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In October, 2004, the BIG Christmas Trains™ web site was started as an adjunct to the Family Garden Trains™ web site, to answer questions from people who were shopping for trains during the Holiday Season. Most of those questions were of the "What is available" or "What should I buy" variety, so most of the pages were in the form of buyer's guides. And we started posting answers to the other questions on this "Letters to the Editor" page. (In case you wondered, we answer questions about Garden Railroading on the Family Garden Trains' Letters to the Editor page.)
So we created two more resources:
In the meantime, we're expanding the BIG Christmas Trains "Letters to the Editor Page" to include "Trains-N-Towns" news as well. That's why our heading changed, in case you noticed.
Why so many choices? There are just too many neat products and great ideas to fit everything into just one or two sites. (In case you haven't noticed, the Family Garden Trains™ site has gotten huge, just trying to supply basic information that most folks need to know.) This way folks who love one aspect of the hobby can start out in the area(s) that interest them most, then pick up other ideas from our other sites as they get the chance.
Finally, we've been around long enough to know that for every person who posts a question, there are a dozen or more folks with the same question who never ask it. So we're still glad to hear from you. Sometimes we get a bit behind, so it may be a while before you see any question that you posted here. But since I also try to reply personally to every e-mail, that shouldn't be a problem for you. As always, we hope that you will please contact us with any corrections or other follow-ups to our answers.
How Should I Suspend an On30 Railroad Near the Ceiling?
Is It Possible To Get Hawthorne Village Trains Outside of North America?
Christmas Display Layout Question
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Looking for a 3-volt Adapter for a Village House - January, 08Sue G asksI am looking for a replacement voltage adaptor for a village house 120V to 3V Do you know where one can be purchased? Sue, Thanks for getting in touch. I don't sell these myself and most of the people I advertise for don't either, but they're pretty easy to come by before Christmas. They are sold almost everywhere they sell holiday village houses. Lowes, Jo Ann's, Michael's, usually WalMart, usually Kohls and so on. Often they're made so you can plug several accessories into one power supply, which isn't a problem since most of the accessories draw very little current. After Christmas, they mark them down and sell them out, and you don't see them until next fall. If you know the brand name of the adapter you had or the accessory you are using it with, that will help you get the right one next fall, or maybe find it on the internet. Most of them use the same fittings, but it would be nice to be sure. If you need the adapter before next fall and you can tell me the brand name of the adapter or of the accessory you are using it with, I might be able to help you track one down. The most common brand is Lemax. They occasionally turn up on Ebay even during the off season. Ordinarily I don't send folks to ebay, but these ARE a little hard to find in the store this time of year. Please let me know if I can help in any other way - Paul When do New Collectible Trains Come Out? - January, 08Kevin Mullins writes:Regarding the collectible trains: are there new trains issued every year? Is there a certain time of year the new trains are available? For example when will the new issues for 2008 come out? Thank you - Kevin Kevin, Thanks for getting in touch. Regarding your question, here's a long answer to a short question. . . It seems like new collectible trains can come out any time of the year. They try to get new ones out by October most years to stimulate pre-Christmas sales, but that's not consistent. In fact, I find out about some trains because I learn that one of my readers has ordered it before I even knew it was on the market. Every year when I'm updating my buyers' guide pages, I do a "search" on trains and see what they have that I don't have listed. There are a few I haven't listed because they don't appeal to me at all, and a few I haven't listed because they don't fit into any of my categories, and I haven't gotten around to creating a new web page to accommodate them. But other than that, I try to keep up. The only thing that is somewhat predictable is that if they DO a train and village related to the same topic, (such as Rudolph or Norman Rockwell or the Munsters), they almost always do the village first and see how that goes (apparently it's a lot more money to design a train than to design a village). They DON'T always follow up. For example, the first Nightmare Before Christmas village came out 18 months or so before the train. Both were very successful, leading to a Nightmare Before Christmas "Sandy Claws" village. At the same time as the "Sandy Claws" village, they introduced the "Corpse Bride" village. But that hasn't been a huge seller, and I'd be surprised if a train set for it appears. I have a button that says "collectible trains" at the bottom of many of my pages. The Collectibles Today folks like to change links around, but I asked them to keep that one constant so that when folks click on it they can see a page of their trains. Counting the sports trains, they usually have about 50 train sets active at once, so you can navigate around from there (or enter "train" in the search box and see what else they have. And you'll have exactly the same amount of "warning" when new trains come out as I do. I work with the Hawthorne Village marketing people, who are very nice and helpful to me and my readrs, but they're not in the loop enough to give me any "heads' up." Hope this helps, Thanks again for dropping by - Paul Starting a Fifties Lionel Railroad - January, 08Joe Pierro, of North Carolina, writes:I am retired now and would like to set my Lionels up on a permanent basis. I am looking for track plans and extra tracks. my set is from 1953 and 1954. I am looking to add pieces, tracks, scenery, etc, but I only want old pieces is great condition. thanks for your help - Joe. Joe, Congrats on the retirement. I don't have access to Lionel collectibles myself, but I do know that the market has stabilized. Many older collections are being sold off, and there aren't enough new collectors to keep the demand as high as it was, say, in the 1970s and 1980s. The dealers who drag their "collections" from one train show to the next are still trying to get the prices Greenburg showed back when the demand was high, but the truth is I see the same, exact trains on their tables year after year after year. That said, train shows are good places to SEE what you're getting exactly, and most people find a few pieces they want at prices they find acceptable. Ebay bidders usually inflate the value of most pieces (and you have to remember that a lot of these guys charge you double the actual cost of shipping). But if you have a friend who's an experienced e-bay buyer, he or she may be able to help you there. Regarding track plans, there have been many books of Lionel track plans in the past, you should be able to track down some good ones on Ebay or Amazon. If you want a really elaborate railroad, especially if you're going to try to fit it in wierd places (like around the laundry room), consider a track planning program. RR-Tracks is pretty good. Some new "shareware" or "semi-free" ones that I haven't tried are being advertised. Hope this gives you some ideas. Please let me know how it goes, and if you want to take photos and keep a record of your progress, I'd love to post it. Best of luck - Paul What About Other O Gauge Trains? - December, 07Tom Lindsay says:Hi, I enjoyed your article about display trains but wanted to point out that O gauge operates on tighter curves than HO or On30 - the O specification is 31" diameter curves, and O-27 is 27" diameter, compared to HO's 38". Right now Lionel is selling its sets with 36" curves, but for one trying to save space, O is capable of running in significantly smaller spaces than HO / On30. Anyway, otherwise I enjoyed your article. You should really talk about the many fine O gauge offerings besides Lionel - Atlas and MTH are both making products at comparable price points that in many ways beat the Lionel products, for example. Tom, Thanks; you are right on all counts. Mostly the articles have the focus they do because they come out of user inquiries or suggestions, and even photos they send to me. As it turns out most of the BigIndoorTrains and BigChristmasTrains readers have Lionel 3-rail starter sets or On30 trains or Dept. 56 buildings or some combination of the three, so do spend a lot of energy trying to help them make sense out of those combinations. Do you have a seasonal RR setup using MTH or Atlas or O27 curves, I'd be glad to add your photos or even put up a feature showing your railroad as one of the many "right" ways to do this thing. In the future, I would LIKE to include a broader perpective on more tips for more kinds of O-scale and O gauge railroads, but "serious" O-scalers and O-gaugers have a lot of resources now, whereas folks who started out with a Dept 56 village and decided to add a train are really left high and dry by most "model railroading" resources. I believe this kind of synergy is good for ALL the hobbies involved, a reason I'm promoting O gauge garden railroading on another site, and so on. Please keep in touch - Paul Looking for a Curved Power Connection Track Piece for a Kinkade Train - December, 07Michael asks:Last year I purchased the Thomas Kinkade Christmas Train with the many different cars etc. My question is this: the powerpack is connected to a straight track, I would like one round and not straight. Do they make those? Michael, The track is made by Bachmann and sold at hobby shops everywhere. Look for Bachmann NS (Nickel Silver) HO EZ-track. What you're looking for is called a "terminal" section on an 18" curve. The part # is 44402. It comes one to a package. I don't have any here, but you'll get it faster if you go to a local hobby shop anyway. The other thing worth knowing is that the engine and chassis of your train are also made by Bachmann, so you can always get service for them. Bachmann On30 trains are mechanically identical, so if the store owner wants to know what kind of train you have, just say it's an On30 and that will mean more to him than saying it's a "Thomas Kinkade" train. Finally, if you have a digital camera, I'd love to see a photo of your train set up, whether it's around a tree or a town or ???. I've put a lot of work into trying to build that aspect of the hobby but don't have many photos yet. Hope this helps, please let me know if it doesn't - Paul Can You Use Christmas Trains Outside? - December, 07Ross asks: Would train to go around front yard by itself?Ross,
