It’s fight night! And we have two long-time adversaries (and previously allies) in the diesel locomotive category. Starting in the yellow corner, from America, it’s the EMD GP 38-2! Aaaand in the black corner, from Russia, it’s the TEM-18DM!
Each is pulling the finest hardware from their respective militaries, and you can place your bets courtesy of TLCB debutant Konstantin on Flickr via the link! Let’s get ready to railrooooad!
Neither of today’s posts are cars, because… shut up, that’s why. We like trains. This is one is a Spanish Renfe S-251, designed and built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and it comes from Flickr’s Ferro-Friki who has captured the 1980s electric locomotive superbly in brick form. There’s more of the model to see at Ferro’s ‘LEGO Renfe S-251’ album and you can buy your ticket at the link above.
*Today’s title song. We’re nothing if not diverse.
This has the ring of genuine, bona fide, electrified, six-car monorail to it. Gettit? Because of the ri… OK, we’ve done better. Just be thankful we didn’t lead with a ‘Your Mom’ joke*. Anyway this marvellous contraption is a ‘Saturn Streamliner’, a suspended railway passenger train operating from an alternate timeline. Flickr’s Nannan Zhang owns the mind behind it and you can buy your ticket at the link above.
*The Saturn Streamliner is able to service an entire city. Just like your Mom. / The Saturn Streamliner has gone through more rings than your Mom has. / Large, heavy, but a quality ride… etc.
This – according to its talented maker AlienCat! – is ‘New Hashima District 8’s Shipping Yard 81’, where immense hover trains depart the, um… station(?) pulling their wares of spacey goods. OK, we’re well out of our depth here, but it’s a) a phenomenal build, and b) it’s allowed us to tenuously link to peak Guns ‘n Roses. There’s more of Aliencat!’s ‘District 8’ to see on Flickr, and you ride the Nightrain (never to return) via the link above.
Yes we’re a car blog. When we’re not making Your Mom jokes or referencing Putin’s tiny todger. But we’re a train blog today, courtesy of this fantastic K-Class steam locomotive crossing a truss bridge at the Brickvention 2025 show. Photographed (and built as part of a collaboration) by Flickr’s narrow_gauge, there’s more to see via the link above.
And what’s better than one enormous train-based diorama? That’s right – two! Which is the nerdiest sentence we’ve ever written. But no matter, because TLCB Master MOCer mahjqa joins the railway shenanigans here at TLCB with one of the most brilliantly engineered creations we’ve seen yet.
Also constructed for a Lego event, mahjqa’s Friends railway (the LEGO theme, not the TV show) includes a remote control crane so gloriously playable we could watch it all day. And fortunately mahjqa filmed a whole day’s worth of it in operation, so we can do just that.
Join us watching it load and unload in delightful smoothness on loop via the video below, plus you can check out the discussion thread on Eurobricks here.
Fare dodging is the preserve of the terminally shifty. But not today, because Flickr’s mahjqa (a TLCB Master MOCer no less) is the creator of this excellent steam locomotive, and has released building instructions for free! A motor and battery box are hidden inside to bring this locomotive to life, with more to see at mahjqa’s photostream and via the video below. Plus you can dodge the fare to recreate it for yourself by clicking here.
YouTube Video
Here at The Lego Car Blog we don’t get out much. Partly this is because we work secretively in the shadows, but mostly it’s because TLCB Elves are banned from many public spaces.
However if you lead more exciting lives than we do, you can get out to the subject of today’s post, the huge LegoWorld 2024 show in Utrecht in the Netherlands.
Over two decades old, LegoWorld is the largest LEGO show on earth, and this year Flickr’s Tamás de Groot is making his exhibitor debut, leading the collaboration behind this epic (and enormous) railway layout.
Beautifully landscaped with trees, embankments, fields and bridges, there are multiple lines, locomotives, and a range of rolling stock travelling though the display, and you can see the whole thing (plus much more besides) at the LegoWorld 2024 show for the remainder of this month.
If like us you’re unable to make it to LegoWorld 2024 in person, head to Tamás de Groot’s Flickr album of the same name to see his fantastic display, or click here to take a look at a round-up from 2023.
Like regular train, only in space! if we’re honest we’re not quite sure how the overhead power-lines work, but Daniel Barwegen‘s build looks lovely nonetheless. It’s also available to buy in this year’s Creations for Charity fundraiser, to which Daniel has donated it. There’s more to see at his photostream via the link above, and you can click here to check out the fantastic Creations for Charity page.
Built in the late 1800s, this is a British J71 / E Class steam locomotive, a type that served on British railways all the way up until the 1960s.
Weighing around forty tons and designed for shunting, each J71 was powered by 1.3 tons of coal, which turned water to steam, steam into pressure, and pressure into movement. Except that is, for this one.
Created by Nikolaus Lowe, this fabulous recreation of the J71 definitely doesn’t weigh forty tons, but it really does movie thanks to air pressure, just like its full-size counterparts! Instead of 1.3 tons of coal, Nikolaus’ locomotive is fuelled by compressed air, which powers a functioning pneumatic engine that turns the drive wheels.
