Do any of you run 'Harry Potter' ?

I bought one, ran it under the Christmas tree one year, then gave it to my niece's two kids for Christmas when my niece told me they were old enough. 

I love my one run it a lot as well the 2X Shakespeare express.

I have 2 of these and run one. I also have the add on two pack but not the Dementor car for whatever reason. I really like the set. I also have two of the Shakespeare sets but not the Albert Hall.

Bought it for the youngins??  I bought it for myself. I am a big Harry Potter fan and have read the books multiple times. Let your inner kid shine!!! 

Can't say I ever owned one or ran one.  I am more into "real looking" trains on our toy train layout...

Have one and we run it, when Potter fans are visiting. I will say the train looks so much better when you get more cars on the train, we have 7 cars.

I'm a big HP fan.  I got my set lightly used, but in the box for $60 off ebay.  I had read the complaints of quality issues on this site and others, so I wasn't surprised by the lightweight passenger cars, but the loco has exceeded my expectations.  It's got a good weight, is a smooth runner, has a classic air whistle, and I love watching those giant drive wheels and that long drivebar go round and round!  A nice smoker too!

 

now if only I can pick up some extra cars....

I have one, and it is a great set to run. Mine often blows smoke rings, the whistle sounds great (since I put tape over the low tone), and the add on cars make the set look even better.

It's also a regular when I have kids over to see the layout. It doesn't go fast enough to derail from speed, so it's great for them to run.

Mine was converted to TMCC with fan driven smoke and a Super-Chuffer, it comes out for the Christmas layout.  I still want to do some cool lighting for the cars, another project waiting in the wings.

 

I run one as part of my Christmas layout. It looks good with Department 56 Dicken's Village buildings, figures and accessories.

 

Emile

 

We have a ton of ceramic buildings about the right size for O-scale, we use those.  My wife bought about 30 of them many years ago when they were on sale for a couple bucks each.  Other than the couple that the grandson has dropped and broke, we still have them.

I have and run mine. It has a Electric RR Pennsy switcher add-on sound card. The Banshee whistle sounds pretty good.  

Also have this set, an extra coach car, and the dementor car. Has tmcc installed and hope to one day have gunrunnerjohn's super chuffer and fan driven smoke unit installed too along with led coach lighting and a European prototype sounding whistle.

Tom, (Gilly), what is the number of the ERR board you installed to have that shrieking banshee European whistle sound?

Oh yes!  I love the train and the movies were great too (not a big reader here).  I added TMCC and LEDs to the engine and cars thanks to help from Gunrunnerjohn.  I also painted the engine details, bashed the cars, and added green plexi to the windows of the cars.  I just thought the green windows were neat looking.

 

 

 

The small steam board has the high pitched European sounding whistle, that's the one I used.

 

Thanks, John.

I run mine since gunrunnerjohn upgraded it. 

 

Thing can can smoke like crazy. 

Sort of. I bought the add on Dementor car to make a longer Shakespeare Express train. I was truly bummed when Lionel cancelled the add on SE cars.

 

A bit off topic, but I fitted my SE Hall Class Loco with an Electric RR TMCC board, while retaining the whistle board in the tender. Not as good as John's solution, but a tad cheaper. While I normally run with bricks in command mode, I run this train with the TPC in variable, so that the motor responds to TMCC under ENG, and the Whistle button works under TR-1. Make sense?

I have a set, added the two-car addon and the Dementor's car. Then picked up a three-car breakup at York, making a total of nine cars. I haven't had a chance to run it in this configuration, but it exists in my collection for the novelty of having a UK prototype. I plan to operate it amongst other equipment as an excursion train.

 

---PCJ

The Hogwarts locomotive may have an issue with nine cars, they use the small starter set motor.  Those little motors are not the most robust power plant for model trains, and I've replaced a number of them on repairs.  I only have four cars right now, I'd like to add a couple more, but I think that will be the limit as I don't want to have to stock spare motors.

I don't have one but may be looking for one soon. I take everyone is talking about the Lionel set # 7-11020 set?? Azgary

A long time back I bought 4 sets when they were blown out on sale at a great price for a set by one of our train shops an OGR advertiser.

