Advice needed: Powering 4708 Hogwarts Express

[Dazmundo]

Hi I need some advice

I am planning a Christmas Layout for under my tree, I've bought Winter Village Toy Shop and am planning on getting Winter Village Bakery but I want to add a train going round the tree.

I already own 4708 Hogwarts Express but other than that my only train stuff is from the 70's so blue track and 4.5V motors.

Can someone give me some advice as to what is the best way to go about getting a running train. I have modded my Hogwarts Express so that it fits a 4.5V motor but It now has to pull the battery car and I'm not keen on that, has anyone else done anything with this train?

Suggestions welcome, can I get away with my current kit or do I have to buy a whole load of new kit?

Cheers

Darren

Edited May 2, 2011 by Dazmundo

[Dan-147]

Hello Darren,

If what you want is just a train to go around the Christmas tree, I say you can get along with your current set. I assume that you replaced the wheels on the car with 4180c04 or 4180c01 and that you are using the blue track.

I'm a bit curious about how you fit the 4,5 volt motor in the locomotive. It is quite a chuncky motor. I would love to see a picture or four.

For the battery box, you could easily MOC it into a tender. The real Hogwart's Express (as well as most steam locomotives) has one. Set 4841, another version of the Hogwart's Express, had one!!

Whatever your choice, good luck and have fun. However, you may find that LEGO trains are addictive and you might want to add a few more...

Dan-147

[Dazmundo]

Hi Dan cheers for the reply.

So first off I hadn't got as far as I thought I had, Who'd have thought that all the track between platform 9.75 and Hogwarts was perfectly straight???? Come on the original train and carriages didn't go round corners so my MOD version deffinately didn't.

This was what my version did look like,

You can see here how the motor slots in, I thought it was a really easy fix

So once I knew the it didn't do corners I started changing the carriages, just added a turntable and a couple of smooth tiles, which worked fine although it has lifted the carriage one tile higher but I can forgive myself that

Then I needed to sort the engine.

The only thing that seemed to work, keeping the wheels evenly spaced and so that they would go round corners was to go down to 4 axels instead of 6 and use these pivoting axels

I'm just not totally happy with how it looks, there is too big a gap at the front and back

So advice needed. Is there a better way of doing this? I like the battery opperation of the 4.5V system but is there something I can do that is not too expensive that will improve how this looks.

Cheers

Darren

Edited May 2, 2011 by Dazmundo

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

Fantastic MOC!

I really like these pictures ...those photos remember me my childhood!

The train looks perfect!

[Dazmundo]

Hi thanks for the comment. It's not actually a MOC it's just a small MOD of 4708 Hogwarts Express

D

[Legoless]

I can't remember how deep the motor is- been decades since I saw a 4.5 motor- but would it be possible to put the motor under the battery box? It would make for a high centre of gravity tender which could be an issue with old blue track being somewhat 'loose' compared to later stuff- I'd be inclined to add many more sleepers. Then you could fit bogies to the locomotive.

It wouldn't look entirely 'prototypical' as the wheels are too small for a real steam loco and there are no connecting rods, but then smurf-coloured track with white sleepers isn't exactly realistic either! But then that would hardly be the point!

Bit early to be planning Christmas decorations?

[Dazmundo]

The motor is 3 bricks high and the top and bottom levels are 8 studs long, with a set of wheels at each end, with the middle level 12 studs long. The Batteries are in the black carriage behind the engine and the whole carriage is the battery holder so there is no space for the motor there.

Are there smaller motors that are battery opperated?

D

[mrblue]

what about the old 4,5 technic motor? this one.

if you have that old train motor, there are chances that you also have this old motor too.

using some tricks you should be able to transfer power to the wheels in a emerald night like way, and with turntables you can make the front and rear loco wheels moving enough to take "corners".

and also, don't forget you still have plenty of time before christmas to improve your mod.

have a nice lego train day

mrBlue

edit: spelling check

Edited May 4, 2011 by mrblue

[Pet-Lego]

That battery box holds 3 C type batteries right?

3 AA type batteries should be up for the same job (especially the 2200mAh variety), well even 3 AAA type batteries at 900mAh should work.

I'm thinking about making a battery box for my old 4.5V motors that holds 4 AAA batteries.

(rechargeable so it would come to 4.8V, just slightly more then 4.5V and should be fine)

Placing that in a brick build box with a switch to turn it on or off and I've

got a space saving 4.5V-ish battery box.

[hoeij]

That battery box holds 3 C type batteries right?

3 AA type batteries should be up for the same job (especially the 2200mAh variety), well even 3 AAA type batteries at 900mAh should work.

I'm thinking about making a battery box for my old 4.5V motors that holds 4 AAA batteries.

(rechargeable so it would come to 4.8V, just slightly more then 4.5V and should be fine)

Placing that in a brick build box with a switch to turn it on or off and I've

got a space saving 4.5V-ish battery box.

I've done the same thing with my first train MOC

(sorry about the flash light, I take terrible pictures).

It doesn't look like much, but it is remote-controlled, and this was made before lego came out with remote controlled trains. The tender contains the battery box and the electronics that I took out of a remote-controlled toy car that was no longer fully functioning (of the 4 functions, left/right/forward/backward, only 3 were still functioning. The train can go forward, backward, and the other button can turn the front light on/off).

[fred67]

I've done the same thing with my first train MOC

...

It doesn't look like much ...

Nice one, hoeij, it looks quite good to me.

[peterab]

Another option is to use this battery box, which would allow you to build a more detailed tender. The real drawback of the 4.5V system is the small wheels which make your engine look more like a freight engine or shunter since steam passenger engines had larger driving wheels so they could reach higher speeds.