What to start and with what?

Hello,
I am a beginning model railroder with a desire to set up a Christmas layout. I have been looking at/working on gathering components for an On30 layout. However, I put the trains I have on a track and set some of our Chsirtmas Village stuff next to it for a scale comparison and my daughter (3.5 years old) immediately wanted to grab and play with them. Needless to say that will not work out too well!

So my wife and I are looking at alternatives; I am not one to restrict my children from handling things as I feel everyone is far better off by teaching proper handling rather than being very restrictive, but of course within reason. We want to work up to the more delicate stuff by demonstrating with more durable items first. If it matters much, we live in the US.

One is Hornby OO Thomas, which sees to lack the details of normal HO/OO/On30 stuff for far less potential for damage by handling. One concern there is play time will always need to be supervised to get rolling stock on tracks, etc. Electricity would not be mich of an issue as everything will be converted to battery power and remote control.

Another alternative is Geotrax, which is discontinued but still available in good quantity.

The final alternative, which we have looked at in stores and considered, is Trackmaster. In researching, I see Trackmaster is preceeded by plarail and there are at least two versions of Trackmaster itself with some incompatibility between the two versions.

So I am looking for advice on all the above if anyone can give it, and some answers to some questions about Trackmaster.

1. What are the differences in the original Thomas Trackmaster and the newer Fisher Price track (or were they all Fisher Price)? I see a brownish color track that seems to be original, and a grey color track that seems to be the newer Fisher Price version? Is there an article or anything anybody can point me to?

2. I understand there are also differences in the engines between new and old? I also understand the two versions of engines are not interchangeable on the different versions of track?

3. I do like the brown or grey track better than the blue Plarail, but would I be better of getting Plarail instead (for some reason)?

Any other info you all might point me at would be great, and if you can think of any blanks to fill in that I have inadvertently left out it would also be appreciated!

Thx!

Helmut

1. Some differences are..

-old track is more stable than new
-new track is a bit more flimsy than old
-new track is better for elevation
-new engines only work on new track
-old track is easier to put together

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2. Old engines are really reliable. The new engines are faster and go up steeper inclines. (Keep in mind that they only work well up hills on their own track.) That being said, if you're looking for more detailed trains, get the plarail versions of the older trains. Great runners, and are still being produced in Japan. The new engines only work on new track because they have low clearance and ride the rails low. Leokimvideo provides a great example in his review of the Gordon's hill expansion pack.

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3. IMO, you're better off with plarail because when you buy sets from new trackmaster, you cannot use very many pieces in a custom layout with using the same configuration.

thank you!

is it easy to find that review video?

can old and new stuff be made compatible?

doe the Plarail track come in any color other than blue?

Also, plarail track is still being widely produced, so it would be easier to make a layout out of that style of track.

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Yes, I can pull up the link if you would like.
You can make them all compatible if you find the right adaptors.
Certain track pieces come in different colors for plarail, such as dark blue, red, green, etc.

[Super]

You came to the right place for opinions Hlfritz and might I add welcome to BluePlasticTracks.
One of the biggest reasons for chosing either the Plarail/Tomy or Trackmaster (not the newer Trackmaster II/Revolution) trains is that they are made to play with whereas the HO, OO or On30 are made to look at. By sticking with the Plarial/Tomy/Trackmaster trains you can expect them to take some punishment and keep on going. But the biggest asset for a young child like you have is the ability of the Plarail/Tomy/Trackmaster trains to free wheel when the switch is turned off. Young children like to push these trains around much more than they like to watch them go around so their ability to just be rolled is important. Plus you don't even have to have the battery in for them to play like this. You won't get that with the new Trackmaster line of trains as the wheels won't roll whether the switch is on or off. We have many experts here on the Trackmaster tracks which the originals come in brow, tan, grey and in some cases of special sets blue or white but I will let them explain more. We even have members that like to make up Xmas layouts for either under a tree or laid out separate with a Holiday theme.

If you want to see a video of how cheap the new Trackmaster line is watch this video from our own Ucwepn

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=U-mkaOxKR-E

This video is a great comparison of the old and the new.

Thx all! A lot of good info. A couple of things I noticed and I should also add.

1. The older Trackmaster trains seem to make a lot of noise compared to the new version. Do they all make that "buzzing" sound? Do the Plarail trains make that same noise?

2. We do want remote control to emulate real trains. Does that exist with old Trackmaster? Plarail? New Trackmaster? if it does, can the engines and controller be puchased separately? Are there mods to add RC and/or sound?

3. It does look like the older trains can run on the newer track in looking at the leokim video. Is that correct? And it seems not the other way around? I.e. no new trains on the old track.

Thx again. I have a couple questions related to other plastic track, but will post a new topic for that.

[Super]

#1. A lot of the original Trackmaster and some Plarail/Tomy trains use what we call 'Flat Drives' and yes, they can be noisy. Other trains that don't use the flat drives are quieter. The one thing that Trackmaster did right with the new version is that they are quiet and this must be due, in my opinion, to fewer gears from motor to wheel.

#2. Others here know much more than I do about this subject.

#3. All these trains can run on any tracks whether they be Plarail, Tomy, Trackmaster, Wooden or Trackmaster II as they are about the same gauge. The question would be how well they run. In my opinion, not based on my own trials but from watching and hearing about others, is that even though the original Trackmaster and Tomy/Playail can ride the rails of Trackmaster II the traction is not very good and they can't maneuver the gimmick hills of the Trackmaster II tracks. The Trackmaster II tracks have the open slots that fit the cogged wheels of their engines they have making the original Tomy/Trackmaster/Plarail engine wheels slip. The same can be said in the opposite as the cogged wheels of the Trackmaster II engines slip and lose traction on the original Plarail/Tomy/Trackmaster tracks.

Here on the OTR family line, we primarily use Trackmaster 2 track and it works fine with Plarail and Trackmaster 1 engines except for things like stop tracks. Lighter trains can sometimes have trouble with the switch points/turn outs but that's a sporadic issue.

2. Remote control engines exist for mainly trackmaster old and new, not so much plarail. The RC Thomas for TM2 is included with the "Mad Dash On Sodor" set and there are various variations of RC engines for TM1. (3 speed Thomas, RC Flip Face Thomas/Hiro, 3 Speed James, etc.) All of them make sounds except for the TM2 RC engines. Hope I was able to help!