Large Scale Central

Lionel Polar Express - Thoughts?

General Discussion
#1

My son has expressed an interest in a larger engine 4-6-2 and the like after attending the National Railway Conference- thank you very much :wink: my issue is number 1 budget but also not sure the 8’ - 10’ radius curves could handle something much bigger than my largest engine the Bachmann 3-truck Shay.

Looking for an economical solution to start with so looking at the Lionel Polar Express to run on the garden line. It is battery operated and has radio control.

I’d appreciate your thoughts if you’ve ventured into this.

Thanks
Richard

#2

First off, its a toy. The drivers are plastic (at least the ones I have seen) and it doesn’t have a very powerful motor in it. For you son to play with on occasion, it probably will do the job. But it won’t become the workhorse of your railroad.

#3

It’s also small,even though it says G size wise it looks closer to O in physical size.

#4

Whatever scale the locomotive is, the cars are wildly out of scale compared to it. The loco might be “G” (for some values of G), but the cars are significantly smaller–but their height is close to that of the loco because of the huge trucks/wheels. Take a look at some of the pictures online and you’ll see what I mean. The promo pictures Lionel has online and on the box are posed (deliberately I assume) so that the cars are obscured by the engine. I’ve seen them in person and the mismatch is pretty bad–though their toy-like nature might be OK for a kid.

Have you considered looking at a used Bachmann set? I think even the cheapest Bachmann locomotive is a significant step up from Lionel.

#5

I’ll keep looking around. I appreciate the comments. I think my son is slowly phasing out of the Thomas, James and Percy genre for a more realistic look. He saw the big guys this summer in Santa Clara and couldn’t stop talking about them. Looks like the Polar Express idea will be shelved.

Richard

#6

I saw the g polar express in a box for $35 this weekend.

I passed on this as it did not look very robust and i really like the polar express, just not what Lionel did with it.

#7

Saw these sets up here in a ‘home decor’ store 2-3 yrs back.

My ‘take’ on it was possibly G-gauge track, but the rolling stock was more like S !

For Lionel to label it a “G …” set was a stretch by their marketing grunts.

imho

doug c

#8

Dan Pierce said:

I saw the g polar express in a box for $35 this weekend.

I passed on this as it did not look very robust and i really like the polar express, just not what Lionel did with it.

Dan, yea, and Lionel plans to do the same thing to it in HO scale. (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-yell.gif)