Hogwarts Express Command Upgrade

Very cool John.  How did you get the lights to flash on the last car?  

that's nice I like it my daughter would love hers to work like that . that way she could run it on my layout

You're a Wizard Harry!

John,

Awesome!!!!!!!

Alex

Wow, that smokes like a fiend.  Cool!  Nice sound, too.

Where did you mount the two boards, the engine or the tender?  Nice job!!!

Thanks guys.  I still have work to do, but at least it's able to run around the tree. 

Cramming all the electronics in the tender was a tight fit, especially because I also put some weights in there to give it a little stability.  Let's just say it's a full house!

I want to do something cooler for the lighting in the Dementors car, that's in the queue as well.

John, you can send your daughter's engine to me, in a few weeks it could run just like this one.

Hey  Bob, I'm guessing that is the add on Dementor car.  That car has flashing lights out of the box.

Nice upgrades John.  The light flickering on the Dementors coach  will add extra flair to the set

GRJ - nice work!  I am just waiting on a couple more parts for my Hogwarts and I'll shoot a video as well.  Just as a matter of curiosity since I have done basically the same upgrade (minus your awesome smoke unit) did you put all the ERR boards in the tender?  Or did you put the CC Lite in the engine?

I put all boards in the tender myself since they fit.

Edit I see you answered this question earlier and I missed it!

It's going to get improved with random flashing and color, just figuring out how to best do it.

Possibly a lightning flash every so often for the Dementor coach

Just don't make it too much better or I will have to open mine up again to keep up with the jones's as they say (although, truthfully I plan to open it back up to add some lighting anyway, so if you give me a good idea I won't complain )

And here I was just so happy I got my Hogwarts running with TMCC and Cruise..... here comes John with sound, lights, and smoke!  

But anyway, I too was looking at those lights on the pilot.  They are metal I believe (to my surprise).  I thought I would just drill out some plastic and put in those Evan's chip lights and viola!  But it's going to be a bit more work to do it with metal castings.  

So John, they mini cruise from ERR we put in.... can you run Evan's LEDs direct off those connectors on the board or does it require some finagling to make them work?  I left the exisiting LED headlight in for now but like you was planning on some upgraded lighting!

PS... thanks to an answer from you on another post I knew to take the CAP off the motor!  Thanks! 

Very nice but I wouldn't expect anything less from you.

The Dementors Car certainly needs help, and it'll get it.  Of course, all the cars will get LED lighting.  I'm also going to take a stab at the silhouettes for the windows.

The CC-Lite uses the light outputs from the R2LC, same as TMCC or the Cruise Commander.  Since they left out the LED triggering circuit for the triacs in the CC-Lite, you need that .01uf cap across the light outputs to use them for LED only lighting.

I'm going to drill a hole through the lantern, use a chip LED near the back, and I use clear epoxy to create a lens for the lamp.  I'll blacken the back to kill any light leakage and route the wires under the pilot.

The tender reverse light will be done the same way.  I may even add markers to the tender, after all, it's a fantasy locomotive, right?

very cool!

Peter

Very nice upgrade. The dementors might look evil if they were moving about, via an aquarium car device.

Fred

Impressive job, Gunrunnerjohn. What you've done really makes running that Harry Potter starter set a new and exciting experiernce..

I bought mine awhile back with tmcc already added to tender and need someone to add additional upgrades to it including cruise command.

What's the MTH part number of the smoke unit you added and is your super chuffer in the engine or the tender?

What weights did you add to the tender to get that extra stability and how does that added weight affect the number of coaches the engine can now pull?

BTW, is that last car with flashing light asctually a Lionel Dementor car or one of the three coaches you bought at Allentown's First Frost and modded to flash like a Lionel Dementor car?

Again, congrats on a really nice job, John. 

That is Super Awesome! Was planning on much (some) the same myself for mine, but you've given an even loftier goal to shoot for. I have several more conventionals I mean to convert this way as well.

.

Excellent John. It changes the entire complexion of that consist.

Just a thought....   Drill halfway into the carriage light from the front, then use a dremel with a cutting disk that is as thick as one of those chip LEDs to saw up from the bottom as if you were cutting the light in two, but stop once you get to the top of the hole you drilled for the opening.  Then slide the chip up into it with the light facing out the hole and paint the sides.   That would be slick.  

Thanks for the kind words, I'll be continuing with the improvements as I get time.

I use the standard MTH steam smoke unit, AA-0000070. for many upgrades.  There's also a diesel model, the only difference is it has longer mounting posts.

The weights I use are 1oz automotive self-adhesive wheel weights.  I just stick them around where they fit, trying to keep them low and symmetrical from side to side and centered as much as possible.  The extra 8 or 10 ounces doesn't affect the pulling power enough to talk about, but it does give the light tender a lot more stability.  The locomotive didn't miss a beat pulling the four cars around the club layout, including grades.  Since all I expect it'll usually be pulling is it's passenger cars, I don't think I have a traction issue.

The flashing car is indeed the Dementors Car, that's the one I want to do something fancy in with the lighting.  I have the audio clips to add sound as well, and I'll be triggering them using TMCC.  It might be cool to have normal lighting and then be able to go to the weird lighting on command.

lighting change with tmcc action is what I went with and of course the sound.  People really like the sound upgrades when I show them, as they recognize the clips from the movie. 

The video does not do it much justice.  I plan to add some more lights next November.

https://ogrforum.com/t...dementor-car-upgrade

If they came out of the box this way I'd get one for sure.  They are nice looking locomotives.

Ship the box to me, and when you get it out of the box, it'll run like that.

WOW  COUGH COUGH, Smoke em if ya got em.  Great looking unit  JOHN!!!!

John, searched MTH's online parts service using this number and search results came up with no matches. What am I doing wrong, do I need additional numbers to get a price and ordering info?

Not sure what parts you're searching, I just went to the technician order site and entered AA-0000070, and it came up with the correct smoke unit.

any of us?  and the cost?

Waaaaaaay cool John!  

So, only technician's can order the smoke unit and not regular consumers?

Thanks Chris.

That depends on exactly what you want done, but I'm reasonable.

AFAIK, anyone can buy a smoke unit.  I don't know why it doesn't appear, I'm sure a call to Midge will get you a product.  I can also sell you one a bit cheaper than the MSRP you'll get from MTH, shipping's cheaper too.

John, If you were to use the Die Cast Tender chassis out of the Shakespeare model instead of the plastic one with the Hogwarts do you think it might give you more room as well as the benefit of additional weight ?

I don't know how it would give me more room if I use the same shell.  I was able to add sufficient "heft" to the tender that I don't feel that's an issue.  Of course, I'd also have to find and buy this part, I already had the tender from the set.

John, are the audio clips you mention those from Jmertz, or are they different?

Mine are from Jmertz, if you have any others, I'm all ears.

John,

So cool! You're a magician with these upgrades.  I wish I had the skill to do that.  But, lacking the skill, it's very nice that you're local.  

I still can't imagine how you stuffed all of the upgrades into my Beep and my PE junior Berk.  Both are fantastic.  You take an OK, nice train and turn it into something very special.  

I'm just trying to think of the next project I can invent for you.  Maybe putting TMCC controlled sounds into a PE passenger car???

Ron L

Well, I'm planning on sounds in the Hogwarts cars, should be about the same.  I think the hardest part is finding the good sound clips.