Honestly it ain’t surprising the TrackMaster 2 Thomas stuff isn’t selling. That stuff has not aged well, especially with the new TrackMaster 3 AEG nightmare toys. Though tbh if I ever come to your train store I might snap up some of those cheap Thomas engines. Those are the best prices I’ve ever seen for the TrackMaster 2 engines.

Honestly I still love lifelike engines. My first ever HO engine was a lifelike Santa Fe, which I still have to this day! She may be old, and a bit clapped out, but she’s still a useable engine. I have many other lifelike engines that have proven to be far more reliable engines than some of the expensive Bachman engines I’ve owned over the years. Plus lifelike made a pretty huge variety of engines in their lineup and it makes it easier to expand your fleet of engines if you don’t wanna spend horrid amounts of money. So long as you do your research on the engines first before you buy them. Plus, the lifelike train controller is SUPER reliable. I’ve had it run model trains far better than any of the Bachman dial controllers I’ve gotten over the years.

for those who can't afford gold plated train sets, these are priceless. Parents trying their best for their kids, etc.... try different ideas for your time here,

A woman with an old brass HO steam engine and a cheap, plastic diesel came to The Great Train Store and asked me the value of the items. I suggested she take the brass engine to the train show that was being held nearby but toss the diesel in the trash because if she took both the sellers she would be talking to would realize she had no clue to the steamer’s value. The expression on her face told me she thought I was lying.

I did the exact same round trip in 2019 (starting in L.A.) best Amtrak trip ever. Would have done it in 2020, but you-know-what happened. After that, circumstances changed so that was probably my last LD Amtrak trip.😢 Grateful I got to do it even once and even took a side trip from DC to NYC and return on the Acela, which was a bucket list item.

It is "Train Sets" like these where I get all my rolling stock and Dummy locos.

The D&RGW "Bumble Bee" 4-6-0 from the Bachmann footage is actually not the older "train set" tooling you're referring to. Those are recent models with metal details, improved motors with metal gears, speaker-equipped for DCC, and have completely retooled components including the tender. They are sold as separate-sale locomotives and are not the same as the 4-6-0s found in sets. Just an FYI.

Personally I think the perfect example of a Lionel O gauge starter engine would be The Lionel Columbia Type 2-4-2-Locomotive No. 1001. It was made in 1948, and I found one for my grandpa a few years ago to give to him as a gift as he was born that same year. The engine still runs despite its age, and while it’s the first of Lionel’s engines to have a plastic body, it still shows that Lionel has been making some pretty great trains for a good long time. This engine that you’re showing is an example of when they really drop the ball.

Good timing with the only UP trains that run that route meet at the same time

I’m pretty sure I had that exact HO gauge Santa Fe set that you show at the beginning of these videos when I was four years old!

NOTHING Tyco is worthless anymore. They have become collector must haves recently. The harder to find locomotives are starting to fetch in the $100 to $500 range with the Western Pacific and G,M,& O GP -20's leading the way for value. There is a G,M, & O GP-20 on EBay auction as I write this at $400 with 17 bids. Even the accessories, buildings and working structures with compatible rolling stock that Tyco produced are gaining value strength. I have 24 locomotives myself that I seem to enjoy running more than my very expensive Scale Train or MTH locos I have...toy like or not! Can't explain what the attraction is but it is an addiction that seems to be spreading...

I like the New Haven observation car. I didn't they had one. What tour shirt is that?

Where's the GARDENS in those train gardens?

Have you ever tried selling what doesn't sell well on eBay? I've had success selling TrackMaster 2 stuff before online.

That Reader's Digest business drives some hobbyists nuts. People try to sell that trash for $50 an engine sometimes. Unreal is the ignorance!

It's kind of pedantic to make videos claiming things are worthless...

I still run a ton (about 40) of Lifelike "N" scale.. I think that they are really better than many modern locos for reliability? 15 years ago, I ran most of my Lifelike locos 10 hours a day for a month, for 4 years in succession, at holiday displays.. All are still working, and only require a bit of service now and then? I have "new ones" that have not lasted a year? Maybe I'm just lucky, but I can't speak highly enough for the "old locos"? They have been very good to me? Deep flanges and Rapido couplers, but they are very reliable, and still run well on modern track? Here in Tasmania, new models are quite expensive too..

