10254 Winter Holiday Train

[AnkTales]

 

The old train is more beautiful. But not having it, I'll buy that. Someone has mounted engines?

[SilentWolf]

I picked mine up a week ago and will hopefully building it yet this month. I am going to combine it with my own version of a Christmas train I designed last year so hopefully will have both running around the Christmas tree this year. 

[sebitsena]

Is it possible to motorised the train with a 9V train motor ?

It would be cheaper for all 9V train owners than buying the Power Functions stuff ^^

Edited October 23, 2016 by sebitsena
add link

[dr_spock]

34 minutes ago, sebitsena said:

Is it possible to motorised the train with a 9V train motor ?

It would be cheaper for all 9V train owners than buying the Power Functions stuff ^^

Yes, you can.  Remove the front bogie and replace with 9V motor. That would be the easiest.

If you want to keep the red wheels on front, then you will have to figure someplace else to stick the 9V motor in one of the train cars like tender, caboose, etc. or MOC a power car. Be creative.

[sebitsena]

I just watched this : lego 10254 winter train by 9V power functions. It looks like the 9V motor is in the tender. Maybe the best way to keep the original design ;)

[JopieK]

I like the red bogie plate, alas one, but at least now we have those in red again! Now the motor brackets and the buffers ;)

[sunhuntin]

On 24/10/2016 at 1:59 AM, sebitsena said:

Is it possible to motorised the train with a 9V train motor ?

It would be cheaper for all 9V train owners than buying the Power Functions stuff ^^

I haven't done it yet, but I have plans of putting the the 9v in the tender, to keep the red wheels on the front. My 9v set up is currently attached to the Monster Fighters Ghost Train, but will be removed next week and work on the Christmas train will start.

[finish-last]

On ‎23‎.‎10‎.‎2016 at 3:31 PM, dr_spock said:

Yes, you can.  Remove the front bogie and replace with 9V motor. That would be the easiest.

If you want to keep the red wheels on front, then you will have to figure someplace else to stick the 9V motor in one of the train cars like tender, caboose, etc. or MOC a power car. Be creative.

 

I just increased the coal cart with 2 studs and put the 9v Motor under it.

Edited October 31, 2016 by finish-last

[BrickOCD]

FYI - Duracell batteries do not work properly in the recommended IR remote control (8879).  They are too short to connect - you have to use Energizer or something similar with a longer positive connection.   

   Some friends and I spent quite a long time trying to make the train work after a night out.  It was quite funny until a 10 year old came out of his room, told us to quiet down and handed us different batteries.   

 

[Hoth Rebel]

This set retiring according to the official dutch Lego website. Don't know if it is a mistake or that order countries see the same, but the 2014 winter set is also marked as retired soon. 

[JopieK]

Also in Germany (read it on 1000steine). I just ordered my train, since I don't want to be left without one (that happened with the old Christmas train, I had the chance and failed to get it while I could).

[pirzyk]

Still marked New, Exclusive in the US.  No Winter Village Sets are marked as retiring soon.

[dr_spock]

4 hours ago, Kevii23 said:

This set retiring according to the official dutch Lego website. Don't know if it is a mistake or that order countries see the same, but the 2014 winter set is also marked as retired soon. 

It is marked NEW on Canada website.  It could be a mistake.  Depending on how LEGO set up their website content management, those statuses could be set by individual managers at the country/region level versus globally.  You could inquire with LEGO customer service to see if it is a European region only retirement.

 

[Hoth Rebel]

16 minutes ago, dr_spock said:

It is marked NEW on Canada website.  It could be a mistake.  Depending on how LEGO set up their website content management, those statuses could be set by individual managers at the country/region level versus globally.  You could inquire with LEGO customer service to see if it is a European region only retirement.

 

From what I heard it's not available from Jan - Sept in the shop. 

[PeteM]

Yep, in Europe the Winter Village set 'retires' at the end of the season and then (usually!) reappears the following year. So not the end of the world, but if you want it for this Christmas I'd get it soon...

[JopieK]

On 6-11-2016 at 8:10 AM, BrickOCD said:

FYI - Duracell batteries do not work properly in the recommended IR remote control (8879).  They are too short to connect - you have to use Energizer or something similar with a longer positive connection.   

   Some friends and I spent quite a long time trying to make the train work after a night out.  It was quite funny until a 10 year old came out of his room, told us to quiet down and handed us different batteries.   

 

That is very strange! The IR remote needs 3x AAA doesn't it? AAA of Duracell are the same size as Energizer AAA's aren't they? Or do you mean that the positive terminal ends of some Duracells seem to not stick out as far as the Energizers? I also use Duracell in them and they are fine though.  

[BrickOCD]

19 hours ago, JopieK said:

Or do you mean that the positive terminal ends of some Duracells seem to not stick out as far as the Energizers? 

That's exactly what I meant.   

[Breakdown]

If someone on this forum actually created this train I my reviews wouldn't be so incredibly scathing.

Since it's someone who's gainfully employed at Lego, sorry I'm coming down on this one hard.

 

Let me start off by saying that I was really looking forward to this train.  And despite my views about monotone building designs, though I do chicken out myself and take the easy road with colours.

