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REVIEW: Lionel’s Harry Potter Hogwarts Express by Erol Gurcan

Lionel’s Harry Potter Hogwarts Express Train Set has
been one of the most anticipated O-gauge train sets this year.  Moreover, the fact that it is on the cover of Lionel’s current catalog establishes its significance to the company’s success.  The set arrived at hobby and retail stores last month, just in
time for the holiday season.

Click on the link below to read on

LCCA members first learned about and saw a drawing of the Harry Potter Train in my December 2006 TLR interview with Lionel CEO and President Jerry Calabrese.  In that article, Mr. Calabrese stated he hoped the set would become the natural successor to the Polar Express Train set (6-31960) which remains for sale three years after it was first released.

Since both the Hogwarts Express and Polar Express sets are recently licensed fantasy trains designed to bring new persons into the hobby and both currently retail for $300, comparisons between the two are inevitable and will be made in this review.

What’s Included in the Set

The HP set comes with a metal die-cast 4-6-0 Europeanstyle locomotive with headlight and two traction tires, plastic tender with coal load, and three 15-inch passenger cars with interior lighting. It also contains the good looking CW-80 watt transformer (which is included in most Lionel® starter sets) and 40×60-inch oval of FasTrack with O36 curves, which is the minimum radius for this train. The locomotive, tender, and passenger cars are not individually boxed, unlike the Polar Express. It also comes with an extra set of traction tires and several replacement light bulbs, a benefit not advertised in Lionel’s catalog.

Nice Level of Detail

The locomotive is mostly rust or light brown color, with a flat black smoke box and cab roof (see photo 1). I expected the locomotive’s color to be red because of its appearance on the cover of the current catalog. Details also include rivets on the smoke box and cab roof. A handrail runs down both sides of the loco. The front end bears number 5972 and states “Hogwarts Express,” both in gold color paint (see photo 2).

Part of the cab window has glass, a nice touch.  There are also cast in details inside the cab. (see photo 3). However, the locomotive cab does not have either an engineer or fireman figures.  Neither did the PE set, but that set came with four separate play action figures, something not available in the HP set. I especially liked the spoked drive wheels. Overall, the locomotive has a nice level of detail for a set costing only $300.

The plastic tender also has rivets, metal spoked wheels and states “Hogwarts Railways” in gold lettering  with emblem (see photo 4). It also has a nice coal load that is realistic looking although it is plastic (see photo 5). 

The passenger cars weigh very little. There are no silhouettes in the windows, something which is offered in the PE set (see photo 6). However, each HP passenger car has a diaphragm at both ends; these are not offered on the PE passenger cars. There is a large gap between the bottom of the car and its trucks.

On the Test Track – A Smooth Runner

In order to be able to write a more comprehensive review, I tested three different Hogwarts sets to varying degrees; I was able to run one train set at a Lionel day event for four hours straight at 13 volts, only stopping it to add smoke fluid, This loco, its tender and cars ran flawlessly during that period of time. I was also able to run one of the preview Hogwarts sets that Lionel sent to its 40 largest dealers in September, including Nassau Hobbies in Freeport, New York. I had the opportunity to run this set in forward and reverse for a short period with the smoke unit on. It too ran very well without any problems.

The third set observed for this review was sent to me directly from Lionel, and is the one that received the most extensive testing. After pulling the locomotive out of its Styrofoam packaging and placing it on the track, the front two wheel flanges of the four wheel front truck did not make contact with the track. The locomotive derailed around curves. I was able to quickly correct this problem by slightly bending the front two wheels on the front truck downward. After that, the front wheel flanges made contact with the track and never derailed. I suspected that the tight Styrofoam compartment holding the locomotive in place was the culprit and caused the front truck to move upward when taken in and out of the box. Purchasers of this set who want to avoid having this problem happen to them can cut the Styrofoam underneath the front truck and create a little more space for the locomotive. Like all new locomotives, it needed lubrication in order to run correctly.

The set provided by Lionel was tested on FasTrack with O36 curves (the minimal radius curve for this set and the one it comes with). I also used an MTH Z-4000 transformer and a Lionel CW-80, the transformer provided with this set. The locomotive ran smoothly with both transformers. The CW-80 had more than enough power to run the locomotive, tender, and several more cars than come with the set.