I knew this video was worthless, just by reading the title. Maybe toy trains can be just that “toy trains,” and some kid would probably enjoy “these” for hours…and prove your premise totally wrong. Given the hours of play that I enjoyed (and fondly rememeber), I think your smug premise is totally wrong! MEH

That DT&I locomotive looks sweet and I’m not even into HO.

I'm puzzled by your comments about Life-Like. I bought one of their Proto 2000 GP18 locos on a visit to the USA thirty years ago and both the detail and the quality of the motor and drive mechanism were way ahead of anything we could buy here in the UK. I still have it and it still runs perfectly, though I have now fitted it with a DCC decoder.

Tyco wins the best logo award. What an awesome logo.

How many trains run through there a day ??

lets make this video shorter. any of the model trains you find in big name stores are not worth the money you pay for them.

Garbage set cheap cheap cheap

Its not that they are worthless, they are there to be played with. Don't use the term worthless!

When I was a kid Tyco was king. My brother and I would set up on the dining room table. Our Mom told Dad to leave it alone! We ate on a card table🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣.

I have the Chessie version , preordered from that catalog

Welcome to the wonderful world of S gauge American Flyer. The A.C. Gilbert Company made these. Just after WW II the American Flyer was introduced on 2-rail S gauge track, with pre-war bodies placed on S gauge locomotive chassis and trucks for the cars, all with link couplers. There were four different versions of those couplers. In the early '50s, Gilbert began offering trains and rolling stock with more realistic operating knuckle couplers. In the later years of production, two more, very inexpensive couplers were introduced, a strong, but solid (non opening) knuckle coupler, and a flimsy coupler that would spread open to allow coupling and uncoupling. This last one was part of the plastic trucks and broke easily, forcing the replacement of the complete truck. You have examples of all four knuckle couplers here, as well as at lease some of the link couplers. I have never seen a tank car like the one here. It looks like someone put the plastic tank on the chassis of one of the very basic cabooses.

1:59 maybe in the US but in the UK it's hornby

The main problem I have with Märklin is that it's a closed system; they use their own 3-rail/stud-contact AC system, so you have to start out with buying everything from them (or making sure you're getting the compatible version) and converting/upgrading to Märklin means having to get rid of all of your DC track and engines. Also, most of their models are European-outline, so modelling Märklin in the US or Canada is kind of a fringe sector of a fringe sector of the hobby...

90 and 1

Awesome video!

Cool video , still fun . Back then toy companies didn’t care about us choking.😂 I have sold a lot of Lionel stuff. I will agree with you, low quality. Good information. I once sold the pink train set missing a few parts for 80.00 , o big mistake. New subscriber to you today. Mike Espo .

Most of all those Christmas trains you showed I own😂

If I ever make it to Tennessee I definitely am gonna stop by there.

Move out of your mom's basement already!

Wow flying really fast 👍

Hi, what a 2:04 great video. I have a question? my wife gave me a bachmann Ho set. I think it's for beginners. I saw another HO set at a yard sale . This one was a AHM Ho Model are the two compatible with the set i have?

Wow, seen this spot on Virtual Railfan … but nothin’ like being there trackside … holy moly!!! Thx for sharing.

Excellent catch !

