REVIEW: 60423 Downtown Streetcar and Station

[Pchan1983]

Here is my review on LEGO City 60423 Downtown Streetcar and Station:

THE GOOD:

• Very nicely down cafe/kiosk roof.
• The tram/street car do look good.
• The adjustable platform is fun.

THE NOT SO GOOD:

• The head and tail basically identical, splitting build in separate instruction feel unnecessary.

A set with a tram while not being a full blown train set.  Bought this not for the tram originally but for the new minifigure head with sunglasses on.  Despite the build of the tram's head and tail are identical, overall it was a fun build.  The colour scheme and the trams, I do think these look good.  I do wonder when LEGO is going to make sliding doors happening on trains rather than how you traditionally open door.   One thing did bother me was that all 3 cars are connected, but it does look like not all 3 cars are linked and the minifigures can move around the tram.  In term of the station, I really like the care/kiosk, the roof is a very cool looking build.  The platform is also smartly done and an action features to make hoping onto the tram easier.  The minifigures line-up is a bit disappointing given only 1 minifigure has new head part.  But this minifigure do look nice, as the head is not just designed to represent the visually impaired but can also be a general guy wearing glasses.  This set also includes a guide dog.  This is a set I like but also feel like something missing.  While this set doesn't break the bank but I still recommend you wait and observe to get the max discount on this set.  If you previously owns LEGO tracks due to buying LEGO trains, this is a set for you.  Although there are flaws, still a good sets \. 

[Daiman]

Thanks for the review.

[bombcar]

How do the “ramps” work for rolling the tram on and off the tracks? Those are some interesting pieces and I wonder how they’d play. 

[Withacee]

Cheers for the review.
LEGO have done numerous city street cars over the years. This one is for me definitely the worst one, right next to the orange one in 60097.
The yellow one in 60271 was nice, my favourite is still the blue one in 8404, partially because it resembles some of the dutch street cars so much. This is the one we use in our city.
The red one in this set looks unfinished. The distance between the carts and the way they are connected are, in my opinion, ridiculous.
Pity, because I like the platform, the kiosk and the minifigs.

[Pchan1983]

On 9/4/2024 at 10:13 PM, bombcar said:

How do the “ramps” work for rolling the tram on and off the tracks?

you can just roll it up, the ramp to get it on the tracks.  it actually works quite well.

On 9/7/2024 at 9:44 PM, Withacee said:

The red one in this set looks unfinished. The distance between the carts and the way they are connected are, in my opinion, ridiculous.

yea, it feels like each cars are separate 

[torvi]

Magnet couplers would have looked so much better in my opinion

[Pchan1983]

On 9/11/2024 at 7:42 PM, torvi said:

Magnet couplers would have looked so much better in my opinion

yes, I wonder why they decided to have such a big gap.

[torvi]

I guess to save money

[Bornin1980something]

I always felt this looked more like a European local train than a streetcar. 

[The Island Chronicles]

I wanna get this set, but given that there are no railways in my town, the buy would be a bit redundant. This set feels more like a rapid transit train than a streetcar. 

[jus1973]

1 hour ago, The Island Chronicles said:

I wanna get this set, but given that there are no railways in my town, the buy would be a bit redundant. This set feels more like a rapid transit train than a streetcar. 

If you do live, as your bio says, in the US, the thats possibly why you might feel like that.  Us european types see these type of ‘streetcars’ or trams to us Brits all the time in many cities.   A quick google search for images of Bern Trams will give you what I think TLG were going for.  This is what I’m trying to achieve in my Modular based town, although its a long work in progress.

[The Island Chronicles]

4 minutes ago, jus1973 said:

If you do live, as your bio says, in the US, the thats possibly why you might feel like that.  Us european types see these type of ‘streetcars’ or trams to us Brits all the time in many cities.   A quick google search for images of Bern Trams will give you what I think TLG were going for.  This is what I’m trying to achieve in my Modular based town, although its a long work in progress.

Yes I am from the states. We call them rapid transit and subways here. Different countries have different names for them. In the UK and most of Europe, they're called underground trains, trams or railcars. In Asia, they call them Metros. 

[Ptchnk]

On 9/18/2024 at 2:00 PM, Pchan1983 said:

yes, I wonder why they decided to have such a big gap.

Agree, it doesn't look appealing. I'm guessing the gap was needed for clearance issue in the curve on the tracks as the wheels are fixed to the cars (even though there are no curve track in the set). Inter-cars boogies (like the TGV set ones) would have done the trick probably for a cleaner look.

[jus1973]

20 hours ago, Ptchnk said:

Agree, it doesn't look appealing. I'm guessing the gap was needed for clearance issue in the curve on the tracks as the wheels are fixed to the cars (even though there are no curve track in the set). Inter-cars boogies (like the TGV set ones) would have done the trick probably for a cleaner look.

You can get that gap down to 2.5 studs without too much bother.  There is a thread in the train forum about this set, correcting this and also adding a motor, although that so far has been less successful.