Polar Express - 027 engine power

I don't own this set, but there have been people with the earliest run of these sets that have had no problems running the complete set.  Where you will need to be concerned is if you will run it on a grade.

I have added 4-5 cars on our set and it pulls fine.  Our layout is flat.  You should have no problem adding the cars if there is no grade.

My PE is 2008 vintage and has the small motor. I have all of the add-on cars except for the conductor car. The motor has held up fine. However, I'm currently on my third motor control board. It is run for hours at a time on the club modular layout. FWIW, when it fails, the smoke is nothing less than spectacular!

 

Gilly

One must keep in mind that on a forum like this some will post negatives even if it is a good piece. That engine chassis is also used on other set engines without any problems. We run them all the time at shows and they have done very well. Enjoy the trains, if it breaks down well it can happen to any of us..Jim

Jim, I agree and that's why I make no fuss about swapping out another board and putting the locomotive right back to work.  I would never even suggest for anyone to not buy this set just because I've fried some boards. My engine is worked hard and runs hard. It is breaks, fix it and move on.

 

Gilly

Right Gilly if one keeps in mind that these are set engines and not four hundred dollar ones they can have lot's of fun running these trains. Just be sensible about the load.

We have one of the earliest PE Berks with the smaller motor, and it pulled the entire set of cars around a very curvy layout without any problems. The layout is gone, but we still have the PE set, so I might set it up under one of our Christmas trees.

The PE non-scale cars (the ones you are considering a purchase) are extremely light and you should have no problem pulling all eight of these coaches.

I have run engines with both motors and have run the heck out of them.

The early set engines have a flat-sided motor 620-8616-103 it can pull all the cars but has reportedly burned out or burned a board out

The newer units have a round motor, Mabuchi 620-8618-100 it is a more robust motor.

You can inspect your engines motor by looking at the rear driver area and looking for the round motors.

From what I understand you cannot upgrade an older engine as there is a frame change to allow clearance of the newer motors 

There was an early electronic reverse unit that was a new style, then I saw the older 103 unit being used.  Anyone know which board is being used now?

I'm watching the polar express pull 8 cars on a figure 8 with no issues. It actually seems to run better as it breaks in. If I was doing it over, I wouldn't but the baggage car (boring and not in movie). Also the conductor car says only one thing and does so every time you blow the whistle (just information, since you are considering buying more cars. The Dan's drumheads tail light, was an awesome addition. The disappearing Hobo is cool, you have to stare to see the hot chocolate car, from across the room. If I hadn't bought the cars, I'd be considering a second set at 199, using the cars and selling the track CW transformer and maybe the observation car

Mine is one year old and it is great.  No problems so far.

Thanks everyone for the input! I think perhaps we will add to the sets (the kids love 'em) and it has become kind of a Christmas tradition for them, to see the polar express in action.  We have no hills or trestles, we don't run for hours at one stretch, we don't run full speed, and the passenger consist probably won't exceed 8 cars.  We've been pretty good at keeping up with lubrication and cleaning, so from the info here it seems the consensus is to use the add-on cars, keep everything rolling freely, stay off the hills and apply common sense. This sure is a great forum!

 

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