Adding Power Functions to lego 4841 Hogwarts Express and accurate detailing

crazycarl

This is my first post so bare with me. In this post I'm going to show you all how I powered set 4841 and made it look GOOD! I could not find any good examples online so here is how I did it.

First I will post the pictures of the elements I had to modify with an exacto knife.




Here is a pic of where the moded pieces fit when building the loco


Here is a pic of how I moded the baseplate to let the motor cable move freely. After cutting off the knobs I added a slick tape to reduce friction.


Here is the pic of the moded tender. It houses the battery box and IR reciever.


Here is a pic of the inside of the tender.


Next I will show the cover parts for the tender.



This next pic is the wire routing from the tender to motor.


This pic shows the bottom of the tender. Note that I left the center wheel out so it will track aroud the sharp lego turns.

This pic is a side shot of the detail I gave the bottom of the loco. I added a small train wheel truck to the front. I also added elements that simulate the steam pistons.


Here are close up shots of the pistons and front truck/bogey.


The front wheels used:


Hope this helps anyone who wants to power this wonderful set. I will post more pics of the whole train when its done. I have 2 coaches and am building a cobine car. Thanks for looking! Carl

forumreader

Nice solutions. It's also possible to stuff the battery box and power functions parts into one of the carriages. I had to make the car I used for this one layer higher to account for the battery size, but it works pretty well without modifying the locomotive.

coachie

Hi @Crazycarl
Well done on your power conversion, but knives and Lego?
That sir, is an illegal move!

http://www.minifig.co.uk/default.asp?id=14&letter=I

I believe the only acceptable use of knives is cutting down larger baseplates to make smaller ones.

beegeedee

Couldn't the grey plate be missed out altogether, and use a shorter red plate instead of cutting out a bit? Poor LEGO.

I modified the toy story train to handle a 9V engine by switching the plate on the floor of a carriage with 3 separate ones, one a 2 x 6 technic plate to fit the engine and it worked.

crazycarl

Ya I knew some of you guys would hate that I cut some of the legos up. I have bins and bins full of legos so not worried about tree or four moded elements. However I do not recomend kids cutting with knives!!!!!!! I never plan on selling the kit to a collector so moded pieces do not bother me. If I were to approach Lego about marketing this mod, then I may do a non-cut design. However a lego model railroader would prob pay a mint for this because the cab of the loco is original, detailed, and the set consists of a loco, tender, a combine, and 2-3 coaches! I cant get a steam engine with a detailed cab on my HO layout. Thats why I got this train set. To run a detailed steam loco on my power functions layout. I really want the LEGO® Emerald Night but missed it when it was released and do not want to pay $250 for an engine and a coach. I only have $130 into this whole train set.

crazycarl

I believe the only acceptable use of knives is cutting down larger baseplates to make smaller ones.

Ah yes but that is still, by linked definition, an illegal move. ;-P I kid I kid!

DaddyDeuce

When I motorized my #4841 I gave myself the objective of making only minimum modifications to the model (and obviously no modifications to individual bricks).

I took a pretty basic and conservative approach; motor under the rear engine bogie, IR receiver in the cab, battery box in the tender. I did end up adding some minor greebling between the two bogies - that area was so empty I couldn't help myself.



I do have another #4841 I'm tinkering with where I'm trying to squeeze an "Emerald Night" style drivetrain into the model with the minimal changes possible, but I don't have much to show there yet.

graphite

I was able to do mine with minimal modifications and still have the battery car have the lid.

crazycarl

I like both of those ideas^^^^but I really wanted to keep the detail in the loco cab, add an engineer minifig, and hide all the wires. There was some collateral to some of the elements but im not a purist by any means. If I were to design it for lego as an employee, i would have new molds made for the elements i moded :D.

crazycarl

Hey Graphite, do you have any more pics of your layout. I would like to see a side view of that tressel. looks neat.

graphite

@crazycarl I don't have more of the whole table right now but here is a link to when I posted after finishing just the water/rock/bridge part.

http://www.bricksetforum.com/discussion/comment/70502/#Comment_70502

One half of the table is all the modulars I have plus my MOC modulars and some road plates and the rest of the space currently is just a bunch of track laid out so that I could have my 11 or 12 trains up on it. Still have a couple to build and add power functions too but 10+ powered trains keeps me happy for now. Just wish I had room enough to put enough track up to have multiple lines going at once. Some day.. some day.

crazycarl

Thats cool. Did you get all the elements through Lego "pick-a-brick" or did you have to contact them directly with that large order? Most ive gotten through PAB was about 60 elements but have some larger designs. First one will be Hogsmeade station.

graphite

Everything I've bought has either been from bricklink or from [email protected] I've bought stuff from PAB in cups/boxes at the stores but they don't usually have what I need for something that I've designed before building. Although some of what I've found on the PAB wall at stores has influenced things I've designed to try to use up some of the stuff I've bought.

crazycarl

Alright thanks. Bricklink seems to have alot of stuff!

crazycarl

Heres my updated version of this build. Its a lot better and finally done! All the PF is in the tender.