I am thinking of taking the plunge and getting some of these Lionel items for the holidays… Thomas, Percy, James. What do you think of 'em?
Thomas is a very nice little engine, Doug. A surprisingly good puller with a pleasing Euro-esque whistle. Ours didn’t play well with the CW-80, so I locked the e-unit in forward-only. It has no issues with the MRC we now power the layout with. On a Jumijo scale of 1-10, Thomas is a 9.
Percy is also very nice, but not as nice as Thomas. He has a different whistle, the same as in the Docksider. Not bad sounding. He does have Magnatraction, believe it or not. Ours has to be pried from the rails. He runs a bit slower than Thomas. I had a little trouble with Percy stalling and rough starting until I figured out that his side rods were binding just enough to create trouble. An easy fix. In my book, I think Percy is a 7.
James is quite a disappointment on the Jumijo. My opinion - Too small, too light. Not a very good puller. Same whistle as Percy, but no Magnatraction. This loco made me decide against any further pre-ordered Sodor motive power. Total Jumijo score for James - 4.
Thomas comes with track, transformer (revised CW-80), Annie & Clarabelle, extra faces, and figures for a little more ($25-$40) than you’d pay for just Percy or James.
The above are just my opinions on each product, based on what we have experienced.
None of them go fast enough to fly off the rails, even at full throttle.
Jim
My two little boys are very into the Thomas wooden and plastic trains - I think my wife has bought them three different variations of Thomas - wooden, travel and plastic/motorized. (sigh!) However, when it came to getting Lionel trains for my oldest (Tyler, four and a half), I considered the Thomas items and decided not to. Why? Well, they’re very specific and would probably end up with him losing interest in them at some point.
As for the holidays, well, I decided to invest bit-by-bit over the last few years in the various holiday cars that are available. Now, I have a large collection which allows me to run three complete trains of holiday cars around the tree, along with extras that my little guys love to swap out. Here’s a picture of my holiday setup:
My advice is to go that route, unless you’re really into the Thomas trains.
Love that festive holiday 671. It sure is colorful!
Thanks, Jim. What do you think of this? Might Thomas be appropriate for the youngest (at 5) to manage running him. He can do the trolleys fairly well. I had heard James is disappointing - a bit too short looking and flimsy. Not that I could tell from the Lionel website… Diesel looks pretty good.
I had a whole Sodor setup in N scale. And getting out ‘Great Days of the Country Railway’ whetted my appetite (sure, it’s for the kid…)
Doug, my kids have been running our Thomas since they were 2-3 years old with no trouble. The roofs come off the coaches, so the kids can load them with toys. Our Thomas will pull 8 modern cars easily.
And I’ll be completely honest with you, I enjoy running Thomas every bit as much as the kids do. If he’s on the tracks when I’m running trains by myself, I run him. I think it’s a great looking little engine. Looks good on a small layout. I know you will like it. There are also enough add-on cars now to make up a decent train and one the kids will be entertained by. If you look around, you can find a Thomas set for around $125. Then you can send me the FasTrack! [;)]
Oh, your decals are done. I’ll mail them out tonight.
Hey, there’s always room for the classics, baby! And it’s traditional for that engine to be running around my tree - it always has since I first got my own place many moons ago
Amen, Bruddah.
Jim, that was a nice layman’s review of Thomas and the gang. While many can have differing experiences with the same products (ie: the RMT BEEP), it’s still nice to read honest product assessments from those who actually operate the products.
Based on what you wrote, I’d have no hesitation getting a Thomas set. I have no plans to do so, but what you wrote I’ll pass on to others who ask.
It’s nice to see Lionel get it right (not always, but most the time) with basic low-end products!
yeah not a big fan “o” thomas use to be, but once the novalty runs out and you move into larger, more realistic locos it get’s old. i prefer my lionel pensy jr. breakshire.
I bought a Lionel Thomas set for my son for his first birthday.
He absolutely loves it,and I’m going to get more Thomas stuff to add on.
We don’t let him handle it as it looks a little on the fragile side,but he’s learning to use the CW80 to control it.(if you consider stop to full throttle being in control [swg])
I bought him the battery powered Thomas stuff that he can handle and play with.(daddy won’t cry if that stuff gets broken[(-D])
Carl T.
nice avatar, the B&O was the greatest railroad in america
I just wanted to point out your typo. I think you mean the B&M?
Secretly (don’t tell anyone), I want to ‘borrow’ ‘our’ new Thomas (when I get him - I’m tempted to get everything - even the far-from-prototypical expansion set) to set up a British outline ‘rural’ part of the layout. I had great fun doing so in a smaller scale.
Speaking of B&M, Jim, did you see p. 20 of the Nov. CTT? Doesn’t look as fine as your model.
I’ve never seen a B&M boxcar like that in all my years of living here in New England, Doug. Williams offered one like that too, so they must have been around.
Hi Doug, you could add some UK 3-rail stock. http://www.bassettlowke.co.uk/products.html
they are a bit on the pricey side and you would have to see if the couplers could be swaped for Lionel. The signal box would be a nice addition.
I’ll let you know what they are like as they have a dealer in Stratford Upon Avon. My better half has planned a romantic weekend break in November to the same location[:D]. Of course she has no idear that it just so happens to have a toy train shop that stocks 3-rail stuff[:-^].
Nick
HOLY CRAP! THAT IS EXSPENCIVE!
Excellent command of the english language there Oscale.
I have the Thomas set, Its runs pretty well. he looks kinda crazy at high speeds because of the way his eyes move. still good model percy looks alright and James form the picture dosnt look anything like the tv model.