Bachmann Trains - 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!

For the price this tiny train set is a bargain. Just be aware it is N-scale and therefore is very small........ which leads me to a few observations: It is not appropriate for small children, you must use patience in putting the track together carefully and coupling the cars can be a challenge. But once up and running, this train set is a pleasure to operate. It is very high- quality and the locomotive has lots of power. It is perfect for a table-top display (im using mine as a Christmas decoration). It is very noisy when running..... but so are real trains! You will not be disappointed with this set as long as you use lots of patience to get it up and running.

The cars don't gently couple together on the track, it's very disappointing. It appears the cars have incompatible couplers or they're defective and one section of the track arrived slightly bent. I'm guessing I'll have to return this set because having one locomotive running around is just not fun or what's advertised. I don't see how a child of any age could ever hope to assemble one of these sets, I'm an engineer using magnification and the products broken out-of-box. I sent this video to support which is the official coupling technique and even putting them together off the track is impossible. It's really unfortunate, because the locomotive and its lights work well despite the small size of N scale. The big question is this just a Bachmann quality issue or do they all use these? Lionel sets are far pricier, but I wonder if the cars couple and the track sections aren't bent out of box? I've never had such issues with HO sets, or a previous Bachmann HO set, so it's also making me think N scale may not be appropriate for most of us, which is very unfortunate because it often could mean the difference between having a layout and not. If ou have a young child, do not buy one of these sets, get something in HO or O scale. That way they also won't accidentally break anything until you can determine what's bad out-of-box.

This is a nice beginner's train set. The engine is nicely detailed and runs well after the break-in period (about 1 hour of use, with lots of starts and stops). The freight cars look good and the metal wheels roll smoothly. The EZ Track takes a little practice, but in general is easy to assemble. There are two minor drawbacks to this set. The first is that the dummy knuckle couplers are very hard to get connected. I recommend replacing them with EZ Mate Mark 2 couplers, which work much better. [To replaces the couplers, you will need a set of jeweller’s screwdrivers, 2 pairs of short couplers, and 2 pairs of medium or long couplers. The box car and tank car need short couplers, and the engine and caboose need medium couplers but long also work.] The second drawback is that the basic circle of track gets pretty boring pretty fast. I recommend supplementing it with 3 packages each of the 11.25-inch radius curved track and 9-inch straight track. That gives you enough track to build some more interesting layouts.

My son and I wanted to get into hobby trains and decided to start at the ground floor with this basic set. As soon as I set the track up, the train ran beautifully right out of the box. It is basic and not as detailed as more expensive variants, but it is great for my 7 year old and I. We've already added accessories and began building model kits to sit along the track. This train is a great entry point for this hobby.

Got it for my grandson looks great. He loves it.

Bachmann's ready-to-run starter train sets are an excellent way to discover if you really want to be a model railroader. The detail is very good even in N-scale. The locomotives are not the best on the market; however, Bachmann offers free replacement in the first year so you won't be burned if you get a lemon. The EZ Track works OK on carpet, but I would suggest mounting the track on plywood. Connecting and disconnecting the rail joiners repeatedly will damage them and that can interrupt the electric circuit. After mounting, tightly crimp the rail joiners with needle nose pliers or better yet, solder them. PLEASE NOTE: jerky performance of the locomotive is usually due to dirty track. It is easily cleaned with a pencil eraser. Also, the locomotive's motor bearing needs lubrication. Bachmann has several videos on YouTube showing you how. This is a fantastic hobby and a real treat for children. Though it is not intended for under 14 years old, I have supervised my young grand children for hundreds of joyous hours