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The LEGOLAND
Train
®
When the first LEGOLAND
Park opened
®
in Billund in 1968, the main attraction was a
LEGO
train that carried visitors around the
®
park. This beloved train ride has been a part
of the LEGOLAND experience ever since.
This is the story of how that train came into
existence.
The history of the LEGOLAND train begins
in the early 1960s, when talk of creating a
LEGOLAND Park first started within the walls
of the LEGO Group. The idea was driven by
the then owner of the LEGO Group, Godtfred
Kirk Christiansen. The thoughts about the
new park included the idea of a train to
carry visitors. Plans to create a LEGOLAND
Park had to be postponed, and it was in-
stead another famous Danish amusement
park that got the honour of having a LEGO
train to carry visitors around.
In 1967 Dagny Holm, the head of the model
building department at the LEGO Group,
got the task of designing a LEGO train
which was to be used at the Tivoli Gardens
in Copenhagen. The deadline was tight, but
she quickly managed to create a beauti-
ful LEGO model of a train. Dagny Holm´s
model was then scaled up and became
the Tivoli LEGO train. In November 1967 the
LEGO train was sent to New York to pro-
mote Denmark in the American department
store Macy´s world famous Thanksgiving
Day Parade.
The first LEGOLAND Park opened in
Billund in 1968. One of the main attractions
was a LEGO train carrying visitors around
the park. The LEGOLAND train was an exact
copy of the train Dagny Holm designed for
Tivoli one year earlier. The only difference
was that the LEGOLAND train ran on rails,
whereas the train in Tivoli had rubber wheels.
The rails used for the LEGOLAND train alleg-
edly came from a track in a disused brick-
works outside Billund.
A former LEGOLAND employee, director
of development Hans Jørgen Pedersen,
remembers that when the train was in-
stalled in the LEGOLAND Park it rode in
the opposite direction. Before the open-
ing of the park it was decided to change
the direction of the train to the present
one. The problem with the first route was
that the train had to climb a hill on its jour-
ney through the park. Whenever it rained
the rails became so slippery that the train
could not climb the hill and thus the
LEGOLAND employees
had to gather around the train to push it uphill. The decision to switch
direction meant that the train now had to run down the hill instead of
climbing it. Changing the direction of the train meant making exten-
sive alterations to the train itself. All doors on the train coaches had to
be placed on the other side in order for the passengers to be able to
enter the coaches from the platform.
Over the years the design of the LEGOLAND train has been altered.
In 1973 another LEGOLAND Park opened, this time in Sierksdorf,
Germany. One of the original amusements in LEGOLAND Sierksdorf
was of course a LEGO train to carry the visitors around. The train in
Sierksdorf looked slightly different compared to the original LEGO
train, with the roof of each train coach given a more rounded ap-
pearance. The LEGOLAND Park in Sierksdorf closed in 1976 after
just three years. As a result of this the newer and more modern
LEGOLAND train from Sierksdorf was moved to Billund to replace
the old LEGOLAND train from 1968. Even though some of the train
parts undoubtedly have been replaced, the LEGOLAND train in
Billund has the exact same design as the train that was brought
home from Sierksdorf in 1976.
LEGO and the LEGO logo are trademarks of the LEGO Group. ©2014 The LEGO Group.
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