Is It Worth Buying an Emerald Night Now?

[pigpen]

I'm kicking myself too for not buying one when I had the chance. Some shops in the Wellington area always have old stock that just hangs around and takes ages to sell. that's about the only good thing of being in NZ we get new stock last and it takes ages to sell unlees its a hot item like the Emerald.

[kieran]

That is such a good thing they did, all I ever hear about The Lego Group is how they go out of their way to make things like this happen, good on you Lego

[Konrad]

i think its worth it

[bjorkan]

I was reading this forum post about EN for last six months at least once a week and yesterday it was my day -- I bought EN over eB, I was not able to resit any more. Now just waiting for postman...

[dundarach]

It's a blooming lovely locomotive, and look at it this way - whatever you paid for it, if you modelled in O guage then you'd be paying cosiderably more for the same thing :-)

Lego is more adaptable, colourful, more creative and enjoyable by all ages AND like for like, CHEAPER....

Yes!

[LegoSjaak]

It is always worth buying a piece that you want sooo much, but you haven't laid your hands on yet.....!! Hope you have a fun build and will fall in love with the beautifull details...!

[timmyc1983]

I was reading this forum post about EN for last six months at least once a week and yesterday it was my day -- I bought EN over eB, I was not able to resit any more. Now just waiting for postman...

Definitely worth it! I went through the exact same process about 4-5 months ago and have not regretted it! It's a lovely train and a fun build!

Hope the postman hurries up for you, happy building

[nesquik]

You won't regret it - the EM may well be one of the most beautiful Lego models ever designed. And no, I'm not being biased as a train fan!

The only issue I have with it as a product is the fact that just one carriage is included. This has always seemed like a huge oversight to me, and clearly one that was learned from since the H.E. has both a passenger car and a dining car. To make this worse, it's not very affordable to try and purchase the parts for extra carriages.

[Heppeng]

The one carriage can be either a blessing or a curse, depending on what is important to you. For example, I got lucky and bought a complete boxed Emerald Night via gumtree just a few months ago for £95. I then sold the coach on ebay for £80, so I got loco and tender for a net cost of £15! I have also added four new coaches from elsewhere (that match the engine rather well) for less than I sold the original coach for.

In my case I was more interested in running an engine and decent sized train without spending silly money, and I was not bothered about splitting the set.

Edited November 6, 2013 by Heppeng

[Pief]

Well it's a beautiful locomotive but what I find (don't know if anyone else has this problem) It's a really slow and struggling locomotive. I will give some examples:

-Some times the wheels don't move good

-It loses a lot of speed in curves.

That are the two main problems that happen to my locomotive but the time i didn't have a layout it was an display locomotive and it looked really good.

But it's your own choice and try to think what it's use will be.

[Man with a hat]

Well it's a beautiful locomotive but what I find (don't know if anyone else has this problem) It's a really slow and struggling locomotive. I will give some examples:

-Some times the wheels don't move good

-It loses a lot of speed in curves.

That are the two main problems that happen to my locomotive but the time i didn't have a layout it was an display locomotive and it looked really good.

But it's your own choice and try to think what it's use will be.

Well, there are some issues but they can easily be solved. Please check the railbricks magazine issue 7 http://railbricks.com/magazine/

Only for the fourth problem I simply used a technic bush 1/2 smooth on the axle: http://www.bricklink...tem.asp?P=4265c

And that did the trick. I haven't had any problems with my EN since then.

Edited November 8, 2013 by Man with a hat

[bjorkan]

I was reading this forum post about EN for last six months at least once a week and yesterday it was my day -- I bought EN over eB, I was not able to resit any more. Now just waiting for postman...

And it came on Saturday and the rest is just fun and fun :thumbup:

(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-QZCbgb-RZy4/Un-8uUW3d-I/AAAAAAAAACE/P24A0t8nfc0/s640/DSC04880.JPG?gl=HR)

[Lego Otaku]

Picture shows engine and tender only, no passenger car? I've seen them go around $75 to $100 used and complete in auction and more with BIN. Passenger cars are highly desired because it looks better with 1 engine and 3 passenger cars than 3 engines.

[alainneke]

And it came on Saturday and the rest is just fun and fun :thumbup:

(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-QZCbgb-RZy4/Un-8uUW3d-I/AAAAAAAAACE/P24A0t8nfc0/s640/DSC04880.JPG?gl=HR)

Congratulations on owning this beautiful locomotive!

[bjorkan]

Congratulations on owning this beautiful locomotive!

