That forklift isn’t exactly practical.

@MCLegoboy:
No, you see, you just dangle the wires in a tub of water, and the current will make it boil. I mean, not right away...or even within your lifetime, probably, but you know, around the time the sun turns red and envelopes Earth.

Seems we're getting three VSotW's instead of one this week.

There's a very large piece in here just for the forklift system. It's just one big piece, no separation, at least according to the databases.
Oh the fun of old pieces.

One of the trains I was hunting for but never thought Id get, but lo and behold I found what appeared to be one in an huge eBay train lot (from Australia no less).. A lot of shipping was paid but I got the lot and had most of the pieces for the train (and other 80's trains as well), sadly no stickers, but there have been a few people who have made repro stickers over the years. It was really fun getting that back together.

@madforLEGO said:
"One of the trains I was hunting for but never thought Id get, but lo and behold I found what appeared to be one in an huge eBay train lot (from Australia no less)."

I know the feeling. I felt the same way about 6561 and 6350 and with some incredible luck I got it from a single lot, among others. No trains though, oh well, I'm still young...

I own this one, great set!

I had to double check whether this was the one I have. Not quite, as I have 7710 instead

Three days of older sets in a row! For train fans this is probably relatively modern -it being from after the blue rails era- but I can't help but feel vintage vibes from this one.

Looking closer, it might just be the grainy image though. Anyone who owns one here who might happen to be able to provide Brickset a better image?

I forgot all about it but once I found half a steam train in a lot, I just trawled throught the eighties trains and turns out it wasn't this one but 7722 Steam Cargo Train Set: wagons and platform but no locomotive and forklift. It gets worse as there also was half of 375 Castle and most of 6392 Airport (that one I've been able to complete though) and of course the seller later uploaded a second lot which seemed to include the rest inside the box of 375 so I immediately contacted him again but alas, that was sold already :-(

This one wasn't in the catalogues for long and seems to be quite sought after.

I like the pallets which must be quite an early instance but Lego have been quite inconsistent with the size, these ones are 4x6 but it wasnt long before 6x8 seemed to be the standard on 6361, 7823, 4030, 6542 etc.

So pretty!

@MCLegoboy said:
"A 12 volt Steam Engine? You're being silly again LEGO."

Funny you should say that! The Swiss actually ran some electrically-heated steam locomotives during WW2 to save on coal. Pretty funky-looking, little shunting engines with a pantograph on the roof, but they seem to have worked fairly well.

I mix this one up with 7722 --but the 12V tracks give it away. I just love the charm of the early 80s trains.

The previously named 'electric goods train' 7730 seems to be an odder name with the similar steam train. So I can see why they just named it 'freight train' in the following 7735. What was great is you could just buy the motor in 7865 if you already had a previous 1970s push-along train which you wanted to reuse with your new 12V layout.

@CCC said:
" @MCLegoboy said:
"A 12 volt Steam Engine? You're being silly again LEGO."

The coal fuelled ones didn't get through the testing phase.
"

Toy trains from another era.....probably wouldn't work so well with plastic though: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoSHUVQXIxI

@LegoBoi69 said:
"I think I've got that loco as a GWP somewhere, albeit a modern display piece of it .. if not, its darn similar. "

That's likely 40370, which is based on 7810.

I had the Intercity train for Christmas 1981; I seem to remember thinking that the steam trains offered looked a bit old fashioned at the time and kids wanted something more modern looking which is why I am guessing these sets were not popular, had a short availability and are now very rare (and expensive)! That red motor costs a fortune on Bricklink...

@Rob42 said:
" @MCLegoboy said:
"A 12 volt Steam Engine? You're being silly again LEGO."

Funny you should say that! The Swiss actually ran some electrically-heated steam locomotives during WW2 to save on coal. Pretty funky-looking, little shunting engines with a pantograph on the roof, but they seem to have worked fairly well."

Its so strange they had plenty of hydroelectric power, but very little coal, coupled with a shortage of electric locos, but plenty of steamers. So odd a situation, but they made do with what they had!

@PurpleDave said:
" @MCLegoboy:
No, you see, you just dangle the wires in a tub of water, and the current will make it boil. I mean, not right away...or even within your lifetime, probably, but you know, around the time the sun turns red and envelopes Earth."

Something makes me suspect that the boiling will have a lot more to do with "the sun turn[ing] red and envelop[ing] Earth" than the 12V...

