Random set of the day: Maersk Train
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 10219 Maersk Train, released during 2011. It's one of 5 Advanced models sets produced that year. It contains 1234 pieces and 3 minifigs, and its retail price was US$119.99/£91.99.
It's owned by 6,151 Brickset members. If you want to add it to your collection you should find it for sale at BrickLink, where new ones sell for around $501.30, or eBay.
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47 comments on this article
I cleaned and rebuilt my Maersk train during the first big Australian lockdown in 2020 (well, actually I went on a bit of a cleaning spree and cleaned most of my older trains).
At the time it was released, I thought it was a beautiful set, one of the best train sets Lego has ever put out.
All these years later, I stand by that.
Best Lego train ever! Highly realistic model for a 6-wide, and Maersk Blue!
Stickers on multiple pieces. There are so many in this set. So many.
That is a lovely Blue.
fortunate to have 2 sets in my collection. Purchased first one at regular price and got the gwp 3300020 and built it immediately and recall being underwhelmed with the Truck but the Train was beautiful. About a year or so later, Lego was clearing them out online and picked up one at a 25-40% discount I believe likely after Christmas not sure what year. Still have that one in its uponed box. Awesome set but often tempted but will never sell the unopened box.
I bought 3 sets so I could have more containers cars(wagons). Plus lots of extra shipping containers from the set off eBay at the time. https://brickshelf.com/gallery/ToyKiwi/Maersk/20220716_160243.jpg
One of my prized possessions, and one of the last sets I got before a mini-Dark Age in my teenage years. Truly an amazing set, including the little yard tractor.
I’ll always love the trifecta of this, the Horizon Express, and the Emerald Night. I rigged my copy to have a second motor (made to match directions with a polarity switch that just barely fits behind the cab); consequently it’s incredibly powerful, and can pull some ridiculously long trains.
I'd love to have some Maersk blue. Not just because it's a rare Lego color, but because blue has always been my favorite color, and, as @Miyakan said, it's a pretty shade.
Even as someone who's not into trains, I was always a fan of this one
I always wanted a Lego train, so my father bought me this one. I was very happy with it and still am.
Later I was lucky enough to also get the Horizon Express so I have a cargo train and passenger train, both of which run.
Such a great set, detailed, looks great in a layout, had good play ability/functionality, like even just that dock truck is really well done and cool.
I have been wondering, what specific locomotive is this supposed to represent? I have this in my 1950s city and it fits fine although I'm guessing this is probably more from the 1970s/1980s?
This and the Emerald Night are two of my all-time favorite sets. Both have been proudly on display on a shelf above my bed for over 10 years now.
Still disappointed that I never got the Horizon Express to complete the trifecta of that era's amazing trains, but I recently found a few good models on rebrickable to extend the Emerald Night with some additional carriages. I'll probably do that sometime to get a proper passenger train.
Really hope that Lego will make some new high-quality trains again soon. The City passenger and cargo train rehashes got old over a decade ago.
Oof, great set. Horrific aftermarket price. Got mine in 2017 when I answered a LEGO train ad from a seller in a city I was visiting, and I think I bought from him 2 City trains used with boxes and instructions, plus two level crossings 7936 and this beauty also with box and instructions. I paid less for that entire collection than what this one alone is worth used today. And although my kids and I have played with the other two trains, I think this one has mysteriously been forgotten...
I agree with everyone about the train being beautiful, but let's not forget the matching truck. I'm not much of a train guy but the unusual build of the truck amazed me instantly. I have been dreaming about copying it fot years now, but that windshield... It's not gonna be the same without it.
What a great color scheme.
Is that a STAMP across the front?
A set so good I bought it twice. Along with bricklinking a few additional container wagons and containers all in the same style but different colors. Haven't opened the second set yet, but the first is motorized and hauling like a champ.
I'm not a train guy and at the time I kind of dismissed it as it wasn't a container ship. Looking back we were just spoiled for amazing train sets. It's a shame so many people won't even know about the sets from 2000-2014 because they had a dark age at the time.
