First Train

[Anonymous]

I have a 4 year old that I took to a train show a few weeks ago and man did he ever take to them. He has about 13 Thomas the Tank Engine wooden trains but I had to pick him up and carry him away, as he did not want to leave. I have never seen him get into something so much.

I had an O guage set when I was a boy and I am thinking about getting him (us) as train set. I had a Lionel. Questions:

I see this company MTH and they seem to hame more advanced features, are they better then Lionel or is it a personal choice?

What is a good starter kit to go with? What should I look for?

How much should I expect to spend?

He loves the Polar Express and I see they have a set but I think a freight set would be better to paly with. I know I want a steam locomotive and not a desiel.

Looking for thoughts and suggestions on this topic.

[Anonymous]

Dave,

I would suggest an MTH starter set over a Lionel set. I feel that with MTH you get more for less. MTH steam locomotives that are included in starter sets smoke better than Lionel, sound better, and they run better. MTH's Protosound 2.0 sound system is included in many of their starter set locomotives. It is comparable to Lionel's Railsounds 5. All Protosound 2.0 locomotives are ready for command-control operation right out of the box. If you would decide to run in command mode, all you need is MTH's Digital Command System (DCS). MTH sets include everything you need to get started. Lionel only includes a basic sound system, and no command-control capability in most of their sets. A Lionel set that is comparable to an MTH set would cost much more than an MTH set. I do not feel that the quality of a Lionel set is as good as an MTH set. The customer service people at MTH are much nicer than the people at Lionel. I would start with a freight set because there is much more play value than a passenger set. I am not trying to sound biased, because I was a Lionel guy before I discovered MTH. Once I got an MTH set, there was no going back. Here are the websites for Lionel and MTH:

www.lionel.com

www.mth-railking.com


Jim

[HopperSJ]

My 6 year old was given the Lionel Thomas set for Christmas and it has gotten us all excited about trains. The Thomas set is a good one. It is slightly larger than your "traditional" lionel line (0-27) and similar in size to the the "standard O" line. It obviously is not on par with the detail or "scale" aspects of "standard O". It runs on Fastrack which is Lionel's new line of O gauge track. Fastrack is very durable when it comes to taking down and setting back up which young kids love to do. The Thomas engine is different than your normal Lionel engines in that it is geared down a little and has no momentum (meaning when you cut the throttle it stops almost immediately, without hesitation). These are good features for little kids as they are not really control savey. There is a Thomas expansion pack which is sold seperately and will add a few more cars to the action and now they are selling percy and james as well.

I think it retails for $189 but can be found online for $150 or even less. It is a nice starter set for young kids or thomas fans. It even comes with Sir Toppam Hat!

[dwiemer]

If you are really excited about Polar Express, go with it. You can get it for a little over $200. Also, they do have a freight expansion set that Lionel has for NYC and Pennsylvania. I am biased toward Lionel, but if you look at the MTH sets, I am sure you will be happy which ever you go with. As your interest grows, you will find this forum has a lot of people in "the know". I would suggest that you go to the pages of Classic Toy Trains and see the listing there for dealers. Also, if you have a dealer that is honest near you, you would want to support them and develop a rapor with them as they can help you along.
Best of luck and welcome
Dennis

[Anonymous]

You won't regret buying A MTH starter set. I would spend that little extra money for a set that has the Proto 2. The Z 1000 transformer is a good item that comes with most starter sets and that usually goes for about $75 to $100 alone. Trainworld usually gives you about 20% off the list price so now you can compare how much you would like to spend. Good luck with your first train set .

[jimhaleyscomet]

Personally I would vote for the Thomas set due to its low cost and simplicity. Then go to the more expensive sets the second time around. The Lionel steamer sets can be pushed by hand on the track (when you are not around to supervise electricity). The Thomas set and some MTH sets are steam engines but should not be pushed by hand. Any of the Lionel expansion sets would work with Thomas (to add the fun of freight operations) if you do not mind having British and American cars on the same railroad.

The MTH sets can sometimes have a dead end on two of the tracks (leaving a dead area). Just run a jumper wire to see where it is and you can usually fix it. The Lionel fastrack does not have this problem. The Lionel sets sometimes have a dead transformer. One call to Lionel and they send you a new one. If you buy the set locally you can check the transformer before leaving the store. I have not heard of MTH transformers every being defective out of the box.

I want you to have a heads up just in case. Both problems are easily fixed.

Jim H

[Nick12DMC]

I went for the Lionel Santa Fe Fast Freight set with Trainsounds for my
7 year old son last Christmas. I nearly went for the Polar Express set but
the extra sound features and play value of the log car won me over.
Can't recomend it highly enough. Very good quality set. (I think the set has
changed names in the latest Lionel catalogue)

My son and I are now planning a big O gauge layout, we were going to
build it in Hornby OO gauge (similar to HO) but we are now converted to
the O side of the force [8D]so the 00 is going on ebay. After all Lionel
do a loco that fires missiles! (this appeals to 7 year olds LOL)

Also check out the Docksider loco in Lionel set, this looks good value.

(Ignore the following if you live in the USA or Canada)
One note of caution if you are outside of the US and run 50Hz mains power.
You will need to get a Pure sine wave inverter and a DC mains transformer.
This is because the electronics in the CW-80 and the Trainsounds
system are not 50Hz compatible as they were designed to operate on 60Hz.

Best Regards
Nick

[Anonymous]

I think this is a "no brainer". If your son loves the Polar Express, buy it. Then, you can choose the freight cars, one at a time, that YOU like. Next, get 2 manual switches for 2 sidings that can "hold" either the passenger or freight cars while the engine pulls the other. I think FasTrack, that comes with the set, is great. Although many people "knock" the CW80 transformer, that also comes with the set, I've been using 2 of them for over a year on my 2-loop layout with no problems. Joe

[thor]

Originally posted by David Christian

I have a 4 year old that I took to a train show a few weeks ago and man did he ever take to them. He has about 13 Thomas the Tank Engine wooden trains but I had to pick him up and carry him away, as he did not want to leave. I have never seen him get into something so much.

I had an O guage set when I was a boy and I am thinking about getting him (us) as train set. I had a Lionel. Questions:

I see this company MTH and they seem to hame more advanced features, are they better then Lionel or is it a personal choice?


My choice would be Lionel since they make what your kids already like! The point about the action cars is a good one too!

My Lionel set is having its wheels run off by our 3 yr old girl. I also bought some K line gondolas because kids like to put things in trains, carriages look nice but they don't do anything useful.

Lionels operating accessories are a lot of fun too.

This is purely a personal observation but my local hobby shop pushes MTH so aggressively, example I went to buy some FastTrack and he tried to get me to switch to MTH's, that its put me off them! Silly I suppose but it annoys me. Makes me wonder whats in it for him.

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