So Rich did you buy the Lionel G scale? Or were you talked out of it? Like I said in an earlier post, I have 2 of these trains. I put up my Christmas trees this weekend and set them up. The batteries that were left in the tenders last year are still working and my kids have been running them non-stop for 3 days now without replacing the batteries.
I found it quite interesting that most replies to your thread tried to talk you into something more expensive for a starter set for your grandson. I started my son with Thomas and now at 8 has his own DCC layout. Wouldn’t it be quite upsetting if you went and got your grandson a Lionel O set, and he lost interest in it? Just speculating.
Well Rich I think the G scale Lionel is a great first step. It is user friendly at all levels. Easy to put the train on the track, color coded remote for easy opertation, and looks great under the tree. My 4 year old daughter loves it. No need for adult supervision. When they want to run it, they press a button on the engine, turn on the remote, and off it goes. An HO set at that age, and you not there all the time, will give you daughter fits. LOL
One of the prior posters mentioned a Hornby clockwork train. Before I had Lionel (age 5 – the cheap set with the the 520 locomotive, a Baby Ruth boxcar, gondola, caboose, and an oval of track) I had two Marx windup train sets, both steam locomotives of a sort, and one of which had a space for a battery to light a headlight.
It is a pity that there are no clockwork/windup trainsets in an 0-27 type size for kids that are just a little young to feel comfortable about them being around 110 volts [and I do recollect a scary incident involving plugging in my transformer as a boy] and don’t want to keep sending batteries to landfills, a clockwork train would seem perfect.
When my daughter saw the G scale battery operated one in a store, she sent a link to me from the store’s web site.
When I read the customer reviews, they really trashed it, said it ran for a couple of hours, then stopped running. One guy said that the motor was essentially plastic and melted, Lionel said that he ran it too much.
Then the guys on the CTT forum said that it eats batteries like there is no tomorrow.
So, then daughter ordered the Bachmann HO from Amazon. I agree that the kid will not able to deal with the small scale. I will try it out first without him being around.
The CTT guys said to buy the Lionel Chief which got good reviews, but daughter didn’t want to spend $300.
I have the lionle polar express in g scale battery powered train. it runs very well and my son he is now 5 plays with it quite a bit. lionel makes additional track both curved and straight track for this. the train I have also takes a rechargeable battery that can be bought at radio shack 9.6v I think it was $20 with the charger. This eliminates all the c batteries being used up. Only thing to keep in mind is it will need lots of room to setup, and make sure your granson is easy with the remote and antena. Once that item is broken or missing no more train.
The polar express also makes sounds as it chuffs around the track and will automatically tuen off after ten minutes, but that is ten minutes of listening to a train at idle make noise. Train and TV in same room makes TV watching a little difficult due to sound effects.
we have had the train for a year now and have not had any problems with it. My son has not exactlybeen gentle with it. hope this helps
Why don’t you just buy the Lionel Polar Express set for him, or go in half with your daughter. I think that would be the best choice for your grandson.
Last year, when my son was 8 months old, I ordered the Bachmann Thomas and two passenger cars from MB Klein.
I already had a “Christmas train” under the tree, but I had been running an old Bowser Consolidation, which I thought might be suseptible to curious little hands.
I decided a $20 Thomas might be a better bet.
It ran fine through the season, and I’m getting ready to haul it out again for this Christmas, when the boy is more mobile, and curious.
We’ll see how it holds up - the worst that’s likely to happen is he starts using it as a pacifier!