🚂 Floor Express: step-by-step build

A remote-control locomotive with headlights, a chimney and a log wagon.

All aboard! The Train motor is a whole bogie: a motor with two wheel axles, so it is the perfect engine for a floor train. The battery box clicks onto its pivot like a brick, the receiver sits on top as the driver's cab, and you drive it with the remote. Headlights shine at the front and a chimney puffs pretend smoke. Then build a log wagon on four small wheels and couple it to the coupling rods with two pins. Choo choo!

• Level 4 of 5 (tricky)
• About 40 minutes
• 17 steps, 39 parts
• Powered by: Motor
• Series: Starter Builds

What you will learn

• Mounting a Motor: A motor must be pinned tight, or it spins itself instead of your wheels.
• Remote Control: Invisible light carries your commands to the model.
• Plugging In: Power Functions: Battery box → (switch or receiver) → motor. Plugs stack like bricks.
• Electric Circuits: Electricity flows from the battery, through the motor, and back.
• Axles & Wheels: A wheel on an axle turns dragging into rolling.
• Frames: A frame is a ready-made strong rectangle.
• Pins: Grippy or Smooth: Pins join beams together — some hold tight, some let things swing.

Build these first

• 🔋 Motor Buggy: Your first car that drives by itself — with a forwards/backwards switch and headlights! (level 3 of 5, about 30 minutes, 20 steps)

Parts you need

• 1 × Train motor
• 2 × Axle 9
• 4 × Thin-tyre wheel
• 2 × Beam 11
• 4 × Half bush
• 1 × AAA battery box
• 1 × IR receiver
• 10 × Black pin (grippy)
• 3 × Open frame 5×7
• 1 × LED lights
• 3 × Beam 7
• 2 × Axle 6
• 4 × Small white wheel
• 1 × Speed remote

Steps

1. Put the Train motor on the table, the round pivot on top.
2. Push a 9-long axle through each of its two wheel holes.
3. Push a thin-tyre wheel onto each axle end.
4. Slide an 11-hole coupling rod onto the axle ends on each side. The rods stick out at the back.
5. Lock each rod on with a half bush on the end of each axle.
6. Press the AAA battery box onto the Train motor: the round pivot on top clicks into the middle of its underside.
7. Press the IR receiver onto the front half of the battery box, dome at the front.
8. Push two black pins into the two holes in the receiver's front.
9. Press the red 5×7 frame onto the pins, lying on its long side — the front of the engine. Push the LED headlights into its 3rd and 5th bottom holes. Plug the Train motor and the lights into the receiver.
10. Build the chimney: push black pins into the middle bottom hole and the middle top hole of the red frame, then press a 7-hole beam standing up onto both pins. Its top two holes poke out above the frame — the chimney!
11. Wagon: stand a 5×7 frame on its long side, holes facing sideways.
12. Push two 6-long axles through its 2nd and 6th bottom holes and slide a small white wheel onto each.
13. Two more wheels, then the second 5×7 frame on the other side.
14. Push a black pin into the 2nd and 6th top holes of each frame, pointing inwards.
15. Load the logs: press a 7-hole beam onto the pins on each side.
16. Couple the wagon on: slide it between the ends of the engine's coupling rods, then push a black pin from the outside through the last hole of each rod into the front bottom corner of the frame.
17. Pick up the remote and choose the receiver's channel.

Play time

Drive the train around the room with the remote. Turn on the headlights and make a tunnel from a blanket!