Adding Motors to the Orient Express 

Seeing all the trial-and-error you went through was great. I can start to see the problems the designers faced but it looks like there are solutions there if you're prepared to use two motors. Great video and I think the hand-held, unscripted effect was very authentic.

Hey Alex, The Racing Brick uploaded a great video in powering up the Orient Express. Im 99% sure the weight isn’t the problem it is the friction up the front wheels. He used battery instead of 9v and powered the Engine using rubber bands on the engine like the emerald knight!

They wheels aren't really locking up, they have no traction due to the lack of rubber bands so they're slipping because nothing forces them to spin. The Emerald Night and Crocodile locomotive shipped with rubber bands so the wheels would be able to grip on the track, but since this one doesnt come with any official motorization features they left these parts out. If you put some x37 rubber bands on them they will stop slipping.

Love the look of the train running in your city. We need a city update with the emerald night and this running at the same time down the road just for fun.

As glorious as it looks (I don‘t mind the discrepancy between fan idea and final result), I still find it appalling that you pay 300 dollars for a product that will need further investment and changes to bring it to the point that the end consumer is happy…

Find some lead sinkers and throw them in the tender. If you can extend out the front truck of the loco, you could put a second motor in the front.

Great to watch these trial and error. There will be a good looking and proper solution in the future. You did a awesome start for it

Model railroader here. The issue with the loco locking up is that the middle drive wheel is not being powered/driven. 4-6-0 needs to have its middle drive wheel powered if linked to the other wheels.

I suggest adding the traction tires from the crocodile loco if you don’t have it I think you can buy spares

Great solution!

If you are using two 9v motors, you can place them under the first wagon 😉

Easy way to fix the first iteration: LEGO Dacta weighted bricks. The issue here is a lack of weight on the drive wheels. The 9v motor was slipping, not stalling, so you need more adhesive force than the hollow tender plus the motor block can give on their own. You tried that with the battery box but it wasn't enough, you need a solid chunk of metal, or in this case, several solid chunks of metal inside plastic bricks. Well, that and also getting rid of the traction tires on the pilot truck.

It seems like all you need is some rubber belt x37 on the front wheels to help with some friction when pushing from the back

Don't use weights, but rubber from the lokomotive-wheels from the sixtys, seventys, eightys, ninetys etc. These systems I still use - and I will stay at them, because they are perfect!

For steam wheel you can add red rubber (lego id : 6049329) (V-Belt 24MM RED) (same than wheel of lego emerald night locomotive)

I find standard LEGO curves too tight, so now that I’ve dipped my toe back into trains, I have invested in wider radius third party R72 (RC) curves. The price become more daunting for the 9V versions, but sooo spoiled for choice in radii. Unfortunately, basements and attics are not a thing in Australia, so my layout ambitions are very limited and temporary.

it's a success for the 9 volt system. powered up / power functions on the engine though you will need to get 4 85544 V-BELT Ø24MM RED for using an l motor and gear to run it from the engine

I can say but you can put motor inside of the boiler and make some driveshaft so there is more grip. (I dont remember which one) And power supply in tender

I'm gonna call it a success! Great work and well worth the time to see it going around the city. I hope all the passengers made it out of the train intact at the end of the day, with no criminal activities on board! Thank you !

i have seen the movie the murder on the orient express so its cool to see the train in lego form. trial and error and then success looks like. thats the thing with lego.

Could possibly make it a double tender with the 9V volts under? Some trains do have double tenders after all

You could try also using a very light oil on the connecting rod pins on the engines wheels as well as the slot where the rod reciprocates at the engine. I bet the train would be much much smoother as I firmly believe the whole issue is the friction of those connecting rods and not the weight and taking them off all together might be the be solution. Sucks that its a brand new piece too! I think Lego is saying its not motorize-able even though they clearly left room for the battery box is because they spent money on tooling that new connecting rod piece that causes too much friction and were not going to not include it in the finished product. Racing brick pulled the tinder and carriages before a different engine and it ran at full speed. He put a motor inside the engine and used gears to drive the engine wheels with rubber bands on them like the emerald knight

4:04 Look up locos from the "Baldwin Locomotive Works", they look exactly like that mod you made to the engine HAHA

@racingbrick did some good trials with motors too

Can you add a engine in the loco? Does not need to be that strong, as long as it can keep the main wheels spinning, that would lower the friction the big locomotive wheels generate. The main problem would be, how do you power it? Can you feet it from those engine blocks? Now as for tenders, look up the P8 steam engine, that type of tender would allow you to use two power blocks. That type of locomotive did after WWII, have a few that where running around with P8 tenders.

