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Lionel Hogwarts Express
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Author:  paulrace [ Fri Dec 14, 2018 12:03 pm ]
Post subject:  Lionel Hogwarts Express

If you have a UK-themed village, consider getting one of these.

Lionel discontinued this for a while, but reintroduced it recently with remote control and Bluetooth (so you can run it from your smartphone). I finally broke down and bought one of the older sets used. And I am VERY pleased with the locomotive. No, it's not exactly a scale model, but it's an excellent representation of a classic English locomotive. The Great Western Railways' Hall class locomotives were always green, but I can excuse the "scarlet" color because the rest of the details are so nicely done. And other British railroads did use other colors (admittedly on other locomotives).

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current_hogwarts_express.jpg
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These have varied slightly from year to year. My locomotive has orange steps under the cab instead of black for example. Some sets have blackened drive rods. There's no way to guarantee that your paint job will perfectly match the one in the photo. But all the ones I've seen have been top-quality.

The locomotives are too heavy for children under 8 to handle. In fact, adults have been known to break the stanchions holding the handrail by careless handling. Fortunately they're easy to glue back with some superglue and a toothpick. It's also possible to squeeze the valve guides in such a way that the drive rod doesn't operate properly. I've been able to gingerly coax them back out, though. In other words, it's more model than toy as far as the details and paint job are concerned.

The remote is especially handy if children may be operating the train, since they never need to get their hands on it. :-)

The coaches are a nice length, and they represent English coaches very well, though they look a little plasticky compared to the excellent paint job on the locomotive.

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coaches.jpg
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Here's an irony - the old version now costs more than the new version with remote and bluetooth. Go figure. In the Amazon ad it looks like the new version has only one passenger car, but there are three, the same as the original version.

Here's the link to the new version on Amazon.

https://bigtrainstore.com/o_gauge/hogwarts/hogwarts.htm

Here's a link to an article I wrote about them a few years back.

https://bigtrainstore.com/o_gauge/hogwarts/hogwarts.htm

Author:  maria [ Sat Dec 15, 2018 3:18 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Lionel Hogwarts Express

Yowza!

Author:  paulrace [ Tue Dec 25, 2018 5:35 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Lionel Hogwarts Express

The new version with remote and Bluetooth is currently on sale for $277 plus tax. https://www.amazon.com/Lionel-Hogwarts- ... uage=en_US

Some folks say it takes wider curves than the Polar Express, which would make sense, since the cars are longer. 42" curves, which means you'd probably want to have a 48"-wide base. That said, it's a great accessory for any British-themed village, Dickens, etc.

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