Customer Reviews

Bachmann Trains McKinley Explorer Ready-to-Run HO Scale Train Set

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

this is a great starter train. just got one last week, it's runnin' around the christmas tree and the kids (and I) can't seem to get enough of it. it's not too tricky to set up, and it just runs and runs once it is. cool lights on front and back of engine. fast, too!

I bought The McKinley based on previous reviews. It is a very good set to start on. Very easy to hook up and get running. It takes a few tries to get the hang of snapping the track together so the joiners are perfect; but, hey, I ran the train repeatedly before discovering one of my joiners was not on right. It was very forgiving. Run the engine around first, then add one car and run it around the track. Then add a second car and run the train; then the third car. It is a large radius track (22" curves) so I had no derailment problems. You have to turn the power up to 40 or so for the engine to start. I love this train! Since Buying this set, I have bought some shorter cars (boxcars,caboose) and track with 16" radius curves and have had trouble with uncouppling and derailments. I had NO problems with the Mckinley Explorer. I am glad it was my first set. Great running train. Did I tell you I love it?!

This is a very sad excuse for a train. The engine could not pull the cars. The flimsy, plastic connectors may have been part of the problem. To make matters worse, the vendor would not agree to take the product back because, in his estimation, it had been "used". Evidently, the customer is supposed to be able to determine whether or not this product is defective simply by looking at the unopened package. Needless to say, this was a very unsatisfactory purchase both in terms of the product and the vendor. However, Amazon was more than cooperative and helpful, and I did receive a full refund. Over the years, this has been my one and only frustrating transaction with Amazon. I will avoid any purchases from this vendor and this manufacturer and will continue to shop with Amazon.

We were very excited to receive this train, and very grateful to the person who gave it to us as a gift, but unfortunately we have had nothing but problems with it. There were several problems.

First, the track did not fit together smoothly; the instructions say that you may have to use pliers to adjust the track so that the track is smooth and bump-free. I call this poor engineering and/or cheap manufacturing. Unfortunately, this matters, because if you do not make the track perfectly smooth, you'll find the train falls off the tracks at exactly the place where the bumps are.

Second, the engine and cars themselves do not fit easily onto the tracks. I mean, it is hard to tell whether they are actually sitting on the tracks or instead just a little way off the tracks. The only way I could find to be sure of exact center placement is actually to run the train.

Third, the cars and engine do not connect to each other in any obvious way. You can semi-sort of hook them together, but they come apart very easily. I tried various ways to get the coupling shut when two cars are next to each other, but found no way to do so. If there is a way to fit the cars together more solidly, I couldn't figure it out. And there is nothing in the instructions about this. As a result it is almost impossible to make a full train. The coaches come uncoupled at the smallest problem (such as bumps in the tracks, above).

These first three problems basically mean that there is no easy way to put the whole train together and run it on the tracks, except at the very slowest speeds. This must be why the instructions say not to run at full speed.

Fourth, the wheels come off easily!

Fifth, the railing around the engine is made of thin wire and cheap plastic, and snaps off even with fairly gentle handling.

This is not what I would call fine engineering--really a terrible product. I'm not a model train aficionado, and maybe someone like that would be able to get this train to run better, but when I was a kid, I had a reliable old Lionel train that I don't recall having these sorts of problems with.