Swapping the middle and back wheels on the locomotive will improve cornering. The flange wheels are too far apart.

In a different RU-vid video, someone built a small caboose ( it matches the colors of the orient Express train), and they motorized the caboose and the tender.

Maybe if you could use a large technic motor to spin the stock wheels on the locomotive (put rubber bands on the wheels) if you could somehow use the 9v wheels as a power pickup

If you buy Mould King 12025, you get a fully motorized set with better brick quality and no stickers for less than 2/3 the money. And guess which set comes closer to the original Ideas submission. 😆

You have that battery box in the tender, but it's powering nothing. Install a Powered Up motor into the engine, gear the motor to the drivers, add some rubber bands to the drivers and it should be good to go, especially with a 9v motor boosting it.

This might be easier said than done, but what about extending the boiler on the engine and putting a 9v motor underneath the cab, changing it from a 4-6-0 to a 4-6-4.

Have you tried rubber bands around the engine's wheels? I can see why Lego doesn't claim this thing can be motorized, racingbrick tried to do it with some level of success using more recent motors, but it seems to have issues no matter how one approaches it. This set is fairly compromised. I still like it a lot and will probably get it, but I can't imagine I'll bother to motorize it. In a perfect world I'd have two of them, so I could have a decent number of carriages, and I'd mash two of the locomotives together to make something shaped more like the original submission, and maybe there'd be room inside that for two large motors.

Would adding rubber bands to the drive wheels on the engine add enough torsion to overcome the slippage when running the train in reverse? It would be simple to try it out. I think your idea of placing the 9 volt wheels under the car is the perfect solution so far. The car provides the weight to give it the traction it needs to move the train smoothly. You did a great job with your testing. I know you will get it to work!

Try adding rubber bands on the steem loco and the tender trust me it helps

RancingBrick put a clever solution on his chanel. Rubber bands on the wheels of the locomotor. I recomend to see his video also. Thanks, Alex for the video.

would a setup like on the brown crocodil work on this train ? maybe you could get even 3 axles powered and put rubber band on the wheels. (just a thought) #goodluck

Thanks for sharing! You’re doing great helping out other afols with the similar problem. this is totally not against you or your video but if people buy an expensive set like this and are left by lego trying to fix the set, I’d call it a failure on LEGO’s part.

Switch out the pilot wheels in the front of the locomotive, you’ll need to do some refiguring of the pilot wheel truck. May work. Good luck.

The way racingbricks did it, seens to have worked great

One of the things i did to make sure the engine wheels didn't lock up was add a drive shaft to it. It forced the first amd last drive wheel to rotate at the same time preventing them from locking up. Thats also how i motorized it too. I had a large motor on the inside of the boiler that was connected to the same drive shaft

A hub in the tender with motors under the tender and first set of wheels on the cabin seems like the best option. you could plug both into the hub and control them both with one remote.

It might be worth seeing what other people did to motorize the train I wonder if it would work better not on 9V track, but instead with the newer system

May I suggest tram skirts? Some steam engines do have them

If I had to take a guess, to truly make this set efficient with it's motor some heavy modifications might be needed with the carriages. Namely, making it a bit shorter, if I can had to make a rough estimate, it might need to be shorter by 4 studs each. If not, might need to be 6. I also remember reading from the designers that there was also a weight issue that prevented it from being effectively motorized, you might have to go through all the parts of the train to try and figure out where you can trim fat, sacrifice from the form for the function basically. Or I could be totally wrong, I've never (despite desperately wanting one) own a train set! I'm looking at it and I'm thinking, yeah those carriages are too long for this. But hey! If I do end up being right and you do need to make the carriage shorter, you can use those spare parts to make the start of a nice caboose! Although as I'm writing this, it appears the actual Orient Express this set is based on doesn't have a typical caboose, but hey, it's lego, can do what you want! I also think reducing the size of the two carriages so you can have three carriages would be better too.

