Boredom Inspires Teenager To Build World-Record 25-Metre Lego Train

Lockdown boredom motivated a teenager to attempt to break the record for the most carriages in a Lego train.

The 101-carriage toy vehicle that Alexander Blong, 14, spent nearly 50 hours building currently measures 25 meters, or as long as a swimming pool or a seven-story building.

Alexander, a New Zealander from Auckland, finished his spectacular train in May, but Guinness World Records didn't officially declare the record until earlier this month on its site.

(Image: guinnessworldrecords)

"I woke up one morning and checked my emails and it said I was now the official record holder. I was pretty ecstatic," he said.

It's not as easy as taking out a measuring tape to establish a world record for the longest train—it had to adhere to a variety of very strict requirements.

The weight of the trailing carriages had to be pulled by Alexander's train along the 10-meter track.

(Image: guinnessworldrecords)

Additionally, the locomotive has to be built using a certain kind of Lego, presented in public, and documented in a single video.

Alexander was even required to obtain witness testimony from an independent judge.

"It’s great that I’ve got a Guinness World Record, not everyone has the ability to, so I’m fortunate that I’ve been allowed, the people and the resources to be able to do this," he told local media.

(Image: guinnessworldrecords)

Blong began building at the young age of four and has been fascinated by world records his entire life after watching attempts at breaking them on YouTube.

But he didn't decide to try breaking records until he was forced to lock down during the pandemic.

"I was bored, as most people were, and watching Netflix. There was this show I liked called Snowpiercer which was about this long train that goes around the globe," he said.

He was about to start his project when he had the thought that someone might have previously broken the world record for the longest lego train, and he was right.

In Maharashtra, KK Cariapa, John Seemon, Nexus Malls of India, and The Lego Group of Singapore had previously established the record with a 69-carriage train that did so in 2019.

Alexander wasn't deterred, however, and built the carriages and designed the train, modifying it so it could pull the carriages' weight, ultimately breaking the previous record by a massive 32 carriages.

"It was pretty cool that I was able to beat the record held by these massive corporations," he added.

He responded that he would go out to dinner and then take a nap to celebrate the enormous accomplishment, saying, "It's drained a lot of energy."