 

My top 3 dislikes of this train:

 

 

1.) Too many colours.  I could genuinely accept that this is an old school, coal engine with it's dark components, but when you mix in piles of green it ruins that effect.  My preference would be one way or the other.  You have a bad-megablocks black old school steamer in black with red trim and a wreath hanging from either side near the windows, or . . .  .you make the engine Christmas red with white stripes.  There's about 10 ways to do this right, and they found an innovative way to do it wrong.  There's an inconsistency in the colour themes.  Red, white and Green fabolous for Christmas.  Add gold, add blue, black is probably a necessary evil.  The Christmas tree might actually pop and have pressence if the rainbow colours all over the remainder of the train didn't distract from it so much.

2.) Short wheelbase cars.  As much as it's nice to have short cars, the wheels squeak so, so much on them.  As a train that many people will be running around their Christmas trees in a decorative manner I could see this being a huge buzz-kill for the holidays.

3.) Where is Santa???  He could be on a big Christmasy armchair with a bunch of gifts.  The requisite caboose is only Christmasy because it has snow flakes on it.  Why isn't there green instead of blue?  In fact minus the Christmas tree, the rear two cars look as if they belong to a different set.

 

Props to Lego on the idea.  I love Trains.  I'm sure that some hate me because they love this train, and I do love the fact that the train contains an "Easter Egg" in the form of a rotating Christmas Tree.  I was looking forward to this set, but apparently in concept only.  I might eventually build my own Christmas Tree, though with time against me, it won't likely be this year.

[Big G]

Used some vip points and a total of about $6 in cash to get this when it was released.  My 6 year old saw a finished one running and said it was great and he loved it and we needed one for under our tree.  THAT was the only review I give any recognition to

[eliminator]

So, while i wasn't originally going to purchase this train but another look at the motorized review and this past weekend double VIP points and free snow-globe set, I made the plunge.

Not sure if this was brought up in another thread, but is this set considered the fourth in the PF Creator "expert" line of train sets after the EN, Maersk, and HE?

[coaster]

20 minutes ago, eliminator said:

Not sure if this was brought up in another thread, but is this set considered the fourth in the PF Creator "expert" line of train sets after the EN, Maersk, and HE?

Nah, this is part of the Winter Village annual sets, and just happens to be a train this year.  

[TF Twitch]

I came up with a quick idea on how to have working driving rods for the locomotive.  It is very simple and does not require that many parts.

Here are the parts that I used.

[fred67]

On 10/30/2016 at 0:12 PM, finish-last said:

I just increased the coal cart with 2 studs and put the 9v Motor under it.

I like your solution a lot - I did the same thing, but extended the front with a couple of 1x2x3 black slopes.

My two cents (and then some) about this train.  First, I did not have the original 10173 version of the train, so I pretty much bricklinked it having so many of the pieces already in my collection anyway (including a ton of train items).  It wasn't exact (new couplings, for example, instead of the older exposed magnet ones), but it was pretty darn close.

Compared to the older set, the newer one, without a doubt, has a better engine; the big wheels make a big difference on these old style steam engines.  That's the good.

The bad is two short cars make for a terrible train "set."  The spinning tree is interesting, but it seems rather pointless and annoying after a while, and like something that will just wear out quickly.  The passenger car is actually quite nice, IMO... just way too small.

So on my Christmas layout (that I set up every Thanksgiving week and leave until after Christmas), I am using the new engine with the modified tender, pulling the both the new and older cars.  I also threw in a couple of MOT passenger cars (they are red and green, after all).  My observations: despite only being two small passenger cars, the friction in the new engine plus the flat car (with the tree) is much higher than the usual wheels (with the metal axle).  The motor had to work quite hard to pull the whole train adequately.  In fact, it overheated after less than ten minutes... I was not running it on full, but perhaps running it moderately slow was just as bad, requiring more torque than it could handle over time.  I had to weight the tender to keep the wheels from copious slippage.  The spinning tree is a novel idea, but when you've got the train running at speed (not fast, a moderate, comfortable speed for the scale and type of train), the tree spins too fast and you can't really even tell it's got it's own train going around the tree.

Since I don't run the trains that much anyway; I took out the MOT passenger cars and let the engine cool off for a couple of hours, after which it seemed to run fine again... but I didn't use it for more than a few minutes.  I don't actually get to play that much, just stopping by the table as I pass by and playing for a couple of minutes at a time.

Going a bit off topic, on a side note, being short on straight tracks, I supplemented what I had with ME models original metal track they used to sell some years ago.  Apparently they had a connectivity problem and came with some metal tape, but I did not have a problem when they were connected to LEGO track, so I staggered the several pieces I was using, never doing ME sections in a row.  But I found that, even weighted, the LEGO motor slipped on only those ME segments.  Hoping the new stuff won't suffer from the same problem.  After that happened, I tried an experimental section of plastic ME track that I did the copper tape trick on, and the motor seemed to grip it really well.  The only problem I have with that solution is how fast it wears out due to the way the LEGO motor train wheels are rounded and push out instead of having a metal flange.  It puts all the force right on the "sharp" edge of the plastic track, cutting the copper tape over time.

I know it's a bit much to ask, but I hope ME makes a replacement motor with metal flanges for the pickups.

Also wondering if anyone's tried a non-LEGO speed regulator.  I don't see why it would be a problem if you didn't overload the motor.

 

Edited November 26, 2016 by fred67