It would come as a very big “Bah! Humbug!” without doubt if the world’s biggest maker of model trains and model railroad instrumentation were to overlook the Christmas market. In the USA especially, the seasonally prettified electric train going round and round the base of the Christmas tree is something approaching the iconic status of the tree itself. A slight exaggeration maybe, but essential sufficient for all the major players in the model railroad business to recognize the importance of the occasion – and the market – with suitably kitted out merchandise. Here, we’re going to take a look at two of Bachmann’s Christmas train sets and see what they offer the severe railroader or what paths into the sparetime activity proper open up with the buy of a Christmas tree train set.
Something for everyone.
First amongst Bachmann’s 2010 Christmas offerings is the Thomas Holiday Special – a Christmas train set in popular HO gauge, consisting of the now very intimate British outline 0-6-0 Class E2 tank engine in vaguely London and North East Railway powder blue livery, along with a candy-cane striped tank car, an open wagon with a Christmas tree inside and a 6 wheeler coach, in suitably Christmassy green. There is a 56″ by 38″ oval of Bachmann’s E-Z snap-fit track, and a power pack and speed/direction controller finish the contents of the box. Thomas comes in wintery, but seasonal garb – with a snowplow on the front and a Santa hat on his smokestack. Oh yes, and the eyes on the front of the boiler, which do so much to humanize the locos in this series, move. This has a commended selling price of $145.00, altho street prices may well be less. As an actual model, it measures up finelooking well too. Proportions of the locomotive and wagons are very nice and crisply elaborate and the E-Z track is indeed, without apparent effort collected and ready for operation in just minutes. More importantly, it’s a great introduction to accepted standards of realism in HO gauge model railroading.
…and the big stuff!
Moving on up and into territory traditionally kept by Lionel, Bachman Christmas train sets may likewise be had in G scale, or 1:20.3. For the newcomers to model-trainspeak, this means that the model is one-twentieth and point three the size of the real thing it is depicting. In plain language, these are rather satisfyingly big models. My personal bestloved is the White Christmas Express, a late 19th Century wood-fired 4-6-0 ten-wheeler with the huge balloon smokestack, tender and two vintage clerestory coaches. In this scale, the basic supplied oval of track requires an 8ft 2″ by 4ft 3″ space (compare this with the roughly 4ft by 3 ft space necessitated for the HO set) for setting up, but assemblage and operation is no more challenging than in HO gauge.
The set contains, as you would expect, the track, plus a power pack and speed/direction controller and all the instructions for set up, if needed, on a DVD. The loco has operating headlights, realistic steam train sounds and the coaches have opening doors and interior lighting. But best of all, it looks so right! Bachmann have been very restrained in their decoration of the items in this set, so that if, heaven forbid, the days of steaming round the Christmas tree were to end, the locomotive and coaches could without apparent effort find new identities with new paintjobs in a highly elaborated garden layout. At a marketing price of $440.00, it isn’t the most inexpensive option, but as with everything in this life, you get what you recompense for.
Bachmann Christmas train sets are a great introduction to the sideline and to the range of product made by this model train giant. I have just briefly touched on a couple of my peculiar favorites, but the N gauge passionate hasn’t been forgotten, nor has the On30 narrow gauger. Start dreaming now, because Christmas will be here before you know it.
