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This is our fourth Christmas with this train. When we first purchased the train we had two kids. Now we have four. It has been through years of use (dare I say abuse) from three of those children and it still runs like new!!! It’s incredible and I’ve now officially raised it to five stars for being one of the few toys around here that has served this house for this long without a single issue, dent, crack, or scratch.
Still no real connection issues as other reviewers have noted.
Repetitive and thoughtless unrealistic “chuff” noise is still annoying.
Also to note I’ve seen reviewers complaining of the train coming off the tracks, and I agree!! But not for the reason you might think. I am constantly replacing the train on the tracks because my kids keep taking it off to scoot it around on the floor. It has fallen off the tracks before when the track is not on flat to a flat surface. If I get the tracks down right I have no issues at all, it never pops off the tracks on its own.
I highly recommend this train and for only $50 it has been an amazing experience and remains one of the kids favorite Christmas decorations. When they see the tree come out they immediately start asking about the train.
Scroll down for instructions to add lights to the coaches.
Update 12/14/2020: extreme durability
It’s been a couple years now since we got this and it’s still going strong, and still no serious remote disconnecting issues as mentioned in previous reviews. As I noted In the original review we got this as a more durable place holder for its 6 times more expensive cousin we used to put under the tree. It has served the purpose well. It has been picked up and dropped and thrown about, had its tracks torn apart and thrown around the house, used on and off the tracks, had its piston parts torn out of place multiple times (they can be popped back into place), the remote has been slobbed and also covered with (unknown Sticky food substance), and the engine has been pushed all over the house on many different surfaces like a toy and through all of this it still works exactly as it did when we bought it. Nothing has even broken on it.
Chuff sound is still annoying and unrealistic, still burns through batteries like no tomorrow under high use, but it still chugs around the tree like brand new. As far as remote disconnecting, maybe every once in a rare while? But it doesn’t last long. Maybe a second? Possibly they mostly solved this issue, or perhaps some people got duds? I still recommend this, especially if you can get it at a discounted rate. We paid about $50 after amazon price matched it self for us.
Instructions to add lights to the coaches to make them glow:
What you’ll need:
- aluminum foil
- 2 to 4 led wire string light sets with battery boxes that hold three double a batteries. Id go for ones with a remote or Bluetooth control. More on that down below
- a small or maybe even precision size Phillips screw driver
Steps:
1. Buy battery powered wire string lights. I would go for ones that take three double a batteries as the ones we have with a 6 double a battery box won’t fit. I was able to fit two sets of string lights with two separate three double a battery boxes in the coach without issue. I put one on one side of the poles and one on the other side of the poles. I do recommend two sets, I had one in originally and it was pretty dim. I am currently testing out a set I just got off amazon currently called “MINGER 16.4Ft Fairy Light Battery Operated 2 Pack“. (The amazon listing keeps changing names for some reason so you may have to search with less words to find it if it doesn’t come up at first). They are Bluetooth controlled so I use an app to turn them on or off when I’m ready to use them so I can screw the coach back together and not go through batteries too fast. You don’t have to get those. Any will do, probably should find some with a timer at least. You can always leave the top of the coach unscrewed after you’re done, it will stay on top as it kind of fits into place. But if you have young kiddos like I do then your coach may end up opened and the lights taken out regularly :).
2. Take your first coach and unscrew three screws from the bottom with a precision screw driver. The top will come off without issue. Make sure to keep track of the screws. Some of them stay in and some fall out.
3. Take out red plastic window piece with window stickers on it. Be careful as the stickers can peel off if you aren’t.
4. Lay aluminum foil inside the coach to prevent the light from shining through any where besides the windows as the coach is plastic. Line foil on top of all areas of the coach you wouldn’t want light to shine through.
5. Take your battery powered wire led string lights and set the battery boxes in the coach on top of the foil.
6. Take the wire lights and wrap them tightly around the inner poles of the coach from one end to the other until all the wire is used up.
7. Make sure there isn’t wire in the way and place plastic window piece back in place. Make sure to line the holes up over the poles.
8. Cut a piece of aluminum foil to put over the openings in the plastic window piece. Make sure to poke holes where needed to make room for where the poles meet up top to bottom.
9. Turn on lights and/or put top back on.
10. Repeat for second coach.
That’s it you’re done. Yay. They glow like the o gauge set for a fraction of the cost. If you want to you can secure the screws back on at this point. It’s not necessary unless you have children or pets that may try to get into the coaches and makes it harder to turn on/off the lights if you need to /replace batteries but you gotta do what you gotta do. The top stays on unscrewed on mine at any speed so far.
Keep in mind that if you do this to your train the windows will shine through red not yellow because the yellow windows are just a sticker sitting on a red piece of plastic and since the plastic is red the color that shines through is red. Also to note, the shadows of the people on the stickers are hardly noticeable while the coach is glowing since that’s just a sticker. Keep the string lights as close as possible to the center of the coach to prevent them from shining through the windows too concentrated in certain areas.
Review:
This train is somewhat annoying. We own the better version of this train. The o gauge that goes on the electric tracks. I feel like Lionel quality has gone downhill over the years. We decided to get this so we had something more durable to go around the tree this year. The chuff sound it makes is fairly annoying and repetitive, almost like a broken record. There’s no variation in the chuff like a real steam engine has. My sons $20 wooden train toy sounds more realistic than this does. What’s worse is you cannot change the sound, lower the volume, or turn the chuff off. On our more expensive set you can turn the chuff off (which that one’s chuff is just about as annoying). But I guess they decided to leave that out on the cheapo.
Also this thing chews up c batteries. Probably should buy a 50 pack to get you through Christmas if you have kids who like to watch the train go round and round. It used 6 in two days.
I added lights to the coaches because that was one thing I miss from our more expensive set was the glowing coaches. It was fairly simple, as you may have already seen the instructions to do so are listed at the top of the review.
Aside from that I think it’s probably worth the price. I actually raised my rating one star because I paid $68 originally and I thought that was too much. Then the price dropped to $50 and so I called amazon and they price matched it for me and refunded the difference because amazon customer service is wonderful. I feel like $50 is a more justified price for the train and so my rating went up. I wouldn’t pay much more than that and if it’s over that at the time you’re reading this review I might wait if you can to see if the price will head down again. Just put it in your cart and save it for later. Amazon will tell you if the price ever changes at the top of your cart in a little note. All in all I really wish Lionel would cut the annoying chuf and get something a little more realistic. Or at least always give you the option to turn it off. We are fairly satisfied with it and my kids love it so it serves its purpose.