I've seen a video where someone Motorized a Hogwarts Express train using an M-Motor inside the boiler, receiver inside the cab, and battery pack inside the tender. The Locomotive required some additional piece and gears and rubber band on the wheels, but aside from that the trained ran smoothly.

Very good effort man. 👍🏼 looks so nice

Great video Alex. It's definitely more of a display piece as I can't see that running around on a track for very long.

Nice job getting it motorized.

Maybe try moving the 2nd 9 volt motor to the rear carriage if possible so you will always maintain solid contact with the track in one of the motors when going around the corners

If you want to keep using the 9 volt motor all you need to do is add the red rubber bands to the engine drive wheels. Therefore you would need four of them. I even think this would work with one motor if you did this. I will be using power up functions for mine since I don't have 9 volt track.😀👍

I think I'd forgo attaching motors and just make it a stationary "museum" type piece for the city.

I don't understand the last part about Failed effort! You got it done. It's like the Edison and his lightbulb ; "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." Took you a lot less tries than him.

Now is the time for Lego to release different radius curves like TrixBrix Also, see if you can move the vertical motor axle from the cab end to the smokebox end. That way you can stuff a Lego L motor in and hook it to a PoweredUP box in the tender

The problem with low profile technic side rods is they get jammed really easily. Technic side rods that are chunky look bad but creates a smoother motion for rotating the drive wheels

Would it be possible to maybe take apart one of the 9 volt motor things and basically use those metal wheels to get power from the track, but then feed that power into an actual motor that could then be geared to move the actual wheels on the engine, I have seen a video on RU-vid where someone did find a pretty good way of hiding a Lego motor inside the engine but they used a battery pack in the tender, but I feel like it wouldn't be too difficult to just find the wires and salder them to a joint that can connect to a traditional Lego motor and gear that to the wheels on the engine, then throw on some rubber bands for traction bc they don't need to get power bc the tender is doing it for them

this is the best motorization of the OE i've seen. 9V is the way to go!

I think the drive wheels need rubber bands like the ones the Emerald Night has, so that they don't slide when moving.

Given the train's weight, I'm surprised you got it running at all! I think the final config is a pretty good compromise, and how often do you need to run it backwards anyway? It's not ideal, of course, but it does look great running around Downtown! 😉

Put some rubber bands on your engine wheels so it has better grip to move the driving rods or whatever they are called.

and they said it couldn't be done. excellent work

It also shows what I saw in another review, the big loc wheels sometimes jam and start sliding

Thanks for showing off how 9 volt works. I'll try rubber bands on the locomotive and a 3rd 9 volt motor because I'll be doing 4 passenger cars. This video also highlighted how we need longer track curves so I'll hit up FX tracks later next year.

just add rubber bands to the original back wheels of the trian it will have more friction so it can move more smoothly on the track

If the wheels are set up just right, you might be able to put a power functions or powered up motor attached to the drive wheels of the locomotive, and you could fit the battery box in the tender. However, if you do this, you may need to add weight to the locomotive so that it can pull the tender and coaches.

I don't understand all the drama it's been proven that it doesn't need weight or two motors just some rubber rings and a effortless modification to the train with a few pieces that are available from legoshop or bricklink and it doesn't alter the appearance at all the problem is all ready be solved!!

Would putting a rubber band on the wheels to give it more grip help?

If you take off the piston rods then you wont have to worry about the wheels constantly seizing up

Lego: there is no way to motorise it RU-vid Lego community: doubt

You can drastically reduce the friction in the wheels of the locomotive by using the running gear to hold the wheels in place. Put half axle pins on the outside wheels where they go into the frame, and from the rods into the wheels. I've done this on the Hogwarts Express and the extra slop that introduces also helps out a lot around curves.

