Now that the Disney Train is 8-Wide, should I build in it?

[DylANK]

I am currently getting into the hobby, and only have 60197 Passenger Train. It is 6-Wide, like most LEGO trains, but the new Disney Train set is in 8 wide. Will LEGO stay in 8-wide, or should I start in 6-wide?

[Cwetqo]

City trains will almost certainly stay in 6 wide. They are expensive even as they are now and any rise in price would just make it worse. 

We may get another AFOL targeted 8 wide train, now that the ice is broken.

[DylANK]

1 hour ago, Cwetqo said:

City trains will almost certainly stay in 6 wide. They are expensive even as they are now and any rise in price would just make it worse. 

We may get another AFOL targeted 8 wide train, now that the ice is broken.

After reading other threads, I chose 6 wide, so I don't have to do as much moc'ing, because I have not very many bricks compared to everyone else.

Edited September 3, 2019 by DylANK

[UrbanErwin]

Build the way you feel comfortable, I've seen awesome 6, 7, 8 and 9 wide builds, even someone who built 4 wide. 

 

For me it isn't about the width in studs but how wide the original model is I'm modelling and how that translates to my preferred scale 1:45.

But that's me, you should just build the way you want to, don't lat others decide that for you, especially LEGO itself. 

[Sérgio]

There is no law or rule who defines the width you should use, do whatever you like to do. 

My trains (they are all MOCs) are 1:48 (kinda) scale, most of them are 7 wide, some of them 6, another 8, and even 9. I just build what it feels right to me at the moment. :)

 

[coaster]

You should build in 1:38 (10-wide).  It's prototypical to the tracks, and at 1 stud = 1 foot, it makes scaling easy.    Yes, it's huge, but it looks soooooo good!

[Vilhelm22]

I would personally recommend 7 wide as a minimum, but I’m a junior here so you can’t really go by only me! 

[zephyr1934]

If you are using standard lego curves (a good place to start) I'd suggest sticking with 6 wide for now. As it is most passenger cars and modern freight cars would have to be truncated. For example, the superchief cars were 32 studs long but they should have been on the order of 50 studs long at 6 wide to be fully proportional, at 8 wide they should be about 60 studs long. In contrast, a quarter turn of standard R44 is on the order of 64 studs long. You can make the cars take the turn but they look REALLY silly.

Depending on how deep you get into the hobby, you might eventually want more detail than 6 wide provides and also make the plunge to get wider radius 3rd party curves. So at some point you can make the jump to 8 wide.

The one caveat is that steam is hard to do in 6 wide. All of the lego steam engine sets with rods are at least 8 wide at the rods, the EN was 10 wide at the rods. I don't remember off the top of my head which (if any) had 8 wide cabs though. Personally, most of my trains are 6 wide but most of my steam engines are 8 wide. I then build a 7 wide tender to ease the transition.

Ultimately though, build what you like, and if you don't like what you build, rebuild it.

Oh, and as for future lego trains, if the Disney train is a success, it will probably be available for a few years and during that time I doubt if lego would come out with another AFOL train. If it isn't a success, you can bet that it will be a very long time until they do another AFOL train. So probably  no worth worrying about future sets.

[Laura Beinbrech]

I'd say it's up to a matter of personal preference:  I've been slowly changing all my standard gauge rolling stock (and some locomotives) from 6-wide to 8-wide, but that's mainly to give a better contrast to my narrow-gauge rolling stock & locomotives which are all 6-wide (at least for the cab/frame, as Zephyr1934 noted, steam engines with driving rods will technically be wider due to said driving rods).  I mean I will still have a few 6-wide standard-gauge locomotives, but that's due to certain design choices, and in RL, some locomotives are, in fact, narrower than the passenger or freight cars they pull, so it works.

Also, while my rolling stock may be "stubby" compared to the RL cars, I figure that keeping to a length that suits standard LEGO curves (like between 28-34 for passenger cars & 24 studs or so for most freight cars) still looks good & keeps the part count to where it's not much more than a 6-wide version of the same piece of rolling stock would be.

Of course, I also tend to build in a manner that sacrifices some details that only dedicated JMNs & Rivet Counters (stud counters?) actually care about in order to keep my costs down & increase the structural durability of my builds as well as maintain compatibility with standard LEGO track...

[Carefree_Dude]

Personally if you plan on running your trains I feel 6 wide is better. While running they have the same aesthetics and look more proportional, and are also lighter so you can pull more. 

I feel the disney carriages being 8 wide really detracts from their appearance because of how short they are

[dr_spock]

MOD them to 6 wide for a little fun challenge. 

6 will work with any layout.  I find my wider/longer trains have problems running on the LUG's layout which was built for LEGO 6 wide and car lengths.