I'm new to the group and wanted to introduce myself. My son (9 yr-old)
and I have been playing with O gauge/scale trains for about 5 years
now. We been using Lionel's Fastrack with some engines and rolling
stock from Lionel, K-Line and Williams. I've heard and seen some good
things about MTH and wanted to get some more information - so here I am.

My first inclination is to get an MTH starter set, so I was hoping for
some feedback from anyone who has experience with those. Are the
locomotives high quality? While I really like Fastrack, I've been a
bit disappointed with the locos in the Lionel starter sets.

Right now I am leaning toward a RailKing starter set, only because I was looking
for a Jersey Central loco and passenger cars and came across one in a
R-T-R set.
http://www.railking1gauge.com/detail.asp?item=30-4192-1

A similar setup in the Premier line (I realize there are significant
differences) from a couple of years ago is about $1000.

I can't seem to piece one (loco and cars) together for less than the
starter set.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks
Philip

I have several MTH Railking engines, and I love them. I recently (over the summer) added DCS to my layout that I'm building, and that's been an added plus. I'm somewhat new to the hobby myself, so I'm sure that most others will be able to offer more informative opinions on them, but I have found MTH engines to be very enjoyable and reliable when I run them. I even bought the Coors Light Set for my wife, and she loves it!

Welcome to the forum. IMO the Railking starter set are the best value in the hobby. You need to buy the one that say either DCS ready or protosound 2.

Scott Smith

The MTH Starter Set you are looking at is a nice one, you and yor son will be pleased with it. I have several RailKing engines both steam and diesel as well as Premier models and the starter sets MTH sells are much better in my opinion then Lionel. From a repair persons stand point they are much better for a lot of running, the motors are twice the size of say what they use in the Polar Express and Harry Potter type of sets, they have fan driven smoke units and they have good sounds and are command controlled if you add DCS to your layout.

Welcome to the Forum.

The MTH starter sets that I've seen are a good buy. The locomotives are cast bodies with PS2 electronics. Simple track loop with a Z-1000 transformer. The private line sets appear to use the same locomotivs in their private label sets, John Deere, Budweiser, etc.
The kids gave me a John Deere set several years ago, and its on the layout all year long, and other than routine lube and light bulb change, it hasn't needed any servicing. Steam engine is a great smoker, too.

I agree with most of the above. The RK starters are a good value.

quote:

Originally posted by PSP:

Right now I am leaning toward a RailKing starter set, only because I was looking
for a Jersey Central loco and passenger cars and came across one in a
R-T-R set.
http://www.railking1gauge.com/detail.asp?item=30-4192-1

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

This is probably the best looking RTR steam set. YOU WILL LOVE THIS! and so will you son. I also like fastrack better than the MTH track but I this engine blows away Lionel's engines. Mek sure you get the Proto-sound 2 version(i am not sure if they make any other version anyway)

WARNGING: You will like it so much, be prepared to only buy Proto-sound 2 engines from here out.

MTH Railking starter sets are a heck of a deal for the money. Excellant pullers, I have one on the layout now with about 20 cars in tow.

Not previously mentioned, but probably the best feature MTH for conventional operation is that all MTH engines are delivered with cruise control, definetly a plus when the kids are at the throttle

Philip,

Welcome, I was in the same place you are now and asked a similar question in this fourm and that is what led me to MTH. I just got the MTH Pennsy RS3 set 2 weeks ago and love it. It sounds great it took 10 min to get the entire set up and running. My son loves it as well even if he is 1 year old. I aready have plans to add on and grow an empire. Good luck

Philip;
There is nothing I can add to the advice and comments above. Just wanted to say hi and welcome the forum. There is a wealth of information to be had here and there are some pretty knowledgeable folks on these forums.
So, enjoy.

Hi Philip,

Welcome to the forum!

I'll second the other positive comments about the Railing starter sets. I also have a soft spot for the Blue Comet, so two thumbs up on your choice. One of the great things about these sets is that they have the exact same electronics package as the $1000 Premier version. The engine in the set is small, but it weighs nearly twice as much as Lionel's starter set engines. You'll also really like the Z-1000 100 watt transformer that comes with the set.

One thing I would suggest is you ask your LHS (local hobby shop) if they will swap out the RealTrax in the set for FasTrack. A lot of shops will swap track for people who already have one or the other. That gives you the best of both worlds; a new high quality engine and more track!

Welcome to the forum, Philip! I hope you'll like it here and continue to contribute and learn from the wealth of knowledge and experience that is shared every day.

