Bullet train grand opening ceremony

Let me introduce you my creation, based on a special event being held in 1964. The entire Planet was astonished as the Japanese opened the first high speed railway in the world. The new line was nothing like any other railway back at that time. Earlier a train trip from Tokyo to Osaka took more than 6 hours, but everything has changed with the new high speed line, cutting journey time just to 4 hours. This achievment put Japan back on the map. People stucked to their TV screens as the aircraft which carried the camera crew struggled to keep up with the speed of the bullet train. First generation trains (Series 0) had the operational speed of 210 km/h. Since then the bullet train become a national icon of Japan.

Description of the model

This model is a tribute to the world famous Japanese bullet train. As an achievable goal of mine was to create a set which consist less than 1000 pieces, yet it must have been expandable. In case of buying two sets, combining them would make a larger version.

I wanted to create a „play feature” which would be the ribbon cutting effect in this case. As the train passes onto the „interactive” track, a lever disengages a drop-weight under the platform, pulling of the ribbon into the hole.

Due to the strict limitations of minifig numbers, only three represents the crowds.

The train itself was an earlier design of mine, that I’ve spent one and a half year of making it as realistic as it can only 6 stud wide. Due to the length of the track, middle cars currently doesn’t fit on the display. There are no glued parts, neither any stickers.