Needed, 2 kids’ trains, need to be simple, forward and reverse, smoke OK but not required, remote control, OK. The question is what would be 2 nice sets (different) that will be suitable for 2 girls ages 6 & 7.
Thanks
Brent
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Hello B, greetings.
Go to the Lionel web site, and you will find what you are looking for. Stick with Lionel for those ages, and boy do they have a great selection. They even have the new LionChief sets out with remote.
Once you find what you like visit a reputable web dealer for a better price.
And welcome to the Worlds Greatest Hobby..
I think the Lion Chief is a feature the kids would really enjoy. I would consider this seriously.
My kids'train would be Minecraft themed. I'd wait on the train chief sets I don't trust it yet. And if the controller got misplaced or separated then what. A traditional set would be my choice.
The Williams Grayhound 4-6-0 set looks nice. The Lionel Rock Island FT set is nice looking. If they like trains they see all the time the MTH SD70 led sets are great.
The Williams Grayhound 4-6-0 set looks nice. The Lionel Rock Island FT set is nice looking. If they like trains they see all the time the MTH SD70 led sets are great.
When my girls were young, I found cheap cars from the bay & painted them in pastel colors & put Barbie stickers on them. I was running them the other day, my oldest is now 15 came home, hey that's my train.
My daughter is turning 8 next week and she loves the "Lionel Little Lines" set she got for Christmas so much that she asked for an additional set for her birthday (next week) so she could build out a more complex layout.
The "Lionel Little Lines" box says they are for kids 3 and up but she loves them because she needs absolutely no help from an adult to use them and mess around with them. I even catch my 10 yr old daughter playing with them a bit.
The sets run around $50 at my Local Hobby Shop (LHS) and it looks like Lionel has them "on sale" on their site for closer to $70.
If you're looking to go with more traditional O Gauge you can find some really good priced Lionel sets for sale. I recently saw some very good deals at the Trainworld site for Lionel starter sets for somewhere around $120 or so, which is a pretty good price.
I also think the Lion Chief recommendation is really a good one, something certainly worth looking at and if you spend some time searching you should be able to find some good deals on these too.
Good luck...Rich
I would also throw out the Thomas Trackmaster series for something the kids can actually play with. The trains and track are extremely durable (my kids have had theirs for about two years and nothing has broken), the kids can build the layouts themselves, and there are a ton of expansion pieces you can buy. Some of the trains have sound and others operate by remote control. If you go this route I would suggest to stick with the simple sets and buy the expansion track sets because the more elaborate layouts they sell have funky track angles that make it difficult to link them up. If you want to get a "real" train set then I agree with Rich. Lionel has some great prices on conventional and Lionchief sets.