The other thing you need to know is that Bachmann track doesn't hold up very well outside. If you're going to have your train out more than a few days each year, consider investing in solid track such as that made by AristoCraft. Yes, it's a lot more (since industrialization in China is driving up the cost of copper), but it is made to last for decades outside. The AristoCraft Christmas Freight set that I mentioned as the 2007 Garden railroading bargain of the year also has a remote control that will control ANY train you put on your tracks (although if your RR is more than 10 meters from the house, the signal may be too weak to run from indoors). Another option might be to leave the power supply indoors and run heavy cables carrying just the DC outside. This probably seems a little confusing at first, but lots of other folks have gone before you and had successful projects. That's one reason there are so many options. I noticed you mentioned On30 as well. You CAN run On30 trains outside but they are not as weather-resistant as Large Scale trains, and little things like bird poop on the track can derail them. Also they're more subject to being blown of the track by the wind, and they're hard to see from more than a few feet away. But if you have a relatively protected small space, you CAN use them this way, just remember to take the trains inside between operating sessions. Hope this helps. Please e-mail me if you have any more questions - Paul Power Supply for Dept. 56 Train - December, 07Mike Garofano asks:I am not a train hobbyist or enthusiast (sorry), but my wife is a big collector of the Dept 56 Original Snow Village. We have the Dept 56 train and it has run fine for a few years now (only operates from late Nov to early Jan). However, this evening, the train suddenly stopped running. I have an electrical background so went through the usual troubleshooting steps (not a bad track connection, not an outlet issue, etc.)and traced the issue to the power supply/controller. When I went to open up the controller to investigate further, I found that the four screws that hold it together had non-standard screw heads, a type I've never seen before and could not even find online. Do you know (or know who I can ask) can help in troubleshooting and repairing our train? Thanks!! - Mike
Do the train and power supply look like the ones in this photo? If so, your train was made by Bachmann and that is a Bachmann power supply. It may say "spectrum" on the top. If it is a Bachmann power supply, it can be replaced by ANY HO power supply. If you want to try to fix it yourself, I suppose you could call Bachmann and ask them for advice. However they MAY fix it for you for a flat fee ($20?) and shipping one way. Also, if you have the set in the photo, Bachmann can fix it, too. If you don't have the set in the photo, and you can send me a digital photo of the set you do have - I may be able to find someone who can help you out. Hope this helps - Paul [The next day Mike e-mailed me back and said his power supply was working again. Duh, I should have thought of that - there's a circuit breaker in the things and sometimes they just need to cool down. As it is, all's well that ends well." - ed] Can I Get Your Trains in the UK? - November, 07Andy Kent, in England asks:Do you ship to the UK or have a supplier here? Andy, How you get trains in the UK depends on which trains you want. Lionel, Bachmann, and AristoCraft trains can be shipped from our American affiliate, TrainDiscounts. If you want a Hawthone Village train, you need to contact the Bradford Exchange office in Britain and see if they have the train you want. Either way, order early for Christmas. Please let me know if you need more information. Thanks for getting in touch - Paul Power Connector for Dickens Village train - October, 07Marie Miller writes:I bought this train many years ago when the first train for the Dicken's Village came out. The tracks are old and very hard to keep connected. I found some tracks that were sold with a later addition at a local Hallmark shop but they did not have the piece of track for the power connection. I noticed you have track pieces for sale but do not see a track for the power connection. Do you offer one? Thanks
Thanks for staying in touch. If you have the ORIGINAL Dept 56 Dickens Village train, it was made by Bachmann, whose track you can buy at any hobby shop. Unfortunately I don't have the piece you need, but I think the piece shown in the photo to the right is probably what you need. If you click on it, you'll see several vendors who are selling it through Amazon. You can probably get it at a local hobby shop if you'd rather see exactly what you're getting. Just look for Bachmann Nickel Silver EZ HO gauge track. Please let me know if I can help in any other way - Paul Colts Superbowl Train Question - October, 07C. Berry writes;How many train cars come with the Indianapolis Colts Super Bowl Express? Is each car a total of 3 payments of $23.31 + $8.99 for shipping or is the total for the whole Diesel Locomotive + the cars a total of 3 payments of #23.31 plus $8.99. Can the whole train set be purchased at one time & delivered at one time? Thanks.
I know it's a little confusing. The train is a "collection" that comes in separate shipments. Each shipment is $69.95 + 8.99 for shipping and handling. The Diesel "A" unit (the piece pulling the train) is first. Then comes the "B"Unit with some track, then the big car with the Colts on the side and a power supply. I don't know what the fourth car on this train is, but the fourth piece is always a car and the "rest of the track." By the time you have the first four pieces, you have enough track to make a nice oval and a nice train to run it on. Now here's where it gets interesting. If a train is popular, they keep making cars, and you can keep getting them as long as you want. Each car comes with more track or sometimes other accessories like switches, crossing signals, and so on. The "Basic set" is considered to be the first four shipments. Anything after that is considered optional, although you can always stop after the 1 or 2 pieces if you want. Also, they have a 365-day warranty, so save everything that comes with the train, including the certificates, etc. If you decide after a couple of months you don't like it, you can send it back for a full refund. Regarding getting more than one issue at a time (say trying to get the first 4 issues at once), your best bet is to contact Collectibles Today directly and see if that's possible. It usually isn't but you may be lucky. Their 1-800# is 1-877-268-6638 Best of luck, please let me know what you decide to do, and if I can be helpful with any other questions - Paul What Do Gauges Mean? - September, 07Kathy Vahovick writes:I'm new to model trains and would like to know what the designations, ie 0 gauge mean for the different gauges. Thank You. Kathy, Technically, "gauge" means the difference between rails. As examples, most real trains have track with rails that are 4'8 1/2" apart, though some have rails 30" or 36" or one meter apart. When companies first started making toy trains, about 150 years ago, each company made their track at a different gauge, so if you bought a train from one company it wouldn't run on the same track as a train from another company. About century ago, Maerklin and the other manufacturers wanted to standardize toy train track so toy trains would be more interchangable. They came up with three different gauges. Gauge 3, 2, and 1, with 1 being the smallest. Gauge 1 is the only one of THOSE sizes being manufactured today. It's about 1 3/4" wide. Almost all Garden Trains run on Gauge 1 track, sometimes called G gauge track. ![Click to see Garden Trains that run on Gauge 1 track.](http://www.btcomm.com/trains/special_offers/begin/aristo_santafe.gif") Gauge Zero (now called O gauge) was invented for people who didn't have room for Gauge 1 trains. Its track is about 1 1/4" wide. Most Lionel trains run on O gauge track today.  HO is about half that size, about 5/8". MOST HO trains are models of "standard-gauge" trains (the kind that run in the United States on rails that are 4'8.5" apart. They are about 1/87th the size of real trains. The only HO gauge trains on my site are the Sports Team trains.  N is about half of the size of HO; it's used by people who want to have a large railroad empire in a relatively small space. To give you an idea of size, my thumb is bigger than most N gauge locomotives. I don't have any N gauge trains on my site at all, since I tend to focus on trains people my age can see without squinting. In between O and HO is S scale (which is seldom used these days) that uses track with rails 7/8" apart and tend to be 1/64th the size of the real thing. Not much is being made in S scale these days, so it's probably not important for your purposes. In addition to track gauge, there are differences between the kinds of trains that are modeled. As an example, MOST HO trains are models of "standard-gauge" trains (the kind that run in the United States on rails that are 4'8.5" apart_. They are about 1/87th the size of real trains. Back to O gauge, most O gauge trains IMITATE "standard-gauge" trains. If they were really made to scale they would be 1/45th or 1/48th the size of the real thing. But they're not, usually, because they would be too big to fit in most folks houses reasonably. So they are often made too short to be "scale trains." Still, they're very good around Christmas Trees But a new kind of train that is popular with Christmas village is the On30 train. These are models of very small real trains that ran on track only 30" wide. But they are built in a scale that O gauge trains should be (1:48). As a result, they are nearly as large as Lionel, but they run on HO gauge track, so they fit almost anywhere. I recommend On30 trains for use with Christmas vilages and small Christmas trees. The biggest trains you can easily buy are 1 Gauge trains, also called G gauge, Large Scale, or Garden Trains. They are large enough to be seen across a big backyard, and most of them are made to handle sunlight and dampness. I recommend them if you have a really big Christmas tree or you want to set up a big display for the neighborhood or a business. Here's the short list of what's most readily available to most people:
