>>9320636I think a big part of that comes with the current design philosophy used in the more recent passenger train sets. 12v/early 9v trains all had a sense of realism to them by having working doors on the side and fully brickbuilt fronts. The Metroliner kind of eschews from that latter point, but at the very least the window piece went on to be used in other non-train sets. Then when you get to the later 9V stuff shit just gets wild
>4559 and 4560 are weird passenger/freight hybrids that are aiming for a more "train of the future" aesthetic than anything released before them>None of them have doors instead opting for hinged windows or removable pods>Sets are pretty much incompatible with other train sets design wise (4559 doesn't even have a coupler on the other end of rear coach)Going into World City they toned the futurism down a bit and went with a more modern aesthetic, but two stand-out features came that have plagued the Passenger trains constantly ever since
>The cars themselves are on average 4 bricks tall before the roof gets added, with the worst case being 3 tall >None of them have functioning doors, just an idea of where a door COULD be>The trains only come with 3-4 figs (Usually an engineer and some passengers) while the trains released earlier would come with anywhere between 7 to 11 minifigs. >Almost all of them have a huge hunk of plastic as the front of the train that only gets used for this set and will never get used again (7938 gets a pass here)To this day the front piece used on 7897 is my least favorite Lego element because not only is it huge as fuck and impossible to incorporate into any other train design, but it's flimsy as fuck due to the thin-ass plastic they used on the sides of it. What a garbage piece.
