does anyone have a polar express berk-how good is it?

[Anonymous]

I am thinking about buying a polar express berk/tender. How does it compare with a 736 or 726 for reliability-it is much cheaper. Also, will the tender whistle on a kw? Need opinions
Thanks

[pmilazzo]

I own one and I while I can't compare it to a post war 736 or 726 directly, its a fantastic engine. I does have a lot more detail like the cow catcher that you can see through. It uses can motors so its very smooth and and has 2 traction tires so it can pull plenty of cars. The tender has a modern air whistle and should work great with a KW.

Its a great engine for kids to use since it is geared down meaning that it will not fly off the tracks on O36 curves at top speed when pulling the polar express passenger cars plus the expansion. Pulling a nice long line of post war cars will be no trouble either.

[Demon09]

I have one too, and although i cannot compare it to the 736 or the 726 either, i can say it is a great engine..... its the first starter set type engine ive purchased in about 9 years and its great...... the sound is great, and i imagine that it would still work on a KW, although more people on here can give you an exact answer.......

bottom line, i love the set, its going to me under my christimas tree for years to come, and will make certain premiere appearances on my layout throughout the year......

[rlplionel]

Now would be a great time to pick up one of the Polar Express sets on eBay. There's a dealer who, in the past month, has sold a number of the sets for around $160 plus shipping. Pays to shop in the off-season for trains.

Robert
http://home.surewest.net/rlplionel/Robert.htm

[Frank53]

I bought a Polar Express last year in teh wake of teh hype of this was the last year they would be produced, blah, blah, blah. Doesn't appear to be the case.

The engine is the nicest part of the set. The tender is ok, the cars are cheap and too light.

The engine is pretty sweet - very smooth, nicely detailed, crawls at lo speed on conventional control nicely.

It does not appear to be as big as my 726, and it lacks the post war character. It's just a little too pristine for my taste. You don't get the click clack of the side rods on the newer engines. ANother thing that caught my attention was the way it stops. When you cut the power it comes to a dead stop. That can't be good. My 726 has a little coast to itas it eases to a stop - like a real train would.

All in all, it's a lot for the money, just a little too sterile for my taste.

[dwiemer]

got one, like it. you may want to look into the complete set deals as you get cars,track,transformer. you just need to think what it's worth. if you can get the whole set for $160, verses just the engine for $140, i'd get the rest for little more.
dennis

[Anonymous]

I bought Lionel's "North Pole Central" version of the same engine, which I like better because it is equipped with RailSounds. A very nice holiday season locomotive. Also bought the "North Pole Central" Dockside last year to add to my too-large collection of O gauge Christmas trains.

[Jumijo]

I've been running ours a lot lately and it's been pulling 16 cars around a windy layout without any problems. One thing I have noticed is that although it always blew smoke out the sides, it's doing it more now. At first I thought it was cool, but lately I am of the opinion that the wicking material is blocking the airway up the stack. I'm trying to drum up the courage to open it up and move or replace the wicking material.

Jim

[Anonymous]

Jim,

The reason the new berks begin to leak smoke by the wheels is because of the rather poor design. The smoke appears by the wheels after the plastic piston and cylinder wear slightly. Unlike postwar steamers, there is no gap between the smoke unit housing and the cylinder. As a result of this, when the piston is on the down stroke, it draws air and smoke from the smoke unit housing instead of drawing just air form outside the smoke unit like postwar smoke units do. About the only thing you can do to remedy this problem is to make a gap between the air holes in the cylinder and the holes in the smoke unit housing.


Jim

[Jumijo]

Well that's not good.

The engine smokes well out of the stack. I just assumed that if I moved the wicking around, even more smoke would go out the stack and less by the wheels. Maybe I'm just looking for an excuse to open that baby up.

Jim

[otftch]

One of our club members has the origional Polar Express set.It has run constantly on our show layout.I would estimate 300 hours at least.Other than lubrication there have been no problems.I'm talking about eight to ten hour days pulling four passenger cars and the occasional operating car. You can see photos of it running at ;
ocala3railers.org