Hope this helps. Please let me know if you have any more questions - Paul A Bigger, More Colorful Train - September, 07Jimmy, of Columbia, Maryland says:Hi Paul, I stumbled across your website and it has tons of great info. I'm interested in a large scale, colorful Christmas train set and was just curious what your recommendation is. Currently, I have Lionel's Polar Express and it looks great with my Christmas village going around my tree. But I want a big colorful set now. Thanks for your help - Jimmy Jimmy, I'm glad you like your Polar Express train, it is a great set. Do you usually have a pretty big tree (7' tall or more)? If you want something jaw-dropping, I'd consider a Large Scale set. The Bachmann North Pole Special is a very attractive, colorful model. If you want something really solid, consider the AristoCraft train on the same page. Not quite as big, but very reliable. The passenger version is being reissued; if you're interested in that, I can track you one down. The Lionel Classic train is even more colorful, but it is definitely more toy than model. Some folks have complained that the mechanisms are noisy. So if you're more interested in train action than elf action, you may be better off with the Bachmann or the AristoCraft. BOTH of these trains run on track that is about 1.75" apart, a half inch larger than your Lionel Polar Express uses. They both sit MUCH higher, so they make a very large impression on visitors. If you want to stay with O gauge 3-rail track, any of the trains on the Lionel Christmas Train page will run with the Polar Express train you already have. Don't ask me which one is "best," I've owned versions of almost all of these and they serve different "roles." My favorite manufacturer overall is AristoCraft, but I run these trains outside under some fairly tough conditions, something you'll probably never do. Please let me know what you decide, and how you like it. - Paul What's the Difference Between the Red and Green Lionel Trains? - August, 07Kim, of Holland, Michigan, asks:Other than colors and wording on the cars, is there any significant difference between the Lionel North Pole Central Christmas Train and the Lionel Holiday Tradition Special Train Set? Also, trying to be sure I understand your review of the North Pole Central on Amazon (since it appears that 2 sets have the identical name?) - is the one that Amazon offers the diesel version? If so, do you know where we could get the steam version? Finally, is it possible (in the future) to buy other cars that would be compatible with these sets? Thank you very much for your helpful website and the answers to my questions! Kim, I am SORRY to confuse you. First of all, you are right, the main difference between the North Pole Central Christmas Train and the Holiday Tradition Special Train Set is the paint job. Also I think the train set that is being sold as #630022 on Amazon IS actually the Red Lionel North Pole Central Christmas Train that they show. E-hobbies, who first listed the item, listed the wrong catalog number and item description, and nobody in Amazon and none of the other vendors have seen fit to correct it, resulting in some confusion. Again I'm sorry. Unfortunately, the non-Amazon vendor I had for this train just went out of business, so I can't send you to someone who knows the difference between one kind of train and another. However, people HAVE been ordering the red set through Amazon and getting the right train set (the steam one) from whichever Amazon vendor they pick, so I probably just confused the matter by pointing out that e-Hobbies had listed the wrong product # and description. :-( Worst case, you COULD call the vendor directly and ask them (most of them have 1-800#s you can find by googling the company name). If you wind up ordering the train directly over the phone, I won't get any feedback, so please let me know how things work out. The other question, what cars are compatible with these sets, the answer is ANY Lionel O27 car is compatible, including the Hammacher-Shlemmer cars shown on the page, and any O27 Christmas cars Lionel issues in the future. Even the Polar Express cars will run with this train on the track that comes with it, so compatibility isn't a problem. Hope this helps, Paul Does the Kinkade Christmas Express Set Have a Caboose?" - August, 07Marion W. writes:I would be interested in knowing if the T.Kincade Christmas train has a caboose included anywhere along the line? If it does I would like to know when and how to get one. Thank you, M. Marion, The best way I know to get that information is to contact the Collectibles Today people directly. Their customer service phone # 1-877-268-6638. They also have a page for e-mailing questions at: Still, folks seem to have better luck calling. Best of luck. - Paul Do You Have a Printed Catalog? - July, 07Waleed, of Dallas, Texas, writes: Please mail me a catalog about your trains. Waleed, I don't have a printed catalog at the moment - everything I can link to is in my web pages, and it changes weekly as new products come out and old products are discontinued and sell out. I couldn't keep a new catalog updated this way. If you're interested in a particular kind of train, let me know and I may be able to send a catalog for that manufacturer to you. Please let me know - Paul How Big is the Nightmare Before Christmas Train? - July, 07Patty C. writes:I'm interested in the Nightmare Before Christmas train set but need to know the size in inches of the engine first. thank you. Patty,
Except for the Tim Burton-inspired paint job it is a 1:48 scale model (O scale). It is a replica of a locomotive that really ran on many small railroads in this country from a century to a century and a half ago. Think of the size of this thing as halfway between HO and O. Even though it is O scale (the same scale that Lionel is supposed to be) it isn't as big as most Lionel trains because it's a model of a relatively dinky train. That said, it will run on most HO railroads, except that it won't go through most tunnels because of the tall smokestack. Hope this helps - Paul [Readers, this and other Halloween Collectibles are shown at our Halloween Trains page. - ed] How Should I Suspend an On30 Railroad Near the Ceiling? - May, 07Neil, of Littlestown, Pennsylvania, writes:Is there any way to hang an ON30 track from a ceiling or close to a wall. I want to set up a running train around my son's room. Thank you. Neil, The good news is that On30 trains are pretty lightweight so anything that supports its own weight will hold up an On30 railroad as well, unless you add a bunch of ceramic buildings or something else heavy. The bad news is that there isn't a single out-of-the-box product or solution specifically made for On30. There are several for Large Scale (garden trains), but they would be overkill for what you need. If you want to look at the AristoCraft product for suspending Large Scale trains, it may give you some ideas. Some folks build the equivalent of long bookshelves. If you do this, the only "tricky" part is measuring how far "out" you need to come in the corners. Assuming you're using track with a 36"-diameter curve, you'll probably use a square piece 26" or larger in each corner. (Decide how far away from the wall the center of the track will come on the straight parts and add 20") Then you lay the square piece next to a shelf piece, tie a pencil to a string, put the pencil where the "inside" edge of the shelf hits the the square piece, hold the string down tight at the corner that will be toward the inside of the room, and draw an arc that shows you much you can cut away in each corner. Whether you support the whole thing with bookshelf brackets or some other way is up to you. The advantage of "shelves" is that you can decorate behind the train, using painted backgrounds, false fronts and other shallow scenery devices. I even make some false fronts you can print on your computer at: http://www.bigindoortrains.com/indoor_resources/0_s_scale_building_fronts/0_s_scale_building_fronts.htm Others build a roadbed that follows the track plan (cut out of wood or plexiglass) and make some sort of U-shaped brackets to suspend the roadbed from the ceiling. Finally, the EZ track that comes with On30 sets from Bachmann or Hawthorne village is identical to the track that comes with Bachmann HO sets, so anything made for suspending HO track may work for you if you come across it (I looked myself but didn't find anything.) Hope this helps - Please let me know what you find and/or decide. - Paul Can I Get Hawthorne Village Products in England? - May, 07Gaynor Williams, in the United Kingdom, writes:I want to purchase the New York christmas in the city hawthorne village.I am living in the UK so i am unable to buy online.Please could you tell me how I can buy this item. I will be visiting New York in November. I wonder if you could tell me if there are any stores that sell this item.I shall be very grateful.Thank you, Gaynor Gaynor, A few Hawthorne Village items are available from the Bradford Exchange's office in the UK. They're not shown in the online catalog, but if you try the following link, you might get someone who can help you. Most Hawthorne Village collections are only available by subscription (standing orders) unless you luck into finding one on e-bay or buy one from a scalper (someone who subscribes until he gets the whole series, then lists it for twice what he paid.) Also, the laws governing the "standing orders" vary from country to country, so the US branch has got burned selling directly overseas and won't do it any more. Sorry I don't have a better answer, hope this helps at least a little. - Paul How Do I Get the Power Supply for a Coca Cola(r) Train? - May, 07Theresa, of Pittsburg, Kansas, writes: comment: I have the first 3 cars just like the photo shows. I would like to set it up and run, but I did not receive the power supply.Teresa, Did you get the Hawthorne Village Coca Cola Train? If so, congrats, they're out of production and very hard to come by. Originally they came in a "subscription," where you place a standing order so that as each piece becomes available, it is shipped to you and billed to your credit card (usually about one per month). I have taken down the Coca Cola train page, since it's out of production, but you can click on this for your reference to make certain we're talking about the same train. Usually some track comes with the second car, a power supply comes with the third car or some such, so that by the time you have the locomotive and the first three cars you have everything you need to run the train. Since the Coke train is no longer available, whoever gave it to you may have got it in some other way, or perhaps they cancelled their "subscription" after a few pieces arrived. Fortunately, the electronics of this train are made by Bachmann, so the power supply they sell with ANY Hawthorne village steam train will work. It's called a Bachmann Spectrum "Magnum" #44-6681 Hobby. It's also the same power supply they sell with their On30 trains, such as the ones shown on the following page: If you're interested in getting more pieces for your train, you could call the collectibles today hotline and ask them if anything is still available. It's POSSIBLE that the car that comes with a power supply is still available, so it might be worth a try. 1-877-268-6638 Otherwise, the Bachmann Spectrum power supply that comes with the On30 train sets will work fine. I'm sorry I don't have a part number for you, but any good local hobby shop should be able to help you. Hope this helps, please let me know if you have any other questions - Paul How Many Pieces are in the Village Sets? - February, 07Rob Maury, of West Virginia, writes: My wife and I received the John Deere Christmas Village Thomas Kincade version as a gift but we often wondered if there were more pieces to the village available. Woul you please send me more information concerning this particular village and we are also interested in the John Deere halloween Village set. I would like to know approximately how many pieces are in that village as well.Rob, Regarding the Hawthorne Village collections, your best bet is to call the Collectibles Today hotline. USUALLY you'll reach someone who knows how many "issues" there have been for each set. United States: 1-877-268-6638 Monday - Friday (excluding major holidays) 8:00 A.M. - 6:00 P.M., Central Time. That said, EVERY village has at least four buildings. Usually any accessories that come with the set are shipped with the third and or fourth building. That said, if a set is very successful, they will KEEP making buildings for it, as long as people are still interested or as long as they have the License. That's not a problem with the Kinkade stuff, as he and Hawthorne Village have had an ongoing relationship for a very long time, but the John Deere company may have only signed a 2 or 3 year agreement with them. If someone has given you several buildings at once, they either subscribed to the set and "saved it up for you" or else they got it as a special purchase somewhere, say as a part of an employee rewards plan or something. If you want more of the same set, you SHOULD be able to call the hotline above, explain which pieces you have and sign up to receive the next piece. A "subscription" is a sort of "standing order," where they send you the next piece every 3-4 weeks and bill your credit card. (If the next piece hasn't been made yet, you'll have to wait a little longer between pieces, but in your case, you're already a few "issues" behind, so that shouldn't be a problem.) BOTH the Thomas Kinkade John Deere villages are relatively new and very popular, so a: Both sets are still getting new buildings, and b: it's likely that both sets will wind up with 8 or more buildings (maybe as many as 12). But of course you can stop your subscription whenever you feel like you're running out of counter space or whatever. Please let me know if you have any more questions - Paul What is the Price on Additional Cars? - February, 07Betty, of Medon, Tennessee, asks:What is the price on additional cars? Betty, Which train were you inquiring about? If you're asking about a Hawthorne village train, all trains have at least three cars, most have more. They keep making them as long as people keep buying them. The first Thomas Kinkade Christmas train is up to 12 or 13 cars. The cost of each Hawthorne Village Train "issue" is the same. So the price listed for the first issue is the price for each "issue" following. Most cars come with a piece or two of track or maybe some other accessory, so you're getting more than just a car. If you stay subscribed to a series, eventually you'll get them all. If you have part of a series and you'd like to subscribe and get the rest, contact Collectibles Today hotline. 1-877-268-6638. Tell them what train you have and which pieces you have so far. On the other hand, if you have some other brand such as Bachmann or AristoCraft, let me know what brand you have, and I'll point you to information on getting additional cars. Hope this helps - Paul Batman Train Missing Couplers - January, 07Mary writes:Yes, I ordered the Batman train [from Hawthorne Village™], but I am missing a part. I would like to know how to order this part. It connects the train cars together. Thanks again. Mary, Each car should have a "coupler" on each end. A coupler is a little hook that, from the top almost looks like a hand making a "C" shape. When the cars are pushed together gently, the couplers bump a little, forcing them apart, then they snap back and hook on to each other. The cars SHOULD come with the couplers installed, or at least in the box. Are you saying that the couplers are missing? If so, your first stop should probably be the Hawthorne Village/Collectibles Today help desk: 1-877-268-6638 If they can't help you, the train IS warranteed by Bachmann, a very large model train company that has a reputation for good service. Bachmann's Service Dept home page is: Their customer service phone # is: 800-356-3910. If you explain to Bachmann that you got a Hawthorne Village Batman train without couplers, they will probably just send you some. Be sure to tell them how many cars you have. If I've misunderstood your request, or if the numbers listed above can't help you, please let me know and I'll try to chase it through from my end. Hope this give you the information you need. - Paul [Mary let me know later that the customer service department had handled the problem quickly and sent her what she needed. By the way, this is the only thing close to a complaint I have ever had on one of these trains - Paul] Big Outdoor Christmas Display Trains - January, 07Christine, from Lancaster, PA writes:I am trying to find pricing and general info on outdoor larger scale train sets. I am interested in putting one out yearly with my display and have never looked into costs for this particular item. I looked at some of your pages but couldn't find any listed information on outdoor holiday trains except a page explaining why pricing is not available online. I assume a catalog will be mailed to me but would prefer an on-line price list if there is one available along with the different types of trains for outdoor holiday displays. Thank you for your help - Christine Christine, The best trains for an outdoor display are AristoCraft, such as the ones shown on the following link. AristoCraft track is very solid and well-made, so I recommend getting Aristo Track to extend your railroad (assuming you want more than a 4'-diameter circle. Sorry if I seem to be "dodgey" about pricing, but I've had vendors raise and lower prices without telling me, then readers get mad because I'm listing a different price than they get when they click through. Even the Traindiscounts folks referenced above only put the final discount on the item when you add it into your shopping cart, because some of THEIR suppliers insist on it. In this case, the list price for that particular train is $328, and the final discounted price is $277 [As of January 20, 2007]. The Bachmann Trains can also be used outdoors, but their track can't. The biggest Bachmann Christmas train is on the following page: That train is 257.35 once the final discounts have been applied. But you'd have to add the cost of buying a little more track, since you can't use the Bachmann track outside. Whatever you buy, you'll want to have a way to keep it out of the weather when it's not actually running. The Bachmanm "Night Before Christmas Train" is a little smaller: It's $247.49 after your final discount. P.S. One of the biggest Large Scale train shows in the world happens in the spring in York PA. Check out eclsts.com for details. Hope this helps. Please let me know if you have any more questions - Paul Track and Power Questions Relating to Lionel Holiday Traditions Train - January, 07Robert Paulsen, of Los Angeles, CA, writes:My wife bought me Lionel's "SANTA EXPRESS" G Scale rail set this christmas. She said you all were quite helpful and answered her questions as she used your site to aid in her search. I want to set this train around the tree next year. The set comes with G Scale track in a plastic "snow" bed. It also has a remote control to start, stop, make sounds etc. The track connects directly to the wall and has a on/off switch on a small transformer. None of this looks like my old TYCO HO train set of my childhood. Or the set ups at Alied train store in Culver City, CA. They were not familiar with the set and could not answer my questions. My old TYCO had a transformer with a switch to increase/decrease speed, etc. My main question is this: can I use regular G Scale track and transformer to make a unique under the tree set-up with the Lionel SANTA'S EXPRESS? Or am I stuck with the special track that came with the set? If I am stuck with this track, does Lionel make switches, etc to expand upon the included oval? Thank you for your time. As this is for next Christmas there is obviously no rush in the answer. Great site! Sincerely, Robert Paulsen. Robert, I assume you mean the Lionel #7-11000 "Holiday Tradition Express" train as shown on the following page on my site? Yes, it will run on "ordinary" G gauge track. I would investigate AristoCraft track - Aristo has the best overall selection, and the little screw-on tie plates make the best mechanical collection. It's also a little cheaper than LGB track. I have a page listing most of the options at: The 11000 series track has bigger ties that are farther apart than the 30000 series track. Which you choose isn't all that important, but once you chose one kind try to stick with it for consistency. Also, the train WILL run on a DC transformer/rectifier/rheostat sort of Model RR power supply like you're thinking of. But chances are you would have the rheostat (control knob) on the device turned up most of the way and use the remote, not the rectifier, to control the speed. I would NOT use an AristoCraft power supply. They use something called "pulse width power" that is great for controlling model trains, but plays serious havoc with most Lionel sound systems. The piece of track that has the rectifier/transformer built into it should say what the output is, usually something like 1000mA 12VDC. Try to get a power supply that is about the same. If you can get a "regulated" DC model RR power supply that is exactly the same and doesn't have a rheostat (control knob) go for it. Otherwise, assume you'll use the system with the control knob most of the way up all of the time. Hope this helps, Please let me know how things work out and if you have any other questions - Paul Will On30 Trains Work With Hornby? - January, 07Neil Townsend, of Bacup, Lancashire, Great Britain asks:Will your trains run on "Hornby Sets" and visa versa? Neil, The Bachmann On30 trains and the Hawthorne Village should on any HO track and work on any DC hobby rectifier. The Bachmann rectifiers, of course, are made to work with 110V, so they won't work in countries that use 220v "house current." I would be surprised if the couplers were entirely compatible, though. Hope this helps, please let me know if I have NOT understood your question. Thanks and have a great year - Paul Johny Cash Train Questions - January, 07Gladys writes:I have wanted to order the Johnny Cash train from Hawthorne Village, but I am confused as to how many issues they actually have. Do you know how many they have made and how many more, if any that they have? I contacted Hawthorne and the gentleman I talked to had little or no info at all. He couldn't even tell me who the train was manufactured by. I would really appreciate any help you could give me. Thanks a lot and I really enjoyed reading your pages about all the trains! Gladys, The trains are made by Bachmann, one of the world's largest model railroad manufacturer. They are painted and given extra detailing by factories in China that have agreements with Collectibles Today, the makers of Hawthorne Village. This means that in addition to the one year customer satisfaction guarantee you get from Collectibles Today, you will be able to get service indefinitely from Bachmann. Did you try the Collectibles today customer service #? 