Customer Reviews

Learning Curve Thomas and Friends Wooden Railway - Battery - Powered Lady

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This metal battery operated Lady engine and her metal battery operated companions (Thomas, Percy, etc.) are for use with the wooden track. There are larger plastic battery operated engines that fit both the wooden track and the blue plastic track by Tomy.

This is a great product. Very well-constructed. Very durable. It can be switched on, go forward or backward, and it can be pushed manually--another reviewer complained that it could not be pushed, but it can be pushed.

Purchasing recommendation:
* Wait until appropriate age: Our son started with Thomas when he was 18 months old, but we did not buy any battery engines until he was 3. We wanted for him to use his imagination in pushing and pulling for a while. Now he sometimes sits back and just watches the battery engines, while at other times he pushes them.

* The metal engines are more durable: The metal engines cost more than the larger plastic battery-operated engines, but they are far more durable. They feel solid in the hand. They go both forward and backwards, while the plastic engines only go forward. They pull the wooden cars that your child may already have. They're just a better fit!

My son enjoys the battery powered Lady VERY much. We recently got the battery powered Percy for his 3rd birthday, and Lady appears to be the better engine. You can move her forward or backward when she isn't turned on (Percy's wheels only move when he is turned on - you can't make him go backward) - and she stays on the track really well (Percy comes off at switches and sometimes curves). I would highly recommend the battery powered lady for any Thomas enthusiast!

My 2 1/2 year old loves all things Thomas. I had bought this for him a while ago as I thought he would enjoy watching it go around the track on its own. Initially he wanted nothing to do with it. Recently however, he started appreciating it more and now any time he is playing with his Thomas toys, Lady must be going around the track. In fact he never wants it turned off! The train itself is very durable and can pull almost all his other trains (and he has a lot of them). I also bought him battery-operated Percy but he doesn't work as well as "Big Lady". In fact I returned Percy to the store twice already as they were defective. I would recommend Lady to anyone who had the train setup, it is great to watch and also makes my son try to logically constuct tracks that she can follow to get around to all the buildings, bridges and tunnels

If you don't have a battery operated train yet, then don't make Lady or Piercy your first purchase. You will be disappointed. THe 6 wheeled trains (James and Thomas) handle just about any track with no problems, while Lady derails probably 5 times as often. She particularly has trouble with tight corners (3" radius curves).

Make battery powered James or Thomas your first purchase, then buy Lady or Piercy after that.

We have four battery operated engines (Thomas, Percy, Lady, James) and Lady and Percy were our second purchase. First, if she lays on her side, there is a loud ratcheting sound and when she is off, her wheels do not allow for free play as they are locked. Lady is the worst, when it comes to staying on the track. She can't even handle a straight line. She derails almost immediately as soon as you put her down. Lady also can't get up one of the low Thomas drawbridges. It has nothing to do with the way our track is set up because we did it according to manufacturer's instructions. Even in our own custom set up we removed all small curved track and she had serious problems. Even when Thomas didn't. There is no consistency from engine to engine. It is disappointing.

My son received both battery-powered Lady and battery-powered Salty at the same time. He loves Salty but doesn't care at all for Lady. He is 2. He likes to make the trains go himself rather than seeing them go on their own. This is where battery-powered Lady let us down. Unlike bp Salty, bp Lady's wheels are locked when she is not running on her own. The wheels are not completely locked; you can still move her along if you press down on her really hard and push her along, but this is not fun to do...so, my son just doesn't even go anywhere near her. Too bad, because otherwise, Lady is very likeable (she is is very durable and had no problems going up hills or making turns on our Thomas wood tracks).

Lady was a gift for my grandchildren to go with their Thomas & Friends Wooden Railway set. They spend hours playing with the trains and enjoy them immensely. They especially like the battery powdered engines. They have most of them.

Arrived on time, before Christmas day and it was very great! My daughter was very happy to have her female locomotive! the only problem is that there is a strange noise when it is on, the wheels sound a noise when turn and it is no so strong as Percy or James that we already took in past.

Purchased Lady for one of our b/g 3 y/o twins this Christmas. Our kids are into playing with the Thomas train scenes so we bought them 'Down by the Docks' (got it just in time, guess it is being discontinued). We got our son battery powered Thomas and our daughter received battery powered Lady. All things Thomas were a hit. I will echo what another reviewer wrote. Thomas is pokey! Lady has him beat for pulling power and overall speed. She laps him on the track and ends up pushing him and his load while pullin' her own. The button on top of the BP ones are easy for little hands to work. The only thing that stresses Mom is the gear stripping sound that accompanies the act of pressing off the train if the child holds the train in place while shutting it off. One has to pick up the train so the wheels spin free while pushing the off button. Also, we've already replaced the battery in one of them due to tipped-over-train-syndrome(TOTS) that can arise with 3 y/o attention spans :)

My children received a battery-powered Lady and Percy for Christmas. Lady stays on the track better than Percy when they are turned on, but Percy's wheels are free-wheeling (which they are supposed to be) which allows my children to push him along the track when he is turned off. Lady's wheels do not move when she is turned off and I am concerned she will break when my little ones try to push her along the tracks. I contacted Learning Curve's Customer Care Center and they confirmed the battery-powered engines are suppose to be free-wheeling. They then suggested that while the engine is turned off, I put Lady on a hard surface and apply some pressure as I push the engine a couple of times in order to release the wheels. Both my husband and I tried this and it didn't work for us, but since I've noticed other people are having the same issue I thought I would share the suggestion in the hopes it would help someone else. FYI as far as I can tell the pushing did not hurt the engine so I'm hoping she will hold up to any pushing my kids do over the years.