The latest trains in LEGO City take the theme off the rails and into new territory, shaking things up with some unique play features.
After years of passenger trains and cargo trains over and over again, LEGO City is in the middle of revamping its railway range, including with the upcoming 60508 Police Train Heist. The 2026 model follows up on 2025's 60470 Explorer Train by taking the concept of a LEGO train and applying a much different context to it than usual. Instead of a locomotive transporting passengers or traversing snow-covered terrain, it comes in the form of a railway robbery.
We've had the chance to take a look at 60508 Police Train Heist early ahead of its release on March 1, exploring why LEGO City's trains are getting so experimental, and whether the police locomotive is as interesting in-person as 60470 Explorer Train.
The upcoming 60508 Police Train Heist is unlike any other train we've seen in the portfolio before. By taking the popular concept of LEGO City's police and applying it to the more niche range of trains, it would seem that this is a recipe for bringing in new fans to the world of LEGO trains. Such a concept can be a double-edged sword, though.
On the one hand, a police train can entice unfamiliar fans to dive into the world of LEGO trains through the familiar lens of crime-fighting – a consistently-popular range in the long-running City theme.
On the other hand, LEGO trains are almost always going to be some of the most expensive City sets, priced considerably higher than even the biggest standard police models. That's especially true with the £179.99 / $199.99 / €199.99 60508 Police Train Heist, comparing best with 60419 Police Prison Island at £89.99 / $99.99 / €99.99. That's double the cost, and a huge leap for enthusiasts who've never delved into LEGO trains before.
It also doesn't help that 60508 Police Train Heist is perceived as worse value than the 2025 set, and it's hard to argue that point after reviewing it. At 1,313 pieces, 60508 Police Train Heist costs the same as 60470 Explorer Train at £179.99 / $199.99 / €199.99, but includes around 200 fewer pieces. Those are used to create one more carriage but fewer additional models.
Ultimately, 60508 Police Train Heist has less content than 60470 Explorer Train, and you can feel what it's lacking when building it. While it has one more carriage, these are smaller than the two in 60470 Explorer Train, and the content beyond the train is more limited. While 60470 Explorer Train has a sizable mountain, a small base and a tracked vehicle, 60508 Police Train Heist has a helicopter, a car and a much smaller road crossing the tracks.
The good news is that each of these components serves to increase the play opportunities in 60508 Police Train Heist, just as the equivalent builds do in 60470 Explorer Train. As you would expect, the main feature in both trains comes from their motorised elements.
60508 Police Train Heist can sufficiently make its way around the provided loop of track, making the satisfying electric noises as it does. The context of the model also invites you to pose minifigures on top of the train in action-packed, movie-inspired scenes. This is a heist, after all. This unique context in 60508 Police Train Heist adds a layer of intrigue to the build, stretching the play potential in different directions than the usual passenger and cargo trains.
60470 Explorer Train did something similar in its specific context, assisted by the falling rock feature on the mountain segment of the track. These set-specific contexts offer something uniquely appealing, especially to LEGO train enthusiasts who have become tired of the same types of models year after year, myself included.
While they provide a welcome reprieve for some, it unfortunately means that anyone hoping to pick up a passenger or cargo train this year for a more widely-applicable use is going to be out of luck. The benefit of 60508 Police Train Heist over 60470 Explorer Train is that it can at least pass for a standard cargo train with few to no modifications. As a longtime LEGO train enthusiast, it's great to see that the battery box is more easily removed from the main train than usual too.
The rest of the carriages in 60508 Police Train Heist can hold some cargo, but they're more police-specific. Each of them provides a new direction for the heist, whether that's stealing the car, lifting off the vault, or rescuing a member of the gang from police custody by blowing off the sides of the cell.
It's the most play features we've seen physically on a train, rather than dotted around the side builds of a set, adding something truly unique to 60508 Police Train Heist. You can even attempt to lift the contents of the train off the carriages while it's going around the track using the helicopter and claw attachment, adding a surprising level of challenge and interactivity the likes of which we've never experienced before in LEGO train models.
You can watch this main function in action in the video below. Lifting the vault off the train again and again is quite addictive, and you can do the same with the car, but it's trickier.
The car and the helicopter are satisfying enough to look at and play with, but they're nothing too noteworthy. The minifigures are another story, though. 60508 Police Train Heist brings the best of 2026's LEGO City criminal minifigures into one place with two exclusive variants. The prisoners of 60479 Police Prisoner Transport Van appear again, but one has a new outfit with a stylish chain. There's another criminal minifigure in an orange jumpsuit, featuring an exclusive and hilarious face decoration.
The police minifigures aren't quite as exciting but provide enough characters to operate and guard the train. The overall character selection ensures that you have enough characters to play with or display as the train makes its way around the track.
60508 Police Train Heist struggles with its first impression compared to 60470 Explorer Train, but the finished product is something fresh and fun. The price tag of £179.99 / $199.99 / €199.99 is still much too high compared to the 2025 model, but a small discount is all that's needed to recommend this model to LEGO train enthusiasts new and old.
Both 60508 Police Train Heist and 60470 Explorer Train are shining examples of where LEGO trains can go when the designers take them off the rails along which this subtheme normally chugs, demonstrating just how much more potential this long-running range has. They're unfamiliar, but that's the point. We can only hope that this experimentation continues, though ideally at more reasonable price points compared to the contents.
This LEGO set was provided by the LEGO Group for review purposes.
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