1-877-268-6638 They're usually pretty helpful about things like how many have been issued so far. That said they always make at least 3 cars and sometimes get up to 12 or more on really popular trains. You can stop getting them whenever you want to, though. Hope this helps - Paul What Size Trains go with Kohls (St. Nicholas Square) Trains? - December, 06David Raasch, of Independence, Missouri, writes:Just read through your page regarding cross-over between the Model Railroading hobby and the Christmas Village hobby. This is something I would like to do next year, so I'm just getting started researching trains (as I already have some Christmas Village houses). I guess my question is regarding matching up the scale of your train with the scale of your Christmas village houses and people: Does an O-scale / O-gauge train tend to be the "right" size for most Christmas Village pieces? Or should I be drifting upward towards Standard scale? I don't have Dept. 56 stuff. Mostly, my village houses were given to me as gifts. They were purchased from Kohl's over the past few years. I'm not trying to be a nit-picker regarding scale. I just want to make sure nothing in my scene looks obviously too big or too small. Thanks! David, The stuff from St. Nicholas averages around O scale, similar to stuff from Lemax or Dept 56. The On30 Bachmann trains (and the Kinkade trains, etc. that are based on those trains) were built especially to look right with that sort of set. Lionel would be OK in scale, but generally has less detailing and takes up more room. Hope this helps, please let me know if you have any other questions at all. Have a great New Year - Paul Is the Lionel Holiday Traditions Large Scale Train for Indoors or Outdoors - December, 06Melanie, of Los Angeles, California, writes:I love your website! I want to buy my husband a train to go around our Christmas tree. I like the look of the Classic Lionel Holiday Train Set but I think this one is for outside, in a garden. Can you tell me if it would work around a Christmas tree inside our house, and if not, can you suggest something that looks similar? Thanks you so much! Melanie Melanie, ALL of the trains we describe would work around a Christmas Tree. The Large Scale trains we show are ALL very impressive around a tree, but they all come with a 4'-circle of track, so they will fit into a fairly tight place. The other trains can fit into 36" or smaller circles, but of course they're smaller trains. The Lionel Holiday Traditions set (the big one with the plastic elves) is the same height and width as the Large Scale trains that are meant to be used outside, but it's actually meant to be an indoor train. For one thing, the cars are fairly short so it looks appropriate on its indoor track. It's a jaw-dropper around a Christmas tree. That said, if your husband gets the bug and starts a garden railroad (using trains that are more appropriate for outside), he COULD run it outside once in a while without causing any serious problems. Hope this helps - Paul Outdoor Big Christmas Train Questions - December, 06Billy Pappas, of Daphne, Alabama writes:Paul, I am interested in a Christmas Train for the kids as well as the big 50 year old kid, me. I was looking at the Aristo-Craft Model that you wrote about, but could not find detailed specification information about it, such as if it had headlights or even lighted cars on the Christmas Passenger model. What I want is to set up an outdoor Christmas Village with the train. One that will last even in the rain. We have snow down here about every 15 years or so. Any help would be sincerely appreciated. Thank you. Billy Pappas Billy, The train has a working headlight. However the passenger cars aren't lit (the Aristo passenger cars that are lit are much more expensive). I PREFER Aristo for most things, but if you're JUST looking for a Christmas train and you want lit coaches, Bachmann will be a better buy. No, it's not as solid. But it should give you many years of service, and does come with a very good warranty. You'd want to order a bigger circle of track anyway. I'd recommend 10ft diameter Aristo. The little loops of track that come with the trains don't even show up outsided, and Bachmann track isn't made to be used out of doors. Also, the Bachmann and Aristo run on the same track, so if you buy a Bachmann Christmas set this year and buy an Aristo set next year, you can mix and match. Aristo's built up stations are very good buys if you don't have any buildings yet. If you'd rather save your money and build your own, there is a line of very inexpensive (but not exactly snap-together) kits at www.coloradmodels.com. Tell them I sent you. They need painted as well as glued together, but if you're going to paint them in Christmas colors anyway. . . . Most important, I'd LOVE to see photographs of your work in progress, as well as your finished product. Please let me know if you have any other questions, Paul No Room for the Train to Turn Around - December, 06Rusty Black writes I'm looking for a Christmas train and track. The length is not a concern but the turns for the oval cannot be larger than 13". Do you have any trains of this nature?Rusty, Any trains that could make a complete turn in 13" would be too tiny to see. Have you considered the On30 Bachmann streetcar sets that have an auto-reversing system. They're ideal for mantles and bookshelves, and the RR can be as "shallow" as you want. They're a few "pagedowns" on the following link. http://www.btcomm.com/trains/special_offers/on_30/on_30.htm Let me know if you have any questions about this set - it was one of the biggest-selling Christmas train sets last year. Hope you have a great holiday season - Paul [Note: Rusty ordered the trolley, although I had to help him track down a dealer that had them in stock.] Amtrack or On30? - December, 06Juie writes:I need to make my daughter happy with a train and village, and my son wants an Amtrak type train. I want the On30. Since I can't find an Amtrak type On30, can I buy an HO to run sometimes to make everyone happy? Thank you, Novice Mom The good news is that if you buy a Bachmann HO train, it uses the same track and power supply as the On30 trains. One good example of an HO Amtrack set is the Ascela, a high-speed electric Amtrack passenger train. My main supplier's phone # is 1-800-404-4414 Mon-Fri 9a-6p EST, in case you want to check with him about delivery by Christmas. Please tell him you're calling about store #115 so he knows I sent you. Then if you want, you can order a Bachmann On30 train for yourself, too - The same people can get you most of the On30 trains I show. Then, when your son gets bored with his, you can "borrow" his track. Have a great holiday season - Paul On the Trail of Rudolph - December, 06Jim Williams writes:I have a Rudolph & the Misfits around the tree train set. I need some replacement track. This is a Rankin/Bass set distributed by Memory Lane. I can't find the scale or anything on it to let me know what track is compatiable to it. Can you help? It's battery powered with 12' of track. Jim, I'll try to help, but my site only links to trains that are made
by major model railroad manufacturers, so I have no direct knowledge
of your set. To make it even more complicated, Rankin/Bass isn't
really the name of the actual manufacturer; it's the name of the
television company that originally produced Rudolph. That said, if you
can get a ruler with very fine increments and measure the distance
between the inner surfaces of the rails, it might correspond to a
gauge of track that you can buy from other sources. You'd probably
have to have to replace all of the track with a new loop, but track
for smaller scales doesn't cost much, and it will look and hold up Even if you get your track elsewhere, I'd be interested to hear if it works out - Paul [Note from editor: After sending this e-mail, I searched ebay for a Rudolph set that fit the description Jim gave me. I sent Jim the link and asked him if that was the train he had. If so, Jim's train was made by New Bright, a company that makes plastic toy trains. I told him that New Bright track should work with his set. Jim agreed that his set looked like the New Bright. He said "I will search for the "new bright" and let you know what happens. Again thanks...."] Which Train Set Fits On My Dining Room Table? - December, 06Mary writes:I want to have a small Christmas train in the middle of our dining room table. Is there one that is small enough? Could we make a figure eight that is elevated in the center? We have an O gauge for the tree, but that is too big for the table and I'm hoping you have a suggestion for bringing trains to the table. Please help. Thank you. Mary, Are you planning to eat around the train? If so, I'd consider the Bachmann On30 Reversing Trolley set. It goes back and forth but doesn't take up nearly as much room as the train sets do. This was our most popular set in 2005. If you want to have a train go "around," you may have to go to an N gauge set (very tiny but cute). My biggest Bachmann supplier has an N-gauge Christmas set worth checking out. If you want to make a figure eight, call the supplier up and ask him what extra track pieces you'll need. His # is: 1-800-404-4414 As an example of the size difference, if you could open the On30 trolley like a box, you could put the whole N gauge train inside. But which you prefer is up to you. Have a GREAT holiday season - Paul [Note: Mary e-mailed me back to say that she liked the N Gauge train. In fact one of her family members liked it so much they ordered it, too.] Is It Possible To Get Hawthorne Village Trains Outside of North America? - December, 06[Ed: In the past seven days, two Europeans and one Australian contacted me to ask how they could get certain Hawthorne Village products. The Australian reader is still receiving cars for a train subscription he started many months ago, but he hasn't been able to subscribe to the collectible village that goes with the set. The following is a compilation of my replies to Mark Noble, of Canbarra, Australia, Yanni Tofarides of Cyprus, and Louise Reilly of Ireland.]Friends, After a great deal of research and phone calls, I've learned that the Bradford Exchange offices in several countries have access to trains, even trains they don't advertise on their own sites. The UK office was especially helpful when I contacted them, which is good news for