Opinions Needed On Lionel O-27 Polar Express Locomotive

The video doesn't show up in my view for some reason.  Here's a link just in case.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-elz2Zqy2I

I wasn't aware of a design change in the engine, so I couldn't tell you if mine is the earlier version or the latter. (Mine is the set that still came with the bell?)

What I can say about it is that it runs fine. I typically run it for a 1/2 hour to an hour at a time. I have it pulling the 3 cars the set comes with plus one more (the hot chocolate car).  Smoke is very weak, even after I repacked the chamber with fiberglass insulation. And I had to jumper out the resistor in the whistle relay board to make it loud enough to hear.

While it doesn't sound like much of a sales pitch, I think it's up to the task. I don't know if you can use the smoke anyway, and the whistle might not be an issue either. I think the mechanism would be up to the task (with a bit of lube as needed). If it's not, and you bought it new, it would still be under warranty by the end of the season. Expecting a toy train to run for an hour or so at a time with a half hour or better between runs isn't asking much.

Just my two cents,

J White

I should have mentioned, I use two CW-80 transformers that will be set at a certain voltage when I set the layout up, and they'll be hidden under the layout for the season.  ON/OFF is controlled by the people in the sound and light booth at the rear of the auditorium.  They just turn up the power from there and everything on the layout comes up.  The E-units on the engines are locked to forward.  Therefore, the whistle isn't really an issue and unless I'm there to re-fill the smoke unit, that won't be an issue either.  There is typically an hour or more between the beginning of the movie and intermission, so there is plenty of "cool down time".

Thanks for your input J White.  My brother just reminded me that we used his PRR Berkshire JR one night last season and it did fine.  He doesn't want to leave it at the theater and I want a decent steamer that'll handle the trains.  The Beep did OK last year but people like the steamers, and I'm sure the PE will be a hit.  I've got too many cars already though, so it'll be a freight engine.  I'm not going to buy the whole set.

I bought a Polar Express set for last christmas, and it runs beautifully. I would leave it running for a couple of hours at a time without any problems. If you switch the smoke off so as not let it run dry, then it should perform admirably under the conditions that you describe.

One point to consider though. If you are not concerned about smoke features or sound, it may be worth buying the whole set rather than just the locomotive. That way you will also get 3 matching coaches and the figures which can be placed in varying places around the train. The price difference between the whole set and just the locomotive is not that great, and often the set is discounted more than the individual locomotive. You also get an extra CW80 which could be handy in case of a failure of one of your other two. The sound tender and extra cars could also be added at a later date if required too.

I've never run my PE for any long amount of time, but I can attest to its durability.  My 4yo son* (for whom Polar Express to him is the equivilient to Star Wars for some of us) has dropped, kicked, dragged, bent, rubbed, pushed, pulled, tossed, etc... and this little engine just keeps on running. I'm impressed.

*I know he's a little too young but this is the kid who when he was 3yo would wish me a Merry Christmas on the 4th of July, and forced us to hide the PE DVD in August because we got so sick of watching it with him. He lives east and breathes PE and trains.  Its awesome.

If it can handle a 4 year old, then I guess it's a decent engine  That's great.

Thanks everybody

I'm to the point, that I just don't have any more space to store stuff.    There's a seller on Ebay that has the engines broken up from the set for about $145 with shipping.  That may be what I end up doing.  We'll see.

A Williams steamer may be a better choice. It starts in Forward, runs at low voltage, pulls well, and keeps on running like an Energizer Bunny. Choose from a new Baldwin 4-6-0, a N&W J (4-8-4), a semi-scale Berkshire and a Hudson, plus a PRR Steam Turbine. All are the size of Lionel postwar "O" Gauge steamers and available in different paint schemes.

Click on Williams atop this thread (www.bachmanntrains.com) and look around.

I'm to the point, that I just don't have any more space to store stuff.    There's a seller on Ebay that has the engines broken up from the set for about $145 with shipping.  That may be what I end up doing.  We'll see.

That's too much.

You could buy the set for ~ $200 and sell of the track($50-$60), cars($80), transformer($50-$60) for about $200 resulting in a free loco.

A Williams single-unit diesel (SD45,U33C, UP Heritage Unit) or an electric (GG-1, EP5, EF4) also looks good and runs well. All have two can motors and pull long trains.

Originally Posted by SantaFe158:

I'm to the point, that I just don't have any more space to store stuff.    There's a seller on Ebay that has the engines broken up from the set for about $145 with shipping.  That may be what I end up doing.  We'll see.

That's too much.

 

You could buy the set for ~ $200 and sell of the track($50-$60), cars($80), transformer($50-$60) for about $200 resulting in a free loco.

I haven't seen a set this low but even at $250, you could still sell off the pieces and end up with the engine for less than $145.

I like the Polar Express.  I think it would be a good train for your Redford layout.

I have the PE set that came out in December 2004.  I have never had a problem with it and it pulls the 3 cars it came with plus 2 more.  The set had one of the early CW80 transformers that went bad and LIONEL exchanged it no questions asked.  Also, I love sets and when I get them I sell the track and transformers on eBay.  No problems with that either.

Pay the money, get the engine.  Every kid is gonna want to look at a Berk and it better say "1225" on the side and "POLAR EXPRESS". Otherwise your gonna have a bunch of kids telling you that you have the wrong engine. 

I would say, your trying to give the kids that visit a great memory of their experience at your place. Is that worth spending a couple fo extra bucks?  I would think it is. Whatever your dscision I am sure it will be a good one.

