CITY / TRAINS / 60469

LEGO® City 60469 Central Train Station: finally, a station with something to say

Tall, packed with details and full of the personality recent LEGO® stations have often lacked

LEGO® City stations are nothing new. We have seen plenty over the years and, personally, I have often had the same reaction: pleasant, playable models, but almost always spread out horizontally, a little sparse and with that nagging feeling that you are looking at a stage set rather than a proper station. The 60469 Central Train Station finally changes things. It is not perfect, and we will get to that shortly, but it is certainly one of the most interesting LEGO® City stations I have built in recent years.

The first thing that strikes you is its height. The structure rises across several levels, spans the track with a large arch and even incorporates a working lift leading up to the control room. That alone gives it a much stronger identity than the familiar low, elongated stations we have seen so often. The set contains 752 pieces and a healthy cast of characters, but it is the way those elements are used that makes the model feel much richer than its piece count might suggest.

Finally, believable railway architecture

My favourite part is undoubtedly the large central arch. LEGO® has used curved Technic elements with their teeth and geometry deliberately exposed, creating an almost industrial effect reminiscent of the great metal structures of historic stations. Perhaps it is my professional background, perhaps my love of trains, but looking at it immediately brought to mind the great steel spans of real railway stations: iron, bolts and structures designed first and foremost to support something.

The transparent roof works very well too. It uses elements normally intended for other purposes, combined to create a curved surface that follows the arch perfectly. It is a simple but visually effective solution, and these small touches are often what make me appreciate a set most.

The station is also full of details: a ticket machine, a café with a coffee machine and croissant, train timetables, signs, a control room, a clock tower and even a little nest for the two included pigeons. The control room contains another detail that, as a long-time LEGO® train enthusiast, I could hardly miss: something on the console clearly recalls the old speed controllers from earlier railway systems. A small reference, but enough to make anyone who grew up with them smile.

The lift is simple, but it works

One of the most interesting functions is the lift. Its mechanism uses a large worm screw to move the platform up and down inside the tower. The control is rather amusingly hidden beneath one of the pigeons: turn it to operate the system.

This also reveals one of the compromises typical of contemporary City sets. The lift platform uses a large dedicated element that makes construction considerably simpler. It works well, but it belongs to a category of parts I still regard with some suspicion: large, very specific elements that reduce the piece count and speed up assembly, but sometimes feel a little more like a ready-made toy than something genuinely built from LEGO® bricks.

It is not the only example in this set. Several large elements are used to produce substantial shapes and volumes quickly. I completely understand the need to keep cost, complexity and the target age range under control, but you know how I feel: when one huge piece solves something I would rather have built with ten smaller pieces, part of me inevitably remains unconvinced.

Stickers: yes, they are needed. But how I hate them

There are some stickers and, in this case, I have to admit they really do serve a purpose. Without signs, timetables, shop graphics and other printed details, some areas of the station would look decidedly empty. The problem is that a couple of these stickers have to be applied inside recessed surfaces, leaving almost no margin for error.

If a sticker slips and sticks at an angle, straightening it becomes an exercise in Zen-like patience. This is exactly why I still prefer printed elements. Here I would seriously recommend using other LEGO® pieces as guides to keep everything centred and level. It may sound silly, but it could save you a fair amount of swearing.

The real limitation: just one track

And here we reach the main drawback. The 60469 is an impressive bridge-style station, but its arch only allows a single track to pass beneath it. That can work in a small standalone set, but it quickly becomes restrictive if you want to incorporate it into a proper railway layout.

Personally, my first modification would be to widen the span to accommodate at least two tracks. I do not think it would be particularly difficult, either: the design almost invites expansion. With two sets, you could probably create a truly spectacular station, perhaps with a symmetrical layout and the lift tower in the centre.

Then there is the issue of height. Rolling stock without pantographs should have no particular problems, but electric locomotives with raised pantographs do not have enough clearance beneath the arch. Again, a modification that adds a little extra height would probably solve it.

Another small oddity concerns the level above the café: there is usable space there, but no particularly logical route for minifigures to reach it. It is one of those places where you can tell the structure was designed primarily to work visually.

A station that is asking to be lit up

There is one more thought that keeps coming back whenever I look at the finished model: how good would it look with lighting?

The red and green railway signal, the lights on the structure, the control room, the café, a few small interior lights. This station could look fantastic at night. And that brings me back to one of my recurring themes: in the 1980s, LEGO® already had dedicated lighting elements for its railway system. Today, the technical possibilities are vastly greater, yet properly lighting a model almost always means turning to third-party kits with tiny wires to hide everywhere.

A small, modern LEGO® system designed for lights, signals and railway infrastructure would be perfect for sets like this. The 60469 almost seems designed to highlight its absence.

My verdict

Despite its flaws, my verdict remains decidedly positive. In fact, of all the LEGO® City stations I have reviewed so far, this is probably the one I have enjoyed most.

It has real presence, recognisable architecture, an interesting use of height at last, a pleasing variety of colours and plenty of small details that make it rewarding to explore after the build. Teal, dark blue, beige, white, bluish grey, black and even safety yellow work surprisingly well together, producing a much more harmonious result than that list of colours might suggest.

Above all, it is one of those sets that immediately makes me think about how I could modify it. Widen the arch. Double the tracks. Add a little height. Install lighting. Extend the platforms.

And for me, that is almost always a very good sign.

Because when a LEGO® set does more than make you think “nice, I have finished it”, and instead makes you want to pick up more bricks and keep building around it, it has clearly done something right.