When I first saw this locomotive, I thought it was a bit ugly because it was too tall and the wheelbase was too short.

But this form was somehow familiar from real life. Then it occurred to me that the GWR 5400 Class locomotives look very similar, only in dark green.

For me, this locomotive is interesting for 3 things:

- First of all, it was the first motorized lego locomotive.

- Here they used a solution that was no longer used later. The battery holder was attached to the top of the engine, so there was no need to thread wires through the tender car. This is quite a compact solution from 1966!

- Although this locomotive was also added to the 113 set, they also added a mail car and a passenger car.

Since the engine works with a C battery, the locomotive is not very fast. In addition, the old European batteries had a much smaller diameter than today's modern C batteries. The motor and the battery holder make this set quite difficult to obtain, as both are quite rare.

The rear red coupler is quite rare, maybe it was only used in 1966-1967, then they switched to the magnetic solution quite quickly, even in that decade.

The locomotive has a small design flaw: When you want to change the battery, the headlight brick or 1x1 window falls out when you open the battery box.

The other problem stems from the age of the set. The rubber anti-skid pads on the wheel have completely hardened and dried, so they break and wear.

Overall

It is difficult to get a locomotive in good condition because of the battery holder and the engine. And if you can find it, it's amazingly expensive. Regardless, the locomotive is interesting in terms of technological solutions. I definitely recommend this set to collectors.

It's a shame that there is no sticker on the front of the nose. It would look much better if the set number was written on the nose in white numbers, like the later locomotives. This was a good idea by the video creator.

My mod

I put the headlights lower, because of the problems mentioned earlier. And I changed them to yellow because the red was very boring. The yellow color is more contrasting against the blue and looks more like the old brass gas lamps.

I placed two 1x2 blue bricks in front of the front wheels to imitate the piston part.

For me, the top and the front are a bit empty or boring. In my version I improved the visuals a bit. I replaced the window with a 2x2 transparent brick, instead of a 2x3.