Huzzah! Old trains!

I liked this little guy, although it was a bit of a puzzle. The cab, there, is open at the back, hinting that the engine should have a tender, but the set was just this little locomotive. I guess that helped shoppers customise their train, because you could easily add a tender to the engine and it would look great.

I have the motor at the base (in black) and the wheels. Now all I need is those black slopes...

'Would it help if I got out and pushed?' LOL great set. I'd probably buy it and give it a few tiles here and there, but I can probably build my own anyway.

I'm not aware of train range, but this little one, just made of square bricks and slopes, is so nice.

Not as good as Lights, but okay, it's still LEGO.

Wow, only 97 pieces

one of 28 - 28 in a year, good times

It's amazing, there were 6 of these small black steam trains in this era - and all were slightly different.

@essel: if you are partial to German locomotives and carriages, you might be interested in what Bluebrixx have on offer:

https://www.bluebrixx.com/en/bluebrixxspecials/trains

Don't worry if many items say "Currently out of stock". They produce only small runs, but all of them should be back in stock at some point. Best to click the "Inform me, when available" button. Works a treat.

They also have some cool rail related buildings like these:

https://www.bluebrixx.com/en/trains/101043/Train-Station-BlueBrixx-Special

https://www.bluebrixx.com/en/architecture/101038/Stellwerk-BlueBrixx-Special

https://www.bluebrixx.com/en/architecture/100284/Locomotive-shed-BlueBrixx-Special

https://www.bluebrixx.com/en/architecture/100285/Locomotive-shed-middle-section-BlueBrixx-Special

I cannot recommend them highly enough.
Having built several of their sets I can say their designs are really cool, their building techniques are challenging at times, but also rewarding in the end, and parts quality is better than what I would have expected from pieces sourced in China. Certainly better than Lepin and the like.

Aaaa yes..., the trains of the 80's. My childhood and in my humble opinion still the best Lego train era :)

Nothing will ever again match the simplicity of electricity, remote controlled switches and signals, lights, accessories...

@Austinpowers

It's not Lego...

@heikoloogi
I know what you mean. Until earlier this year I never even looked at other brands. As a train enthusiast Lego has been a deserted island for many years now. Of course I can try to build MOCs or purchase instructions of others. However when looking at the cost for a single locomotive depending on the size, it’s easy to spend 150+ hard earned Euros. Then BlueBrixx mostly nicely designed trains were just too tempting for me. I can now start building really long trains for reasonable money. The downside sometimes still are missing parts for. To be fair, they have always supplied them afterwards and their web interface makes requesting the missing parts super easy.
Last week I came back to the Lego Hidden side train and it was rather disappointing when compared to the BlueBrixx. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a reasonable train apart from the new train wheels and the missing magnetic couplings. If BlueBrixx were to improve the quality of their bricks a bit more (to me they feel a bit like slightly used Lego), they will be a very strong competitor among the non-purists.

@heikoloogi: so what?
If you want to wait until TLG offers such sets you will wait until eternity.
The quality is almost as good as LEGO, the builds are fun, the designs are awesome and the price is more than fair.
Unless you are a total LEGO fanboy who is unwilling to try legal alternatives I can see no reason to dismiss them. Remember this is not Lepin or some other copycat manufacturer.

For being made primarily out of square-ish blocks, that looks really good!
Sometimes less is more, I guess.