Bachmann Trains North Pole Express Ready to Run Electric Train Set - HO Scale

Pros: - Beautifully sculpted Locomotive, tender and passenger cars. - The details are fantastic and all rolling items have a good weight to them. - easy to setup and run, had mine running in less than 5 minutes and I have had zero prior experience with Bachmann's ez-track layouts. (I also haven't touched a model train set since the 90's) - Bachmann DC controller is foolproof, ridiculously easy to setup and use. plug and run, no tools. - Locomotive has Light and smoke unit! very cool in a set at this price point - Bachmann's EZ-Track is great for carpet, dinner tables, or any other locations where a permanent setup is not viable. (that said, I still hate "pre ballasted" tracks). Cons: - I. Hate. Ez-Track. In my opinion, it doesn't look good, it (to me) amplifies the sound of the engine going around the track. sometimes no matter how perfect you line it up, the metal rail joiners just won't line up unless you twist or otherwise angle the track in a way it wasn't meant to be. When the time comes to build my layout, I will not be using any form EZ-Track or other "pre ballasted" tracks. (Although it's worth mentioning, I will be using this for my son's layout). - The smoke/steam unit in the locomotive seems kind of weak, even after 20 minutes of running the train at 60% speed, I could really only see the smoke when I brought the locomotive to almost a crawl. So... with such an expansive list of reasons I hate EZ-Track, why am I still giving this 5 stars? Because I knew that going into it. I purchased this knowing I would likely be replacing the track, this was an experiment to inexpensively see if I could re-kindle my love for this hobby and, see if my kiddo would be captures by it, too. (He now has two Thomas and Friends HO locomotives, so that answered that question). Buy with confidence, this is an awesome set and works great out of the box. If you've experienced traditional track layouts or are otherwise more experienced, the value is still there for the engine and rolling stock. Just plan on ignoring the EZ track.

Great little train, and perfect for a starter set!

Un set de ruedas del vagón hace corto circuito con los rieles y no permite que la locomotora funcione.

Beautiful set, great detail on the trains. Track sets up very easily, great starter set. Only complaint is if you expand and get turnouts, expect juddering from the loco as it goes over the turnout, I think it is probably only 2 wheel pickup because when I bought an all wheel pickup diesel there are no more turnout hiccups. That would only apply if you expand though. One other consideration is that if you want realism later you may not like E-Z Track...

It's my first HO scale set, my first choice is O scale set. I had to adjust to the difficulty of putting the cars on the track other than that it's a decent starter set. The engine is the only thing that lights up, other than that is great Christmas theme set.