Rather then passing judgement on these items from a modellers point of view, which is the wrong stance to take, as these sets are designed with child safety in mind, it is better to take a stance on their reliability, how well they run and their durability etc. Also their price.
Feel free to add more if you happen to have anything of interest.
I will add two sets that I have purchased recently. Both are impressive in the value of what one gets for the money one pays.
I will start with the cheapest. I have seen these for £1.99 for a whole set, though I believe I paid £2.99 for mine. Is a small set which has been around for about 40 years. I have found that it is best to glue the track on a board. The earlier ones had a hard plastic track but this was easy to break. Todays track is a little more flexible, but it can be prone to needing a flat base to glue it onto to help trains run on it. Once done, I can testify as I had one of these when I was a child, that it runs, and runs and runs. Batteries last a good while as well. So these little sets are actually incredible. They do also sell them for about £10 as a "Railway in a tin" but I would just get the cheaper standard version. The ones in a tin have the track divided into many pieces to fit into the tin. Better to pay less and keep it simple. Just get a flat board to glue it onto. And why not make yourself some extra track? A nice challenge!
The second set is in a much larger scale. If you have ever come across American 00 which is larger and uses 19mm track which is more accurate to the scale... Well. This set is something along those lines in its scale and size. Too big to be British 00.
Now to be honest, this set has impressed me the most. I bought mine yesterday for £12.99, so I have not had it long. But what struck me withit on testing is that the two coaches with their plastic wheels on the plastic track actually were quite free running, and not once did the sure footed locomotive or the coaches leave the rails. The bogies are totally independent of the couplings which makes it even more surprizing. And it ran reliably with no issues from the start. Yes, the loco is driven by just one pair of wheels with traction tyres... But this was more then sufficient to pull the coaches and its tender. I would say it may actually pull another two coaches... certainly an extra coach.
It does need about 5ft or more in length of board by about 3ft in width
Here is my main criticism of both these sets. The manufacturers and suppliers need to make extra track and accessories for them. They would really sell if they were available. It is sad that I have ot seen accessories. Yes. Some of us tallented modellers can soon make some track aswe could build it from plasticard, or solder metal rails to PCB sleepers... Whichever method works for us. But it is a shame that for the kids they can't expand these lovely sets, as fair play, for what they are designed for, with such incredible vale for money they offer, the children along with the manufacturers are really missing out! If I was the manufacturer I would have done so.
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