New Hogwarts Express

[Andy Glascott]

Well , it’s here. What do you all think?

https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/hogwarts-express-collectors-edition-76405

[Missing Brick]

My thoughts:

$500???

They’ve used a huge number of bricks for the plinth to elevate the track. I would have preferred no plinth and a lower price or more track & carriages.

Also the track plinth requires the platform to be elevated to match - which looks weird to anyone familiar with the normal height of a train platform.

Also - I’m not sure those printed quotes from the movies are particularly iconic or memorable.

An easy pass from me - although the engine is nice.

[Andy Glascott]

Yup, easy pass for me too at that price. It looks good but would need more coaches to make an actual train…

[dr_spock]

Looks nice.

[LegoDW]

Set is $500 US so bar is set fairly high.  Like the overall look of the set.  Engine looks great.  Tender larger then expected.  Passenger car (coach) good.  Would look better with a second passenger car.  Station build looks not too complex, easy to expand.  

Seams like a large brick count for the track and ballast.  Hard to get used to a 10 wide train, is that close to actual "G" scale?  

Overall looks good, think I am going to pass as not sure will work for my city layout.  Will be fun to watch AFOLs motorize this and run in their cities.  Maybe they will change my mind ;).

[Mr Hobbles]

It's very nice looking, but far too far off minifigure scale for my liking. Also non-standard track gauge and non-motorisability = hard pass. The Harry Potter crowd is sure to love it though.

[LEGOTrainBuilderSG]

1 hour ago, Mr Hobbles said:

It's very nice looking, but far too far off minifigure scale for my liking. Also non-standard track gauge and non-motorisability = hard pass. The Harry Potter crowd is sure to love it though.

My thoughts exactly. 

Great looking locomotive and set but a huge disappointment to find out that it is not running on standard LEGO Track gauge. I've seen loads of beautifully done LEGO Hogwarts Express MOC that not only runs on LEGO tracks but is packed with all the tiny details and more.

One such example from British Brick 

 

Edited August 10, 2022 by LEGOTrainBuilderSG

[monai]

It has been conceived for Harry Potter's audience, not for train one. With such a scale they could  make the rods leverages a bit more realistic, it is a pity, not to mention the ridiculous steam ducts. The only positive thing, from a railway point of view, are the new large wheels, XXL size, but only flanged, therefore people must by  from others the dumb ones!

Edited August 10, 2022 by monai

[Daedalus304]

26 minutes ago, monai said:

It has been conceived for Harry Potter's audience, not for train one. With such a scale they could  make the rods leverages a bit more realistic, it is a pity, not to mention the ridiculous steam ducts. The only positive thing, from a railway point of view, are the new large wheels, XXL size, but only flanged, therefore people must by  from others the dumb ones!

The new wheels seem to actually be XXXL, which as far as I know are not produced currently by third parties, so unless LEGO's including a set of blinds in the box without showing them, there's no matching blind drivers. Also, the crankpin spacing LEGO's uses here is not "standard", and likely won't work with third party wheels even if they were produced.

Of course, it's not exactly likely a six-driver engine with drivers this large would survive r40 even with a blind axle. 

Edited August 10, 2022 by Daedalus304

[monai]

1 minute ago, Daedalus304 said:

The new wheels seem to actually be XXXL

They look not so large, if you pay attention the flange seems 6 studs wide = 48mm, therefore the useful diameter is around 43 => XXL, as regard the crankpin it seems you are right and this means only one thing: LEGO doesn't want these wheel to be used indipendently, not to mention that it is not prototypical.

[Moz]

16 minutes ago, Daedalus304 said:

not exactly likely a six-driver engine with drivers this large would survive r40 even with a blind axle. 

Obviously this means TLG is about to announce a new R104, 7 wide track system 😋

(I'm joking, ok, joking....)

[M_slug357]

I’m curious about the wheel molds for both the standard L’s and these new xxL / xXxL wheels— does this mean for the L’s there is a newer variant mold that has either a) 2 flanged wheels or b) 1 blind + 1 flanged each? Scenario A would be nice and tidy considering this set (and future sets), but Scenario B means that there’s 12 blind wheels just hanging around… Scenario C is assuming the mold is still unchanged from 1B + 2F, and would thus equal 6 blind drivers (unless they are somehow incorporated elsewhere in the model?). If the new huge drivers follow any of the above scenarios, then we’d see either a) 0 blinds, b) 6 blinds, or c) 3 blinds. Personally I’m thinking scenario C because for the standard L drivers, it’d be cheaper to keep the existing mold vs create a new one (unless the former is defunkt). Then, for the new wheels might as well keep the same strategy so no extra legwork has to be done later on.