Well that's it -- loco is perfect, beautifull, gorgeous, and while I was laying on the room floor and looking my (!) EN making first movements, memories just came, I remember, as I was a little boy, I lived with my granny nearby the place not far from the suburb railway station where steam engines stayed overnight, my God, when some of those black gigants with huge piston rods on red wheels came and pressed the white steam all around just before beeing turned off... and I was there every day, just standing and waiting... hm, I must be a dreamer :)

[naf]

I really wish I had been out of my dark ages when this set was available. I just can't bring myself to justify spending so much on a set though. I have to think that lego will eventually release another steam engine just as nice as the EN sometime in the future, as trains are big sellers for them. Since I don't plan on going back in the dark, I'll be able to snag that when it's available.

[zephyr1934]

I really wish I had been out of my dark ages when this set was available. I just can't bring myself to justify spending so much on a set though.

The EN is one of the nicest looking trains lego has made, but it does have some quirks in the mechanical design. You could always build a repaint in other colors for a lot less. Use the instructions from S@H.

While it is a nice set, there are some way better steam engine MOCs out there, so you can aspire to building even better on your own. Or build someone else's MOC to get ides, e.g., see the instruction pages on RailBricks, poke around elsewhere online, or purchase from the likes of Sava rails. The EN was constrained by the lego police, there are some great steam building techniques that lego can't use in sets.

[Luke_likes_Lego]

I think it would be hard to go wrong with the EN....even if you pay today's market prices. It will always be a classic.

I remember thinking I was paying over par for it at about $139US because there were cheaper ones on BL at the time.....of course looking back I'll never regret that.

If you love it, and knew you could easily sell it again in an emergency (such as running out of food) the price may not be a factor for you.

Having said all that......haven't bitten the bullet and bought a Super Chief (or -off theme- a UCS Millenium Falcon) myself

Cheers,

LLL

[ronenson]

The EN is one of the nicest looking trains lego has made, but it does have some quirks in the mechanical design. You could always build a repaint in other colors for a lot less. Use the instructions from S@H.

While it is a nice set, there are some way better steam engine MOCs out there, so you can aspire to building even better on your own. Or build someone else's MOC to get ides, e.g., see the instruction pages on RailBricks, poke around elsewhere online, or purchase from the likes of Sava rails. The EN was constrained by the lego police, there are some great steam building techniques that lego can't use in sets.

Can you elaborate on what techniques you're referring to that the lego police won't allow?

[Luke_likes_Lego]

Can't speak for zephyr1934, but it's possible he's referring to the sorts of things this thread is about:

http://www.eurobrick...ues#entry1717013

LLL

[zephyr1934]

Can you elaborate on what techniques you're referring to that the lego police won't allow?

I was actually thinking of a few things. LLL hit on the big one, and this talk is a great example of the details. Another thought I had is that there are several AFOL designs that look INCREDIBLE, but they are also very fragile if picked up the wrong way. The third thought was that some of the AFOL designs are either so big or so detailed that there is no way Lego would even attempt to make a set out of them because it would either be too expensive or too hard to build for the average customer.

[ronenson]

I was actually thinking of a few things. LLL hit on the big one, and this talk is a great example of the details. Another thought I had is that there are several AFOL designs that look INCREDIBLE, but they are also very fragile if picked up the wrong way. The third thought was that some of the AFOL designs are either so big or so detailed that there is no way Lego would even attempt to make a set out of them because it would either be too expensive or too hard to build for the average customer.

Thanks, I knew about the illegal/out of system usage. I also recognize too fragile/big/detailed. Since I design with LDD, I usually avoid the illegal stuff, but mine are also more fragile than official sets

[Bricked]

I have never bought any Lego train before. Now since I am building a winter village, I am considering to make it surrounded by a train. The emerald night is an old fashioned one and it looks fabulous. However, it's sold about 200 usd at ebay. I am not much attracted to the other modern models. Is the emerald night worth the money or maybe there will be another old fashioned train coming soon after Horizon Express?

If you don't buy it, it'll only keep rising in price.

[Colossus]

I am also thinking of obtaining an Emerald Night set. It would be my family's first LEGO train set, and it has to be about the sleekest design I have seen. So, options are eBay or Bricklink. First, I am hoping someone could tell me WHY Bricklinking this set is so expensive. If it's the emerald green pieces being rare, I am more inclined to use dark red pieces anyway. My wife's favourite sports team's colors are scarlet and grey, and that would help the wife deal with the LEGO sticker shock. However, if the problem is that the bricks are rare, I foresee more of a dilemna. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[zephyr1934]

I would download the instructions from lego and build it in a different color (in fact that is what I did when the set came out and it was only at MSRP... I've go too many other uses for the dark green). Red, black and brown all should not be too bad for the parts cost to repaint the loco. Definitely incorporate the aftermarket fixes (I think someone talked about it earlier in this thread, and you can find it in a past issue of railbricks). If you are a little handy with the MOC, extend the tender a bit (maybe make it twice as long). Then just make minor modifications to the passenger car to bring the cost down (e.g., using more common windows). It is a nice set.