Lionel polar express upgrade to PS2

I bought one of the pre-LionChief PE sets for my kids this Christmas (sorry, can't get past the cheapening they did when they went with molded-in handrails on the engine & tender on the LE versions) and I would like to convert it to PS2 as well.  I also opened the shell up & noticed the thin, flanged flywheel and figured that might be problematical.

 

I originally was considering upgrading it with the sound & cruise commander boards from ERR, but PS2 is my first preference since I could download & install a soundset from one of their RailKing berks so I could have a Berk-specific sound instead of the more generic sounds that ERR has.

Waiting to hear from floks that have done it. If i succeed with the hogwarts, its next. Fyi the motor is the same in th rc version. I believe there is enough room in the shell, for the thicker tape. I will be looking for a very light disk to set atop the flywheel, for support

The tapered flywheel is done to clear the shell, so a standard one may not fit into the locomotive.

 

How wide does the tack strip have to be to work?

You might get it working with 1/8", but I doubt I'd try with less than 3/16 width available.

 

Not for the Lionel PE I have seen.  It is just tapered to save material.  I don't think it would be an issue.  You could certainly build up a flatter surface with some epoxy, or use thin plastic or foam tape.  G

Look again.

 

I happen to have one on the bench, from the top of the flywheel to the very top of the curved shell inside is 3/32 of an inch.  If the flywheel was not tapered, it would be hitting the shell where it curves down.

 

This is the locomotive from Lionel 6-31960, but all of these baby Berkshire Polar Express locomotives have the same motor mount and shell.

 

 

Questions and thoughts
1) have either of you gotten dcs into one of the things?
2) i have the rc and conventional models. They are subtly different on the inside and the rc version is a few oz lighter. Not opining on clearance, as i was just guessing in my first response.
3) could we get tape clearance by shimming the loco a bit higher? Its a toy and from 3ft away would a 1/16 to 1/8 shim between the chassis and shell biy us the tape room, or if the answer to 1 is no, is this a nonstarter?

Sorry to dump this on you guys,and i appreciate your sharing.

I can't say, I had an RC version here for repair, but it's gone now.  I just measured the one I had...

 

I'm about to put TMCC into the conventional one I have, but I don't need a tach tape, so it's not an issue.

 

The odd flange on the flywheel of this one could probably be ground down to offer a flat spot, but the diameter of the flywheel would be pretty small.

I took the boiler off. I still have a few parts left from my PS1 to PS2 conversion of a Bantum Daylight, mainly the tack and motor mount. Both fit inside the boiler fine. So I think my next step will be to buy a BTB-32 and a BT-36 tube from Plastruct and fit them to the flywheel. Trim down till it clears and fill with epoxy. this should give me most of a tac strip in width and a 27.7 to keep the timing correct. I plan on using modeling clay to check the clearence. If this seams to work fine I'll find an MTH tec on this site to sell me a kit and a fan driven smoke unit and give it a go.

John,  Wow, you must have a different shell that my PE.  The flywheel is only 23mm, the shell is 35mm wide and barely tapers to 30mm at the location of the motor.  I fit a PS-2 board set in plastic holder all the way into the PE shell.  The PS-2 board is 30mm wide.

So you have 3.5mm on either side of the fly wheel.  Plenty of room to fit.   G

Marty,  this can be done.  Mounting the tach is the least of the issues.  Drilling and mounting the PCB for the harness on the engine will be a tougher issue.  Also getting a sound file with a matching speed profile.  The gear ratio is about 20 to 1. With very small wheels.

 

Ideally I would put the board in the engine, but there is not enough clearance between motor and smoke unit.  It is a short a few fractions of an inch.  G

All the work put into installing ps2 into a Lionel berk, wouldn't it just be easier to just rebadge a Mth engine?

Hmmm....

Dan not a bad idea. It there an MTH engine that won't dwarf the passenger cars and has the critical (to me) cow catcher, for mounting characters?

Shell variability wouldn't surprise me The speed profile, on this loco can't be too much of a concern, it's magic anyway. The main concern is remote slow speed control. I will NEVER run it with smoke. The RC tether has 2 wires, for the speaker, 2 spare for the marker lights (If I take the time). That leaves a need for 2 thin wires for a backup light. Sounds like a Diesel upgrade kit is in order. 

 

The remaining questions are, which shell clearance do I have and  based on that small wheel/gear ratio design, will slow speed (creeping at 3 to 7 smph, or the slowest the drive design vs sound file profile will allow) really work anyway?

Marty, I have bantam engine I was going to see what the ratio was.  That would be closer in wheel size.

 

I don't think there is a difference in shell sizes.  They are cast standard.  I would be surprised.

 

If you go with a BCR and remove smoke unit you could just use the 4 wires of the tether for speaker and rear light.  Coupler transfer won't work with the PE truck.   G

They have both railking and premier versions. Plus the new ones with ps3 should be shipping in February. It doesnt look like they have the elongated cow catcher that the polar express has but i think with a little modfiying you could easier mock one up. Still easier than converting all the guts. Heres a cow catcher that looks like it could be easily mocked up. http://www.valleymodeltrains.c...&products_id=943

 

That's the direction that I went last year.  Though it doesn't have the large cow catcher and my re-badging was very basic, I've been very happy to have a PS2 "Polar Express" running my layout the past two seasons!

 

My photos from this year don't show it very well, here's a crummy photo from last year's set-up:

https://lh6.googleusercontent...._20121213_203701.jpg

 

-Sam

 

Food for thought..... sell both lionels, find someone with the artistic talent to mock up the mth...
Hmm

I need to see if the PE shell will fit on the Bantam Chassis.  G