If you use the regular motorised remote controlled Lego wheels. You'll be able to swap out the regular wheels and replace them with the wheels use the set

Check eurobricks fourms and racing bricks on using powered up with a large motor

would rubberbands on the front solve this problem when driving back???

locomotive wheels are what is stopping it from running smoothly and is a common issue with this set which you have to tweak to fix. which is terrible for the price you pay

I would put some lego rubber bands on the wheels of the steam engine, that should work to fix the drag

I saw a video on someone motorizing this. You need to put rubber bands on the train wheels just the front locomotive, though they drag otherwise.

Racingbrick used the powered up system with a single motor. I know you like 9v, but his solution was not super tough.

Put some rubber bands on them wheels, is all it needs to get those loco wheels to move! Rubber bands & you're set!

The blind drivers would've worked better with the hide-the-9V setup than the flanged drivers, though you would've had to source two more blind drivers. Also, the Emerald Knight came with rubber bands that fit around the flanged drivers to improve traction; using those will aid with wheel slippage.

It would be nice if legoland had narrow gauge size of the orient express trains to take people around the park.

Hello. You tried to remove the wheel connector. That plastic that connects the wheels?

you should put some rubber bands on those drive wheels.

1 for the effort 2 for the show..! 🎶

Did you try train rims like you had in the past for the 12V train but also for the brown crocodile train (red ones). Or what I’ve seen in other videos, put the motor under the carriage(s)

Hi Alix yes awesome.stud city was first. To see powers it up..and got it running great..😊💥👌..the designer s tryed to say. It's to Heavey..not true..if stud..got it powered up..easy...and it run s perfect .no added Waite..ever .

I find silcon spray helps stops binding on my lego train. 😁

Okay so you found a solution, however you have to address the airport shuttle station. Maybe you can use a New York city L station with four supports or like the original station that came with the set that was up in the air?

However I do find the power functions and powered up stuff is better in a way because you dont need wires going under the tracks to connect to other spots and the train would have more options like on this you could make the wheels in front with the piston rods in sync with the rest of the train just by adding a motor and gearbox onto that and same with that $500 Harry potter one

Watch Racing bricks Video on a Motorized Version of this, He did an Amazing video on Motorizing it but he had to use Batterys for it.

Thank you for this video! The train looks good in your layout! LEGO, you designed a train that requires 2 motors from a legacy system you no longer support. Basically, it remains a highly detailed $300 Duplo push train. EPIC FAIL by LEGO.

In another youtube video, the Orient Express has a weight of almost 1900 grams while a typical city train would have a weight around 1100 grams in which a Lego motor can push or pull. They are also all right that the Orient Express is a heavy train which would be too heavy for a Lego motor. Also another thing, six AAA batteries will only a last a few minutes in a Lego train which disappointed many Lego train owners. They need to bring back the lithium rechargeable battery pack like the had for the powers functions system.

There’s a company that makes fx tracks which have whisper curves which can help.

Idea I heard about it put some rubber bands on the wheels of the engine

Can you still buy like a off brand lego 9vt moter and track

What if you changed the plastic axels for smoother metal ones?

Remember that the charge $300 for this WITHOUT battery box and motor.

It looks like a nice set and all but it really is not worth 300 usd without proper power function support, even with the support... :(

use a power functions or powered up train motor, pr do how racingbrick did with a conrol+ L motor or powered up medium linear motor

Thanks for showing your process! Does it seem like the three wheels on the tender bind? Would it be possible to add some left to right slide into the front non-powered wheels on the tender with the 9V motor?

I have an idea and would love feedback on it: add a current Lego powered up motor to the tender. Then as someone mentioned in the comments, add a powered up caboose. A good caboose I’d choose in the trolley from the Lego holiday main street set. It’s designed to be powered up and has instructions for it. It even looks kind of like a caboose already just different colors. That way there’s be two motors in the set with less modifications. Thoughts?

I suggest an environmentally unfriendly American diesel locomotive, the Amtrak F40PH.