Hogwart's Express 1:43 scale?

Lee, you are correct in saying the Hall class loco is 1/43 scale - and very good it is too, especially when considering the price. I placed it on the running plate of a full-sized loco at Didcot, the home of the Great Western Society, and the comparison was fascinating. However, as you no doubt will have realised, the coaches in the sets are to a much smaller scale but do look good in a train.

The tether between loco and tender is far too long. As it's only metal, I cut mine and overlapped it half an inch (to suit 36 inch radius curves) and glued. The whole thing looks a lot better as a result.

When it comes to re-painting, be aware that Lionel's applied decoration is very hard to remove, especially from the plastic tender. Good luck - perhaps you could post some photos later?

David

Thank you for the info.  I'll post photos when I am done repainting  it.  I have to do some thinking first.  All the GMR trains were, I think, shiny -- I've done several satin and flat black repaintings, but a glossy Sherwood green, which is what I should do for the GMR, would be new for me.  I want to study and experiment a bit first.  

I generally remove the lettering and such prior to painting with #400 wet sandpaper - hopefully that will do thetrick here.  If not, well, I will improvise. 

Thank you all for the informative thread.

I have struggled with thinking of UK Engines (Or any other European) in relation to USA O scale 1/48. I have not purchased any of these locomotives out of fear that it will scale too big or too small.

It is one thing buying some 1/43 vehicles as long they look close enough and another when considering a Foreign engine.

I would ask some more questions. How well does the Hall engine perform on the track?

It runs okay - it goes fairly slow and is reasonably smooth - at around 15-20 mph on a curve it shudders as if its about to bind up every driver revolution, just a tiny bit, but it moves on.  It does not run as wel, as slow, or as smooth as the  Lionel conventional Atlantic or Mogul. It slows noticeably, not badly but noticeable, on 36" curves compared to straights.  Looking inside, it has a motor of maybe only half the volume of the Atlantic or Loco - it probably can't pull as much.  

It has nice lights.  The manual mentions chuffing sounds, as if it has Railsounds, but it doesn't - this hallow's Eve version has annoying witch's cackling noises and spooky sounds that I just turned off.  The bell and whisle are a werewolf howl and cat screeching of something.  Still, nice, scale, cast metal Hall class loco, fairly good detail, which I got for less than $150, NIB.

I will post pictures and a short video tomorrow.  The front end sticks out quite a lot on 36" curves - I'm not sure if it is more than others, but I never noticed other o-36 locos jut out that far and I will look and compare tomorrow.  This is a nice loco for the money.    

While the engine will navigate O-36, it runs better on wider curves.  At O-72 it looks and runs quite well.

Here's one I painted a few years ago. The bottom one I repainted to GWR.

TThe passenger coaches look good with a cream stripe added.

I agree with Chuck about the 036 vs 072.

I've pulled all 8 of the red and green holiday passenger

cars behind it with no problems at all.

Even ran it at a show for an hour and a half with no problems.

nice engine for the price...

Here's the "real life" Hogwarts Express locomotive. It is actually 5972, Olton Hall, renamed Hogwarts Castle:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/c...1205/in/photostream/

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=324694&nseq=3

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=297435&nseq=4 

(Note the Class 37 diesel cut in behind 5972 in the third picture)

Bob

Once you remove the tender coupler you get a perfect close coupling possibility using cars equiped with fine scale couplers...thanks to the built in tender coupler hook...if Lionel would have had the guts to use this type of couplers on the passengers cars, they could have avoided the huge body-trucks gap.

The Hallow's Eve loco is re-cataloged for this 2012. I believe it was delivered to dealers pretty darn close to, or even after, Halloween 2011 to allow for proper sales.  One thing that bugs me about Lionel on this loco, though: their catalog continues to say it accomodates 027 curves, which simply is not the case.  I have the Christmas version of this engine and there is no way it can handle 027's.  If you check the current Lionel catalog, I believe Lionel makes the same misrepresentation again.

Mine won't do O-27 - not sure it would do O-31.

Although the catalogue does say O-27, I think that must be a typo as it says O-36 on the Lionel store website and the product description on the product search pages.   

http://www.lionelstore.com/pro...%5FLocomotive%5F1313

http://www.lionel.com/Products...neID=&CatalogId=

Nicole. 

O-31 will force the flanges of the trailing axle of the pilot into the flanges of the lead driver.  O-36 is as low as you should go and the engine will run/perform better on anything larger.  It looks and runs well on O-72.

It is definitely not 027. Dave, those paint jobs are magnificent!

Engine:  O-36

Cars:  O-31

I agree, the repaints are awesome!

I think someone pounced on a Hall for 90 out the door on the bay earlier this week.

Question, how and what paints were used if you dont mind my asking?

I had lusted over the Sunset offerings until I learned what it will take to acquire one. Maybe someone will make some more UK engines for those of us running cheaper engines.

I called Lionel about the incorrect track clearances a couple of years ago when the red Santa's Flyer Christmas version debuted (perhaps 2009?).  In response, they corrected the on-line listing at the time, but continue to publish 027 clearances in the catalogs....  The current on-line search listing says 036, but the on-line catalog says 027!.  You gotta wonder.  

Thanks, Lee the paint jobs were quite easy. In both cases, I used Tamiya spray paint .

The black was a semi-gloss, the Decals are from Fox Transfers (UK), and the weathering was also Tamiya. The green loco was a Tamiya satin finish, if you want the exact numbers let me know. I didn't prep either loco, just prayed straight over the original color. Another thing, on the green loco, I replaced the original handrail with brass, also not that hard to do, and it gives it a bit more of a classy look. Gold paint was brush applied to the pipes and gauges in the cab.

As I understand it the loco itself is 1/43 but the tender is oversize to allow for the electronics. Ace Trains did a correct scale tender for it that was available when Lionel

first released the Hogwarts set.

Regards

Nick

quote:

1/43 but the tender is oversize to allow for the electronics.

What electronics?   It has an air whistle in it.

Nick, I think the correct answer is the Halls pulled both the smaller  and one this size.

The smaller one was a leftover from the Saint on which the Hall is based.