 

I gave one to a boy that likes trains for Christmas he still runs it after many years and took it to class recently as a show and tell the other kids really were interested and the teacher let them run the train for the whole class.

 

I repainted 2 of them to Gordon and Henry from the Thomas series they have run for many years now but shudder a bit Gunnrunner John is the worm gear wearing on these?

 

I use the extra coaches from the various sets for running with any of the sets.

 

A long time back Walmart had some buildings for the Harry Potter Series that I set up with the Hogwarts set a Quidditch feild and bleachers with led lights and sounds and a Hagrid's Hut. Also took some pictures at the Florida Theme park of the Hogwarts Castle and blew up a poster of this for the set.

Haven't got around to buying one yet, but my intention would be to use it on the Halloween Layout as the passenger train to complement the Halloween freight train with operating cars. etc.

 

Same purpose why I used to have (and will buy again) the Polar Express for my Christmas Layout.

 

I love that Lionel uses European Style coaches for it (and for the new North Pole Express) and didn't just rebadge one of its standard coach lines.

 

 

Most of the time, the motor just dies electrically, at least that's been my experience.  I've probably replaced half a dozen of these in the last couple years.  Other than these, I have seen very few motor issues.  Occasionally, some of the bigger ones die, but not like these little set motors.

No,  but that may change as my Grandson grows up...........

No, I have no interest in anything Harry Potter...not my cup of tea. 

 

Jeff Dais

I own a copy. The wife is a HUGE HP fan. She got all her books the night they were released. This was actualy our first O scale set and got the ball rolling for me. I absolutely love the set. My only wish is it would smoke a bit more. 

 

I cannot complain as my wife very much enjoys the fun cars. We picked up the 75th anniversary car with 6-39318 on our to buy list, oh and the Milwaukee Brewers car too.

I considered the Lionel set, but opted instead for the Lego 4841 set.  My daughter is really into Legos and not so much into O trains, so I thought this would be a happy medium.  I will let her build it and I will motorize it to get it rolling on the rails.

 

 

That's cool Garrett, How about a picture when you get that one going.  I wonder if you can get smoke into it?

 

As a huge Harry Potter fan I have one along with the Dementor Coach. I don't run it often though.

Definitely a fan and have the set with two extra cars. And dementor car.  Someone a while back did lighting and sound for this car. On my long list of want to do along with tmcc. Terry

As much as I like Harry Potter, I don't own a copy of the Hogwart's Express. I take my layout fairly seriously, so I only buy what one might see on the rails in the real world.

 

If I was still doing public train shows for kids, I would probably have bought one long ago. And Thomas etc...

Always loved the Lego Harry Potter sets. Would love to see it motorized

Yes I run mine. Pulls 6 cars with enough smoke for me. It is always a hit at the Glancy modular shows. I don't know what I will do if the motor quits, I like the set.

When the Harry Potter Hogwarts Express train sets first came out, I got 3 of them from a forum sponsor - one for each of my son's families (with 5 grandkids between them) and one for myself. 

We are all really big fans of the books and the movies.

I actually had one of the books shipped to where we were vacationing in a cabin on the Grand Canyon North Rim - on the day the book came out - so that we could read it right away.

We have been running our HP set mostly around the Christmas / New Years holidays, which for this house has it up and running for about 2 months. Last year I added the dementors car after seeing it run at a show. I have to say that the set is very popular with visitors.

The set looks nice and runs well unless you load it down with too many extra cars, like gondolas or open hoppers, which my grandkids tend to do so that they can load all kinds of little people and creatures in them.

And, yes, I enjoy running it myself.

You can buy the motor from Lionel if you kill it, no worries.

 

But can you get a better motor for it?

(and if so, which one is it?)

 

---PCJ

You can't get a "better" motor for a specific model.  The Polar Express set came in two varieties, the second generation got a much larger motor than the little flat-sided set motor in the first set.  I don't know if they've done a similar change to the Hogwarts Express, but the two motor mounts are not compatible in any case. 

Hogwarts engine motor/frame was never upgraded.