Designer insight: Robert Heim
Posted by Huwbot,
Many LEGO set designers use our BrickLists feature to maintain a list of the sets they've worked on and often provide interesting insights about their involvement.
Once a week we publish an entry from one of their lists on the home page to increase awareness of this information and to encourage more designers to create them.
Robert Heim wrote this about their work on 60336 Freight Train:
My 10th CITY Set: a train! Really loved working on this one. The concept model was build by Corvin, which defined the rough direction: modern european train engine and double decker car transporter. I especially enjoyed designing the mechanisms like the the one on the car tranporter, the reach stacker and the locking mechanism on the container car.
Matt was responsible for all the graphics and designed some really nice minifigure parts, like the bearded head for the ginger-haired guy and the lovely pink/purple torso.
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21 comments on this article
Interesting insight.
Unfortunately the designer fails to mention how he thinks this train could work in real life, since there's no way those pantographs on the locomotive could reach the power lines necessary for it to run at all.
Or to put it another way, two of those cargo wagons are way too tall in relation to the loco. Even though the train as a whole looks nice, such a glaring oversight is jarring to any train fan.
Then again, since LEGO doesn't care about trains any longer anyway, perhaps we are supposed to be glad we get any at all.
@AustinPowers said:
"Interesting insight.
Unfortunately the designer fails to mention how he thinks this train could work in real life, since there's no way those pantographs on the locomotive could reach the power lines necessary for it to run at all.
Or to put it another way, two of those cargo wagons are way too tall in relation to the loco. Even though the train as a whole looks nice, such a glaring oversight is jarring to any train fan.
Then again, since LEGO doesn't care about trains any longer anyway, perhaps we are supposed to be glad we get any at all. "
You didn’t convert yours to diesel? I did, and it runs fine.
We only had Robert recently before right? Wonder if there’s a way for Huwbot to mix it up so there’s a bit more variety in between designer bricklists, considering it’s once a week only.
@AustinPowers said:
"Interesting insight.
Unfortunately the designer fails to mention how he thinks this train could work in real life, since there's no way those pantographs on the locomotive could reach the power lines necessary for it to run at all. "
Honestly, the pantograph issue is the sole reason I haven't bought this one. I hadn't bought the previous freight train, either, and found it for 30% in a clearance sale, so got that instead. As @Kynareth says, you could just remove the pantographs, but the direction of trains should be toward electric, and this was a flaw too far for me. I like Robert's roller coaster, though, so I hold nothing against the designer, just the design. I expect more from a Lego train.
@whaleyland said:
" @AustinPowers said:
"Interesting insight.
Unfortunately the designer fails to mention how he thinks this train could work in real life, since there's no way those pantographs on the locomotive could reach the power lines necessary for it to run at all. "
Honestly, the pantograph issue is the sole reason I haven't bought this one. I hadn't bought the previous freight train, either, and found it for 30% in a clearance sale, so got that instead. As @Kynareth says, you could just remove the pantographs, but the direction of trains should be toward electric, and this was a flaw too far for me. I like Robert's roller coaster, though, so I hold nothing against the designer, just the design. I expect more from a Lego train."
I'm sorry to say it, but this is one train design that should never have left the station.
@chrisaw said:
"We only had Robert recently before right?"
I had a bit of a double take... Thought it was a familiar collection of sets!
@chrisaw said:
"We only had Robert recently before right? Wonder if there’s a way for Huwbot to mix it up so there’s a bit more variety in between designer bricklists, considering it’s once a week only. "
Huwbot picks at random from the lists created by designers who have opted in to allowing them to be used in these articles.
@StyleCounselor said:
" @whaleyland said:
" @AustinPowers said:
"Interesting insight.
Unfortunately the designer fails to mention how he thinks this train could work in real life, since there's no way those pantographs on the locomotive could reach the power lines necessary for it to run at all. "
Honestly, the pantograph issue is the sole reason I haven't bought this one. I hadn't bought the previous freight train, either, and found it for 30% in a clearance sale, so got that instead. As @Kynareth says, you could just remove the pantographs, but the direction of trains should be toward electric, and this was a flaw too far for me. I like Robert's roller coaster, though, so I hold nothing against the designer, just the design. I expect more from a Lego train."
I'm sorry to say it, but this is one train design that should never have left the station. "
We are talking about toys for children here, not about scale models for train fans!
@AustinPowers said:
"Interesting insight.
Unfortunately the designer fails to mention how he thinks this train could work in real life, "
I guess he can distinguish between a lego train and a model of a real train, so didn't feel the need to.
Awesome looking set. I like how it is not just a passenger train, but has a lot more variety. Great colours as well.
