What to start and with what?

[Super]

Here on the OTR family line, we primarily use Trackmaster 2 track and it works fine with Plarail and Trackmaster 1 engines

Really OTR, they have no trouble with any of the hills or pulling many train cars? I stand corrected.

Really OTR, they have no trouble with any of the hills or pulling many train cars? I stand corrected.

No operational issues that are out of the ordinary. It may be just my particular layout conditions and building preferences. Chief among these are that we don’t have a dedicated train room or play area and that my kids have A LOT of TM2 engines and track. It’s easier to run Plarail and TM1 engines on TM2 track than vice-versa. TM2 engines run OK-ish on TM1 track and are notoriously wonky on Plarail track without modification.

Generally, I don’t use any of the extreme “roller coaster ride” features. Most of my hills and bridges are built with as gentle a grade as possible. My track work is laid out to run either in large, room sized loops or long, straight runs through the house. Most of the “action” involves multiple sidings, at least one multi-track yard, curves to avoid obstacles and walkways and return loops or wyes at both ends. A typical train for me would be 3-4 passenger coaches or up to 6 freight cars, depending on the size of the cars and overall length of the train. Because of the long single track runs, freight is usually given priority over passenger service in multi-train operation.

This only applies to me. My kids are gleefully indifferent to any rules!

OTR,
do you operate locos with RC?

seems *interesting* if you do not.

If you are using a loco with a c sized battery you can use a ‘Mr Motorman’ to remotely control your train, I bought one of these but I found it to be more hassle than it was worth - it’s rarely used now. We just set them off and watch,

I don’t think anyone has mentioned yet but plarail trains and Trackmaster 1 trains can both run on the old Trackmaster 1 track and the plarail blue track. in my opinion the Trackmaster 1 track is the best looking track, although the plarail blue track works better, is most versatile and has more options regarding points & other ‘special’ track features like tunnels, elevations, auto-change points & levelcrossings. I have no experience with the Trackmaster 2 track but it looks a bit flimsy/flexible to me,

As for noisy trains, I find that the plarail locos are much quieter than their Trackmaster 1 counterparts. Trackmaster 2 trains are quiet too but don’t get good traction on the old track so the amount of rolling stock they can pull is much reduced. They are also faster. For me personally the best locos are plarail engines

Plarail/Trackmaster are great for kids my kids play with them and don’t look after them! The amount of times I’ve found a train stalled against a skirting board! Another good thing about the Trackmaster 1 / plarail is that when the loco is switched off the drive is disengaged meaning the kids can push them along. They are designed primarily for children so they are hardy!

OTR,
do you operate locos with RC?

seems *interesting* if you do not.

No. My son has a few R/C engines but even those don’t get used very often. I have considered a Mr Motorman but they’re out of stock at all the retailers I buy from and honestly, their operation is a bit clunky anyway. The track layouts I build aren’t especially complicated, being mostly large loops or long point to point runs, so R/C isn’t really necessary. I keep in mind that these are toy trains bought mostly for the amusement of my kids and I’m comfortable with those limitations.

On a bit of a tangent, my son and I repaired our track today so that he could run his new TM2 Lexi I gave him yesterday. (Poor kid is having a rough week; out of school with a chronic tonsil and sinus infection that’ll require a tonsillectomy in December. So yeah, I’ve been spoiling him a bit.) Lexi wasn’t operating well on the two sections of TM1 track I had put in, so we rebuilt those with TM2 track. He eventually had her running well and pulling about 10 empty gondolas but she was sticking, bogging down and even derailing at a wye and a couple of switch points, although the entire line is TM2 track. While I’m having a bit of trouble on that particular wye anyway, even with a couple of my Plarail C battery engines, I’ve noticed a general tendency for the TM2 engines to be finicky about the track and track conditions they run on. He eventually cut 4 cars off the train but Lexi was still having some problems.

[Super]

Poor little guy but believe me, its best for him to have a tonsillectomy at a very early age than to have one in the teens or adult as its much worse.