Snowpiercer

This LEGO^® MOC is a replica of the1001 car long Snowpiercer train from the hit TV series. I have captured 8 cars of the iconic train and 3 cars of Big Alice.

“People of Snowpiercer, touch a surface. Go on, put your hand to something, anything. Go on, feel it. Take it in. That is our sacred hum. That’s our heartbeat. And she’s roaring!”

Quick Facts

Building time: 6 weeks
Number of cars: 8
Dimensions: Train length 3.2m / Car length 37cm
Number of wheels: 8 bogies x 2 wheels x 8 cars = A LOT (128)

The Engine

The first car to build was the engine! The engine helped me determine the scale of the entire train (though it is slightly longer than a standard Snowpiercer car). I used a “SNOT” technique with sideways angled slopes to get the shape of the nose. I was really happy with how it turned out! The 3×2 angled slopes were hard to source but it was worth it. The rest of the engine is a lot of slopes and standard size bricks.

I used standard bogies (with 8 per car instead of the normal 4) so the train could be displayed on standard LEGO^® track. It is the same scale as the official Hogwarts Express set but because it is so much longer it wasn’t feasible to do custom tracks. However, unfortunately due to the size of the double length bogies and the car itself, the train is only compatible with straight track. You can see the size of the engine, compared to a normal train here:

Here are some images from the show for comparison.

I focused on getting the shape of the nose, and around the bogies, just right on the engine. Because the engine is most recognisable part of Snowpiercer! To make it even more accurate, I designed a custom printed “Wilford” logo tile for the engine.

Since building this massive MOC, I have made a new version of the engine as a standalone build. You can check it out here.

First Class

This build has two first class cars – a standard first class car and the first class dining car. These cars are accurate to the show, using a “SNOT” technique for the sky windows and different sizes for the standard windows to give some variety. I chose not to include the higher cars (like the library car). The train in the TV series has a lot of different heights on the cars which isn’t noticeable over 1001 cars but its much more obvious when it is only 8. So I decided on a uniform height!

You can see here that the shape of the first class cars is very similar to the specs from the show.

Second Class

The second class car is a lot more basic, so this is where I decided to add the observation dome. Remember that scene where LJ and Alex were watching the northern lights from the dome?

Aquarium Car

This is my absolute favourite car on Snowpiercer – and it is part of some great scenes! I really wanted to include it in this LEGO^® MOC because it looks so different to the other cars so it stands out and makes the train more interesting. The Aquarium car is full of aquatic life, and if you look closely you can see that Spongebob has snuck in! To get the full shape, I used a “SNOT” technique with transparent wall panels on the roof. I also used transparent wall panels inside the car to get the to get the noticeable blue shade.

The main difference between my version of the aquarium car and the TV version is the size of the windows, but I wanted to have a deeper window to fit in more sea life!

AGSEC and Cattle Car

The train can’t get keep the last of humanity alive without a complete ecosystem so that’s where AGSEC and the cattle car come in. The AGSEC car was originally quite basic, but I added a lot more detail on the side so it fits in better. I used transparent cockpit elements to get the shape of the window perfect. This is the only car that has a different height (but I think it fits well and shows that Snowpiercer is no ordinary train!)

The Cattle Car appeared in season one, but I decided to upgrade it to be a full farm car with a variety of farm animals. It has cows, sheep and pigs (and calves of each!). I purchased a few farm sets just for this car! Sadly it doesn’t show too well in the photos.

The Tail

This is where the action starts but it has no windows so the tail only got one car in this LEGO^® MOC. Here I focused on the detail around the dock at the back, using another custom Wilford tile and making it really look like an airlock. Again – I have used a “SNOT” technique. The dock also means if I ever have space to display Snowpiercer and Big Alice side by side I can dock them together.