Bachmann Trains Santa Fe Flyer Ready-to-Run HO Scale Train Set

Reader Reviews
The main reason for buying the Santa Fe Flyer train set was to get a christmas present for my "old man", who loves trains with the Santa Fe logo on it. To make him happy I decided to get a locomotive as well as a freight car with the Santa Fe logo on it and place both on a track in a nice display box.Coincidentally, as I browsed through the toys section of my local supermarket, I ran into the Santa Fe Flyer train set from Bachmann. It comes with the needed Santa Fe locomotive as well as three freight cars. So instead of spending around 60 US$ (MSRP according to Bachmann's website) for the locomotive itself, I got away with only a portion of it.Needless to say I had to try out the train set, even though the locomotive will be a display item only. After reading the posted reviews on Amazon I was frightened to do so, but got pleasantly surprised. The set comes with an easy to read, step by step manual. Putting together the so called E-Z track system was actually easy, even though it takes some patience to do so (it gets you a 36" circle). It also takes a little bit to get the locomotive and the freight cars onto the rails, but this is a very detailed toy in a small scale and not a Tonka truck. Power comes via the included speed controller, which is connected to the rails via plug-in wire (cannot be mixed up). The locomotive runs very smoothly, even at a slow speed. The knuckle couplers make adding cars to the locomotive/train an easy task. All in all, this set comes with all you need to get started and the items are of a very good quality.On the package it recommends an age of 8 years or older. This is o.k. if your kid is patient enough to deal with something detailed and delicate like this. Otherwise you might have to help a little bit.Considering the price of it (I paid only 30 US$), the set is a great deal. Especially if you want to find out if your kid is into model railroad as a hobby. And if not, use the set for yourself, buy additional equipment and turn your attic into a big HO scale train scene. ;-)