60197-1 Passenger Train upgrades

 

LEGO typically launches a new passenger and freight train set about once every four years. Among these, my top pick is the 60197-1 “Passenger Train.” While it’s already a solid set, it offers plenty of room for customization and expansion. The official kit includes a locomotive, a passenger coach, and a club car.

By purchasing two sets, you can create a train that closely resembles a real-world high-speed model. 

That’s impressive on its own—but true LEGO fun comes from upgrading, modifying, and making the set uniquely yours.

Pantographs.

The easiest upgrade to start with is modifying a pantograph on top of the locomotive. To improve the look, I added a pivot and a touch of extra greebling on the locomotive’s roof for better detail and realism. You could also use the alternate pantograph setup used on my custom city tram. This pantograh design is available for download on Bricklink and Rebrickable.

I’ve also created a more advanced pantograph design that incorporates some less common Lego elements. The result adds a noticeable boost in realism and detail, giving the locomotive a far more authentic look. This pantograph design is also available for download on Bricklink and Rebrickable.

Examples of applications for the pantographs are shown here on the 60197-1 Passenger Train (above) and 60337-1 Express Passenger Train (below).

And here on the 60051-1 High Speed Passenger Train.

Extended Passenger Sitting Car

The next upgrade focuses on extending the rail cars. While the official design looks good, the cars tend to feel a little short and slightly out of proportion. To fix this, I created an extension kit that adds an extra four studs to the original build length.

The image above highlights exactly where the extensions are made, showing how the additional four studs are integrated into the rail car’s structure. An additional yellow roof element is also required.

The modification only needs a small selection of additional pieces—mainly standard plates, tiles, and bricks—making it an easy yet effective upgrade for a more realistic appearance.

With the extra length added to the sitting car, you now have the opportunity to boost its seating capacity. The extension provides enough room to rearrange or add more seats, making the car feel closer to a realistic passenger coach while improving playability.

This design is available on Bricklink and Rebrickable for download.

Extended Club Car.

The club car extension follows the same approach as the sitting car, adding an extra four studs to the build. This added length not only improves the proportions but also opens up more interior space, giving you greater flexibility for creative upgrades.

The Club Car extension uses the exact same extra parts as the Sitting Car, keeping the modification process simple and consistent.

This design is available on Bricklink and Rebrickable for download.

Baggage Car.

Another option that builds on the extended car design is a custom baggage car. This variation has a more radical customization. It does include extensive storage of suit cases and other items like a cargo boxes or even a cooler. This design is available on Bricklink and Rebrickable for download.

If you’re working with two sets, the club car is the most logical donor for parts to support this build. It’s more realistic to have two sitting cars and one club car in a train rather than the other way around.

Sleeper Car

A sitting car can also be transformed into a sleeper car with some clever part usage, even within the limited interior space.

The design uses a fold-up bed that stores neatly in front of the passenger, doubling as the partition wall between cabins. This approach makes efficient use of the space while adding a realistic and functional upgrade to the train’s interior.

This design is available on Bricklink and Rebrickable for download.

Cab Car.

Many real life high speed trains have a power locomotive at one end of the train & a non-powered cab car at the other. The cab car has a driver's compartment combined with additional passenger seating capacity.

One drawback of combining two 60197-1 Passenger Train sets into a single train is the use of dual Bluetooth power units. Since each unit runs independently, differences in battery life can cause them to fall out of sync, leading to uneven performance. In practice, a second power unit isn’t really needed—the train runs smoothly with just one, making the extra motor and hub redundant.

This build utilizes/sacrifices a loco from the additional set to create the cab car. There are a number of relatively common parts to complete the conversion (above). The bogies are low friction using the same steel rod type wheel assemblies from the front of the car. are low friction using the same steel rod type wheel assemblies from the front of the car. These can be both challenging and expensive to source.

The left over parts form a solid base for a custom locomotive including power functions kit, buffers & bogie parts. Missing is a 6x24 train base.

The Upgraded Consist.

The finished build comes together as a well-balanced train consisting of one locomotive, one cab car, one club car, one sitting car, one sleeper car, and one baggage car. Compared to simply coupling two stock sets back-to-back, this customized configuration feels far more authentic, functional, and visually appealing—transforming the 60197-1 into something that looks and plays much closer to a real passenger train.

Greebling

Beyond the pantographs, additional embellishments—or greebling—can really elevate the train’s appearance. Simple upgrades like tiling over the car roofs, incorporating grills, and adding other small design details bring extra texture and realism. These subtle touches make the build feel less like a toy and more like a scaled-down model of an actual train.

Advanced Upgrades.

That’s the beauty of LEGO—you can take your build in countless directions depending on your skills, parts collection, and budget. The upgrades I’ve shared can serve multiple purposes: a simple improvement to the stock set, a foundation for even deeper customizations, or just inspiration to spark your own ideas.

Personally, I’ve reverse-engineered and adapted the front of the loco from an excellent MOC, Boformer’s Intercity Express Train, which was originally submitted for the Designer Program Series 7 (below). This provided a solid reference point and a great source of techniques to apply to the 60197-1.

What can you come up with?