AF Polar Express: Your Thoughts?

Hi Alex,

I believe most people who did purchase the PE are satisfied with the PE.  It may come with minor issues, like the wires disconnecting for lighting on passenger cars (easy 5 minute fix) or the possible lead truck wire.

Others that required return to the factory worked were resolved once they were returned, remember this was new tooling and the first run, these minor bugs should be eliminated in the next run.

On the sound issue, it is only a problem in very large venues (clubs, shows etc).  It is plenty loud for a house.

Hope that helps.

Francine

 

Regarding a new run, wouldn't have Lionel done another run by now anyways?

I love mine. Fan driven smoke and cruise control are pluses. Yes, my set has problems with some car interior lighting but I plan on installing led lighting anyway. For me three shortcomings are l'd like to see more add-on cars made available and with the great looking snow covered roofs on the coaches, I wish Lionel had given them  full interiors rather than the frosted window treatment. I miss having figures like the o gauge sets have.

Btw, if you plan on getting the two add-on cars now available, do yourself a favor and spring for the optional 72 watt wall power supply.

No complaints here......

-Pete

No new run for S gauge.  Still plenty to be had.

___________________

I like mine fine.  There was nothing that was a problem that couldn't be overcome easily.

Get one for Christmas now and if there is a BUG it will be gone before the tree goes up.

As well as the Polar Express branding sells in general, Lionel probably still has plenty of Flyer ones in stock.

Rusty

I recently bought mine so that I would have time to run it, send it in for any warranty service need that arises, and get it back by Thanksgiving.  That plan has worked so far. I had pilot truck problems, but it is back from Concord and running well.  

I really like mine which is from the 2015 run and have no regrets, but a few cautions for you. This was my first Flyerchief.  The 2 functions I miss versus my Legacy diesels  are volume control (chuff is a bit loud for me and whistle is too soft) and smoke volume (I like a lot of smoke but this one is too much for me after a while).  However,  I don't have any Legacy steam locos, so the issue of smoke volume control may the same.  

I am totally in agreement with these folks, and it is a great set for a reasonable price. Minor glitches are easy fixes by owners or by returning for service.

Ray

banjoflyer posted:

Chuck K posted:

 The 2 functions I miss versus my Legacy diesels  are volume control (chuff is a bit loud for me and whistle is too soft) 

You can adjust the overall volume with the remote but I think all sounds will be either louder or softer depending how you adjust the knob on the remote.

From the manual:

The overall volume of the sounds in your locomotive can be adjusted, but this requires the use of the FlyerChief remote (in remote operation mode). To enter Volume Control Mode, place the remote on a flat surface. Using one hand, press the WHISTLE and BELL buttons simultaneously. After three seconds, the remote’s red LED will begin to flash, acknowledging that you are in volume adjustment mode. Keep the WHISTLE and BELL buttons depressed. Using your other hand turn the speed control knob up or down to adjust the volume to your preference. Release the WHISTLE and BELL buttons to exit volume adjustment mode.

Mark

Good point. I just prefer the CAB-2 soft keys to quickly go up or down.

Mark is correct with the manual, I've done it.  Again my assessment is that it's a great engine that might need tweeking.  The Passenger cars are really nice and do benefit from upgrades, but for an inexpensive set, you can't beat it.

 

I have two of the sets.  With both, I had to send one of the berks back to Lionel and the second I had to swap out with my local Lionel dealer.  After that, Both work well, and in my opinion is a superior set to its O Gauge counterpart.   

Ben

How many of you AF PE owners would go to the expense of time and money sending passenger cars to Lionel for loose wire connections rather than DIY fixing them? IMHO, hassle of sending them back not worthy of such aggravation for something so inconsequential.

I doubt any of us would do so or have done so.

That is what soldering irons are made for but, there may be some folks that do not feel comfortable doing this kind of work.

Ray

I knew it was coming because of the sharing on this forum: had 2 wires on one of the passenger car trucks pop loose and replaced with super flex last night. Not looking forward to doing on 9 more trucks! But still loving the set.

Picked mine up at the Oct. York and just ran it last week for the grandkids. Other than a direct short in the wiring on one truck for an add on car, it ran like a champ. Volume is too low so I plan to replace the speaker like others have done.

 

Rich

These sets have the capability of having all wheel tender power pick up. You will need to add a tether but you will never have the engine stall. The led strips I installed on the roofs of the cars improve the appearance also.  

