Upgrading Lionel Polar Express to PS2/PS3

Possible?  Most likely that would be yes.  Advisable?  That's an open question.

I have the Polar Express conventional locomotive with the larger Series 2 2nd generation motor, and looking at that one I don't see anything to prevent you from upgrading it.  From the parts diagrams of the Series 1 set, it also has a flywheel motor, so it's certainly a candidate.  There will be some mechanical work as you'll have to have a tether from the tender to the locomotive.

I did mine with an ERR cruis commander upgrade and a railsounds board. There is just enough room in the tender to get it all in there. Works well, there is a tender tether that I had to build using a Deans RC car plug connector. Works well and was worth the effort.

Mine is stripped, and eventually it'll get the CC-Lite and RS Commander.  Of course, it will have to get a proper smoke unit as well and a Super-Chuffer.

UHOH John, I think you just sold me a SuperChuffer

BTW John, did you ever build any diesel smoke boards?

Gosh, that was easy.

I have a few prototypes that I hand built that I offered in the For-Sale forum, but I never got any action.  I figure I'll eventually use them.  What I have now is a pretty simple board that basically just senses if you're moving or stopped.

With that simple sensing, you can do some decent stuff.  I installed one into my Genesis with smoke, and did the following.

Two level smoke, low when stopped, full when moving.

Rule-17 lighting, bright when moving, dim when stopped.

Cab light control, off when moving, on when stopped.

Here's a sample of it's use.

Very Cooooooool!!! 

I put TMCC with Cruise M in the PE Engine and RS 4.0 in the tender.   G

G, I put everything in the tender. Whyd you use the modular cruise board if you dont mind my asking

I bought 2 used Lionel Polar Express Steam Sounds tenders from a friend.  No command control, but better sound by far.

Yes, this lazy electronics technician/engineer took the quick and dirty way out.     And as for smoke, I can only turn on the smoke outside.  I have no desire to run trains outside in December.   

I mimicked a Factory Lionel set up.  R2LC and Motor driver in the engine and RS in tender.  So I used the Modular Cruise in place of a DCDR.  Allows you to keep full command function with just a 4 pin harness between tender and engine.  G

Wasn't that a tight fit in the semi-scale PE locomotive?  How about smoke?

I did a full convert of a Lionel RTR Polar Express O-27 Lionel 1225 Berkshire to a full PS2 system about 5 years ago I think it was.

As it was that long ago its hard for me to remember everything perfectly, but I remember some of my first things I tried was to take a O-27 TMCC Berk an tender that came from a Lionel 04 Southern Pacific Overnight Freight set an get the PE 1225 engine an tender caps on the SP's respective parts, then I put some kind of ERR speed controller in there so I didn't get the slowdown, speed up stuff on curves.

Then naturally got the TMCC system an was able to run all of it via my PS2 control system.

One major draw back though was the ultra poor smoke of the Lionel disk puffer (don't even know at least at the time if any Lionel O-27 had fan smoke) an a PE with smoke that poor is just unacceptable. I remember trying all kinds of tricks too like dif series of heater resistors an doubling them up an all kinds of things, but nothing even came close to all my MTH smokers.

I even bought an tried to put in one of the last able to be got TMCC TAS Turbo Smoke units, but in the end it was just to big an I pretty much ended up ruining it trying to get it to work.

One other draw back was the misery of having to hook up the TMCC signal leads through the cap to the antennas of what looks like metal hand rails. For this as there was no other way I could see, I had to remove those from the SP cap as the PE ones were to short to solder to, an get them into the PE cap, which was a major pain but did work, but even after by just by how it was, was always a problem with all the times I was always taking the cap on an off as those wires being there was always tricky to keep from getting cut or working free from the solder (they are super thin).

So not just only for, but mainly for the smoke thing in then end I just gave up an did the whole convert.

Essentially a lot of the MTH PS2 parts came from a old PS2 RailKing #30-1474-1 I had, an then with just fabbing up what else I needed by one way or another I got all the PS2 parts normally in the tender, into it, even got a working rear coupler.

Next was able to cut into things an get the tender to cab plug an hardness in things, which if I recall right this was not easy for the engine side, but guess I was able to cut away what was needed, an tap in for screws an install the female plug.

I think then if I recall, I was able to get the MTH flywheel with the checker sticker onto the SP's motor I think with some tape over the end of the shaft or something. All in all when I did it I hardly expected it to last or work as well as it has, but it's held for all these years (an many miles I can tell you) an has always worked perfectly.

