Questions on the Lionel Lionchief Thomas

The Lionchief Remote is very durable. I know one member around here runs them often for groups of kids and has been doing so for years. Its awesome for kids because its wireless and so easy for them to pick up. My special needs son loves his James. The sounds are good for my purposes. I vote to upgrade to the Liochief version if you can.

My 3-year old granddaughter loves my Lion Chief Thomas. She runs him each time she visits, more often  than not pulling a freight rather than Annie and Clarabell.  It can pull 3-4 standard freight cars,  not the real heavy ones.

I have a conventional Thomas that has not been run since I got the Lion Chief over a year ago. Probably should put it up for sale.

Sounds are like to Legacy what a 3yr old's speech is like  to adult. (You can understand them if you know what they are supposed to be.)

The club I'm a member of uses them for our traveling display layout. The kids love being able to run the train, blow the horn and ring the bell. No problems have come up in several years of running.

Thumbs up for the LionChief Thomas. Don't expect Railsounds 5.0 sound quality. It's a toy. But my youngest daughter loves to turn hers.

I'll start by saying I do not own the LC thomas, or any of the other, similarly designed low-end LionChief sets like the 'Little Steam' or dinosaur engines, which appear to be cosmetically different, at least with the style of remote compared to the more expensive sets such as the Polar Express, which I do own.  I have, however put the question out there several times asking for information about failures of LionChief products and have tried to get as much data as possible from forum members on there experiences.  There have been the occasional failure that required service from Lionel, however with the number of these engines out there, the 3 or 4 major failures reported wouldn't scare me off.  

The biggest issue I would look for are reports of the speed knob being broken off on the remote.  I do not know if the knob is designed differently in the lower-end sets, but in the sets and LC+ engines I have, the knob seems to be designed well enough, and should not break unless someone really cranks hard on it past the stops.  I suppose it could be broken by a rough child, but I don't find it likely.  

I've also seen issues reported with the Thomas especially of DOA units, so I would test the engine as soon as possible, preferably in the shop before you buy it, if you are going through a local hobby shop.  

Hopefully this is of some help.  

JGL

I didn't read through all the posts here, but I can say the remote is durable and my 2 year old granddaughter, while she is no pro, has no problem with it.  I have 4 Thomas type engines, Thomas, Percy, James and Diesel.  To me, the sound system is a bit annoying, but the kids love it and that's what counts.  

The remote is the best part.  It keeps the kids away from the electric and it is very slow acting.  Sometimes my granddaughter will twist the throttle like she is winding a watch and it's no problem for these.  

Yesterday, the kids were over.  I had just finished a repair on a Williams 4-6-0 Christmas engine that I was testing on carpet central.  I had 4 box cars, 2 stackers, flat car with trailer load attached.  Percy was also on the bench so I pulled the Williams engine and hooked up Percy.  The little engine pulled the load quite well.  I wouldn't do it as a regular consist, but they are tough little buggers.

Tony 

I don't have the Thomas set, but I have bought a bunch of LC sets in the past year for the kids.  My son (3) & daughter (6) have no issues running  them with the remotes & it keeps them away from my higher end stuff while still getting to enjoy the hobby with me. I had an issue with the general set, but Lionel took care of it for me. Besides that, I haven't had any issues with the sets or remotes