new to the hobby, a Christmas train question.

[Anonymous]

Hello everyone, I posted this question in one of the other forums and was directed here as a more appropriate forum, so I figured I would ask here as well... 

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.

[Demon09]

Hey there,

The section of the forums you were probably looking for is Classic Toy Trains, not the Classic Trains part, but since I wandered over here from the Classic Toy Trains section, I will take a stab at this.... If you want more replies, you can check out the section for Classic Toy Trains, or CTT, as all the people in that section of the web site are incredibly enthusiastic about trains and will be more than willing to help you out far greater than I can.

But here goes...

I don't have either set, but I have trains from both companies.  Lionel is the oldest lasting train company, and their starter sets are very good for their price.  The locomotives are very detailed and have a lot of play value, but often only come with a whistle for sound effects.  They often come with several cars that are very good for getting in a set like that, and it comes with a good sized loop of track and a transformer to run them, but the transformer is not nearly as good as it could be.

MTH trains, although a little bit more expensive are also very detailed, but come with Proto Sound 2, which is capable of being run digitally if you choose to expand, and gives many features.  The sounds for these locomotives are more realistic, often with a horn/whistle and steam or diesel sounds and crew talk.  You usually get fewer cars that come along with it, and I have never heard any complaints about the track or transformer from these.

Lionel offers more Christmas themed trains, with the Polar Express (as seen in the movie, which I do own and is great), the christmas train, as well as a new G scale train set that is larger than its regular locomotives but seems to look like a very good item.  There is also a production of Thomas the Tank Engine sets from Lionel that you and your daughter might like... They have Thomas, James, and one other character, as well as many of the freight and passenger cars from the TV show, and many others you can purchase to add on to your original set... You might want to check into those sets as well.

So although the MTH sets are priced higher, they will have more features, and although the Lionel sets might not have the same features for a starter set, they come with more cars and are from a long line of tradition, as well as offering more of these sets to choose from.

One other thing to note, although the Lionel transformer is not as good as it could be, all of these trains can be run with ANY O gauge transformer that is capable of putting out a strong enough current, so even if you did purchase the Lionel set, you could still get another company's transformer to run it and sell the Lionel one, or use it to run accessories.

Again, if you post in the other forum, you will get many many more responses that will likely be more detailed, but I hope this can at least be a good point in the right direction....

[Anonymous]

Thank you for the reply, I apologize for continuing to post in the incorrect forum. Thank you though, for the information on both, I appreciate it.