Why has TLG produced so few steam trains? In my country, steam trains are the most iconic. Is that not the case in mainland Europe?

@Bornin1980something said:
"Why has TLG produced so few steam trains? In my country, steam trains are the most iconic. Is that not the case in mainland Europe?"

Sadly, most of the world stopped using steam locomotion over 50-60 years ago (if not longer!). China used it until the late-2000's, but stopped building new locos in the 1980's. Like 5% of the people alive today remembers steam in regular use, and most people either consider them museum pieces, or kids stuff. (like Thomas, for example) Also, steam engines were very localized in design: German steamers look nothing like English ones, and both look completely different from the American giants of the rails. (Australia was a amalgamation of US / UK / German designs, as was most of Africa and Asia) Thus, any set released would make the other 2/3 of the world angry they hadn't picked "their" design.... even then, if they (for example) picked a Big Boy articulated, there would be the subset of the community screaming about them not picking a New York Central streamlined Hudson or a Southern Pacific GS-4 Daylight! Then we have to talk about the coaches...

I like those simpler, blockier trains, of course real world steam locmotives weren't really using octagonal boilers , but the shapes built out of slopes just feel very Toyish to me , in a good way.

Of course nowadays we see much bigger shaped 18+ train sets, but once in a while I think a simpler approach can still be interesting.

Even a set like 4559 : Cargo Railway did have a steam locomotive alternate build using those black slopes used in the set (page 40-42 of instructions pdf)

About steam trains.....even when multiple generations have grown up without having seen steam trains in regular service or maybe even at all, I don't think their appeal has diminished that much. I mean, there's a reason why Thomas the Train, with mostly steam engines, is wildly popular among kids worldwide. Oigawa Railway in Japan has even repainted some of their steam engines (that are still in daily use) like the Thomas-characters. Ask a young kid to draw a train, chances are they draw a steam engine. Modern trains just don't have that.

And even Lego regularly makes steam engines, like the Harry Potter sets, as small builds in Classic sets, or miniature builds as toys. But a regular (City) train set with a steam engine......that's been a while.

As for the differences in steam engines between countries/continents, dare I say the differences are even stronger with diesel and electric trains?

We can only dream of LEGO producing a set like this today.

A steam engine with a modern forklift? Silly.

Also silly is Lego's continued ignorance of the rabid fan base for historic trains. Hopefully, the Trans-Siberian Express will help sate the unmet desire.

@Quinnly said:
"That forklift isn’t exactly practical."

What’s not practical about it?

@StyleCounselor said:
"A steam engine with a modern forklift? Silly."
Might not be as silly actually....after all, Deutsche Bundesbahn only stopped using steam engines in 1977, a mere 6 years before this set was released.

@StyleCounselor:
Rabid-but-small. In a world where complicated steam engines will sell to a tiny market, or simple diesel trains will sell to a much wider market, the latter win. The best the LTC community is likely to see is the occasional high-end Icons engine, like the Crocodile from a few years ago, but even those are going to be split between diesel and steam. And from what I’ve seen, the community just needs a steady supply of parts to do their own thing. That’s probably one of the main reasons you see some trainheads pushing for more steam engines. It’s not so much that they want the sets as it is that the sets guarantee the parts will remain available for a while.

Is it really that small? After all, looking at of the more serious train sets Lego made in somewhat recent history, like the Emerald Night, the Horizon Express or the Maersk train, those are among the most sought-after (and copied) sets. So there definitely seems to be a demand among the millions of train fans worldwide. I obviously don't know how well the Crocodile did, but that was A) a rather flawed set, and B) had quite a bit of an availability problem.

I don't think anyone expects a huge variety of train sets from Lego like, say, BlueBrixx does, but considering Lego has no issue in making tons of sets for other niche groups, would just a few more (realistic) trains really be too much to ask for?

@WizardOfOss:
Sure. Look at the numbers (keeping in mind this is just Brickset members who report their collections). Between owned and wanted, 10194 is just shy of 11500. 10233 just under 10600. 10219, just under 11100. Compare those to year-old 10497 at exactly 10700, and actually owned by quite a few more than any of those three trains. Compare it to 75098 at 9949, even though it retailed for nearly as much as the Horizon Express and the Maersk Train combined, and a lot of people seem to think it was the worst SW set ever made. One more person currently owns 76139 than owns and wants the Horizon Express. These are numbers from dedicated AFOLs, and aren't even factoring casual adult fans who only care about specific licensed IP.