Classic LEGO sets: 12V Trains
Posted by Huw,
This week we have a new guest contributor to our series on classic LEGO sets, David Graham, who has written this piece on 12V trains.
To many fans, the 12V train system, a complete train system with a European feel, was the pinnacle of LEGO trains. I refer to them here as 12V trains but in fact in the years that they were produced --1980 to 1990 -- LEGO also made push-along and 4.5V battery trains as well. Fans often call the era the 'grey track' era, which came after 'blue track' and before '9V track'.
One of the great things about collecting 12V trains is that they are still mainly compatible with today's trains. You just need to change the motor and find a location for the battery box.
One of the advantages of trains from this era was the fact that you could start with a push-along train and upgrade it to a battery train with the addition of a 4.5V motor and battery box, or upgrade it to a 12V train with the addition of a 12V motor, speed controller and conductor rails. This multitude of different systems was perhaps one of the reasons that the system was replaced by 9V trains in 1991.
It proved to be difficult to decide which sets to include in this article as being the most collectable: it would be have been easier to list those to ignore given that there were so many great sets. So, I'm going to include one passenger train, one goods train, one accessory, one building and one electrical accessory.
7740 Electric Inter-City Passenger Train Set
There were five passenger train sets released in the era, one of my favourites being 7715 Push-along Train which, being small, looks right on a small layout.
However, the most collectable and sought after has to be 7740 which, along with the other train sets released in 1980, were the first to have opening doors, realistic train windows, buffers and couplings.
The electric locomotive and two coaches look great in red and yellow. There were no less than ten minifigs in the set, including a chef. In common with all passenger train sets of the era, a platform was included.
7730 Electric Goods Train Set
There were also five freight train sets produced during this era: two battery operated, and three 12V. The battery operated sets 7720 and 7722 had an automatic reversing switch and stop/start signal: wouldn't it be nice if we had those today!
However my pick of the five is 7730 because the small steam locomotive and three goods wagons look right running on a small layout.
Six small steam locomotives were produced, each one slightly different. The red wheels gave them a distinct German feel. It is a pity that with today's battery operation it is doubtful that LEGO will produce a small locomotive again.
The mixture of freight wagons in the set, the open wagon, the cement(?) wagon and the refrigerated van fit well together. The freight sets made nowadays do not look right because, in the UK at least, you no longer get mixed freight trains on today's railways.
Like many freight sets, this one included a fork-lift truck. One of the points to note with this and 7740 is that you had to buy the speed regulator separately which helped keep the initial cost down.
7838 Freight Loading Set
The 12V era included a range of buildings including two stations, three freight buildings and three level crossings.
Unlike today where LEGO only seems to make container cranes, the 12V era provided us with a Container Crane 7823, a Car Transport Depot 7839 and this one, which in my opinion was the best, 7838 Freight Loading Depot.
As well as including a crane and tipper wagon, it included a warehouse and office.
7819 Mail Van
Today there are no train accessories, just trains sets and buildings. Everyone wishes LEGO would produce additional wagons but they will not, they say they are unprofitable: train sets sell but supplementary sets do not, apparently.
However in the 12V era, there was a wide range of locomotives, passenger and freight wagons available. Two of the most sought-after must be 7760 Diesel Shunter and 7750 Steam Train with Tender (with large driving wheels). However they are so difficult to come by nowadays that instead I have suggested 7819. Together with 7815 Sleeper Car it could be added to 7740 Inter City Passenger Train to make an even longer train.
These supplementary sets really did complement the larger train sets and it's a great shame that we can't buy them for today's train system.
7866 Remote Controlled Level Crossing
One of the reasons fans see the 12V era as being the high point for trains was the number of electrical accessories available and many fans are disappointed that this functionally has not been replicated since.
One of the problems with the 12V system was that the track was always live, so you could not stop one train and have another one running. This problem was solved with 7860 Remote Controlled Signal but you needed two so that you could swap control of the trains. The remote control points 7858 and 7859 allowed you to control points on the other side of the layout.
There was also the ability to decouple the wagons from the locomotive using the ingenious 7862 Remote Controlled Decoupler. However, the best electrical accessory must be 7866 Remote Controlled Level Crossing. With it you could make the lights flash and raise and lower the barriers by the push of a button and there was even a modern style signal box. This working level crossing can be still be used with today's trains.
It was nice to be able to control your trains using these accessories but were they really necessary? You can just use your hand to change the points and decouple the locos, after all... Another problem with the system was the number of wires that had to be run all over the layout: they usually ended up looking a mess.
7777 Train Ideas Book
Finally, an article on 12V trains would not be complete without mentioning one of the most collectable items from the era that is not even made from LEGO: 7777 Train Ideas Book. It's filled with fantastic photos, inspiration and instructions for cranes, locomotives, bridges and wagons.
You'll have to pay an arm and a leg to get hold of one now so you may have to console yourself with scans of it at Peeron.
I hope you enjoyed this article: if you did I'll write some for the other classic train eras.
Want to buy the sets mentioned in this article?
Unfortunately, but perhaps not surprisingly, not many of these sets are available on eBay at the moment. The links below will search eBay.com and show you what is on offer:
- 7740 Electric Inter-City Passenger Train Set
- 7730 Electric Goods Train Set
- 7819 Mail Van
- 7838 Freight Loading Set
- 7866 Remote Controlled Level Crossing
- 7777 Train Ideas Book
The commission we receive when you buy or bid at eBay via links at Brickset directly contributes to the running and upkeep of the site.