I also ran the locomotive, tender, and three passenger cars thorough Atlas 21st Century track with a variety of switches with different radii. It ran smoothly and perfectly in both forward and reverse and up and down the grades, without stalling or derailing. The speed of the train did change when going up or down hills, but this is to be expected from a locomotive that does not have speed control. The locomotive was dead quiet in neutral. No unusual noises were noted.

I also attached three more lighted passenger cars similar in length and weight to the three cars that came with the set. I did this to see if the locomotive was capable of pulling all six at the same time. My reason was, if the set turns out to be a marketing success for Lionel, I expect they would make several add on cars as was done with the Polar Express set. The locomotive had no problem pulling six cars on FasTrack, through Atlas O switches, and up and down grades. No derailments or stalling occurred.

The locomotive has no momentum flywheel as best as I could tell, and Lionel’s current catalog does not state one is offered. When tested in forward with both three and six passenger cars in tow, the locomotive sometimes made a semi-gradual stop, and sometimes came to an abrupt stop. It also stopped abruptly in reverse, but not to the point of shaking the passenger cars. I would like to have seen a momentum flywheel offered as part of the set.

When I first saw the current Lionel catalog and read about the features of this train set, the thing I found most odd was the minimal track radius for the train set — O36. Since the locomotive and tender are not scale in size, most would think the train should be able to negotiate O31, or even O27 curves, like the Polar Express loco and tender. For curiosity’s sake, I ran the locomotive and tender on my O31 Lionel tubular track. Sure enough, the front truck derailed several times when going around the curves. However, the passenger cars negotiated the O31 curves OK – should you decide to run them with other locomotives.

Sounds and Smoke

The tender features the Lionel air whistle common to other train sets including the PE set, the Pennsylvania Flyer Set (6-30018), and others. In other words, no bell, RailsoundsTM, or Trainsounds is offered. At a minimum, the set should also have a bell since most locomotives today offered by Lionel’s competitors have it. The air whistle was sufficiently loud when the loco was both moving and in neutral. There is no whistle volume adjustment on the tender. Smoke output when pulling the set’s three cars at a moderate speed at 11-12 volts on the Z-4000 was good, with occasional nice round puffs of smoke. The two other locomotives tested for this review also smoked similarly. The fact that the smoke stack for this locomotive was wider than the typical Lionel steam locomotive, gave the perception of greater smoke volume. Smoke output was very good when the locomotive was pulling six cars at 13-14 volts. The locomotive does not smoke in neutral, normal for this locomotive according to the instruction booklet. The smoke on-off button (as well as directional button) is located inside the locomotive’s cab, a good location so the train does not need to be taken off the track to switch the setting.

The instruction booklet states to add four drops at first and four more when smoke output decreases. I added 10-12 drops the first time and 8-10 when smoke output decreased. Personally, I don’t see how a smoke unit can perform adequately on just four drops of smoke fluid.

Conclusion

Overall, this is a nice set for the money. Even though I know little about the Harry Potter phenomenon, the set grew on me the more I ran it. Its strengths – a smooth-running and durable locomotive with a reasonable amount of detail and a nicely detailed tender and coal load. However, I would have liked a momentum flywheel as part of the loco. I also expected more weight to each of the passenger cars.

If Lionel’s goal was to offer a well-built fantasy train designed to bring new people into the hobby and also create some excitement among hobbyists, then it has already succeeded the same way it did with the Polar Express set three years ago. Only time will tell if the HP set sells well. Let’s hope that it does.

Lionel CEO Jerry Calabrese and Vice President of Marketing Mark Erickson provided an HP set so a timely review could be written for this issue of TLR at the holiday season. Thanks, gentlemen! I returned the set to Lionel following the completion of testing.

Secondly, I would like to thank Lionel’s Events Manager Tom Nuzzo for letting me run a HP train at a “Lionel Day” event at Tom’s Trains in Ardsley, New York. Mr. Nuzzo is responsible for scheduling Lionel Day events and maintaining the Lionel layouts you see at Christmas time. I would also like to thank my friend and fellow LCCA member Charlie Hirschberg (RM 237), owner of Nassau Hobby in Freeport, New York, 516-378-9594 (www.nassauhobby.com) for allowing me to test the Hogwarts Express preview set provided to them. Thanks also to Eliot Scher for allowing me to do some of the testing on his layout.

Photographs by Eliot Scher

Erol’s Hogwart’s review originally appeared in the December ‘07 edition of The Lion Roars magazine, published by the Lionel Collectors Club of America.

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