anyone in the EU. To find the closest Bradford Exchange, open the Bradford Group/Collectibles Today International Page. Then look toward the bottom, where it says things like Bradford Group United Kingdom, Bradford Group Italy, and so on. Note: Do not click on the the name of the connection you're interested in, such as Hawthorne Village - those links will only take you back to the North American site. Once you click on a site in a country that is closer to you than, say, the United States, you may be disappointed to see that the regional office does not list the trains you want. But if you use the customer service information on the regional office, you may find someone who can help you get the trains or other products you want anyway. If they won't, try the next closest office, and so on. I can't promise you'll always find a helpful person, but most of the folks I got in touch with seemed very helpful. That said, Bachmann On30 trains are the same size and run on the same track, and since the whole train comes in one box, it's a lot easier to ship them overseas. No, Bachmann doesn't have a Rudolph or Winnie-the-Pooh set, but they do have reliable, attractive trains that you can get shipped to Europe. (Latin America's a little tougher, but I'm trying to find sources for you there, too.) How May Cars Come With the McDonald's(r) Train? - December, 06George Washington,Jr., of Woodford, Virginia, writes:How many car come with the McDonalds 50th Aniversary set and will each car be priced the same as the first price? Mr. Washington, Have you seen my Subscription Train page? The short version is that EACH issue costs the same amount. Since the first part you get (the locomotive) is worth twice what you pay for it, it evens out quickly. Also, all of the On30 subscription trains have at least three cars, but for some really popular sets they keep going as long as there is a demand. (At last count the original Thomas Kinkade Christmas train is up to 12 issues.) Each car comes with additional track, and some issues include other accessories. You could contact Collectibles Today's customer service # to ask for certain. 1-877-268-6638 Have you seen the "Happy Memories" Collectible Village set? It's shown on my Other Villages page. It incudes a vintage McD restaurant, a Sinclair gas station, etc. Hope this answers your question, have a great holiday season, - Paul Wanted: A Holiday Village Train With Lots of Bells and Whistles - December, 06Sherry writes: We want to purchase a Christmas train We have collected a village scene over the years and want to add a train that we can expand figure eights, go up hill maybe get it to the point having two trains running together on the same track. Can you tell me what I should order?Christmas carols, railroad sounds headlights steam alot of animation.Sherry, If you want a train that looks the best with your Holiday Village Scene, you should check out the On30 trains on the "Get it Now" page. Those trains DON'T have sound or play Christmas carols or have a lot of animation, but they do have headlights, and they are made ESPECIALLY to look good around your Holiday Village. (The Hawthorne Village trains use the same mechanisms so you can get an On30 train now and start a Hawthorne Village train subscription if you want something special, like a Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer train.) These use Bachmann HO EZ track, which you can get anywhere, and it's very easy to find the parts to make a figure eight or other track designs. All of the Bachmann On30 trains I am recommending this year are on the following page. If you want to start really small, consider the little back-and-forth trolley set that is shown on the same page. You could order the trolley set now (they're in short supply), then add an On30 or Hawthorne Village train later running on a separate loop for extra action. If you want animation and music, the three Lionel trains shown toward the bottom of the Lionel Christmas Trains page provide that. (One animated car with characters chasing each other, one car that plays music). These trains are a little larger than the On30 trains, so they take up a little bit more room. That's one reason I recommend them for under trees as much as for tabletops. However you can get extra track pieces easily, so your railroad can grow quickly with these trains also. Unfortunately for your purposes, the train with "maximum animation" as well as music is too large for your Holiday Village. That's the new Large Scale Lionel "Classic" set. If you want the biggest, shiniest, most animated train you can buy (and one of the most sturdy), this one's for you. But each car is bigger than most of the houses in your Holiday Village. So, my first recommendation (although it doesn't have all the bells and whistles) are the On30 train sets. Second is Lionel O-gauge trains, which has the bells and whistles but takes more room. Hope this helps, please let me know if you have any more questions - Paul Where Can I Get a Dept. 56 Streetcar Fixed? - November, 06Mary Lou writes:I have the Dept. 56 Village Streetcar Company Set with E-Z Track and it does not work. Do you have a technical support group that can assist?? Please advise. Mary Lou, Are you using the track, power supply, etc., that came with the streetcar set? If you have the set that's supposed to go back and forth, it takes a special kind of track. You can't just buy regular E-Z track and add it on. Let me know if that's the case and I'll give you more details. Also, this may seem like a dumb question, but does the set look like the ones on our Buyers Guide pages that list On30 streetcars? If, so your streetcar was made by Bachmann, a model railroad manufacturer with a very good reputation for customer service. There should be a 1-year warranty on your train, so if you bought it from an authorized dealer within the last 12 months, you should contact the dealer first, and Bachmann should be your second stop. The really good news is that Bachmann provides excellent customer support. In fact their "limited lifetime warranty" means that they will fix or replace your train (at their option) for a flat rate that covers parts and labor. The "flat rate" goes up occasionally, but at the moment the flat rate for On30 trains (which is probably what you have) is $20. A few years ago they replaced the motor in my Large Scale Bachmann trolley and it was better than new for $20 (now it would be $25 for mine). Not long ago, a reader whose Hawthorne Village locomotive had stopped working reported to me that it was in better shape than ever when he got it back. The Bachmann Customer Service web site is down at the moment, but if you determine your streetcar is a Bachmann product, they will help you. Their customer service # is 800-356-3910. That said, if your streetcar WASN'T made by Bachmann, or if you need other assistance, please get back in touch. - Paul [Note: Mary Lou contacted Bachmann who said that they don't make that model any more but they would replace it with a new streetcar. Since the "paint job" on the Dept. 52 streetcar makes it a collector's item of sorts, I told her to ask if they could just put new "guts" in the old streetcar, and to contact me if there was a provlem with that. So far I haven't heard back - ed.] What Comes with the First Installment of a Hawthorne Village Train? - November, 06Nina writes:I am interested in the Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer® Collectible ON30 Scale Electric Train Set. I don't under stand what exactly is included in the issue for 69.95. Is it just the engine, tracks and the power pack. Or does it include all 3 additional cars as shown on the advertisement? The ad is not very specific. Nina, I agree that the ads aren't all as clear as they could be. In 2004, I wrote a whole article explaining subscription trains and ran it past the Collectibles Today people to make certain I was getting it right:
The short version is that the engine and tender (coal car) come by themselves in the first shipment. This is a big gamble on the part of the Hawthorne Village people as you're paying less than the locomotive would be worth even if it wasn't a custom-painted collector's item. The next installment is usually "just" a car. The third installment usually includes a car, a circle of track, and a power supply. The fourth installment usually includes a car, the rest of the track, and any figures that are included in the set. Since these come 3-4 weeks apart, if you start your collection now (mid-November), it's not likely that you'll have enough of the train to run before Christmas. If you are a Rudolph collector, get started anyway; the orders are flooding in, and when these sell out they will be out, period. (The same thing is true of the Rudolph village, which has already been out a year and is still in very high demand.) If you don't have any sort of train now and you want a train around your Christmas village or tree, you can order a Bachmann On30 train now and get the whole thing in a couple weeks (faster if you pay extra postage). They are 100% compatible with the Rudolph train, which means you can run the Rudolph locomotive on your Bachmann On30 train this Christmas if it comes down to that. For such "last-minute" decisions, I've put together a whole page on products that you can get right now if you want:
Hope this helps, please let me know if you have any other questions, or if I didn't answer the question you asked me clearly. Have a great holiday seasion - Paul Needed: A Big Train in a Small Space - November, 06Lynn writes:Which set would you suggest to go inside under my tree - the smallest (big cars) that you would suggest? Is there a set for a track 38 X 38. If so, what is the name of it? I want a Christmas set. Lynn, You probably should consider an On30 set or a Hawthorne Trains set. These are mechanically identical, but if you want the whole set by Christmas, the On30 set is your best bet. If you just use the curves that come with the set, it makes a track circle that is about 38"x38" on the outside. The cars are almost as large as Lionel cars, so they're big enough to see under the tree, and the Bachmann company will service both the On30 and Hawthorne Trains indefinitely. I've put all the On30 trains onto one page: If you'd rather have a collectible set and are okay with only having part of the train by this Christmas, you can get to most of those through the Hawthorne Trains page. All of these trains come with a few straight pieces of track that you won't be able to fit into a 38"x38" circle, but which you can always use to make an oval if you have room to set the train up somewhere else later. ANY of these trains should give you years of charming service. Please let me know if you have any additional questions. - Paul What Cars Come with a Hawthorne Village Train? - November, 06Sharon wrote:I need a catalog on the Thomas Kinkade Christmas Lamplighter train; I started to get them and left off and don't what cars are available - Thanks.
