Hello Everyone,
I am new to the hobby, as well as the forums and was just wondering if anybody might be able to offer some helpful advice. I am the proud father of a little girl who is a huge Thomas the Tank Engine fan. I have too much Thomas, than I care to admit! Ok, it really is fun playing with her with them [:)]
My wife put the bug in my ear that I should consider getting an electric train to put under our Christmas tree. I liked the idea, because I’ve always had an interest, and just never moved ahead with it. So like anything I purchase, I try to talk to people, look online at product reviews and consumer opinions, etc, to try and find out what is best for me.
Until recently the only name brand I knew of was Lionel. A couple of local hobby shops here carry nothing but Lionel, and a couple don’t really stock them at all. The other brands that seem to be popular here are Bachman and MTH. I was shown a Bachman set and it just didn’t seem to catch my interest. I was shown an MTH Railking Christmas Express train set, and the Lionel North Pole Central train sets. I liked both sets, but the price tag on the MTH was a bit higher than the Lionel.
I was wondering if anyone had either of these train sets and could give me any opinions of the pros/cons, or likes/dislikes of the sets. Or if there are any other sets out there I should look into?
I’ve read there have been some legal battles between the two companies, and some people may swear by either company. I just want everyone to know I my intention is not to start a war of words of which company is better; I’m sure both make decent products. What I’m trying to do is just get some helpful feedback on a particular train set. Thank you everyone.
Skullie, welcome to the forum!
It would seem from your message that you are mostly interested in the larger scales. The Lionel and MTH sets that you looked at are O scale. Bachmann does make some HO scale (smaller) Thomas the Tank electric trains, but I personally feel that HO is a bit small for a round the tree setup. Bachmann also makes some G scale (larger than O) Big Hauler brand sets. THese are what I have around my tree. They are somewhat cheaply made, but I felt that for such limited annual use that this was not too much of an issue. I have used the set for about 5 years each Christmas.
If you really want to get a lot more feedback on the Lionel v MTH debate then I would suggest you post the question on the “classic toy trains” section of the forum. Most of the O scalers hang out there. This model railroader forum seems to attract mostly the smaller scale folks.
you’ll find a lot of anti-MTH opinions here , due mostly to their practice of sueing anyone who tries to produce anything they hold a similar patent to (not that there’s anything wrong with that if the claim is legitimate) . they’ve caused several similar but competing technologies in the digital command control (DCC) field to be either delayed or cancelled , and since we want as many cool features on our trains as possible it’s created bad feelings towards them . the DCC standards were developed by sharing of info between companies and it seems everyone except MTH wants to continue that with things that go beyond the basic specs .
i can’t recall anyone actually saying that MTH make bad products , so i’m sure either set will be great fun for your under the tree setup
Thank you both for the replies. I did not know there was a more appropriate forum, I will post there for future reference with these train sets.
I was not set on a particular scale, I was just personally shown the HO and O scales, which seemed big enough for me. I am open to anything at this point because I am still learning. I wanted to stay away from the electric Thomas sets, only because the idea here is to have a train I can use for eyars to come under the tree long after my daughters interest in Thomas fades.
Thanks again folks.
Hi Skullie: I have LGB for under the tree. The large size is great for the little ones and is a nice break from the HO for me. The large size also seems to go with the Christmas tree theme. There are several companys that make the LGB size ( mostly refered to the generic G scale ) any one of which would be a long term set. Merry Christmas Christmas and Happy New Year.
[#ditto] I’ve been running G-gauge (LGB) around the Christmas tree since 1984. We have been adding one piece each year for each child. For a starter set, I personally like the one shown in the link below. The loco and cars are way too short to be real but it makes a great Christmas tree train that can be expanded with more real looking equipment if so desired. It will also probably still be around for your daughter’s grand children to play with. They are very well built. You can get them from TrainWorld in NY for about $250.
http://products.lgb.de/produkt.nsf/WebSucheIE/BBA6AEB9C640DDDCC1256AEF005471F0?OpenDocument
http://www.trainworld.com/lgb/lgb_starter_sets.htm