My wife and I just purchased this set ourselves, having liked the looks of it over the O gauge version.  O would have been my first choice having grown up with Lionel 3 rail trains.  But the scale looks of the S gauge over the more toy like O gauge set was a no brainer to us.  For my anything Flyer is new.  I have only worked on a couple vintage pieces many years ago for the shop I used to do repair work for.  I kept a box of Gilbert track in the closet back then for when I got the AF piece in for service/repair.  I really hope that Lionel adds more to the AF Polar Express line up like they have done in O gauge.  I need to see the "hero boys house" they offer for the O gauge line up and see if I can fudge it to work on our S gauge layout.  My initial unboxing thoughts is that the engine, tender and passenger cars are beautiful.  Hopefully I will get to run it soon, cannot put trains under the tree this year, our new 13 week old puppy will have a field day with it.   Mike

richabr posted:

Picked mine up at the Oct. York and just ran it last week for the grandkids. Other than a direct short in the wiring on one truck for an add on car, it ran like a champ. Volume is too low so I plan to replace the speaker like others have done.

 

IRich

Mine was a pre-order from when the sets first came out. Had to send it back to have dead smoke unit replaced and now it smokes like a champ. I would prefer cars with full interiors, but it is  what it is. Snowy roofs and six wheeled trucks are great,  The engine is scale sized (for S scale) and it's proportional appearance is a plus .  I've likewise experienced the coache interior lights/loose wires to trucks issue others have mentioned but despite such minuses this set is superb. I would definitely recommend it over the traditional size PE sets, of which I have 7 sets: a CW-80 PE transformer set, a Lionchief PE set, a 10th Anniversary Lionchief PE set, two PE engines with the steaming  whistle steam effect, a transformer powered PE freight set, and the transformer powered Streamliner diesel PE set.

Btw, IRich, regarding "...Volume is too low so I plan to replace the speaker like others have done."-- I missed that discussion thread but hopefully you can post a link to it. Thanks.

.

Well... it would be tempting to pick up the set to go around the Christmas tree. I sold off my 3-rail Lionel Postwar 4-6-4 and the passenger cars.

However, confession time: 

The wife and I are almost in a "bah-humbug!" state of mind with traditional Christmas this year. We don't even intend to set up the Christmas tree nor the decorations.  Just not the same as it used to be for us: Daughter's grown and gone out on her own, the (only) grand daughter is grown well past the "oh goody it's Christmas!" time of her life... things change.

This Christmas Eve the daughter, son-in-law and grand daughter will be coming over to eat with us and visit... the fun era of presents and toy time has passed.

laming posted:

 

Just not the same as it used to be for us: Daughter's grown & out on her own, the (only) granddaughter is grown well past the "oh goody it's Christmas!" time of her life.. things change.  On Christmas eve the daughter, son-in-law & grand daughter will come eat with us & visit.  The fun era of presents & toy time has passed.

It is sad to say, Laming.. but I feel somewhat the same.  The kids are now in college & it is just not the same anymore.  I feel bad for feeling that way... but its just the way it is. 

While I enjoyed the Polar Express movie, I really have no desire to own a model of it, regardless of what scale it's offered in.

Rusty

 

 

Btw, IRich, regarding "...Volume is too low so I plan to replace the speaker like others have done."-- I missed that discussion thread but hopefully you can post a link to it. Thanks.

Hopefully this will work. Or you can search Polar Express York.

https://ogrforum.com/t...57#57038617567872157

I got my Polar Express out of the box and put it on the layout.  It works great and I am excited to see it running this Christmas season.  Great buy!!

The Flyerchief Berks are some of the best engines Lionel has made.  Proof is that the initial run of Berks was exhausted in about a month.  The demand is out there for good Flyer, at a reasonable price.  I love my Polar Berk and am trying to get a C & O Berk as well.

 

Mark and Bill,

I took my P.E. off of the layout and took it to a local greenhouse for a one day display. We started running at about 10:30 AM and ran flawlessly till 8:30 PM.

Ray

WhiskeyRR has uploaded Trains at 3D Greenhouse Midnight Magic December 3, 2016

I am taking our set to my work place, huge John Deere dealership to put under the tree for our customer open houses this week.  I did a test run on a short length of track, sounds awsome(had to turn it down for my small room).  Makes it so tempting to forgo 2 rail O scale, of which I have built up a decent selection of cars and engines and go with Flyer.  My smoke works, then I promptly turned it off.  Smoke causes issues with my asthma, so I am thankful for a switch.  Lionel really needs to come back to the plate with this new scale like Flyer stuff, espically another run of the Berks and a legacy version.  If they do NKP with the Mars light, I will drop some $$ for that one.   Mike

I think the PE set is the best value L has made in the AF line. I'm really happy with mine and would love to buy another one! The only problem is the wall power brick is really too small to run the set well (especially if you add more track or the add-on cars.