Sharon, Thanks for getting in touch. The Hawthorne Village trains, which include the Thomas Kinkade train you started buying, are distributed exclusively through Collectibles Today. Unfortunately they don't have a printed or online catalog that shows all the cars for each train, but they should be able to help you figure out what you need or how to re-start your subscription. The Collectibles Today Customer Service number is 1-877-268-6638. Please let me know if you have a problem getting their customer service person to help you, and I'll try to do any other follow-up that is necessary. So far, though, they've been very helpful in my experience. The SOONER you call before Christmas the better, though, hint, hint. If you JUST want a working train set, you should know that the Thomas Kinkade trains are completely compatible with the Bachmann On30 trains that you order all at one time. No, the Bachmann On30 trains don't have the gorgeous detailed paint jobs that make the Kinkade trains into collectors' items. But they all play together very nicely. One On30 train, which comes in deep green, is listed near the bottom of the Year Round Display Villages and Trains page. Hope this helps - Happy Holidays - Paul D. Race What is the Total Cost of an On30 Train? - November, 06Rebecca Schade writes:I was just wandering how the costs really work. Is the amount given the total for the entire train set or is it the amount for each individual piece? Thanks. Rebecca, on the Hawthorne Village trains, the listed price is for each piece. On the Bachmann On30 trains, the listed price is for the whole train. When you do the math, you'll realize that Hawthorne Village trains cost more than the Bachmann On30 trains, but you're paying for additional painting and detailing that turns them into limited edition collector's items. Hope this helps - Paul Race, How Can I Get a Train All at Once? - October, 06Mary Beth, of Baldwinsville, New York writes:Hi Paul, I am new to this village purchasing and rail road. Please let me know how much the train is to buy outright. Also with the Hawthorne Village too. I am interested in the beginner set then would love to become a subscriber. Please let me know. Thanks. Mary Beth, Thanks for getting in touch. It sounds like you're interested in getting a Holiday Village and a train to run around it, presumably on a tabletop indoors. If that's the case you should know that the Hawthorne Village trains can't be "bought outright" all at once. If you are interested in a specific collectible set, such as the Thomas Kinkade Christmas Express, you need to subscribe (like you would to a magazine) and get a part of it every few weeks. Yes, at this point, this means that you won't have the entire train by Christmas. :-( But if you have your heart set on a collectible (subscription) train, you COULD could get the locomotive and the first car or so, and order the track and power supply separately. That information was covered in a recent "letter to the editor" of Big Christmas Trains. If you're not interested in a collectible train, you CAN buy a Bachmann On30 train and get the whole thing in plenty of time for Christmas. Bachman On30 trains are exactly the same mechanically as the Hawthorne Village trains - they just don't have the exquisite paint jobs and extra detailing that turns them from model trains into limited edition collectors items. The Bachmann On30 Spectrum Ohio River & Western Passenger Train Set shown near the bottom of the Year-Round (Indoor) Display Villages and Trains page is good example of an On30 train that isn't in Christmas colors. ALL of these trains use the same track and power supply as the Hawthorne Village trains, so if you wanted to start a subscription to a Hawthorne Village train and buy a Bachmann On30 train at the same time, it would all be interchangeable. The same thing about subscription trains applies to subscription villages. If you're interested in a particular Hawthorne village, and you order it now, you'll probably get two (or at the most three) issues before Christmas. Of course there's no reason you can't get a few Department 25 buildings now to "jump start" your village. Please let me know if this has answered your question or if I've missed something. Happy holidays - Paul [Note: Mary Beth wrote back to say "I really appreciate all this info on the trains.... I will be ordering one with my next pay check." Turns out she liked one of the On30 trains very much. - ed.] How Big Are Lionel Trains? - October, 06Kara writes:I cannot get a handle on the size of "O" gauge based on the description you have. Can you tell me something like: if the full scale train is x long by x wide then O scale will be x long by x wide? Thanks for accommodating : -) Kara, Actually it's not as easy as it should be. The rails on Lionel track are about 1/45th as far apart as the rails on real track. But for many years, most "serious" O-scalers made their trains 1/48th of the size of real thing. That means that a 50 foot boxcar should be about 12.5" long. But Lionel made their equipment a little smaller than it "should be" so it could go around curves easier. So cars that are 10" long (or even shorter) are more common. As far as other dimensions are concerned, most cars are about 3 3/8" high and about 2 1/4" wide. Most cabooses are shorter, but just as wide. Passenger cars and most locomotives are longer and a little bit wider and higher. All told, a Lionel train set that had, say a locomotive, two freight cars, and a caboose would typically be about between 40" and 50" long. Bachmann On30 trains are also 1/48th the size of the real thing, but they are models of smaller trains that seldom had boxcars longer than 30 foot. So Bachmann On30 trains might have boxcars that are only about 7.5" inches long, although passenger cars would be longer. The other dimensions would be a little smaller, too - height about 2 3/4", width about 1 7/8" Still, many folks prefer the On30 trains (or the Hawthorne Village collectible trains that are built on the same frames) to use with their Holiday villages. To give you something else to think about, the same boxcar in Large Scale would be 16" or 17" long, about 6" tall, and just over 4" wide. Are you looking for a train to go around your tree or around a Christmas village, or somewhere else?