Also a shame Maersk blue is gone :(
Someone needs to tell Benny that despite the colours this is not a space-train
@Brickchap said:
"
I have been wondering, what specific locomotive is this supposed to represent? I have this in my 1950s city and it fits fine although I'm guessing this is probably more from the 1970s/1980s?"
The loco design is closest to the EMD GP40-2, but the Maersk livery appeared for real on the similar (more wheels though) EMD SD40 , one of which (Norfolk Southern 3329) carried this livery in the 2000s
As others have said: That Maersk Blue is nice shade.
@Brickchap said:
"I have been wondering, what specific locomotive is this supposed to represent? I have this in my 1950s city and it fits fine although I'm guessing this is probably more from the 1970s/1980s?"
The train is known as the EMD GP60M Maersk 146
In 1990, the Danish shipping company Mærsk contracted with the Santa Fe Railway to paint one of their new GP60M locomotives into a special paint scheme to be used for filming footage for promotional purposes. ATSF GP60M 146 was delivered from EMD in primer and painted into a "Maersk blue Warbonnet" scheme, complete with Maersk lettering on the long hood, and sent west. A train of clean Maersk well cars full of clean Maersk containers was assembled.
The locomotive was painted back into ATSF Warbonnet 146 some time later.
Great looking set. And i'm not even into trains!
One of my favorite sets I unfortunately never managed to get (or even know about before it was too late to get one for a decent price).
Don't know what I was thinking at the time it was available for 90 euros, but some time after it went out of production I wanted it. Got scammed when I bought it on the secondary market, then started with a locomotive, box, instructions, containers, truck, parts and stickers, and by now I have the whole set, with some extra containers.
Can't believe it's been 12 years since this was released... I wonder why they stopped producing these high end trains after the Horizon Express? While the Crocodile Locomotive was nice, it wasn't a full train (with carriages) like the Maersk, Horizon Express and the Emerald Night.
@B_Space_Man said:
"What a great color scheme.
Is that a STAMP across the front? "
Yes. Applied in steps 31 (front) and 43 (rear)
With (at least) 6 more STAMPs on the Containers.
@Balthazar_Brannigan said:
"I’ll always love the trifecta of this, the Horizon Express, and the Emerald Night. I rigged my copy to have a second motor (made to match directions with a polarity switch that just barely fits behind the cab); consequently it’s incredibly powerful, and can pull some ridiculously long trains."
Agreed - great trio of trains. Did the same thing with this train. Two motors with a polarity switch. Glad to hear someone else had the same idea. The polarity switch and all the wires are a very tight fit but the end result pulls like the real thing. Lego train perfection. Even forgive Lego for the stickers.
Always looks great going around at Lego shows with too many wagons to count.
Never really available to buy, but I would display surrounded by container cranes on a dockside setting.
Rather than a separate polarity switch wouldn't it be easier to just change the polarity/direction on a 2nd battery box or 2nd controller?
My friend has this set, and I was never once jealous because of how many STAMPs there were. If I had gotten it, I might have built it without the stickers just so I could have the rarer Maersk Blue color that is no longer in production today, but that would have not looked as good for the time it would have been put together, and I doubt I'd be using them much anyway. Sometimes it's better to just not have some things and be happy for those that do.
One of those sets so great and so rare that for once I can understand people buying one from clone brands....
@8lackmagic said:
"Can't believe it's been 12 years since this was released... I wonder why they stopped producing these high end trains after the Horizon Express? While the Crocodile Locomotive was nice, it wasn't a full train (with carriages) like the Maersk, Horizon Express and the Emerald Night."
I never knew about the Horizon Express until recently, unfortunately the Bluemoose review on the 10233 page is no longer there.
@Randomness said:
"Stickers on multiple pieces. There are so many in this set. So many."
What about 10241?
@cm5878 said:
" @8lackmagic said:
"Can't believe it's been 12 years since this was released... I wonder why they stopped producing these high end trains after the Horizon Express? While the Crocodile Locomotive was nice, it wasn't a full train (with carriages) like the Maersk, Horizon Express and the Emerald Night."
I never knew about the Horizon Express until recently, unfortunately the Bluemoose review on the 10233 page is no longer there."