It’s all 100% LEGO, no parts are modified, and Nikolaus’ creation could sure shunt too, thanks to the torque provided by that compressed air.
There’s more of the model to see at Nikolaus’ ‘British J71 Class Pneumatic Engine’ album on Flickr, and you can shunt your way over via the link above.
It’s been a while without any cars here at The Lego ‘Car’ Blog, so today we’re on to trains. But we like trains. Particularly when they’re as beautifully built and presented as this one.
This huge diorama of a tiny train was constructed by builder Evancelt for the ‘2024 Rocky Mountain Train Show’ in Denver, and a more apt creation it’s hard to think of.
Travelling between two mountain tunnels by way of some cunningly concealed magnets that move under the tracks, Evancelt’s little steam train is a wonderful example of shrinking the scale to expand the detail.
From the micro-scale pick-up truck, fences and trees, to the galleon hidden in the cloud, there’s so much to see, and you can do just that at both Flickr and Eurobricks, where you can also find a video of the train in motion.
Click on the links above to take the tiniest little train journey.
Despite supposedly being a car blog, we’ve featured all manner of trains over the years. However they have almost all been steam or diesel powered, which doesn’t really reflect what is actually the prime energy source for moving people and things about on the railways.
Today electricity powers the majority of rail traffic, with it being far more efficient, a lot less polluting, and much quieter than burning fossilised dinosaurs, even if the electricity itself is generated by doing just that.
This exceptional electric locomotive is an SNCF CC6500, published by KMbricklab fresh from a win at the ‘Brick Train Awards 2023’. And they probably know about Lego trains.
There’s much more of KM’s beautifully presented model to see at their ‘SNCF CC6500 Electric Locomotive’ album on Flickr, and you can buy your rail ticket via the link in the text above.
Whilst this crumbling ruin in the corner of the internet is (mostly) a Lego Car Blog, we do like a Good Train. Which is probably the nerdiest sentence written outside of The Brothers Brick. Still, this is a very Good Train indeed, and it comes from previous bloggee Nikolaus Lowe.
A replica of a 1908 German steam locomotive ‘PtL 2/2 Glaskasten’, Nikolaus’ creation includes gorgeous detailing, some wonderful brick-built valve gear, remote control drive, and custom LED lighting front and rear.
Built for a competition there’s more of Nikolaus’ lovely locomotive to see on Flickr, and you can jump back to Germany in 1908 via the link in the text above.
This is a Baureihe 57 / Prussian G10, a German steam locomotive built in the 1910s-’20s for heavy goods transport. Around 2,600 Prussian G10s were produced, with an extra one – pictured here – arriving courtesy of Pieter Post, who has recreated the steam train in beautiful detail. Powered by a hidden Power Functions L Motor and BuWizz bluetooth battery, Pieter’s Prussian G10 is depicted navigating a wonderfully constructed forest track, complete with a transformer building and the best pine trees we’ve ever seen. Top of the billing however, is the smoke – which looks as real as anything made from plastic bricks could possibly be. Click the link above to smoke your way through a German forest in the 1920s.
This steam locomotive might look familiar to you… Built by Rogers Locomotive and Machine works in the 1890s, locomotive ‘No.3’ was a coal and later oil-fired steam locomotive used for various steam locomotive things; hauling freight, transporting passengers, and constructing various railroads across California during the early 20th century.
After three decades of service Locomotive No.3’s owners, the Sierra Railway Company, went bankrupt during the Great Depression, and it was laid up for fifteen years in a siding. The locomotive somehow dodged being melted down for the war effort, and after the Second World War ended it was acquired for film use, whereupon ‘No.3’ began a career that saw it star in around forty movies and TV shows, including ‘High Noon’, TLCB favourite ‘The Great Race’, and – perhaps most famously – ‘Back to the Future, Part III‘.
Restored in the 2010s, Locomotive No.3 is still running today, and thus may yet add even more stardust to an already incredible legacy. This wonderful recreation by firefabric of Eurobricks captures probably the world’s most seen steam train beautifully, and it includes a LEGO Powered-Up motor and LED lights hidden inside.
There’s much to more of the model to see, including full build details, at the Eurobricks discussion forum, and you can step into one of almost forty movie sets via the link in the text above.
Today’s beautiful brick-based image comes from previous bloggee Pieter Post, who – in collaboration with two other builders – has created this gorgeous Prussian P8 steam locomotive, tender, prisoner car, post and luggage car, and passenger coaches, along with the stunning heather-landscape in which it is pictured.
Produced for a Lego train show in the Netherlands, Pieter and his compatriots’ 1920s steam train includes a BuWizz bluetooth battery powering bespoke LED lighting and three L Motors concealed within the tender and boiler driving custom wheels.
Full details can be found and Pieter’s photostream and you can traverse the heather on board his Prussian P8 steam locomotive via the link in the text above.