This is surely the most festive LEGO model we’ve seen all year — a brilliant gingerbread train, decked in Christmas icing and decorations. Put together by Koen for a competition on the LEGO Rebrick site, this was a worthy winner. The locomotive is an obvious highlight with it’s gleaming iced sections and little pops of candy colour, but my favourite part is the tiny house on the rear carriage — a beautiful confection with cupcakes on the roofline and liquorice detailing. Yum yum.
An army marches on its stomach, and it’s hard to feed a soldier without an appropriate supply route. Cutting off an enemy’s supply routes is a quick path to victory, so it’s imperative to adequately guard your own routes. Enter the armored train, ready to defend itself. Builder tablizm brings us an amazing demo model of a US Army military train, showing off a variety of cars from different eras.
Let’s take a closer look at the individual cars below.
The City Station of Trossingen in Germany built by Steffen Rau is simply breathtaking. The architectural detailing and color are astounding and eye-popping, with intricate features on the facade that look like it took some marvelously complex techniques to achieve that even an architect would be proud of. The siding just below the roof which was most likely wooden gives a beautiful compliment in color to the red roof tiling and a nice contrast with the mid-section in black and white.
The back of the building features the train tracks and a platform with minifigure commuters waiting for their train to arrive.
See more of this massive LEGO train station
When tasked with building an insanely long LEGO train component (60+ studs in length or 70+ if permanently coupled), Alexander steamed full speed ahead and he didn’t stop until his LEGO locomotive reached an impressive 98 studs in length! Based on the NSW 60 class (which operated in Australia starting in the early 1950’s), Alexander’s choo choo has two XL motors, working headlights and marker lights, and some rather sleek custom vinyl decals. Not to mention, it’s pretty much a spot-on rendition of the real thing.
To check out more photos, head on over to Alexander’s Flickr. And for even more super-long LEGO trains, check out OcTRAINber.
Fancy a train trip to New Jersey? Make sure you have your ticket booked as the iconic Blue Comet by Cale Leiphart is arriving! Its thoroughly designed body measures more than 40 studs in length and features a ton of the tiniest elements: valves, sand and steam domes, levers and regulators — all in blue, which makes this build a remarkable assembly of LEGO parts in regular blue color.
And it wouldn’t be a proper locomotive without a full set of carriages. As usual, Flick album has all the details of this impressive train.
I’m pretty sure a motorhead like Donald Duck would love to get his wings on this beautiful toy steam locomotive. David Liu has turned Mickey Mouse into a coal car, while Goofy makes an adorable passenger car. Built for his son, the model has built-in radio control, however, his son prefers playing with it with his hands.
The color schemes look perfect and instantly recognizable – even from a thumbnail. Donald’s sailor’s hat on the engine smoke stack is a fantastic touch! And you really need to join Mickey and Minnie for a refreshing beverage in the passenger car.
One of the buildings that most large cities have is a railway station, and LEGO cities are no different in this respect. morimorilego has built this rather traditional looking railway station with its bell tower and pleasing arched design, using a complimentary combination of greys, reddish brown, and tan. Every station needs a clock at the entrance to help passengers decide if they are late and require a last minute dash to the platform.
There are plenty of nice architectural details and interest with the main façade. The Mansard-esque roof and floral displays bring a touch of class to this building but those light stone steps will definitely be high maintenance on rainy days when muddy footprints strike.
Some classic LEGO themes are wildly popular, but somehow feel underrepresented by custom LEGO models, such as LEGO Pirates and Wild West. At least for the latter we have a new build to enjoy in this frontier train station by Marcel V. With its unique roof and prominent clock, the build looks almost steampunk, but there are no fictional elements to be found.
There are a lot of interesting bits to see here. The semi-circular section’s construction is quite impressive, as is the roof itself. The railroad tracks look very good, done with a technique I am seeing more and more in fan creations. And as a cherry on top, Marcel has sprinkled the creation with all sorts of clutter, from sacks and guns to the local wildlife — all of which breathes life into the scene.
There’s a strong possibility that I’ll be traveling to Japan for work later this year, and I’ve spent the last couple of evenings revisiting childhood haunts via Google Maps and looking at rail connections to get from one end of the country to the other. This train station by Japanese builder Kaz Fuji was thus quite timely as I plan potential rail travel to places like Kyoto and Nara.
See more of these Japanese trains and the train station
I adore futuristic LEGO trains, but sadly it’s a very small niche that we rarely see. Fortunately builder Frost has broken tradition and created a wonderfully futuristic planetary express, complete with trans-green accents and lots of mechanical detailing. The model looks like it would be right at home jetting across the surface of a distant planet.
The builder has even incorporated power functions to propel the train and power 16 working LEDs.
This 2-4-10 configured steam locomotive is known as the Texas configuration because of the arrangement of its wheels, and such locomotives were first used in the US back in 1919. What’s unique about Gerald Cacas‘s minifigure-scale train is that the wheels and tracks were not made using the typical LEGO train elements, but emulated using other, more-everyday parts.
There’s also a bit of detailing going on in the cab section of the train to give it that complete look:
Did you ever design your own “dream room” when your were a child? I did, and it looked something like this boy’s room by John Snyder. Built for the final round of the ABS builder challenge and largely inspired by César Soares‘ amazing kid’s room, John says of his latest creation “it was really enjoyable to build a modern interior for a change, something outside of minifigure scale”. The scene is stocked to the gills with toys including (but not limited to) LEGO, action figures, costumes, planes, trains and even a castle! The stand out features for me are the working bi-fold door, fish tank, and brilliant red telescope.