 

For my final theory, what if TLG reuses this giant steam wheel mold to do an upscaled rendition of 7750…? If you do the math, the Galaxy Explorer was upscaled by a factor of 1.5 times— and the roughly 4s diameter of a standard L driver upscaled by 1.5 would equal roughly 6s diameter…! The only drawback being the set would also be rendered in the 10 wide scale that the HP set uses, although still articulated (like the original) in order to navigate r40 curves…?

[monai]

On 8/10/2022 at 11:03 AM, monai said:

f you pay attention the flange seems 6 studs wide = 48mm

Probably I was wrong and in fact, watching carefully the last movie, the actual diameter without the flange should be 48mm, but since the gauge has changed, also the scale is not more the L one (1:38), compromising the right reproduction of the 1,8mt diameter of the real locomotive. Sincerely I don't understand such an approach.

Therefore: or LEGO start a new scale design for his train system (very unlikely), or these are unique pieces devoted to few static models.

Edited August 11, 2022 by monai

[McWaffel]

4 hours ago, monai said:

It has been conceived for Harry Potter's audience, not for train one. With such a scale they could  make the rods leverages a bit more realistic, it is a pity, not to mention the ridiculous steam ducts. The only positive thing, from a railway point of view, are the new large wheels, XXL size, but only flanged, therefore people must by  from others the dumb ones!

This might sound crazy, but what if you made a product that could cover BOTH fan bases?! 
 

I know, it’s ridiculous to ask for a train that actually works 😂

[vclarke]

Aren't the small wheels a new size too?

[vclarke]

...or at least a new mold - they don't seem to have the counterweight that the old ones do

[Darkkostas25]

2 hours ago, vclarke said:

...or at least a new mold - they don't seem to have the counterweight that the old ones do

They got them

[Hermes Mocs]

9 hours ago, M_slug357 said:

I’m curious about the wheel molds for both the standard L’s and these new xxL / xXxL wheels— does this mean for the L’s there is a newer variant mold that has either a) 2 flanged wheels or b) 1 blind + 1 flanged each? Scenario A would be nice and tidy considering this set (and future sets), but Scenario B means that there’s 12 blind wheels just hanging around… Scenario C is assuming the mold is still unchanged from 1B + 2F, and would thus equal 6 blind drivers (unless they are somehow incorporated elsewhere in the model?). If the new huge drivers follow any of the above scenarios, then we’d see either a) 0 blinds, b) 6 blinds, or c) 3 blinds. Personally I’m thinking scenario C because for the standard L drivers, it’d be cheaper to keep the existing mold vs create a new one (unless the former is defunkt). Then, for the new wheels might as well keep the same strategy so no extra legwork has to be done later on.

Dunno why you are talking about 12 blind wheels in case of Scenario B... Aren't there 18 L wheels (4 Loco, 6 Tender, 8 Carriage)? However, in this newly released video by the guy the HE was sent to, you see 8 unflanged wheels at about a minute into the video. So this rules out Scenario A at least, but neither B or C.

Earlier in the video you see the XXL/XXXL wheels lying on the carpet. Does seem to be a one-wheel-mold.

[M_slug357]

@Hermes Mocs Thanks for correcting my count! The tender is so inconsequential (and fairly hollow according to some other pics) that I completely forgot it existed. If theres 18 L drivers total in the set, then that makes Scenario B less likely than Scenario C. But still, knowing that there’s at least 9 blind drivers in the set that TLG didnt even bother trying to integrate into the overall build is… aggravating.

[Darkkostas25]

New Hogwarts express on a regular layout

[M_slug357]

@Darkkostas25 Thats not the right 9 3/4…

[XG BC]

too big. regular scale like the horizon express would have been better tbh.

[zephyr1934]

On 8/10/2022 at 8:30 AM, McWaffel said:

This might sound crazy, but what if you made a product that could cover BOTH fan bases?! 
 

I know, it’s ridiculous to ask for a train that actually works 😂

That's what everyone was hoping for (sad clown). Even worse, unless you want the minifigs or those huge wheels, it isn't even a good parts pack.

The one thing I do like about it are the photos of the car when it is only a flatcar. That wide base really looks nice.

 

 

On 8/10/2022 at 4:37 PM, Hermes Mocs said:

Earlier in the video you see the XXL/XXXL wheels lying on the carpet. Does seem to be a one-wheel-mold. 

[eric_son_of_joseph]

On 8/10/2022 at 8:30 AM, McWaffel said:

I know, it’s ridiculous to ask for a train that actually works 😂

LEGO has released five Hogwarts Express sets that run on L-Gauge track, one of which is still available at retail.  They chose to go in a different direction with this one, and there's nothing wrong with that.

Mike Psiaki stated that they have to take the diversity of the fan community into account when making a model:

 

Edited August 14, 2022 by eric_son_of_joseph
grammar

[McWaffel]

On 8/15/2022 at 1:50 AM, eric_son_of_joseph said:

LEGO has released five garbage Hogwarts Express sets that run on L-Gauge track

Fixed that for you