting the site would be basically chewing up bandwidth with each veiw. I hope this explanation of the reasoning helps.

Actually, that's only if images are hosted directly on Eurobricks' server. Hosting elsewhere, such as Flickr, places that load on the image hosting service entirely. Seeing as Eurobricks doesn't host images and you have to use a third party service, then there is no load at all for the Eurobricks servers. So yeah, that argument got shot down fast. The biggest issue is the forum rule that reads "Images no more than 1024x768 or ideally 800x600". In other words, tiny pictures. Dynamic scaling of images is common on many forums, which allows the image to fill the width of the users' browser or to click on a toolbar above the image to scale it to full size.

Edited September 11, 201410 yr by cei

Thank You for your hints! :) This is what I purchased a few days ago:

These I could buy for quite a decent price, from a local seller. There will be a few parts indeed, which I cannot purchase as new or unused, these are one of them. Still, I think they are in a pretty good condition.There is a lego display in my city these days, and I made a visit of course. There were some amazing layouts there, and at last, I could also see a real 7725 there too - though it was a 9V version with slight modifications. I just can't wait to see mine as well!! :)

Edited September 16, 201410 yr by ClassicTrains

Two more packages arrived today! One from BL:

All the parts are really nice, I had some fears about train buffer pieces, but they look like new indeed, they were never used!The other one came from a toy store, which also sells only new pieces, which they purchase when available, and store them for selling them later. Most of the parts are 100% scratchless indeed, train windows are perfect; windshields have some microscratches though, but let's say they are 99% too:

Disappointment came however when I checked list of ordered items and compared it to what was shipped. Instead of black 1x8 plates, I got tiles, and instead of 4 pieces of 1x8 red tiles, I got 1x6 tiles... So I made some pictures immediately and sent an email to their Customer Service to apply for replacement parts. I hope they will send it to me soon. I know these bricks are common, but still annoying!

Anyway, the box begins to look like one that contains a 7725! This is what it looks like now:

Cool!

Edited September 16, 201410 yr by ClassicTrains

Nice. You should deeplink your images. Clicking on the links generated a bunch of popup ads...

Nice. You should deeplink your images. Clicking on the links generated a bunch of popup ads...

I tried to, but I could not succeed Could You give me some hints about how to do this? I did not see any ads when checking the links, sorry for that

Test:

Wow, it seems to have worked! So, here is the sticker sheet for the train, which is not an original one, but still a class A quality reproduction. I also bought one of this kind in order to renovate my 7715.

Update: I could finally work it out, all the previous link replaced to embedded images!

Edited September 16, 201410 yr by ClassicTrains

One more concern that I have regarding bricks which I will use for 7725 is that I can see a different surface texture for these roof slopes from different times:

I guess it is known by most of You, it was new for me. I hope it will not disturb the whole appearance of the train too much.

At the exhibition which I visited last weekend, someone displayed a monorail (the train from set 6399 Airport Shuttle), which he has built basically the same way as I did: using new bricks wherever it was possible. I know that it depends a lot on lighting conditions, but there it was really-really obvious that new red parts differ drastically in color from window frames for example. This got me thinking again. The bricks I would need in the old red color are mostly very common parts: bricks like 1x1, 1x2, 1x4, 2x2 etc. The goal would be to get these as new, from before 2004. So I started to look at old Basic sets as a possible source, which I could get unopened maybe, for a decent price. So far I could only find some (really cheap) sets, which would provide only a small portion of the necessary parts. I am not sure I can or will do this, it depends on things like budget and if I can find some really good parts source as some old, sealed Basic sets for sale. Anyway, I have time to decide about this, because there can be no more orders for this month, my wallet says...

I tried to, but I could not succeed Could You give me some hints about how to do this? I did not see any ads when checking the links, sorry for that

Test:

Wow, it seems to have worked! So, here is the sticker sheet for the train, which is not an original one, but still a class A quality reproduction. I also bought one of this kind in order to renovate my 7715.

Update: I could finally work it out, all the previous link replaced to embedded images!

Where did you source the replacement DSS from? I'm hunting for some replacement stickers!

Where did you source the replacement DSS from? I'm hunting for some replacement stickers!

You can find on www.ministickers.nl (the stickers are cutted)

Or on corgan_wheel's shop on Ebay (the tickers are not cutted)

http://www.ebay.fr/s...=1&_ipg=&_from=

You can find on www.ministickers.nl (the stickers are cutted)

Or on corgan_wheel's shop on Ebay (the tickers are not cutted)

http://www.ebay.fr/s...=1&_ipg=&_from=

They are from corgan_wheel's indeed, and I can tell they are of very good quality! :)

Very nice pictures of shiny pieces!

Slowly but steadily, pieces keep arriving. :) I just did not have the time to update the topic, now I am doing this.

I have found only 2 pieces of red train weight on BL at the time I came to order these: one from USA, one from Canada. Not too cost-effective... But I thought: OK, if that is the price, then let's go! However, when both weights arrived, I got a bit disappointed... Neither of them was in new condition, one of them has quite explicit scratch marks on one side, the other side has only microscratches. Anyway, I was a bit p*ssed off, because I could have got weights in similar condition from Europe as well... It was a lesson to learn, items advertised as new are not always new. Here is one of them:

When I was wondering about how to get a circle (or rather an oval) of a 12V track in new condition, I just stumbled upon an offer on eBay: a complete oval, brand new pieces, together with connector piece and cable, with 6 straight track sections. It was not too cheap either, but I thought I should not miss it, this was just what I was looking for. I did not regret this buy at the end, when it arrived!

I also have the train driver now. I could not find this guy as new, but at least I could find one on eBay in very nice condition - he could use a mild wash, but all the patterns are there without fading. No apparent scratches either, so I consider it absolutely OK. (The oldgray plate came from the same seller, I needed it for my renovated 7715, because this part was very much yellowed and a bit cracked too.)

Great work!

Though I bought some couplers and buffers earlier, those were far from new condition. But later however I have realized that even if I cannot buy these parts individually as new from BL, there were some service packs containing exactly the pieces I could not get earlier as new. And - this was a big luck again - exactly the necessary service packs appeared on BL as sealed packages. So I have some parts now which I had purchased earlier, but this time they are really new!! Here is the latest package that has just arrived:

As a bonus, I could purchase a pack of red inverted slopes as well - this one contains all the necessary pieces for 7725. I already had new inverted slopes for the train, but they are 'new red' - this ones are the good old red color. As I have written in a previous post, I got into a dilemma with the red parts. If I want the train to look perfect without any color deviances, I should get all the reds (at least those which are visible from the outside) from unopened sets from before 2004. Of course this makes the whole project more expensive and takes more time to gather every brick, but it also makes a challenge for me: the purpose is to find old sets, possibly ones which are tiny, cheap, sealed and contain as many red pieces as possible of those which I need. It took hours of research on BL inventories, but I think it will be (at least partially) possible. For example, I have found this:

http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/1953_Mouse

This little set contains 2 of the lamp holder pieces, I needed 12 of them. I could find a seller who had quite a few of these little mice sealed, so I ordered 6 of them. Even like this, price was acceptable. Now I am waiting for these to arrive. The common red bricks (like 1x4, 2x2 etc.) can be purchased from old but no so expensive Basic sets probably, also for a moderate price. I can see however that the 10 pieces of 8x1 red plates will give me a hard time to get...