role model
A pro Lego designer tells
Jane Common how a high-speed trip inspired his mini-masterpiece
LEGO lover Lewis Bird is rail-ly keen on train spotting – but he doesn’t visit stations across the UK to write down locos’ numbers in a notebook. He’s there to work out how he’d recreate them with the world-famous building bricks.
Lewis won the second series of Channel 4’s Lego Masters with dad Paul in 2018, but building with the world-famous bricks has been a hobby since he was given a Lego Star Wars kit aged just seven.
Trains make up the majority of his builds, from classic steam locos to the up-to-the-minute intercity express engines. His latest, a scale replica of the 125mph Azuma that plies LNER’s East Coast route between London and Scotland, was inspired by a journey from his home in Leeds to LNER’s King's Cross terminus.
“There’s something so visceral about trains,” explains freelance Lego designer Lewis, 22.
“It’s not just the physicality of them but the sound and the movement – with steam trains you can feel the heat as they charge past. And the smell – this is geeky but my brother bought me a candle that smells of coal for Christmas!”
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By coincidence, among his 20-train Lego model collection is the Mallard, which in its 1930s heyday was the world’s fastest steam engine, speeding up and down the same route as the Azuma.
Today, passengers may have swapped the romance of steam for more eco-friendly reliability, but they can still marvel at the innovation that has gone into the Azumas – diesel-electric hybrids built using the technology of the Japanese bullet trains.
Plus, it’s easy to see why Lewis and fellow passengers would enjoy the Azuma experience, with all its mod cons.
There’s free wi-fi throughout, and you can get refreshments delivered directly to your seat with LNER’s Let’s Eat – At Your Seat service.
“There’s a beauty to modern trains,” explains Lewis. “The Azuma is so streamlined it has an elegance about it.”
Lewis’s imagination was set alight when he boarded his first Azuma last year on a trip to London to watch a table cricket final at Lord’s.
LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON Lewis Bird and dad Paul won Channel 4’s Lego Masters in 2018
“I thought the Azuma – the speed and grace of it – was brilliant. Leaving Leeds early in the morning, I caught the sunrise. It was a beautiful journey.”
So delighted was Lewis with his trip that he was inspired to design and construct a 1:43 scale model of the Azuma, and recently took the replica down to London to present it to admirers at King’s Cross station. His father and Lego Master team mate Paul went along for the ride – the pair admit they love nothing more than a fun family day out by train.
But as a designer, there are special artistic reasons for Lewis taking the train, not least the fact that these journeys give him a valuable pocket of “me time”. For Lewis, it’s a chance to work on elements of his build – he takes a little Lego with him wherever he goes – or draw out plans for future projects. For others, it could be time to read, relax or just let the imagination soar.
“For me, trains are creative spaces because I’m looking around and taking videos, wondering how I’d scale them down to build them in miniature,” Lewis says.
“My imagination really takes flight on a train journey.”
And the Azuma is definitely the place to conjure up brilliant design in comfort, which perfectly suited Lewis’s circumstances. As a wheelchair user with the rare bone disorder Morquio syndrome, it’s important for him to have space to manoeuvre, as well as have access to the passenger assistance offered on the UK’s train routes.
He says of his first journey: “There was plenty of space for my electric wheelchair. The staff were brilliant. And I loved the Azuma’s striking red and grey design. Red is my favourite colour.”
Travelling by train is a great solution to stress – you can kick back, take in the scenery or do something you love. And it isn’t just better for you – it’s also a great way to help protect the environment when you’re on the move.
If, over the next year, we all used the train for half of the car and plane journeys we’re planning to take for leisure in the UK, we’d massively reduce our carbon emissions.
Want to find out more and check your carbon footprint on a train journey? LNER’s online carbon calculator compares CO2 emissions for journeys by train, car and plane.
And with the publication of its Green Guides, LNER is helping you make planet-friendly decisions when you reach your destination.
These travel guides showcase the most environmentally friendly attractions in the historic cities along LNER’s East Coast route.
A model way to travel
Once inspired to recreate the Azuma in miniature, Lewis’s first step in the build was working out the train’s measurements. It took ten days to sketch out a design on his computer, so he could estimate what bricks he’d need.
“I then did a test build, making a few alterations,” recalls Lewis, who is also a member of Lego UK Railway – the country’s biggest club for Lego train builders.
The hardest engineering aspect of the build was copying the Azuma’s stylish curved and aerodynamic sides. “They are beautiful trains, but tricky to recreate. I built the sides flat but put hinges in them to get the Lego pieces to curve and lean in at the right angle,” Lewis says.
To discover your next inspiring journey, visit LNER.co.uk
“I’m looking around and taking videos, wondering how I’d scale the trains down”
Lewis built the five-carriage Azuma train over four days using 7,981 bricks, and where better to put the final touches in place than on board an LNER journey south.
He added the final bricks to the 2.9 metre – and fully working – model as he was being whisked through the countryside back to King’s Cross, an impossible feat had he been travelling by car.
Once on the platform he unveiled his masterpiece – positioning it beside an actual Azuma – while onlookers marvelled at the Azuma’s mini-me. “It’s amazing – so cute,” said one of the admiring passers-by.
Lewis recycles some of his models and transforms them into other designs – but not, he says firmly, the Azuma. It’s too special…
Lewis will soon be back on LNER’s East Cost route to take his mini Azuma on tour. “I’ll take it to our Lego UK Railway shows around the country and show it off,” he says.
“One of the club members loves building stations, so my Azuma can race along the railway tracks and move in and out of the stations. I’m so proud of it.”
BRICK BY BRICK This 1:43 scale model of the Azuma features almost 8,000 pieces
RIDING THE RAILS Lewis’s Lego Azuma is capable of zooming along its own tracks
Photography by Nick Wilson
MAKING TRACKS The 2.9m-long model side by side with its inspiration, the LNER Azuma
the train built from bricks
“I’m looking around and taking videos, wondering how I’d scale the trains down”
BRICK BY BRICK This 1:43 scale model of the Azuma features almost 8,000 pieces
RIDING THE RAILS Lewis’s Lego Azuma is capable of zooming along its own tracks