I firmly believe they(Lionel) does this on purpose.  This forces the new owner to purchase the larger wall transformer when he/she enlarges the layout and adds the two extra passenger cars.  Its these little sales tactics(admitted to or not) that annoy most people.  For the few extra dollers it costs to produce the larger transformer(probably very little actual difference when amortized over the production run), I think most purchases would rather have the larger transformer right from the beginning.  So once someone has to upgrade to the bigger one, then you have waste, the waste of a small transformer that will either go in the trash or the drawer of stuff.   Still one of thier best PE sets on the market for those of us that do not have the depth of wallet or space to enjoy the O scale PE train.    Mike

I actually like my PE set allot, in fact compared to the O gauge version, I think it is much better looking.  And I didn't have a problem with the included Power Supply, as it powers the train that comes in the box well.  When we add cars or track then we need to add more power. 

Kind of like getting a new car with a full tank of gas, once you use it up you have to get more.  

Somebody else can probably come up with a better analogy than that, LOL.  But I have to head out to our Christmas Train display and run my five car PE set on our 24 X 36 modular club layout with our Lionel ZW transformer, LOL.

All aboard,

Aflyer

There are easier ways of powering the PE than buying a new transformer.  Any of the old Gilbert or Lionel units will work.  A Gilbert 8B transformer is great and costs less than $20. You do need to get the Lionel track piece that lets you use a regular transformer.

Mine is running around the tree and the 8B is powering it with all the extra cars and some extra track.  

I've worked on a few PE engines and/or sets for customers.  The primary and most recurrent problem is, as others have already pointed out, lead wires to the engine's pilot truck and trailing truck breaking free, as well as the lead wires to passenger car trucks.  I've cut out a portion of the original wire, removed the old solder, wire remnants, and glue (every soldered connection is glued and light bulbs in the cars are glued into their sockets) from each point of contact and spliced in new segments of 24AWG Super-flex wire.  Once that's done, I think this set is fundamentally a good value for the price.

Dave

Precision Flyer Repairs - over a decade of S-gauge servicing -- maintenance, repairs, and upgrades.

"Repaired to the point that I'd like to keep it." 

Dave,

Where can one purchase Super-flex wire? Thanks.

Dave,

I know you can get it on eBay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/LIONEL...5:g:YIwAAOxyGqZSWJaB

Aflyer

The Super flex wire can be purchased from Electric Railroad.

Ray

I've also purchased Superflex wire from Jill Sisco Train Parts in Whittier, CA 562-693-3043 in 10 foot lengths of 22 and 24AWG.  She's usually in the Orange Hall at York.  Doug Peck at Portlines also has it listed on his web site.  

Thanks all. I picked some Superflex up from the bay that I'll probably have by tomorrow so I can get my Christmas tree layout squared away this weekend!

laming posted:

Well... it would be tempting to pick up the set to go around the Christmas tree. I sold off my 3-rail Lionel Postwar 4-6-4 and the passenger cars.

However, confession time: 

The wife and I are almost in a "bah-humbug!" state of mind with traditional Christmas this year. We don't even intend to set up the Christmas tree nor the decorations.  Just not the same as it used to be for us: Daughter's grown and gone out on her own, the (only) grand daughter is grown well past the "oh goody it's Christmas!" time of her life... things change.

This Christmas Eve the daughter, son-in-law and grand daughter will be coming over to eat with us and visit... the fun era of presents and toy time has passed.

On more than one occasion in the past, I have had bah-humbug Christmases and not put up a tree. What I found was, when Christmas actually came, I went into a deep funk. So now I put up the tree every year, even if it is a hassle, just to keep myself on an even keel.

Well... the wife has indicated she sort of regrets not putting up the tree n' some stuff.  Truth be known, me too.  May at least put up a tree for this year.

May yet consider a train for next year.

My opinion for my "givens n' druthers" as of this moment: 

Hard to beat Postwar Lionel steam engines and PW-type passenger cars for a Christmas train... but remote control would sure be nice. (i.e. To be able to sit in a comfortable chair and run the train set.)  HO would seem too small and a bit on the finicky side, track wise... so that currently would put the S scale Polar Express at the top of the short list.

All for now... gotta go play with the 1:1 trains. (A Christmas passenger run, no less!)