Elf Ready-to-Play Set with Remote

I really like model trains in all of the common scales (N, HO, O). Lionel has always offered quality sets and this is no exception. It is MIC but seems to be of good quality. Plenty of track to go around a tree. We used it on a Christmas diorama that was set up by Santa for 2 boys under 5YO. The Elf movie has been in our Christmas collection ever since the DVD was available, so this was a great combination. The sounds are great and the engine movement very good. The remote limits the speed of the train to where a kid can't run it so fast that it flies off the tracks. It will always chug-chug and to control the whistle, sounds and bell, there are 3 separate buttons. Appropriately, Ferrante and Teicher's "Sleigh Ride" plays only when the engine is in motion. Track easily assembles and comes apart so if you need to quickly pack it up or move it, no problem. The engine does take 6 C Batteries and the remote takes 3 AAA so we purchased some rechargeable's. A really nice little feature is if you turn the remote power off and forget to turn the engine power off, the engine will Beep-Beep until you switch it off which saves inadvertent battery drain. An article on Trains.com stated the battery powered Lionel trains will run on powered Lionel FasTrak but only on the wider radius O-48 curves. I have not tested this on my FasTrac. I really cant state any negatives (yet) except that these wont hold up to a fall off the table onto a hard floor so be careful.

I purchased this train for under my tree to replace another set due to the older set’s remote control was misplaced. I tried to just get a new remote but that is not such an easy task. Ordered this train as Christmas was closing in and a universal remote to try, which almost cost as much as the train. Found the remote. Returned the universal remote. But kept this train. Love the movie Elf and the train says little blurbs from the movie. Makes me laugh. So I gave the older one to the grand kids. Just warmed them. Do not lose the remote. No remote. The train will not go! Good luck finding a replacement remote.

Easy set up so cute and all about Christmas. I purchased because I sold my old Lionel train it was the polar express one and I love this one so much more. The white color and the xmas tree plus the doors slide open showing a 3d like image of elf himself all around winner! I didn't include the photos because we packed it up to enjoy on xmas, need to get thru Halloween first :)

This train is lots of fun and my kids love it. We ordered extra straight track so we could make the train go around the atrium area above our kitchen. It's awesome. I would give the train 5 stars if it wasn't so loud. The chugging noise seems fairly reasonable, but there's a high pitched mechanical noise that seems quite loud. I'm not sure if that's normal or just ours. It would be nice to leave it running for awhile, but it isn't exactly background noise, so it's too loud to have on for more than a few minutes. It's still very festive though and a fun addition to our Christmas decorations!

Enjoying the train around the Christmas tree it’s nice and works fine. No problems more track than I need.