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!

The media could not be loaded. 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.

The media could not be loaded. 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.

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 media could not be loaded. Works perfectly for around a small apartment size Christmas tree and it ran well during the holiday season. I did buy some extra track to make an oval layout which works better than a simple circle. You do need to be careful when initially connecting the track to ensure smooth connections. Also, be sure to note the small size of the N scale trains in general. For my simple purpose, this is a great set.

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…