We have a suspended G scale railway that we run trains on occasionally for children's birthday parties and programs at our center in Avon, Ct. Every December we run at least one Polar Express theme program and after seeing a decent deal on the G scale Lionel set we thought it would be great to have it running on the track for these programs and around the holidays in general.
As long as you know what you are getting this is an acceptable set. There seems to be a lot of confusion with the smaller O scale set which is all metal, has more features and seems to be made along the lines of the older Lionel sets. The G scale set is plastic, has plastic track, and runs on batteries. It is definitely more at the toy end of the train set spectrum. The engine on this set does not have smoke nor do the cars light up as on the O scale set.
For what we needed, a Polar Express train to run around on G scale track, this set is fine. If I was looking for a set for my children, which would probably last for years, I would go for the O scale set. If you can wait to after the Holidays you can pick up these sets at deep discounts.
A Question of Scale
Bachmann Left, Lionel Right
One comment people have made is "why is this train so much smaller than your other train (a Bachmann Big Hauler ) yet run on the same track?" The answer is that a variety of scales are made that can run on G gauge track from 1:20.3 which is what the Bachmann Big Hauler is to the much smaller 1:32 which is what Lionel G scale represents.
Locomotive and Tender
The engine runs on 6 C batteries which are loaded into the tender. Power then gets to the engine via a wire which plugs into the back of the engine. After reading other reviews on this set I skipped loading the batteries that came with the set and loaded a set of Eveready C batteries I had. I would strongly recommend going with the rechargeable 9 volt battery option as it will pay for itself in no time. Surprisingly to me the batteries have about 7 hours run time on them and the train still runs strong.
The engine has an "on" button on top which powers up the train and starts its idling noises. From here you can turn on the remote and start operating. Unfortunately there is no "off" button. To shut off the engine you have to pull the tender's power cord or wait 10 minutes while the engine "idles" and the automatically shuts off.
The engine also makes a lot of realistic operating noises, which while neat at first quickly gets old. Unfortunately you can not turn off the sound or turn it down.
Disappearing Hobo
Passenger Cars
The set comes with 2 passenger cars, a coach and an observation car. The cars on the O gauge set are lighted while they are not on this set. This is a modification I will probably do myself as it seems it would add greatly to the overall effect of the train. The children at the program wanted to see the train running with the lights of our facility dimmed and it was pretty lackluster with just the engines' headlight on. If you think about the movie and how the train was a kind of an island of warmth and light running through the frozen darkness you get what I mean. I would probably just add a battery pack and led lighting to each of the cars.
The observation car also has a "disappearing hobo" which is a neat little detail but you manually make it "disappear" while some people may think it operates automatically like some of the automatic cars on the old time Lionel sets.
From the reviews I have read it can be hard for children to connect the cars together and I would have to agree with this point. It would seem to be trickiest to connect the tender and locomotive.
Remote Control
Lionel Remote
The remote runs on 2 AA batteries which though included you may also want to supply yourself with a name brand set. It has several functions, on-off(for remote only,not the train), forward, reverse, bell sound, whistle, and Tom Hanks saying "all aboard, this is the Polar Express". The seems to be designed well for children to use but I haven't seen any use it so I can not comment. The remote does seem to have a fairly limited range and the signal seems to be blocked easily by any obstruction. As mentioned earlier we have been running this on an existing elevated railway and we ended up just keeping the remote high up at track level to keep the signal constant.
Can this run on standard G scale track?
Yes, at least our Bachmann track which I believe is somewhat standard. The track included is all plastic. I can not give an opinion on the track as we did not use it as we ran the train on our existing standard g scale track. It ran well on this track without any issues but I have read mixed reviews on the plastic track. There seems to be issues with the stability of the track and the train derailing. From what I have read the track of the O scale set seems to be very stable, even on carpeted floors.
Pros
- For the price it is not a bad set but I would recommend the O scale set if you really want a Polar Express Set.
- The battery power lasts a lot longer than I expected (using name brand batteries). As mentioned above we have about 7 hours on this set of batteries and it still is running strong.
- The remote seems to be designed to be used easily by children but I can not verify this.
- The sounds are great and the kids love them.
- The kids love it as the do all trains and instantly recognized it as the Polar Express.
Cons
(to be fair to Lionel this set is designed to meet a certain price point and I don't think a lot of these can be remedied without adding greatly to the price.)- As train sets go it is more on the "toy" end of the train set spectrum
- Plastic track which is supposed to be hard for children to connect and not that stable.(again I can not verify this)
- The sounds, while on the pro list they are also a con as there is no way to shut them off or turn the volume down.
- The remote seems to be weak with the signal easily blocked.
- There is no shut off switch on the engine. You either have to disconnect the tenders power cable or wait 10 minutes for the engine to shut down on it's own, making idling noises the whole time.
- I don't believe Lionel will service this set (I could be wrong) as it is more of a toy as compared to their other sets.
- The cars really need to be lighted.
Final comments
As stated above we just wanted a Polar Express train to run on our existing G scale track. For this purpose the set works fine. I will definitely add lighting to the cars as this seems to be worth the effort for the effect. If you really want a Polar Express set I would spend the extra money on the O gauge set. If you can wait, get it after Christmas when the price drops. If you do get this set remember to get name brand batteries at the same time to avoid any disappointment, especially on Christmas morning.