Builder: Simon and Thomas Bowen
Region: Europe & Middle East
Category entered:
Year entered: 2022
Brand of building bricks used:
LEGO
Since 2026, the Brick Train Awards have accepted models created with other LEGO®-compatible construction brick systems.
About 0 Series Shinkansen – Bullet Train by Simon and Thomas Bowen
The driving car of a 0 Series Shinkansen or 'Bullet Train' is one of our favourite exhibits at the National Railway Museum in York. My son Thomas (aged 9) first made the suggestion to build one out of Lego and attempted a first version. Since then, I have made several iterations and improvements (with input from Thomas) including adding two coaches and a second driving car to complete a full (if abbreviated) train. Of note is that the end driving car does not have a pantograph, this being instead on the penultimate coach in the prototype. The front driving car uses two power functions motors to attempt something of the (at scale) speed of the original.
The train is built at 6-wide, to fit our City layout and also to see what was possible using standard blue 28x6 train plates as a basis for the model.
More about our model in this YouTube video: https://youtu.be/chKFAkA_xpA