Derailing thoughts

The MTH engine shouldn’t be a problem especially if it’s Railking. The Hogwarts has/had a problem with alignment of the front trucks. Lionel had a fix on their website how to bend the front truck to supposedly fix the problem. It would have been nice if it worked out of the box and the customer didn’t have to fix it themselves!  I sold my Hogwarts too. 

There's a simple fix for the Hogwarts Express. I had this with one, but I didnt' know about the video. However, I figured out how to bend it on my own and all is well.

A four-wheel leading truck should track better than a two-wheel truck - which is why high-speed passenger steam engines had them. If there is a down-spring between the top of the truck and the bottom of the chassis, you could stretch the spring a bit to increase the down-load on the truck. Should improve the tracking.

MELGAR

Thank you guys. The Hogwarts set has been returned, my second try at this set in two years. The first time it went around track twice and the engine died. I don’t think I’m meant to have this set. I think the QC on this set has been problematic, or I’m just unlucky. But it’s why I only buy my starter sets from Lionel via Amazon— the returns are easy with no questions asked. All my other hobby purchase go through hobby shops.

i feel better about taking a chance on the MTH Railking Torpedo. Chances are it will work fine on my layout.

The Hogwarts set is cool, it's a hit with a lot of the kids. This is a command upgrade to mine with fan driven smoke.

I've since added some cars and the new Dementors coach with the cooler lighting.  I added TMCC to the new Dementors coach so I could have standard lighting and then switch to the sound/lighting effects on command.