I think this is the best product that Lionel has come up with in a while!
Gets the little kids running trains;
I took a few trains for an employees Family days events with our museum ride on train for the Montana Rail Link SRY group ran the trains in the company parking lot;
I was able to hand the remote to lots of little kids with no worries about them dropping it like a $200 Cab 1
And no instructions just handed it to them and said here run Thomas!
They figured it out even the littlest kids.
I cannot wait for the other friends of Thomas to come out for the kids!
And for this display I had one Lionel CW 80 transformer running set up so Circus train was running at a good speed and power went also to the Thomas track and with it not at full volts Thomas could be run fast by the kids and not come off the track.
Pushed the bell and whistle button on transformer did not affect Thomas.
So if you get a fleet of these big deal if a remote breaks no different then having your main transformer or TMCC system fail. You get a replacement from Lionel!
You only need one transformer if you get a fleet of these engines with seperate remotes. Can power the whole layout and if one engine dies big deal.
And if you really wanted to run this engine on convetional without a remote it would not be to hard to remove a few screws and splice the power feed into the motor (with a bridge rectifier or reverse board)
This is a simple cheaper way to sell trains that works great and even the littlest kids can figure out!