An excellent, unusual looking train set, with lots of playability and lots of track... and I couldn't care less if it's powered by fairy dust!
@AustinPowers said:
"Unfortunately the designer fails to mention how he thinks this train could work in real life, since there's no way those pantographs on the locomotive could reach the power lines necessary for it to run at all."
Lidl has sold sets from some other brand that solved the issue: The top deck of their auto transporter is high enough for the catenary to go underneath it!
Despite this issue I still think it's a pretty good set, and for play set I consider this forgivable.
This was a lot of fun to build, I prefer passenger trains myself, but particularly enjoyed the mechanisms in the car carrier, and how the loader can move the mini containers. I suspect the engine will be eventually disassembled for parts but I do like how it looks running around my layout right now (unfortunately most modern city freight trains use the battery pack as part of the structure so they require major work to stay intact if you want to take out the power functions but keep a display model).
@Kynareth said:
"
You didn’t convert yours to diesel? I did, and it runs fine."
Mine run on fusion. And also on one rail. And in space. Man, we need a new monorail...
@Kynareth said:
" @AustinPowers said:
"Interesting insight.
Unfortunately the designer fails to mention how he thinks this train could work in real life, since there's no way those pantographs on the locomotive could reach the power lines necessary for it to run at all.
Or to put it another way, two of those cargo wagons are way too tall in relation to the loco. Even though the train as a whole looks nice, such a glaring oversight is jarring to any train fan.
Then again, since LEGO doesn't care about trains any longer anyway, perhaps we are supposed to be glad we get any at all. "
You didn’t convert yours to diesel? I did, and it runs fine."
Over here there's hardly any Diesel locomotives left. And thank God for that.
And looking at the trains from the 12V era shows that LEGO once did indeed care more about realism when it came to trains.
Just because it's a kids toy doesn't mean it has to be totally implausible or unrealistic you know. Kids aren't stupid. Even they can see that there's something very wrong with this set.
@AustinPowers said:
" @Kynareth said:
" @AustinPowers said:
"Interesting insight.
Unfortunately the designer fails to mention how he thinks this train could work in real life, since there's no way those pantographs on the locomotive could reach the power lines necessary for it to run at all.
Or to put it another way, two of those cargo wagons are way too tall in relation to the loco. Even though the train as a whole looks nice, such a glaring oversight is jarring to any train fan.
Then again, since LEGO doesn't care about trains any longer anyway, perhaps we are supposed to be glad we get any at all. "
You didn’t convert yours to diesel? I did, and it runs fine."
Over here there's hardly any Diesel locomotives left. And thank God for that.
And looking at the trains from the 12V era shows that LEGO once did indeed care more about realism when it came to trains.
Just because it's a kids toy doesn't mean it has to be totally implausible or unrealistic you know. Kids aren't stupid. Even they can see that there's something very wrong with this set.
"
Trains running on 12 volts is even less realistic! (But more environmentally friendly than diesel though).
When I played as a kid (long ago) I didn’t care that much about realism. I mixed different scales and eras and still had a lot of fun!
@Kynareth said:
" @AustinPowers said:
" @Kynareth said:
" @AustinPowers said:
"Interesting insight.
Unfortunately the designer fails to mention how he thinks this train could work in real life, since there's no way those pantographs on the locomotive could reach the power lines necessary for it to run at all.
Or to put it another way, two of those cargo wagons are way too tall in relation to the loco. Even though the train as a whole looks nice, such a glaring oversight is jarring to any train fan.
Then again, since LEGO doesn't care about trains any longer anyway, perhaps we are supposed to be glad we get any at all. "
You didn’t convert yours to diesel? I did, and it runs fine."
Over here there's hardly any Diesel locomotives left. And thank God for that.
And looking at the trains from the 12V era shows that LEGO once did indeed care more about realism when it came to trains.
Just because it's a kids toy doesn't mean it has to be totally implausible or unrealistic you know. Kids aren't stupid. Even they can see that there's something very wrong with this set.
"
Trains running on 12 volts is even less realistic! (But more environmentally friendly than diesel though)."
Looking forward to realistic LEGO trains running on 1500 V or 25 kV. And all the law suits following that decision :-P
Wow, I had no idea this children's play set had such an unconscionable and egregious critical flaw! This is unforgivable!!
@KaiserCoaster said:
"Wow, I had no idea this children's play set had such an unconscionable and egregious critical flaw! This is unforgivable!!"
Just imagine if somebody spots that there are no overhead lines for the pantograph to connect to anyway... they'll be apoplectic!
How does the train turn around so the automobiles can be driven down the ramp at the end of the track?