BachmannTrains - Thunder Valley Ready To Run Electric Train Set - N Scale Multi ,Medium

At $76, this is a great price. Seriously, try buying an engine, 3 cars, track and a controller for less. You can't. Some of the other starter sets are worth considering though.The track with this one is only enough to make a circle which is fine, but others come with enough to make an oval which was my first purchase after buying this along with 4 more cars.I did see the same exact set for ~$90 on another site which seems to have good prices on other n-scale items. The list price is $165 on Bachmann's site.Other sets may be worth considering. Some of them even come with the obligatory Sunnyvale Train Depot which I also bought to complement this.The track was dead simple to set up even with my failing eyesight and I recommend buying a re-railer for about $2 to put the cars on the track right. The couplers are not perfect - they don't always couple properly but once they are coupled they have been solid.I even mixed in an Atlas car with their own style of knuckle couplers and experienced zero problems. The Atlas couplers are probably better than the Bachmann couplers anyway. So far there has been no reason to change them out.I've had it for just over two weeks and the train has run flawlessly except for one time it inexplicably stopped even though the light was still shining (so it had power). I reversed it and it went around backwards without problem and then went forwards again without any problem after that.Model railroading can quickly get expensive. I've spent about $200 so far and all I did was add 6 pieces of straight track, 4 cars and 4 buildings, and 50 automobiles for some stupid reason. The station was $15.99 (came assembled) and the bar that I have yet to build is $20. The 50 autos were $9.99 and are too many to know what to do with.I've got plans for scenery, more track and other building and trains which will easily raise the cost to $1000.But for $76 you get a nice small train that goes in a circle and works very well. You can leave it at that if you want and not spend anything more.

I bought this for a 9-year-old. The train scale was chosen to accommodate a smaller environment. It ended up being about 2' around, which was good enough for us. I don't know that my son would have gotten the small connectors on the track right all by himself. There are two small clips on each piece that need to be carefully lined up. The connectors on the car are also a challenge sometimes, probably because of the scale. He gets them back together better than I do now. Gets lots of practice thanks to our cat.The only thing that caught me off guard was the cost of some of the expansion's pieces for this scale. one half of a switching y piece is about $28 needing two of them and some more track gets you close to another $75. It's a good set though and has been working well!

Excellent starter

I have been messing around with toy trains since i was 4, and im now in my mid thirties. I read some of the posts on these train sets and i was a bit concerned when i purchased, but knowing the simpliciy of the build i was not too concerned.Out of the box, everything was great. Packaged well, seperated well, and the documentation was what i expected, not that i read it. The New EZ track has its advantages, such as being able to run this on a carpet without having lint buildup on the wheels and trucks like on the open track styles. A distinct disadvantage is the incompatability with existing track types out of the box. It is possible, especially if you are handy with a saw and can cut wedges to gently ease the track down from the "fake trackbed" to the layout level like i did.Installation was easy, just like all other train sets that are out there. Took me about 20 minutes at a moderate pace. The speed controller uses a 1/4 inch jack to power the rails and a "wall wart" (on wall transformer) style power pack instead of placing the transformer in the control module. These made this a easy install to test it out on the kitchen table.As far as operation goes, i had no problems getting it on the track or getting it to function properly, without any real issues. I will say this. i have about 3 hours of operation on it at about 50 percent power. The Manual does state that these engines require a break in period before you can expect top performance, and i would imagine, the best longevity. Mine seemed like it functioned without strain after 20 minutes of continous run in one direction, and then again in reverse.I would have to say, if you slow down and come to a stop before changing direction, operate at a moderate speed (not fully open), and dont "rev" the engine speed like a motorcycle, i would assume one would have years of fun with this model.

I was an avid N Gauge model railroader from way back when I was a teen. I thought this train set would be a cool gift for my nephew so I ordered it. Yesterday was his 13th birthday and I gave him this set for his gift. We set it up on the kitchen table without issues but when we tried to connect the freight cars, the first box car connected fine. The second connected fine too but then nothing would couple to the second car even though there appeared to be nothing wrong with the couplers. We attempted to couple it several times then gave up and set it aside. The remaining cars coupled fine. So then we slowly ran the train but it derailed about 1/2 way around the small circle of track. The directions say to adjust the track with needle nose pliers to made sure the track sections match perfectly. Well, I didn't have needle nose pliers with me. This gift turned out to be a huge embarrassment for me. Back in the days of Atlas trains and even Bachmann trains, we never had these issues. Quality has certainly suffered since the fun days of model railroading. If you want a beginner set, this is not it.

The media could not be loaded. Its a pretty good product but the reason I rate it 4 stars is because it has this weird sound. Take a listen…

producto maravilloso, entrega super rapida, precio accesible, sin duda amazon es lo mejor de lo mejor. un abrazo equipo de AMAZON