# toy trains on a garden railroad



## ET&WNCfan (Mar 1, 2013)

hey today Im getting a used lionel polar express for g scale to get my garden railroad started up just wanting to now what Im walking into and if there is anybody here who uses battery powered locomotives 
and not the high quality kind but the cheap EZ-TECH NEW BRIGHT, NEWQUIDA,ETC


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## Randy Stone (Jan 2, 2008)

Most often the gearboxes give out on these low cost trains. 

If you use 4 foot diameter curves as most come with, the tight curves put more strain on the gearboxes. 

The bigger the diameter the curves are, the better not only for the cheap loco, but even the more expensive engines will perform better. 

Also, keep your layout level as grades also put more strain on the gearboxes.


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## vsmith (Jan 2, 2008)

The big problem with the Lionel stuff is that with mine, there are issues with the RC controller, namely that to keep it running you have to hold on to the controller constantly, if you set it down the train will stop. Also the signal range is limited so if it gets too far away or looses the signal behind something or in a tunnel, it will again stop. I do not know how to rewire the drive so it will run independently without the controller, Lionel did this intentionally to prevent children from getting bored and leaving the thing running unattended. I am now looking to sell my Christmas Story set and will not again consider Lionel until they make products without these issues.

The only issues I have withe EZ-Tec Scientific stuff is NOISE, they are VERY noisy, adding extra plastic OK grease helps alot, but they do run fairly well and the Scientific stuff is a great cheap way to get into large scale, also Bachmann's Lil' Big Haulers are a great way to get into track powered trains. (but DO NOT go to the Bachmann website, they are having some serious issues with viral attachments) Wholesaletrains.com has the entire line on their site and no virus' issues.


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## placitassteam (Jan 2, 2008)

The biggest issue I have had with the toy trains is the over sized flanges. They do not like my code 250 switches and tend to derail. If you don't have switches or use code 320 rail you are probably OK.


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## placitassteam (Jan 2, 2008)

The biggest issue I have had with the toy trains is the over sized flanges. They do not like my code 250 switches and tend to derail. If you don't have switches or use code 320 rail you are probably OK.


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## East Broad Top (Dec 29, 2007)

I got my kids some el-cheapo train sets for Christmas. I forget who makes them, but they're a step up from the NewBright stuff. Battery power with simple forward/stop/reverse R/C (which is what appealed to me). The flanges are a bit deeper than today's stuff, but on par with ancient LGB stuff. They do okay on my code 250. Their problem is the back-to-back spacing is too narrow, and they bump on my Sunset Valley switches. I initially was going to replace them with Bachmann wheelsets, but the plastic do-joggers that hold the wheels are too narrow to fit the B'mann wheelsets. So I just spread the wheels out so they would clear the switches, and they seem to work okay. Oddly, the locos seem to go through fine, though I removed the pilot and trailing trucks from both locos as they just flopped around. With those removed, the trains run almost as reliably as "daddy's trains." If the gears hold up over this summer, I think I'm going to replace the drivers with metal drivers, if it's practical to do so. They're about the same diameter as the Delton C-16 drivers, and I have a few of those spare. 

Later, 

K


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

It's amazing what effect the proper back to back spacing has on a switch. It took years to convince some manufacturers that it was more important than gauge. 

And some are still unconvinced. 

;-) 

Greg


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