Looks like lots of them on eBay, I'm sure you could score one for a reasonable price.

That's definitely my idea.  I know everyone likes to see a steamer running.  I'm just going to grab an engine because the other set I'll run is my Lionel El Capitan diesel passenger set.  I'll mix things up with the freight behind the berkshire.

Considering I'm going to college next year (probably locally), I'm not 100% certain I'll be doing the layout after this year, so I don't really want to put much money into the whole set.  The engine I can use for something fun to run occasionally.  I have 3 Lionel 2400 sized NYC passenger cars I can throw behind it if I really want to run passenger cars.

As for the theater, I think even without the trains it's an experience that's tough to forget   The trains just make it that much better.  I was still getting compliments a month after I dismantled the layout last year.

The only issue I have with that, is last year people seemed to prefer seeing the steam engines running when I was there to run them.  The rest of the season I used my RMT beep, which did the job, but even some of the MCTOS members said they thought about bringing in their own steamers to run instead.

I am going to run my El Capitan set, but I'd also like a decent steam engine running.  I went through my steam locomotive collection today, and none of them really fit the criteria for a display runner.  Possibly my Williams N&W J or my K-Line porter, but the rest are either TMCC, postwar, or don't run well at a constant speed.

I did a store window display back 2004 for the management company of outside strip mall. One of my selling points of this Christmas train display was to have a Polar express train running as one of trains. Because of Polar Express movie was going to be playing across street in their theater.

The display ran for 6 weeks, opening just before Thanksgiving until after the 1st. of the year. The display was on a timer and started at 9 am and stopped at 11 pm daily.

I had 2 trains operating at the same time, the Polar Express ran on a elevated section which I had done as a North Pole village.

I purchased as many Polar Express sets as I could at a reasonable price. Because the 1st. year for the set, they had become very hard to find and I had used this as a selling point to build this display. The first engine that I had used lasted for about 4 weeks that's about 400 hours running time. So I was happy about it's performance and these were the ones made with the smaller motors.

Paul

I run My Harry potter set at shows, the kids love it. So I'm sure a PE at Christmas would be a crowd pleaser.

I have a 2004 vintage and as mentioned before it has the small motor. FWIW, the motor has held up fine. When our modular club displays during Christmas, it will sometimes run for 8+ hours/day. It has the third motor control board in it right now. I don't keep a log book on my engines, but it is easily logging several hundred hours between failures.

We were at the Richmond Science Museum when I heard several children in unison exclaim "Oooh cool, SMOKE!!". It was spectacular. The entire locomotive was obscured by a dense cloud of smoke. My MTH Bantam Locosounds 6200 Pennsy Turbine was there to pick up the slack. It has pulled the PE consist almost as much as the Berk. Occasionally someone will notice, but not often. The MTH 6200 has a well deserved nickname of old reliable. It will pull anything and has never let me down.

I am pulling 8 cars with it and the "under the Christmas tree" layout has a bunch of curves. I've been tempted to switch to the WBB board and if it smokes again this year, that's exactly what I will do.

Gilly 

Good to know about the boards.  I do have a Williams board from my 773 Hudson TMCC upgrade in my workbench drawer that I could always swap out if needed.  As mentioned above, it really won't be working hard for long periods of time.  An hour is about the longest at a time, with a long time between operating periods so it should be all right.  I'll look into ordering one tonight.

I was just thinking about this today.  My Lionel Mikado Jr is a good runner and a strong puller.  I've been wanting to upgrade it with an ERR cruise commander M, and I think that might make it into a good display engine on the layout.  Considering I really won't use a Polar Express engine for anything else I'd rather spend the $85 for the ERR board for an engine I always use, than $150 for a whole engine.

I know people would like seeing the "Polar Express" on the tender, but I can always print out something to temporarily cover up the Pennsylvania lettering for the season.

Jake, here's a coincidence! We're just sending a print of The Cat and the Canary to that theater in Detroit. I manage a Film Preservation Center for a large metropolitan museum. Our vaults are out here. Do you do any work with the films?

It looks like a beautiful theater!

Take care,

Artie

I know the people that do the film work.  They've been at it since long before I joined the MCTOS.  I mainly work at the concession stand and help out with a few other tasks around the building during shows.  The train layout is one of the major things I took on since last year.

I've always wondered where our films  come from though.  Cool to see that a forum member is involved with that.  Looks like Cat and the Canary is scheduled for October 27th and will be accompanied by our 1927 Barton organ.  I may have to go to that show myself

I believe the train display will go up sometime in mid November.  I've been working with our operations chairman on planning all that.  We got a late start last year and had some disappointed visitors, so we've got to get it up on time this year.

Here's our website if anybody's curious about what's going on or about the history of the theater.

http://redfordtheatre.com/index.htm

Hi Jake,

yes, one of my colleagues works the loans for us, and mentioned she talked to the woman who arranged to have the film sent out. When the print comes in, you'll see our return address on the UPS carton. There are four major archives in the United States, and we're one of them. I've been taking care of our collection of films for 42 years.  We checked out the website, and it's a beautiful little theater! Let me know what you think of the film!

Good luck on the train display. I set one up in our Conference Room every Christmas, and run a Pennsylvania Plymouth switcher, and a few cars around our big conference table.

Take care,

Artie

Thanks Artie.  I don't usually see the actual film stuff unless I work a Saturday night show, which is rare.  I'm working 3 major movie weekends in a row in October and that's not one of them, so I'm not sure I'll be able to talk my dad into going a 4th time since I'll be spending a lot of time there with the trains in December