Man, they were using the logo on that mail car for a while. I'm pretty sure they kept using it into this century.

What's the extra wagon for? There's nothing to add on it, it's just empty. I suppose it's so you can add your own stuff, but that wouldn't be very complete, now would it?
False advertising I say!

Those locomotive wheels are...off.

Still have mine, although the engine and tender have been retired from active duty and replaced by 10277 with PF motor.

@MCLegoboy: Well, it could represent a "flat-car"; because: it's "flat", and most 'rolling stock' are classed as 'cars'...:)

As for me: don't have a "display", but still working (mostly through LDD) on a design for an engine using the helicopter/bomber nose.

Is that a description or a command? “Complete train with three wagons!” “Operate train with three wagons!” “Destroy train with three wagons!”

What I want to know is, in that image above, what is the set number sticker covering?

I bet there were some that were really chuffed when they got this after saving their pocket money for weeks.... Then were really hacked off when 12v was released the same year and they wished they'd waited!

For a moment I thought this was some dubious advertising, that they counted the tender as one of the 3 cars. Only then I noticed that flat car...

It is a bit unusual though to use a tender locomotive for such a short, mixed train, a tank locomotive would make more sense. But other than that this is just pure Lego goodness.

@cm5878 said:
"What I want to know is, in that image above, what is the set number sticker covering?"

Seems to be the same picture as the booklet in 116: Starter Train Set with Motor

@WizardOfOss: A tank engine would make more sense, but such are the limitations of the time. That chonky battery box with three D cells has to go somewhere.

@TheOtherMike said:
"Man, they were using the logo on that mail car for a while. I'm pretty sure they kept using it into this century."

If you’re referring to the curly trumpet thing it’s a very traditional feature of many European Postal service logos to this day. It’s a called a Post Horn(!) and was used to signal the arrival of a postal rider or coach.

LEGO was really thinking for the future when they named this one: a fan of today's LEGO definitely needs to be informed that this was, at the time, a complete train.

That kid is probably a granddad for 10+ years

@Randomness:
It's "Complete Train" _with_ "three wagons". Apparently all it takes to be a complete train is a steam engine and tender. The rolling stock is superfluous.

@TheOtherMike:
I don't know about the full horn-with-envelope logo, but the horn definitely did, with 2011's 10222.

@NotProfessorWhymzi:
Every year, we do a display at The Henry Ford Museum, within eyeshot of one of the last two surviving Alleghany engines (and the other one is in poor shape). The way those used to operate, two engines would hook up to a line of coal cars coming out of Kentucky, and haul them to the top of the Alleghany Mountains. From there, one would take them down the other side and haul the empty cars back to be reloaded. The second engine would just turn around and go back to hook up for another load. So, that is one instance I can think of where just an engine without a single car (not even a caboose) would regularly travel outside of railyards.

@PurpleDave said:
"
@NotProfessorWhymzi:
Every year, we do a display at The Henry Ford Museum, within eyeshot of one of the last two surviving Alleghany engines (and the other one is in poor shape). The way those used to operate, two engines would hook up to a line of coal cars coming out of Kentucky, and haul them to the top of the Alleghany Mountains. From there, one would take them down the other side and haul the empty cars back to be reloaded. The second engine would just turn around and go back to hook up for another load. So, that is one instance I can think of where just an engine without a single car (not even a caboose) would regularly travel outside of railyards."

Don't forget helper engines for big / steep hills also would 'run light' (as it is called) back down the hill to be in position for the next train needing a push.

@Murdoch17:
Well, that's exactly what they were doing with the Alleghany engines, but that happened to be the only instance I was aware of.

@PurpleDave said:
" @Murdoch17:
Well, that's exactly what they were doing with the Alleghany engines, but that happened to be the only instance I was aware of."

That'll teach me to read / reply to a post while exhausted!

@Murdoch17:
Been there, done that. RXotD posts from 1-3am, UK time. Here, it's 8-10pm. So, if you ever see posts from me with timestamps after 5am, I should be sleeping. I _almost_ made my first post to this one last night, but I was so tired I just knew I'd end up falling asleep before I finished typing it.

@thor96 said:
" @xboxtravis7992 said:
"I honestly don't know as much about central European trains, but LEGO steam of this era with black bodies and red wheels seems to follow what was standard practice in German railroading. In East Germany there are plenty of cases of steam surviving in service until the Fall of the Berlin Wall, such as on the Harz narrow gauge network which still runs as a heritage line now. "

For a guy that honestly don't know much about Central European trains you seem to know quite a lot about the subject :D"

No that's a very surface level knowledge of it. Trust me, if it was something I was actually familiar with I could ramble away with an article's length diatribe on the subject (not to brag, but I do write railroad history Wikipedia articles sometimes to do exactly that such as this one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Broad_Top_Railroad_Mikado_Locomotives )

My knowledge on Germanic trains is a mile wide but only an inch deep, and most of it is via osmosis of just happening to follow a German rail photographer (Rolf Stumff) online.

Still got my set in working order. Got it on my birthday from my uncle and aunt. My first LEGO.
Both my grown-up kids are still buying LEGO. Got four grand kids now, all building LEGO when visiting.

@xboxtravis7992 said:
" @thor96 said:
" @xboxtravis7992 said:
"I honestly don't know as much about central European trains, but LEGO steam of this era with black bodies and red wheels seems to follow what was standard practice in German railroading. In East Germany there are plenty of cases of steam surviving in service until the Fall of the Berlin Wall, such as on the Harz narrow gauge network which still runs as a heritage line now. "

For a guy that honestly don't know much about Central European trains you seem to know quite a lot about the subject :D"

No that's a very surface level knowledge of it. Trust me, if it was something I was actually familiar with I could ramble away with an article's length diatribe on the subject (not to brag, but I do write railroad history Wikipedia articles sometimes to do exactly that such as this one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Broad_Top_Railroad_Mikado_Locomotives )

My knowledge on Germanic trains is a mile wide but only an inch deep, and most of it is via osmosis of just happening to follow a German rail photographer (Rolf Stumff) online. "

I hate how wikipedia works. I went from that page to the page about East Broad Top RR, then to the 1990's Gettysburg RR boiler explosion, and somehow eventually ended up at the Grover Shoe Factory Disaster!

1969 UK catalog:
120 Complete Freight Train Set with tipping trucks ... NEW
122 Loco and Tender only ... NEW
127 Complete Train Set ... NEW
119 Complete Prairie Train Set with automatic signal, points, reversing switch and level crossing
118 ELECTRONIC TRAIN / An easy-to-use electronic attachment sensitive to sound builds a locomotive which starts and stops at a whistle. Rails not included.

Context.
It's relevant, and important.