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18 comments on this article
Great article, the high point of my childhood was having a city on the trundle under my bed which had a 12v train line looping around it, many hours spent :)
I love Lego Trains, and I think that would be my favourite theme. The old-school trains were just wonderful. One of my first ever train sets was 7715, which I wanted for years until I found it on eBay. It was expensive, but worth every cent. I've always wanted 7740 (particularly because it has all those wonderful add-on carriages), but I figure, with the Metroliner *and* the Santa Fe train, you really don't need 7740 as well because both those sets have the best parts of 7740 included.
And yes, I'm one of the lucky few who own 7777. It's the most brilliant out of all the ideas books. I did have to pay quite a lot for one, but yeah, it was worth it. It's a brilliant book.
I had the 7740 and 7866 crossing as a kid. Looking back now I naturally wish I didn't foolishly sell them off. Such a shame that trains are not a major part of TLG releases like they used to be.
I like the idea of the train sets, and they look cool, but wow are they pricey.
This is a good article! Well done!
I can remember poring over the LEGO catalogues when I was a kid wishing I could have a layout with points and lights, and those trains!! Such simple designs but they looked fantastic and everything felt like a train _system_, not like todays trains which feel far more stand-alone.
I can understand LEGO not wanting to produce the same amount of accessories as they did in the past but this years lineup of trains misses the ~£15 Level Crossing type set. Surely they could have done a little signal box for that sort of price?
Having recently found a 7735 - Freight Train set in near mint condition in a charity shop I'm torn - do I convert it to PF or have a separate loop for 12v? I can feel some BrickLinking coming on!
Nice article! Recently I got my hands on train set 182 from the "blue track era." Unfortunately, I am still missing at least one "grey track era" set in my collection.
Great stuff. Another trip down memory lane! I had loads of blue track and parts from an early 70s train set, never had the electric ones. I always wanted a decent (complete) train set, but Space and City always got in the way.
Great article, but sadly, 12V is well before my time. I'm one of those people who would take the idea and go make something modern and awesome out of the shape and colors. Something along the lines of Peter Reid's redesigns of Ice Planet and Blacktron sets for Lego Space: Building the Future. That idea book does actually look very cool, and more electronic stuff like that crossing is sorely lacking in modern train sets.
For the next 'collecting' article, you should do a write-up on Castle: Black Knights/Black Falcons. That would be awesome.
"It is a pity that with today's battery operation it is doubtful that LEGO will produce a small locomotive again."
Why? HoMa has shown what's possible by re-imagining 7730 in Power Functions:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/holgermatthes/3904730944/in/set-72157622321782510
I was fortunately enough to buy LEGO train lots from Australia and got most, if not all, of my 12V trains,track, cars, and accessories. I could never get any trains partly because the 7722 was too expensive and 12v were hard to come by in the US. So once I decided to start collecting all of the LEGO trains (at least with those for minifigs) I thought I would not be able to get those 12v. But some timely lot buying from AUS I have pretty much all 12v except for 7750 and the 7866 sets as i just cannot find those cheaply.
Wow. I didn't know 7777 was so sought after. I have all the idea books as these were cheaper than buying new sets and aided the creativity process as well as providing new instructions before the days of the internet.
Just thinking about the small locomotives and all the battery ones had an extra wagon to hold the batteries and I have 7720 which is set up like this and never thought anything of it. So you could always do the same with PF gear to have a small loco. Of course then you aren't even restricted to having a goods wagon either. It could be anything you wanted. Maybe even a double header!
After a family member had visited Europe, I was given 7745 for Christmas one year. It is still a favorite. Yes, LEGO has lost money in the recent past with this theme, but with the ever growing market of children and adults, there is renewed interest in trains. With the right pricing, an expanded train series with accessory cars, crossings, and other sets would be quite profitable for LEGO.
As a brand new fan of Lego trains, this article came at just the right time! I just picked up 7722 and it's my first train (actually still in the mail) and I'm looking forward to setting it up with my kids. Another thing 1980 trains were first to have were minifigs (a few cars from '78 had them, but no engines that year). 1980 was a giant year for trains. I think they've really simplified things since the 12V era, which is good and bad. It's pretty crazy just how complex a 12V layout could be.
Also, if I might plug my recently-created History of Lego Trains bricklist, http://brickset.com/sets/list-10625 I think it complements this article nicely.
I've just been soaking up info on Lego trains these days, so again, thanks for the excellent article and timing!
@Duq - I'd also suggest pinioncorp's Small Red Shunter, as seen here - http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=71693 - particularly as it's size is nearer that of classic train sets.
This is a nice article, David, although I would have preferred you have offered just a bit less personal opinion and gone into a bit more detail and spoken a bit more about especially collectible parts of some of the sets you've mentioned - i.e. the rare red 12v motor in 7730 which only appeared elsewhere twice, the old style 1x2x2 windows in old light grey that only appeared in 7740 , etc.. you also mention '12v' trains as being produced from 1980 to 1990. While the 'grey era' 12v sets were available in that time period, 'blue era' 12v sets were available beginning in 1969.
Just my two cents as constructive criticism.
Thanks for the comments - I don't have the whole range, some of you are lucky.
You can make small trains with PF but I wonder if LEGO will make a small train in the future?
It is hard to define the era, '12v' was a simple label.
I think we all have strong opinions on LEGO, if you don't share your opinion it just becomes a list of sets.
I didn't want to go into too much detail and I don't always realise how rare some of the parts are.
I hadn't realised there is a History of Lego Trains bricklist, I will check it out.
How can you forget mentioning 7824 in this article? It's too my knowledge still the largest train station you can buy. I still have mine built for display together with my simple 7710 train. They are my oldest set from my childhood, so I would never get rid of these!
That's interesting that there's no mixed freight in the UK; we still have lots here in Canada and the States.