POLAR EXPRESS - larger motor...

I suggest a 350 Chevy engine, with a 30-30 Duntov cam, solid lifters, and a Holley 650 cfm carb.  Power should come in at about 375 HP, plenty of pulling power.  

Love you Bob!  Are you insinuating that I'm a bit of a nut!

I forgot, you will have to add an extra set of traction tires!  

I have one with the larger motor, it's the same 385 motor as is used in may of the larger diesels and steamers.  I've replaced several of the small motors, they don't last long if you run them a lot.

Bob,

I haven't heard the term "30-30 Duntov cam" in a dog's age... I guess we're BOTH showing our age! 

I seem to recollect that term being used a lot in the "283", "327" days... and those WERE the days!!!

Best,

Dave

Hey Dave:  How OLD are your dogs?  You're absolutely right.  The 30-30 was mainly a 327 cam.  They called the motor a 365 fueler (365 HP) out of a 327 cubic inches.  Only to be bested by the 375 HP fuel-injected motor (mechanical fuel injection that no one knew how to adjust properly).  Those were the days.  Hi test leaded gas at 100 octane, smoking bias ply tires, 15 cent hamburgers, and girls.  I had completely forgotten about trains back then.

Mario, If you search the Lio site you can see the difference via pict of the Series I versus 2 frame and motor.

You could do it, but would need to drill new motor mounting holes in the frame, and also modify the weights to accept the larger motor dia.

Here are some pics of the command modification I did using a TMCC Jr Berk. 

In the picture with the small motor the weights are actually for the larger motor.  I had already swapped them to allow for clearance for the Cruise board.

The black weight had to be hollowed out in the center for clearance around the larger round motor.  If you have those plated weights, that might be an issue.  The black one was lead.   G

George, did you upgrade this to the large motor?  How did you deal with the worm gear on the larger motor?

No, I had bought the conventional set a few years ago and it was series 2 large motor.

I posted on your tie ejector or plow post in DCS section.

I found a TMCC/RS Series 1 Berk Jr.  So I wanted to use it to make my PE TMCC with RS.

The shell is a direct swap, but I wanted the larger motor, so I had to transplant the electronic onto my PE series 2 frame.

I do think the worm is the same, you just need to alter the mount holes and adjust the heat sink.

Anyway I transplanted the entire electronic from the TMCC Series 1 to the Conv PE series 2 frame.  I drilled mounting holes for the TMCC bracket, but everything else was a direct swap.  I also swapped the DCDR with a Lionel Back EMF board, swapped tender shells and I had a TMCC/RS Cruise PE.

Lionel could make this easily.  They already have the tooling and parts for TMCC/RS Berk Jr since they make a few for "high end" sets.  G 

I don't have a small motored one to look at now, but I thought I recalled the gear was different.

If the gear is the same, the transplant probably isn't as bad as I might have imagined.  I looked at the Hogwarts set, and I couldn't see any way to put a larger motor in that one.

One of those small steam switchers Lionel made had a series 1 and 2 revision.  They no longer make the series one motor.  So I had to modify the frame.  It was a pain.

I did a seat of the pants check, and the worm and axle gear looked the same.  In fact I was going to swap the wheels, but the bearings are slightly different and would not exchange.  G

Interesting, I figured the parts swap for the larger motor for the PE would be a bear, maybe not as hard as I imagined.  Of course, getting the new mounting holes drilled exactly right could be a trick...

Anything is possible, but as John stated in an e-mail to me on the subject, "is it worth the time and money"? In this case I might as well try Bobs 350 conversion. But I doubt if my wife would go for the exhaust fumes around the Christmas tree.

I thank all for your input, George for your pics that I saved, John for his pro input and of course Bob for his humor.  I also thank the folks at Lionel for not helping me ruin a perfectly good little engine. 

Mario for a Philly boy, your giving up pretty easy.  The frame is not to hard to drill on.  I was able to drill and tap for the TMCC mount pretty easily.

I would say you could find a newer Series 2 which comes with the newer electronic too...but for the cost of the motor and a drill bit you could do this.  G

I had asked this question here several times with no response. Good to finally get an answer. Thanks.

Gilly

Lionel made a PRR and a NKP TMCC berk in sets.  Those engine can be found via set breakups.  Seen one at the last VTC show.

The shell is direct, you just live with the drivers and series motor in the TMCC engine.

You just desolder the antenna wire from the doner shell and solder onto the PE (conventional) handrails.  You now have a command control PE.  The smoke and swithes are the same.

The tender swap to get the RS and remote coupler requires elongating the holes on the TMCC tender frame to align with the PE tender shell, and a simple slot drilled out to accommodate the tether.  Done.

Mine was more complicated because I wanted to keep my PE series 2 frame/motor.  So I had to move the electronics over.  I undid the smoke, electronics and switches and direct swapped onto the PE with some small mods.  Only desoldered the motor leads, everything else moved over still attached.  G

One wonders how easy it is to get the holes drilled in exactly the right place so that the worm gear meshes properly.

Bob Severin...

You Got Mail !!!

Best,

Dave

The girls were only 15 cents? Talk about a cheap date.

Nah, the girls ate big.  Two burgers, fries, and a shake, at least 75 cents.  Back then, I was actually working at McDonald's, for $.93 an hour.  If you went to a movie too, that was at least another 2 bucks for tickets and popcorn (non-buttered).  Cheap is all relative.  Given the pay, the price of gas ($.349 for hi test) and other stuff, the date would set me back about 25% of my wages for the week (part time after school and weekends).