Welcome to the forum!

Get the MTH set!

Buy the set because you like the set!

The heck with the track!

Sell it! Pitch it! Trade it!

That is if the dealer can't help you in Dave's suggestion above.

I second (& third, fourth, etc) all the positive comments on the MTH starter sets. I'm just getting back into the hobby myself (via a small Christmas layout project) & picked up the Rudolph set a few weeks ago. So far I'm very impressed with it.

I did a lot of research & came to the same conclusion... relative to some of the other options out there, it seems like you get a much better engine (& transformer) for just a little more money.

Dave's suggestion on the track is a great one... in talking to my LHS & even some "not local" ones, most offered up a credit &/or trade out for a different type of track. Also, if you already have a transformer / power, you may be able to get a credit for that as well.

I really like the look of Realtrax, so I stuck with it (& of course added to it!), but it's definitely not kid friendly. I can see myself switching over to something like Fastrack once my young'ins come of age.

Don

Welcome to the forum. Add my positive response to the MTH starter sets as far as the engine, rolling stock and transformer are concerned. You can't beat the value there.
Like others, I'm not such a fan of the Realtrax. Because Lionel's Fastrack was not available when I acquired my starter sets, my conculsions came after buying a number of pieces of Railtrax to supplement the small ovals with the starter sets. Now it all sits in a box while I used Fastrack for carpet layouts, demonstrations at train shows and a 9x17 temporary layout.
If you like Fastrack, I'd recommend making the change early.

Andy

Welcome to the forum! I support the comments so far as well!

These engines are great starter engines and you can't go wrong!

--Greg

PSP,
Welcome to the forum!

........and grab the extra passenger cars that are available as when they sell out they may not be produced again for a while.

Cheers,

Mike

Hey Philip I have had a railking 4-8-4 norfolk and western starter set for a year now that replaced my ho train set that went around the tree at xmass. the engine is great the sounds pluss the smoke unit that is fan powered works great , alot better than lionel smoke unit.

I have this set, except I had the older Locosounds engine. It is a nice set and people always seem to enjoy it.

You get the picture by now: RK R-T-R sets are solid quality and true value. The engines -- both electronic and mechanical aspects -- are, quite frankly, a cut above the competition's and well worth any modest price difference. I still run my layout with an original Z1000 . . . but now it has two brothers to power my DCS layout. A great six amp power supply that will happily drive two lighted trains under DCS with smoke.

The only negative / con that i can think of is that the "bantam" sized steam engines never can look right on a bigger layout (to me, at least). Even the RK semi-scale steam looks a lot better. So if i were to start with another R-T-R set, i might go for diesel.

-- gary ray

quote:

Originally posted by gearbox:


The only negative / con that i can think of is that the "bantam" sized steam engines never can look right on a bigger layout (to me, at least). Even the RK semi-scale steam looks a lot better.
-- gary ray

i agree that the regular railking steamers look better than the ones that come in the rtr sets. for some reason i think of the three ready to run steamers, the pacific looks better than the 2-8-0 and 4-8-4.

Hi Philip, welcome to the forum.

I seriously thought about getting the exact set you're talking about. My son (9 yr) is a big fan of the Blue Comet, and I admit, I have been as well since I was about his age.

I echo what's been said already, including the comments about the "bantam" size of the engine. In fact, I started out with MTH O-27 with the PRR versions of the heavyweight (aka Madison) coaches and thought they were such a great step-up from the Lionel MPC coaches I had in the 70's as a child. Minor criticisms aside, I don't think you can go wrong with any of the MTH Railking starter sets (definitely go with Protosound 2 (PS2)).

My tastes have gravitated away from O-27, but I don't have the room nor the budget for full scale. I really like the MTH Railking 60' coaches and have collected various CNJ Blue Comet coaches/baggage/combine, etc. I finally picked up the larger sized Railking Blue Comet 4-6-2 w/ PS2 off eBay. That'll be my son's Christmas gift.

Hello Philip, welcome to the forum!

You cannot go wrong with an MTH starter set. Do yourself a favor and go with one that has DCS and Proto Sound 2. You'll enjoy the features for years to come.

I own quite a few MTH engines and one of my favorites came from a starter set!

Steve Tapper

PSP - Welcome to the forum! Can't go too wrong with a MTH RailKing RTR set! You can always mix and match some Fastrack to go along with it. Until my switch to tinplate I had that set. I recommend it highly!