Continuing our theme of interviewing builders of exception MOCs, we’re back with European builder Mateusz Waldowski. Mateusz built this awe inspiring bullet train, the Alstom Pendolino ED250 PKP Intercity. We might not have awesome trains like this in the United States, but we sure wish we did! His build is complete with lights, a complete interior (!), and custom stickers. Check it out.
BMR: Tell us a little more about the build. How long did it take? Estimated piece count?
Mateusz: My MOC is 130cm long, has 3500 pieces, 10m of wire inside, lights on the front changing by direction, and lights inside. I first made a sketch in September 2015 and I started building from real bricks in 2016. The build took longer than I expected because I had to collect lots of ideas and continually improve the model.
BMR: What inspired you to build this particular locomotive?
Mateusz: In the LEGO catalogs from my childhood, passenger trains were always express/high speed.
BMR: Is it powered?
Mateusz: Yes. It has two LEGO train motors (old 9V train motor and pf train motor) and the receiver is behind the cab. Power comes from 9V tracks and steering by pf control pilot.
BMR: What is your build process? Do you use some form of digital design program?
Mateusz: I don’t have one way in my building process. For this particular model I used “LEGO Digital Designer” to sketch it, but my 3D model wasn’t good enough and I made lot of changes. In others MOCs I build immediately from real brick.
BMR: What was the hardest bit to get right?
Mateusz: The most difficult was the front of the train. I wanted the train to look very smooth and fast like the original. I didn’t want to have “stairs” on the front of train. (Ed: you certainly succeeded!)
BMR: What’s your favorite detail that other people might not notice?
Mateusz: I don’t know. I spent too long building this train to have an objective opinion about it.
BMR: What’s next?
Mateusz: This year I plan on adding one more car to the Pendolino (with a restaurant inside). Right now I am building another diesel locomotive to add to my PKP Cargo family. I definitely must build more cargo cars.
BMR: What’s best, steam or diesel?
Mateusz: I don’t have a favorite type of locomotive/train. (ed: we’re sure that Mateusz meant to say diesel, but we’ll let it slide this once).