Lionel should be embarrassed to put something like that out in even toy market

I'm an N scaler, but I have the HO Athearn John Deere set, the Bachmann Mckinnley Explorer, and the Bachmann Chattanooga Choo Choo. All three are the DC versions, and the Alaska set is from when it came with 4 coaches, not 3. I paid no more than $65 at Wal-Mart for all 3 sets in the early 00's. Now these sets are nearly $300 and come with DCC. There are a handful of Life-Like sets I had in my pre teens, that I would love to run across. Many years ago before I was married, I was chatting with a lady that lived about an hour from me. Finally met one night, stayed at her place, did the deed etc. Later that night she was going on about her sorry ex bf, and all the crap he left in a spare room that he hadn't came back for. She took me down the hall to show me the room. Like any train lover, amongst a pile of many things, an edge of a box that is slim in height will get our attention. Right?? She began telling her plans to trash every bit of it. I made my way to the box. It happened to be the Tyco Chattanooga Choo Choo. Original box, no damage. The set was complete!!! Nothing was missing or broken. As she went on and on, I interrupted and asked "even this train set" she said, take it. Get it out of here. Its not worth anything really on the secondary market but it's set from back in the day, when I was a wee lil tike and I remember the tv commercial for it. I got it for free, along with a hot steamy night of endless debauchery, and that makes it invaluable to me, I'd never get rid of it. It's a hell of a conversation piece.

I grew up on 1970s HO scale train set rolling stock. Tyco, Bachmann, Life-Like, Cox. Some of it has survived to my present layout by way of kitbash, most is in my scrap box. Kitbash may or may not be in these items future. The bridge and trestle sets. OMG. If you got a train to NOT derail on that once set up, you could go on to building ACTUAL bridges and trestles. Poor track, rail joiners, and you probably set it up on carpet, what could go wrong? And no train set HO scale loco had the tractive effort.

At 2:29 I hav e that same n scale train!

Roadbed track has a more real look and appears more durable, but if stepped on to often or taken apart and put back together to often, they may have electrical problems. Some roadbed tracks have track alignment problems and if you try to fix them they may break in that process and can't be used. The older track styles should be recommended for the more permanent layout modeler instead of the track bed type. And on the O gauge side if they want a easy to put up and take down set up, or have a very small layout space have them buy the original style O gauge track, and for that space problem O-27 is the smallest of any common train track system. Be a wise and helpful seller to your customers.

Marklin is by far superior to any American brand. Athearn genesis is close but the technology, tooling and motors not as advanced as the German one. It doesn’t last as long as the German one either. That’s why Marklin is typically double the cost of anything else. It’s like Chevy and Mercedes Benz IMO. You can still run Marklin engines from 1960s on the latest digital layout. Marklin is the only model train maker that does serious research and development in house and they now own LGB and Trix. They also have the most advanced central control unit in the industry that can run anything from analog to MFX and DDC. Model train is not a very popular hobby in America as it is in Europe. Most people in the US never ride a train in their lives. In general the industry is very small niche with little growth, research and development in this continent and is reflected in the quality, sophistication and the technology of the domestic brands.

The crazy thing is, Lionel was planning to make a remote-controlled, battery-powered version with plastic track in 1979, but it never got made. Maybe that was the original goal with these cheaper sets.

Sadly this train layout is about to close the owners are not finding anyone to keep the layout running hopefully they will

Well no kidding! Last December one of my fellow club members gave me one of these, and probably just to get it out of the house! The engine was a bit different though, it had metal wheels and the reverser switch was in the cab. The motor mount was broken, an easy fix with some epoxy, and like yours the smokebox cover was loose so I glued that in as well. There were some regular Lionel freight cars in the bag, plus track, and a little conventional transformer. I got the thing running again and sold the package at a local show for $30 and the folks were glad to have it (I made sure they knew exactly what they were getting) as a cheap starter set, and you know what? I sold the set Saturday and they came back Sunday for more track and cars! So the moral of the story is even a cheap sleazy starter set can get folks started on the path. Where they go afterward is up to them. Some how I doubt this cheap set's going to be as far as they go.

I can understand your opinion on this set, as it is pretty cheaply made, but I'm not sure if I totally agree. To me, this set is something that a parent bought for a little kid, to keep them occupied. Cheap, easy to assemble and some action. A youngster could watch this go around for a while, maybe push the button to dump the log car. A kid that is eight or ten years old, would probably never even look at it, but a three or four year old would probably be fascinated by it. I have the precursor to that 2-4-2 you show, the Lionel 246, built when Lionel was still based in New York. It was basically a starter locomotive, back then. I don't run it on my layout, but it looks good in the engine house. An excellent video.