You can still find the review on Wayback Machine: https://web.archive.org/web/20130809034305/http://www.brickset.com/miscellaneous/reviews/10233/ ... It seems like it disappeared from Brickset somewhere between 2013 and 2016.
This one has aged very well; still a good looking set.
@anthony_davies said:
" @Balthazar_Brannigan said:
"I’ll always love the trifecta of this, the Horizon Express, and the Emerald Night. I rigged my copy to have a second motor (made to match directions with a polarity switch that just barely fits behind the cab); consequently it’s incredibly powerful, and can pull some ridiculously long trains."
Agreed - great trio of trains. Did the same thing with this train. Two motors with a polarity switch. Glad to hear someone else had the same idea. The polarity switch and all the wires are a very tight fit but the end result pulls like the real thing. Lego train perfection. Even forgive Lego for the stickers. "
I opened the motor and reversed the wires. Same effect as the polarity switch without having to cram more stuff in the locomotive.
A few years back, I think in 2016, we had four displays going at the same time, and didn’t have enough 9v track to cover them all. So Greenfield Village at The Henry Ford Museum got our first ever PF layout, and their docents and volunteers had no experience running PF trains. I was there on the first night so we had someone from the club in case we needed to troubleshoot anything. During a changeover with the engines, I gave the one on the outside line too much juice, and couldn’t stop it because the owner had buried the PF IR receiver below the top of the engine, so you had to be directly overhead to adjust the speed. Usain Bolt wouldn’t have been able to stop it in time, so all I could do is watch as the entire train rolled off the end of the table in unison. The Norfolk Southern engine was pretty much destroyed, but I was able to get it put back together because it was just a recolor of this engine, and I could pull up digital instructions that helped me sort out the more effectively dismantled portions.
And the next day, the THF staff did the same thing, but I don’t think we had any members on site at the time. The next year, I built berms for the four corners, which I think did end up catching at least one engine before it met a similar fate.
@Al_S said:
" @Brickchap said:
"
I have been wondering, what specific locomotive is this supposed to represent? I have this in my 1950s city and it fits fine although I'm guessing this is probably more from the 1970s/1980s?"
The loco design is closest to the EMD GP40-2, but the Maersk livery appeared for real on the similar (more wheels though) EMD SD40 , one of which (Norfolk Southern 3329) carried this livery in the 2000s
"
This is correct, NS 3329 was the specific basis of the LEGO version, and the LEGO model matches the NS colors well.
There were other Maersk locomotives, such as the GP60 somebody previously mentioned. There is also a SDP40F that got Maersk colors, and of the three it's the only one still wearing them! DynaRail 644/6976 is in Boulder City, Nevada where it pulls tourist trains on the outskirts of Las Vegas. Eventually 644 will probably be restored to its original Amtrak colors, but for the present time it still wears Maersk colors.
@daewoo said:
" @anthony_davies said:
" @Balthazar_Brannigan said:
"I’ll always love the trifecta of this, the Horizon Express, and the Emerald Night. I rigged my copy to have a second motor (made to match directions with a polarity switch that just barely fits behind the cab); consequently it’s incredibly powerful, and can pull some ridiculously long trains."
Agreed - great trio of trains. Did the same thing with this train. Two motors with a polarity switch. Glad to hear someone else had the same idea. The polarity switch and all the wires are a very tight fit but the end result pulls like the real thing. Lego train perfection. Even forgive Lego for the stickers. "
I opened the motor and reversed the wires. Same effect as the polarity switch without having to cram more stuff in the locomotive."
Gotta love the old days, when you would just rotate the connector 180 degrees :-)
@xboxtravis7992 said:
" @Al_S said:
" @Brickchap said:
"
I have been wondering, what specific locomotive is this supposed to represent? I have this in my 1950s city and it fits fine although I'm guessing this is probably more from the 1970s/1980s?"
The loco design is closest to the EMD GP40-2, but the Maersk livery appeared for real on the similar (more wheels though) EMD SD40 , one of which (Norfolk Southern 3329) carried this livery in the 2000s
"
This is correct, NS 3329 was the specific basis of the LEGO version, and the LEGO model matches the NS colors well.
