Polar Express (lionmaster) Recommendations

I think you are refering to the Polar Express sets that come with LionChief (not Lionchief plus).  If so, you can only control it with the remote.

 

If you want to use conventional control, you can still find plenty of Polar Express sets with the CW80 which is conventional control only.  At this time, Lionel does not make a Polar Express set with Lionchief Plus.

 

Lionel does have one more Polar Express that is scale and Legacy.  There was one made a few years ago, and a new one that will have a new Legacy smoking whistle effect this catalog along with a golden 10 year anniversary version.  These can be controlled with TMCC, Legacy, or conventional.

 

There is no Lionmaster version of the Polar Express.  If there was, it would be controlled by tmcc, legacy, or conventional control, and would be traditional sized but with a lot more detail than what they are shipping now for the non-Legacy version.

 

thanks for the correction- So look for a CW80 in the set?

What would be the benefits of going with the newer Lion Chief version instead of our conventional control? I have zero experience with Lion Chief...

The benefit is being able to hand the remote over and let them run it. I have watched this phenomenon in action and was amazed at the people lined up to run it.

Sounds good- is there better sounds? better whistle? better bell? sound clips from the movie? how is the smoke? most important, does it maintain speed on grade? The ones I see on youtube show the PE engine barely making it up a grade, then going mach 1 going down...this is why I was considering using an MTH engine.

by the way- I am all about letting them play, I mean control, the engine....

 

Thanks

If you don't have any previous o gauge trains that are conventional, then by all means, get the Lionchief Polar Express set!  It has better sounds like chuffing, whistle, and bell, plus tom hanks announcements all from the palm of your hand.  It has better smoke (fan driven) vs. old fashion puffer which is just cute little o-rings compare to nice strong puffs.  It has a stronger/brighter front headlight.  Lastly its easier to use.  Just plug in the wall wart that connects to the track and hand the remote to any child of any age.

 

It also has cruise control.  No slowing down around curves and grades going up, or racing down the down grades.

 

In the future if you get a different engine in the future, just add it to your track, and you have two locomotives on the same track controlled by two different remotes assuming you have the running space to run two trains on the same track.

 

Should the O gauge bug really bite you hard, and you invest in MTH DCS locomotives and command system along with Lionel Legacy or TMCC, you can still place that loco on your world class high rail layout and run your polar express with your remote.

 

If you take it to someone's house that has conventional only, and you want to run only your Polar Express, you can do that by putting the old conventional transformer to full throttle (18v), and controling it with your remote.  You just can't run your train at the same time with a conventional locomotive because you would not be able to control the conventional train and the high voltage would probably make it fly off the tracks.

 

If you plan on buying and running older post war trains, then you may want to consider the CW80 version and forgo all the above, but I think the plusses of Lionchief are well worth it IMHO.

 

 

Paul pretty much sums it all up. You really can't go wrong.

Actually, one other option is if you turn the throttle all the way up on the remote you can control the speed from your regular transformer, though you would need the remote to work the whistle/bell/crew talk .

I have both of the Polar Express sets, and I think that both are great.

 

The earlier 'conventional only' set is a great runner, and has wire handrails. But apart from a whistle, it does not have any sounds. You can buy a trainsounds tender for this set, and you can buy a 'conductor' coach to get Tom hanks calling out 'All aboard....'.

 

The LionChief set is also a great runner, it has much better smoke too. The handrails are cast in this model, but unless you have seen both models, it's not really noticeable. The LionChief set also comes with a full set of sounds (Chuff, Bell & Whistle.) and also two different Tom Hanks sound clips depending upon whether the locomotive is in motion or not. The LionChief set is also a fair bit less expensive.

 

Either set is a wonderful addition to your collection.

The LC PE, either as a HW steamer or the FT Diesel streamliner is great!

One thing about the conventional control PE is the sounds from the Tender are horrible.  They have to be at a certain decibel level to be able to be approved for younger children but it drove me crazy.  I wound up buying the  separate tender to get the better sounds.  It was around $100 or so which was upsetting considering you can get a complete set for around twice that with the same sound effects track and a transformer.  Sounds like the new remote set solves that problem.