Hope this helps. Have a great holiday season - Paul [Note: Kara wrote back to thank me for the detailed answer and to say she had decided on a Large Gauge Bachmann G North Pole Special train for this year. - ed] How Can I Track an Order? - October, 06Jazmine writes:I ordered a train and a few other things. It has been a while and I havent received them yet. I wanted to see how much longer it might be. I looked on the web sight and I couldn't find anywhere where there was a place to track my order Jazmine, The Garden Train Store and BigChristmasTrains web sites point to a lot of different vendors, since no one vendor has all the trains our customers want. Unfortunately, when you click through to a vendor's page, then order a train, I don't get any direct feedback until the product has shipped, and I still don't always get all of the details. But if you can give me more information, such as which product you ordered and which vendor's page you ordered it from, I'll help you track it down. In the meantime:
[Note: After I contacted Jazmine the first time, we determined that she had ordered a Hawthorne Village train, so I sent her the contact information for Collectibles Today. I also referred her to my page on Subscription Trains to remind her that these trains only come a little at a time.] Power Supply for Kinkade Christmas Express - October, 06Tricia, of Poway, California writes:I have the set for the Kinkade Christmas express. However my parents stopped subcription before receiving the power supply. Is there a way to purchase a power supply separately to make the train workable? Tricia, The power supply they use in the Hawthorne Village Trains is the Bachmann Bachmann #44212 Power Pack and Speed Controller You should be able to get a power supply for HO trains at any hobby shop near you. Tell them you want the Bachmann #44212 Power Pack and Speed Controller or something like it. It is also easy to get extra track. Bachmann EZ track is the same wherever you buy it, so you can extend your railroad at any time. The Bachmann EZ Track #44501 is an exact replacement for the curves that come with the train sets. #44411 matches the straight pieces. Hope this helps, please let me know if I can help with anything else - Paul Crossing Light Question - September, 06Darron Nicholson, of Memphis, Tennessee, writes:I have a question. Do you have a railroad crossing light that stays on until the last car passes the light or crossing gate? If so how much does it cost and may i see a picture of it? Darron, Most of the trains and products I write about are for garden railroads (Large Scale) or Holiday Villages (On30, etc.) Are you interested in a railroad crossing light for either of those? If you're interested a railroad crossing light for an indoor train, you might like the set shown on this page. A winter version is on the Kinkade train page. These sets will work with HO trains or with On30 trains (which use HO track). Now, relating to how long the crossing light stays on: Almost all products like this (all the way back to the Lionel Crossing Guard) work by placing a very sensitive pressure switch under the track. The weight of the train cause the switch to close and the lights to start flashing or whatever. How long the switch stays closed is a function of how sensitive the switch versus how heavy the train is. An HO train doesn't have enough weight to close the switch on an O-gauge setup, for example. Also, your track needs to have a little "give." If your track is fastened down ALL the way around your railroad, there won't be enough "give" in the track to allow the train's weight to push the switch closed. In other words, whatever product you buy, you'll need to experiment a little to get the best results. Some folks have come up with fancier custom solutions for doing this, such as an "electric eye" that triggers a relay when a train interrupts a beam (but then you have to aim the beam carefully, or it won't pick up unloaded flatcars, etc.) I'm sorry but I don't have any detailed instructions for that sort of thing. I might be able to give you a little more information if I knew exactly what kind of trains you are planning on using this with. Hope this helps - Paul How Big are the Big Christmas Trains? - September, 06Andrew Johnston writes:I am trying to get a feel for the physical size of the different "Big Christmas Trains". I have read your article, but still don't quite understand. Please could you tell me:
Many thanks - Andrew Johnston Andrew, Here's a quick summary:
This is why I say you CAN use O gauge/O27 or On30 trains around a Christmas tree or on a tabletop. But the most impressive trains around a very large tree are the Large Scale trains. The "downside" is that they DO take up a lot of room. The Large Scale train sets come with a 4'-diameter circle of track, but they look better on wider circles of track, say 6' or 8'. And 4' is wider than most tables, so if you want a train on a tabletop that fits into the average living or dining room, you may be back to O or On30. Hope this helps, and sorry for the delay. - Paul What Can You Do With Half of an O Canada Train? - August, 06Kelly, of Ontario, Canada, writes:My father in law purchased a Hawthorne Train for my son. It looks like it was purchased as a group of trains but I am not sure if he has all the pieces. The train came in two styrofoam containers. The first container has a locomotive that says O Canada on the side of the train and a car that has what looks like coal in it. The second has passenger car with a power control in it. There is a certificate that states True Patriot Love passenger car. All this stuff is a part of a Hawthorne Village. Can you please tell me whether or not these are all the pieces. There are no tracks with this set. Any info on how much to finish this set and what are we talking about the availability of this stuff. I dont want to spend a bomb as this is for a 11 year old that really doesnt appreciate expensive stuff. What is all this stuff I have worth. Any place that has price information would be appreciated. Thanks - Kelly Kelly, The Hawthorne Village trains are collector's items, not toys. The chassis is actually made by Bachmann Trains, one of the world's largest model train manufacturers, but they are hand-painted with something approaching museum-quality detailing. They are also "subscription" collections, which means that they come a piece at a time, and you pay for each piece separately. It sounds like your father-in-law has purchased the first two "installments" of the train featured on Collectibles Today Canada's web page I don't have access to that train, since it isn't sold to US purchasers (too, bad, really). The third installment is a car that comes with the power supply and some track, and the fourth installment is another car that comes with the rest of the track. Most of these trains are only four installments, so you have half the train, if that makes any sense. The locomotive itself is worth far more than the cost of the first installment, but Hawthorne Village is betting that people will like the train so much they buy the rest - and nearly everyone does. Now that you know what you have: It could be that the rest of the train just hasn't come yet. Or if your father-in-law has discontinued his subscription, you could contact the Collectibles Today folks and ask about getting the third and fourth piece. HOWEVER, you mentioned that this train is for a young person who may not appreciate its value. It may be that you can't get the rest of the train, or that you would rather not spend the additional money for two more collector's items. In that case, you should know that this train and the track is mechanically identical to the Bachmann On30 train shown near the bottom of the On30 Display Train web page. They also use the same track. Look for the heading about getting extra track on the same page. Any power supply made for HO trains will run these trains (and in fact, they will run on most HO track, if someone you know has an old HO set around). Personally I think the O Canada train is an especially attractive collectors' item, but I would understand if you put the pieces you have so far into a safe place and bought an entirely different set for your young person to use for now. Hope this information helps you make the best decision for your family, - Paul Polar Express Prices and Availability - August, 06Mari writes: I am interested in purchasing the Polar Express train set and used the link that you provide on your website. One is approximately $350.00 and the other $299.00. Do they include the same things? When I read about them they appear to be the same exact train. I also found another location to purchase the Polar Express items at another site [site name deleted-when I checked it out they were out of stock - ed.]. Their price for the set is $289 but it doesn't appear that the cars include silouettes of the characters in them. Is that standard with this set or is that probably the reason why it's cheaper than the rest? Any info would be appreciated. Thank you. Mari, These should all be the same exact train set. I provide multiple links when I can because Lionel trains are made in batches, and one vendor may sell out while another has plenty in stock. Two Christmases in a row, folks who waited until the last minute have been disappointed. I am constantly researching new vendors and may have one or two more to add this fall. In addition, some of the vendors I work with change their web sites all around every year, so I have to rebuild my links every year. So I apologize if you're getting frustrated trying to find something I've listed, or if it seems to be cheaper somewhere else. For two years now, folks who sold the Polar Express at the lowest price have sold out first, but just about everyone sold out eventually. Still, except for minor differences in packaging and color batches, there IS only one set, as far as I know. That said, Boscovs is now selling the set for $289, if that's any help - click the Boscov button on that page again to see. The "shopping cart" price of the set at TrainDiscounts is about $306, after you get your discount, too, so the price isn't as far apart as you might think. [Note: Publishing the prices as of August 30, 2006 is not any guarantee that they will be the same when you are looking for a train later; in fact the price of this train has historically risen every year it's been available - ed.] I have heard no unsolved reader complaints about either vendor, but if you find the thing for much less from another reliable source, and they actually have it in stock, by all means go for it. Hope this helps, PLEASE let me know if you have any other questions - Paul Collector's Information About Collectible Trains - August, 06Steph Gibbens writes:I really would like to find a catalogue of all the Hawthorne Village On30 trains that have been discontinued and are now collectible, as well as new/current models. If you have that info or can help me find out how many and what cars were originally available on the complete Coca Cola Christmas train and the Spirit of America train sold by subscription by Hawthorne Village, I would appreciate it. Steph, I'm always glad when my readers take delight in a product they purchase, whether they actually run the train or set it in a display case. And I share readers' disappointment when they've waited a few months (or in some cases a few days) too long to order something they thought they wanted but kept putting off. Unfortunately, nobody to my knowledge has published a reference book about the Hawthorne Village collectibles. And I'm not a collector myself - I foolishly run the trains I buy and don't pay attention to their collectibility. I have noticed that as soon as a Hawthorne Village train goes out of production, a few become available on Ebay or some other secondary market at a much higher price than they would have been through a regular "subscription" purchase (like "scalping," I suppose). But I don't know if those prices hold, or if the "real" long-term value is somewhere in between. I would certainly not guarantee that these will increase in value more so than, say, stamps or Martin guitars, or utility stocks. Even if it they wind up being a good investment in the long run, the main reason to buy these is because you like these products (and there is a lot to like). About products going out of production: Again, the manufacturer doesn't tell anyone how much longer a product will be available, but every limited product is limited, eventually. In this case the Coca Cola train ran out faster than I expected it to, even though it was one of our most popular models. The run for the Spirit of America train was probably smaller, but it hasn't generated as much interest, so it could be available for another two years or another two days - I have no way of knowing. If you're really interested in getting a set, you should probably go ahead and subscribe now. You won't be disappointed with the quality. The photos I have access to show the Spirit of America train with the locomotive and three passenger cars, each with a different paint job. Four-issue trains are common, so that is probably the whole thing. My understanding regarding the Coca Cola train is that there were four issues, the locomotive and three cars, if that helps. The cars are shown in the miniature photo at: http://www.btcomm.com/trains/special_offers/hawthorne_trains/hawthorne_trains.jpg (Of course I have to replace this photo on my web site now that the Coco Cola train is gone.) Hope this gives you some ideas at least. It also reminded me just how quickly a product line can disappear. I wouldn't be surprised if Hawthorne Village licenses another Coca Cola set in the future (may not a Christmas set), but in the meantime, its a reminder to us all that limited really does mean limited. Thanks again for your interest and my apologies that I can't be more specific. Paul Race |
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Large Scale trains from Bachmann and AristoCraft
Mike,
Marie,
much better. Let me know the measurement when you get a chance. Or
you could take one piece into a hobby shop and ask if they track that
would replace the piece you have.