At least Lionel has been up front about this in their catalogs,* but it is certainly disappointing that the Harry Potter Hogwarts Express will not run on traditional O-31 curved track. Some of you may not have noticed this.
There are a couple of useful hands-on reviews of the Hogwarts set on the OGR Forum
The problem seems to be that the front wheels strike the inside of the “cylinders”. I hope that Lionel or somebody comes up with a quick fix modification for this.
Good grief! Some of you guys will argue with anything. Just trying to help avoid disappointment. I saw on one of the forums that I haunt that some guy is planning to buy the Hogwarts set, sell the transformer and track, and run it on his layout. I just hope that it isn’t an elaborate O-31 layout.
I’m getting one “for my granddaughter” – nudge, nudge, wink, wink. Problem is, it won’t run on my track! But I will edit my post if you will pound sand.
I agree. Some of the guys in this hobby are just something else. Everything is a complaint. It is designed to run on 036 which is the FasTrack min. curve.
I can certainly see both sides to this argument. It’s highly detailed (for a starter set) which appeals to those interested in detail. It also is a new engine and comes with Lionel’s new standard for track 036. On the other hand, it appeals to those who like “toy” trains and many of whom already have nice 031 layouts.
Lucky for me, I’ve gone with 054 and 046 curves but my switches are still 031. This does dissapoint me because I will not be able to run it through any of them. I’ll have to physically pick the thing up and move it to the siding or shelf when I’m not running it. If a modification can be made (found) I might end up doing it just for this reason.
My “Hogwarts” post was not intend to be a complaint – it was intended to be an alert. The sets will soon begin appearing in stores, so the timing of the post seemed to be about right.
On the other forum, there are folks who not only were unaware that it wouldn’t run on their 031 layouts, they didn’t believe it when it was pointed out.
If everyone on this forum already knew that it wouldn’t run on 031 then I have wasted my time. However, if just one person reads my post and thereby avoids a major disappointment, then one person will have avoided a major disapp…
I’m not trying to argue about anything nor do I find your intent to alert others anything but admirable but then when you say Lionel or someone needs to fix it that is where I questioned the post. Lionel has now decided to go with Fast Track and O36. They would most likely be designing trains with that in mind.
I agree with the others, if it say’s 036 and runs ok on it then thats what it’s suppose to do. If it was to run on 031 then that would have been a bonus. Like the threads say it’s not broke.
Yep, I noticed the 036 but ordered it anyway hoping it would run. Many times you can cheat the radius. Apparently not this time.
I’m thinking of removing the truck and then removing the rear two pilot wheels. Hopefully this should do the trick. Could take the whole pilot off but that would be too much IMHO.
It isn’t just the wheels that are the problem, it’s the frame holding them. To get this to work on O-31, the frame would have had to be X or H shaped with the wheels on the corners. You still might whack the cylinder rods on the back end. The real loco couldn’t handle tight turns either and they already compromised on the model by cutting the cylinders in half to handle O-36.
I think I see what you mean although it’s tough without the actual piece in front of me. I wonder if cutting the truck block short would completely solve it. What do you think?
In desperation, you could replace the metal wheels with blind plastic ones and hard-mount the pilot truck to the bottom of the locomotive, with just a little clearance above the railheads to prevent snagging the rails on curves and turnouts.
If the unit will steer, Bob’s idea might be the best/easiest. I’m not sure the loco will behave without the pilot truck, particularly in dealing with turnouts/switches.
I love British trains in general, and have grown up reading Harry Potter(the first book came out about the time I was in 4th grade), so I was pretty certain I was going to try and get this set.
Thanks for pointing that out that it won’t run on anything less than O36. Although I may try and lay some O42 on my 4x8, I’m pretty well set with O31 for the time being. So, with that in mind, it looks like I may be holding off.
Thanks again for saving me from buying a set I may not have been able to run.
P.S. who says you can’t run big diesels on tight curves?
Lionel full-scale SD-80MAC(nearly 20" long coupler to coupler) on O31 cuves
For some of you die-hard tubular track fans you can open up the diameter of 031 curves by buying the 031 half curve and putting in a half straight(about 5 inch) between every half curve.
My smallest curve is 027 and my largest curve is 054 in O gauge tubular, using Gargraves 042 curves so I can run anything up to 54 inch curve.
Picked up the set today. Very nice. I like it, no complaints for a “starter set”.
Why it won’t run on O-31:
The pilot truck’s rear wheel’s flanges will hit the flanges of the lead driver or the front wheel’s flanges will hit the cylinder fronts on the steam chest. The only way to “fix” this is to modify the wheelbase of the pilot trucks and then someone will complain the unit doesn’t look right (which would be true) or remove the flanges on the pilot trucks which makes the pilot truck useless.
