The train project is picking up steam, now that the castle is finished and my LEGOLAND reporting for the 2013 season has been completed.

To illustrate the diversity of my sources for the Quest for Inter-City train, here is a picture of the parts I’m using to build the train. This is also roughly my building setup and gives you some idea how many different kinds of pieces really are involved in the 786 strong 7740 Inter-City Passenger Train. When one just pours the pieces out of a retail box, people don’t always appreciate the trouble that would go into sourcing them separately, but here it becomes more obvious. (Do note, though, there are of course a lot of extraneous parts in the boxes in top left and top right corners.)

Train building

Note: You can click the image for larger a version.

From top left: In the smaller box are train related parts from my childhood LEGO collection, I will only use some of these for this train. Next to it, brand new parts in yellow and blue, mostly from the online LEGO Shop. On top right, leftovers from my Quest for Lion Knights’ castle – unfortunately black and old grey mixed together at one point, I only really need old grey from there. (Old grey is my weak link, I haven’t counted it carefully. I will also have to wash it most.)

In the middle row, on the left, brand new black parts for the 7740 Inter-City Passenger Train, new red parts in the middle and on the right some assorted tracks from my childhood collection (those manual points won’t work for a 12V train, but would work with the Power Functions modification). I also have the 12V Transformer and a couple of pieces of the 12V track system (not pictured here). I am not building the full 7740 Inter-City Passenger Train oval, though.

On the bottom row are my train related BrickLink acquisitions on the left and right (some very recently arrived), mainly yellow/red train doors, windows and special parts on the left, and on the right 1980s train wheels, buffer beams/couplings, grey roof parts/plates and, most importantly, the 12V train motor in black. Luckily a lot of these old special parts are a lot less dusty and dirty as my childhood collection parts are. There are also a few redundant pieces here, e.g. leftovers from Quest for Lion Knights’ castle, but most of the stuff on the bottom will go into the train.

In the bottom middle, with the new train baseplate, are my ever important tools: 630 Brick Separators and the Designers’ Tool Set.