So then I remember for the reader holder I really had to completely fab up something, but what ever is a way you can get it done I don't think matters, just basically get it into the same spot as is needed an make it secure.

Then for the smoke I did get the MTH unit in there, an yeah, is was tight, but between some bracket fabbing, an I think some dremelling to the cab, I got it to work.

For the last step I put into it a PS2 file from one of the MTH RTR Christmas sets which gives me some pretty cool seasonal sounds and effects. For the scale running part it is a bit off as god for friggen bid MTH makes it so we can mix an match these files. But other then that it runs the train pretty good. For a one last part I did put some WAV files from clips I got of the movie into the TIU unit, an so if I really want I can bring up a couple of those. They get pretty scratchy if the train is running, but at rest they can play OK.

Also for one other bit which isn't really a PS2 thing, I did put a really nice Red LED into the spot of the plastic red tail lenses thing in the last passenger cab, which I can tell you really adds a super nice effect as the set exists out of a dark spot, very much is like how it works in the movie sometimes an was really worth the work to do so.

So yeah, was a lot of work an I probably spent way more then I should have, but in the end the results were great, an now I have a fully operating PS2 Polar Express O-27 which as my layout is a floor layout run through the perimeter of my living room where for some parts O-27 was the most I could go, was the only option for me.

Basically I never touch my trains anymore, I was into them a while back, but honestly, with all the pain in the *** they are to keep clean so they will run right, or just simply running right in the first place due to how poor all this stuff is made despite costing tons of money....an too for all the pain in the *** this whole hobby is, I really don't want anything to do with them or it until the holidays when I bring my brother who has Downs Syndrome home as he really loves them an really loves the Polar Express movie an its become a tradition of that the day after Thanksgiving, (when all the knuckle heads are going nuts at the stores) we spend the day pleasantly taking off all the regular trains, an setting up the Christmas ones, an then the Polar Express ones, an then sit down an watch the Polar Express movie an I run the trains in as best as I can coordination with the movie.

So don't know if any of that helps at all, was a long an sometimes bitter story I know, but was a long one an bitter one to live through too. Sure would have been nice if there wasn't all the crap the hobby has about its issues as a lot of what I had to do an pay for really shouldn't have to had been that way, but what ever, people just always have to be people.

But I guess to sum it up, yes is can be done if you're willing to apply yourself an get it done. All in all with the reduced size of what the PS3 system seems to be like perhaps that could be easier too.

One other option you might consider would be to contact J.D.S Limited. http://www.jdslimitedproductio...rotosound-2-upgrades . For me I know zero personally about these guys (or guy for all I know) but they do seem to be the only ones who really have a clue about this stuff an if I had to do again, I might trust to do the work right.

Is just my opinion an is always up to the individual, but given all I had to go through, even if they quote you something like 4-5 hundred, if it includes all the parts an labor, I might say its worth it.

Best of luck.

It's actually pretty simple to convert the PE semi-scale to TMCC, and full smoke is not an issue, the MTH smoke unit fits in fine.  I did one with MTH smoke, my Super-Chuffer, and the ERR Cruise Commander Lite and RailSounds Commander.  The tether is an MTH 10-pin tether between the locomotive and tender.

No it all fits fine.  Lionel makes JR Berks with TMCC.  Could have fit a fan driven, but did not.  G

Just took a quick look at JDS's youTube page an found these.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sxKyQT7ee4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NNbMt4et7E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YFJjNi1c4s

Again don't know them or how much this would all cost, but by just the quick stuff I saw, they really look like they did some nice things with the train.

I think by what I quickly saw from skimming their site, you can get dif things by just what you might want (an want to pay for), so isn't a need to get all those options, but boy they sure are cool all together an more then I have for sure.

Also I can't say for sure if these are on the O-27 PE, but by my recall, it sure looks like it is.

Also I might add and its just 100% my guess, but the likelihood you would be able to get this done before this season is here might be slim.

Also just btw, if by any chance anyone gets any quotes, for just curiosity's sake, I'd be very interested to know what they are asking for things.

PS, just to add one more thing, if you really want to be authentic an also decided to get a smoking whistle, I would ask them if there is anyway to get it with the whistle in the original spot.

I can't remember where I learned this, but I'm pretty sure I remember that there was the admission that any real Berk did not have the whistle located where it is on Polar Express, but as Chris Van Allsburg decided to draw the pictures that way, its kinda of a small staple that, that is one of the things that makes a Berk a Magic Polar Express train.

Also just for the sake of mentioning it, I think the same is about the large cow catcher too.

Forgive me if I'm wrong on either of those.