When I started the original quest for Lion Knights’ castle, I set a few goals for myself: To re-use as many of my old bricks as possible in building a 6080 King’s Castle (to pass it all onto my son in a playable form) and to learn about building LEGO, as an adult fan of LEGO (AFOL), in the 21st century. I also noted that I may have to cut a few corners and cheat a little to get there. After some six months, I’m slowly getting there. My next project is to build the 7740 Inter-City Passenger Train and to experience the 1980 LEGO Trains 12V system, towards which I had only limited exposure as a child.

I have already gone through some of the background in the previous post, now it is time to lay out the rest of the ground rules. They will be somewhat different compared to the King’s Castle, because I want to go on learning and experiencing new things. By the way, that is one of the main contributions of the first project – clearly there is enough of new-found LEGO hunger in me to keep pushing forward with a second project. So, while my method will still be through building a legendary vintage set using parts from other childhood sets and new brickquisitions, my take on it will be somewhat different this time.

First, although I will use bricks from my childhood collection where possible and feasible (I expect the 7710 Push-Along Passenger Steam Train to be especially scavenged), this new project is not really about recycling them. If I can or want to buy new bricks for the train, I will. I won’t buy the full used set, though, where’s the fun in that. Second, I am a lot more open minded about taking liberties with the end-result. I don’t know how hard it will be to source functioning electrics or all the related original parts, so one variation I intend to explore is using Power Functions. I know that has been done before, but I may try it myself too, even if I am able to get a small legacy 12V system running as well.

Speaking of systems, the third thing is that I’m not religious about building the oval railroad that was included in the Inter-City Passenger Train. Depending on where the project takes me – 12V, Power Functions, both, or something else – I may build and accessorize a smaller or larger track or maybe none at all. All this will depend greatly on what I can gather and learn as I go forward. So there will be a little more room for imagination and variations within the project specifications. I think that kind of progress is good for my AFOL evolution as well. As for the looks of the train itself, though, I aim for accuracy as best I can.

With that in mind, I’m going to build myself an Inter-City Passenger Train.