Where Are All the Christmas Toy Train Sets?

Ever year I see fewer and fewer toy train sets advertised. It seems that the electric train set is going extinct. In years past it was standard that whenever you saw a Christmas themed advertisement with a Christmas tree, there was always shown an electric train set running around underneath it.

Every year, the number of retailers putting a toy train set in the window as part of their Christmas Holiday display has diminished to near nothing. I have noticed only one in an about a 16-block stretch, both sides, of a major shopping street close by. (I mainly walk, living in a convenient neighborhood.) That display was not even in a retail store, but in a bakery. window. And, the funny thing is, it is owned by an ex-pat middle easterner who evidently has no clue about toy train sets. The train set was a large scale, but non-operating, plastic set on a short piece of track along with cotton snow and other winter wonderland accoutrements. Looks like he was trying hard to get into the spirit of things. But, he had set it up wrong. Hard to do with just three pieces, but he managed. He had the caboose hooked up to the engine, and the coal tender behind that, as the last car. I went in and straightened it out for him. Sigh.

In all the dead tree material that I get from local merchants and newspapers, I have seen only one advertisement for a real electric train set -- sort of. That was for a Lionel G-gauge battery powered set advertised by Bed, Bath, and Beyond. I took a look at it on a recent shopping trip while getting a few other things.

The Lionel trains set advertised includes one “highly detailed” steam locomotive (looks like a 2-6-2), one tender, one gondola with three removable crates, and one caboose. The G-gauge track is 12 curved pieces and four straight pieces that form a 55” x 72” oval. The train has some authentic sound effects, including bells and whistles. It has a working headlight. It is remote controlled battery operated.

If I recall correctly, it was about $130, not a bad price for an introductory electric train set.

But, the problem is, it is G-gauge track, and who knows to what scale. It is honking big, and requires a lot of space -- a G-gauge circle of track would be 55” (about 4-1/2 feet), as compared to 27” for O27-gauge, or 31” for O-gauge, or 36” for HO and On30 trains.

It is battery-powered with a remote controller. That is, I guess, to appeal to the new generation of video game players, instead of being electrically powered through the rails. It may be of no concern to most people but what really turned me off about the train set was that the drive rods and side rods were plastic, not metal. They were probably totally non-functional decoration only. But to me, that was just tacky cheap. Even the old tin-plate beginner sets from Marx had metal running gear.

I haven't gone into Target to look at electric train sets. Their multi-colored weekly newspaper supplements do not show any real toy train sets, so there is no incentive for me there. The only train related items I've seen in their advertisements are some Fisher-Price Geo Trax Timbertown Railway sets, which are plastic caricatures of real train sets, and some Thomas Wooden Railway engines (those really stupid toys with the smiley-faces on the front, the headlight being the nose). What seems to have replaced the beginner electric train sets are these plastic and wood caricatures with only a fanciful resemblance to real trains.

I haven't seen any O27-gauge/scale or O-gauge/scale, from Lionel in years, nor S-gauge/scale, which used to be made by American Flyer.

What you mostly will see, if you see anything, is the G-gauge track trains, maybe some HO-gauge/scale, and On30 toy train sets.

On30 is kind of cool, and mostly used for novelty trains. The train sets are O-scale that run on HO-gauge track. Hawthorne Village used to run advertisements, taking a page or half a page in all the Sunday newspaper grocery coupon-clipper sections. I haven't seen any of their advertisements for a couple of years now, though. A victim of the economy or the declining interest in toy train sets?

The Hawthorne Village sets seem to be good electric train sets for children.  They are O-scale in size but run on HO-gauge track.  That makes them large enough to children to handle easily, but a circle of track takes only 36”.  The Hawthorne Village train sets are (were?) made in “themed” issues.  For example, one was an old-fashioned 1800s style steam engine train with a Coca-Cola “Holiday Express” theme.  Another of their series was a modern diesel engine train that could be obtained with various sports teams logos and colors, such as the “LA Lakers Express”.  Throughout the years I have seen a “Magic of Disney Express”, a “Thomas Kinkade's Christmas Express”, and several others.  Many have common locomotive and car types, but they are decorated with the theme that was currently being promoted. 

I don't have any of the Hawthorne Village sets, so I can't vouch for their quality and reliability, but used sets can be picked up for much less than $100.  (The costs, new, were a little over $100.)  You probably can't go too wrong if you can find a good used train set on eBay or elsewhere from a reliable seller.

The toy train sets -- electric train sets are what used to be part of Christmas. Those are what Dad bought for a relatively few dollars to run around the Christmas tree on Christmas morning. They are what every 6 to 10 year old (or older) boy wanted, along with a bicycle. Not X-boxes or wooden Thomas the Tank train caricatures. The toy train sets actually required some procedural thinking assembly and physical activity such as crawling around on the floor to fix a derailment.

The kids that really caught the bug and had the finances and space to indulge themselves, went on to build model railroads. That is a serious hobby and quite a bit more expensive and space consuming than a basic electric train set. Model railroads involve building landscapes and multi-faceted track layouts far surpassing the toy train simple ovals with maybe a couple of switches. Discussing model railroading, scale model railroads, is way beyond the scope of this article. Just look up HO-scale model railroading, for example. Look for Bachmann and others for ready-to-run sets, and Ahearn for kits.

All aboard!