I had been having extreme trouble with my son’s Hogwarts Express derailing. I got so frustrated, I set it aside and started working on the bridge.
Came back to test the bridge and the Hogarts wouldn’t move. I look and the center drive wheel had popped out of its spot in the frame and had wedged against the drive linkage.
I took it apart and found that the sleeve that it fit into had cracked. I managed to get it together and set it on the track. It was locked up solid.
Now I’m stuck between the family that wants me to replace it with something better–painted to look like Hogwarts, or fixing it, which is what my son wants me to do.
The problem with fixing it is the cab is cracked, there’s peices of the linkage broken and missing. and both grab rails are broken and dangling. To replace a Hogwarts is about $69 and I have to buy the whole set. At this point I’m thinking of a 4-6-0 Roundhouse kit I just bought that is un-painted. I guess the time to isolate the engine from the frame is during construction. Anyone DCC an MDC Roundhouse Kit?
I actually have that set myself. I bought mine from Boscov’s, for $40. If you can find it there, you should just replace it. Saves you the trouble of trying to paint a locomotive to look like an exception stand-in for another.
Bachmann UK offer replacement Chassis for their British steam locomotives at about half the price of the locomotive, but you can probably get another “Hogwarts Express” set at a marked down price for much less than the replacement Chassis cost. Bachmann UK quote list prices and can be reached through the “manufacturers” link on this website, if you want to check.
I had purchased a Duck engine from the Thomas line. It ran horribly. It was a Hornby. I used an IHC 2-6-0 mongal as the new frame. With a litte work ducks body was installed and now it runs great. I wonder if any of the IHC engines come close to the Hogwarts engine in size so you could adapt the body to fit. With Ducks larger body I even added a little weight and now it out pulls the other two mongals of the same make.
The problem with the hogwarts express is… well, its a train set engine. Its designed to run back and forth on a loop of track and see a few hours of use before some little kid gets bored of it. Its not made to run on a layout. I agree with the others. Just get a good engine and paint it. My friend had a problem like yours. He has gone through 7 hogwarts express engines so far. It’s not worth the trouble. Just get a good engine.
Hornby make a “Hogwarts” locomotive using their “Castle” class rather than the “Hall” which was out of production at the critical time. I have two Hornby Castles (neither red) which both run as well as any Chinese made plastic locomotive, although I haven’t run either very hard. The loco is virtually identical to the Hall, the boiler is slightly larger and the cylinders are set back further (the prototype had four cylinders). These, too should be available (in England) by mail order reasonably cheaply in a train set.
But have you checked with Bachmann about their warranty - it certainly used to apply!
Definatly check with bachman on the warrenty, they have a spot on thier website you can post your problem with the loco. Thier UK stuff is on par with thier spectrum line here an is highly reguarded in the UK as good running stuff, but with all things mass produced, some run and last better than others. If they wont help, Look for a LMS crimison red 4-6-0, that will be a close color match, you can take the name plates off of the dead loco and put them on the replacement. Marklin makes a real nice Hogwarts train, but its on thier own AC system and track and wont work with the track you have now.
Looking at the Maerklin model, it too is a “Castle” rather than a “Hall” so I assume that it is the Hornby model adapted fo the three rail AC system and to DCC. Given Maerklin’s high standards the Hornby model must be pretty good.
I pulled out my own (2 rail DC) Hornby Castle (well, the newer double chimney one named “Blenhiem” after the WWII Bristol twin engine night fighter, even if the box says “Blenhiem Castle”, an entirely different locomotive). It does appear to have steel axles, which would avoid the Bachmann axle problem.
The bad news is that the Hornby recommended price is GBP69-99 for the Hogwarts version but even more, GBP 89-99, for the British Railways version like mine (although I didn’t pay that much, if I recall correctly). I don’t know the US$/GBP exchange rate, sorry.
Mine is dead too!the siderod jammed or something its froze…But never fear!Bachmann has a Lifetime warrenty!I think its like 20 something dollars and they’ll repair it or replace it!!!
Bought the 3 car set (engine, tender, 3 cars, track, transformer, platform 9 3/4) on a certain well known auction site for $20.
Should something happen to the engine, there is no way in the world that my daughter (our familiy’s resident Harry Potter fan) would put up with anything else!
I’m a little leery of their Lifetime warranty, at least as it applies to “train set” locos. As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I bought one of their Prairies just to have a steam loco for the little guy to enjoy some. Out of the box, it wouldn’t run at all- totally frozen up. After return from Bachmann (which took almost two months), it ran.
All of one inch. One of the plastic guides for the piston rod had bent. Back it went to Bachmann (still under full warranty, not limited), I can hope to have it in time for my son’s birthday in late April. [:(]
At some point, those complicated little mechanisms are probably just too fragile, even for just the “run it around for a while 'til the kid gets bored.” At $35 + shipping NEW off the 'net, I don’t see much point in paying $20 + shipping to have it fixed. If it doesn’t work again this time, I’ll simply avoid most (perhaps all) Bachmann locos.
SpaceMouse, I vote with many of the others- spend the bucks to get a GOOD engine. As you said, if you paint it red and decal “Hogwards” on the side, hopefully your son won’t care. If so, look on eBay or Froogle for the “right deal”, but buy something that will be reliable.
any one interested in selling there old hogwarts train set…let me know!!! dispite the reviews i still wat a hogwarts train set even tho i am not into HO… i model in N and G…mostly in G scale now!!!
How old is that kit? All my more current roundhouse kits have had can motors and were already isolated. Even the older ones with open frame motors were easy. Simply unscrew the black wire that jumps from the brush back to the frame screw, and wire one half of the decoder in between. I put the dedcoder in the locomotive rather than the tender. That way I only had one wire between the units. As I remember the hardest part was the headlamps.
That really surprises me. What did they do with the RTR models, something stupid like replacintg the die cast boiler with plastic?
Chip, is your son pretty rough on the engine, like dropping it sometimes as kids will do? I don’t know if I’d invest in a really expensive engine to paint in Hogwarts colors either.
I dunno. Anyway… sorry to hear it bit the dust.
Jarrell