There were other Maersk locomotives, such as the GP60 somebody previously mentioned. There is also a SDP40F that got Maersk colors, and of the three it's the only one still wearing them! DynaRail 644/6976 is in Boulder City, Nevada where it pulls tourist trains on the outskirts of Las Vegas. Eventually 644 will probably be restored to its original Amtrak colors, but for the present time it still wears Maersk colors. "
@brickchap - If we look at the six-axle prototype that used this paint scheme, the SD40 in question was built sometime between 1966 and 1972, according to Wikipedia. If we look at the wheel arrangement of the set alone, the GP40-2 would be constructed between 1972 and 1986. Take your pick on which one you want to call it, as neither it totally accurate to the set in all aspects... and the engine wasn't painted in the scheme until around 2000 anyway!
Hope this helps with your question about the era this belongs to!
This was the set that made me cave in and get into LEGO trains. I'd been resisting the urge to buy the Emerald night, but then this one came along too, so I then got both. So glad I did! Excellent set!
This came out in my second Dark Age. I wish I didn't miss out on this amazing set.
I literally just saw a Maersk container last night in a video and was thinking "wasn't there a cool LEGO set of that?" then I wake up to this, haha the chances.
I ended up getting this on eBay for about $300, several years after its original discontinuation. IIRC, this appreciated in price very quickly after it was discontinued and sometimes went for much more.
I did get the buy, and I'm glad I did. A great train for the collection.
But the moral seems to be: If you like a set and can afford it, buy now before it goes up, up, up in price.
I was delighted to see this set when it came out. It helped solidify a relationship between LEGO and Maersk in my mind, one stemming from the plethora of Maersk LEGO sets over the decades as well as the fact both are huge international companies based in Denmark, and still largely family businesses (whose family owners are friends, I’ve read), and surely many a LEGO set has reached store shelves after a long journey on Maersk vehicles and vessels. I now can’t see a Maersk intermodal container without thinking of LEGO.
Towards the end of this set’s availability I bought two copies on clearance, as I’d done a year or so earlier with the Emerald Night. I dearly wish I’d managed to get the Horizon Express to complete that trio of classic trains so many others here cite, but like @MrBob above, I never did manage to get the last one, though I do still have two copies apiece of both the EN and this. All four are still sealed; most of the time I’ve had them I haven’t really had enough space available for big train track layouts (with all the accompanying city stuff I want to have in there), so I just haven’t built them yet. They’re part of a huge stockpile of still-sealed sets from across the last couple decades that are just waiting for me to get the LEGO room organized enough to be able to build everything. If I ever get it together I’m going to have a massive build-a-thon of tons of stuff all at once.
I’m particularly looking forward to the Maersk Train, though as several have noted this otherwise lovely set is marred a bit by several STAMPS, at least one of which covers a whole slew of cheese slopes in the entirely-too-rare Maersk blue. Fortunately having two copies of this, I think I’ll build one fully including all stickers, but leave off a bunch of stickers from the second one so I’ll have the freedom to reuse elsewhere those parts that would otherwise take STAMPs. But at the risk of coming across as appallingly greedy, I wish I’d been able to get at least one more (and another Emerald Night, and at least two Horizon Expresses, etc.).
@Lego_lord said:
"I agree with everyone about the train being beautiful, but let's not forget the matching truck. I'm not much of a train guy but the unusual build of the truck amazed me instantly. I have been dreaming about copying it fot years now, but that windshield... It's not gonna be the same without it."
The replacement design for the windshield (84954 -> 35193) is available on Bricks and Pieces in the correct color, currently.
@8lackmagic said:
"Can't believe it's been 12 years since this was released... I wonder why they stopped producing these high end trains after the Horizon Express? While the Crocodile Locomotive was nice, it wasn't a full train (with carriages) like the Maersk, Horizon Express and the Emerald Night."
The Krokodil was excellent. What about the upcoming Orient Express? I fear it'll be a bit too expensive as it looks to be heading towards a scale model rather than a train set...
I only recently got this set so I had to put powered up pieces in the train instead of power functions. Also added a second train motor so it is now super powered. XD