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+--- Thread: Modification for the Polar Express (/showthread.php?tid=4617)
Modification for the Polar Express - kf4jqd - 12-03-2011
Andy in the O scale forum? WOW!
I have some information for you about Lionel's Polar Express passenger cars. It's quick and simple. Add more weight to the passenger cars. This will cause the locomotive to smoke more at lower voltages and looks real at higher speeds! Just pop the cover off and add your weights. Can't be more simpler! 
Andy
Re: Modification for the Polar Express - Tyson Rayles - 12-03-2011
As someone who has worked at a Lionel Museum for the last 8 years I would not recommend that. The engine that comes with the set is VERY cheap and you could burn it up well before it's time. We run a Polar on our main layout for 6 weeks (Thanksgiving til New years) every year and the set engine was toast by the end of the 6 weeks EVERY year so we now use a much higher grade Berkshire to pull it. Of course this means we have to listen to those smart alecky kids telling us it's the wrong engine because it has a different road number!
Also this can prematurely wear out the holes in the trucks on the passenger cars that support the axles causing the axles to fall out when you pick the cars up.
Re: Modification for the Polar Express - Sumpter250 - 12-03-2011
Yup!, the added weight increases the amperage drawn, so there is more heat to create smoke -------"howsomever",,,,
That same excess current also flows through the motor windings ( so there is more heat to create smoke )...and it does create more smoke! from the smoke unit......and from the motor !!
8-) oooh, and maybe also from the dried out "tree".... 8-) 8-) All kidding aside, I would tend to advise the use of an aftermarket smoke unit to produce more smoke, rather than upping the current in the locomotive.