Lionel's Battery-Powered Holiday Trains

Lionel has loaned its name to battery-powered Christmas trains in the past, including at least one set that was obviously made by Scientific Toys/Ez-Tek

But around 2010, Lionel got a little more serious about making battery-powered trains that were big and rugged enough to be used around Christmas trees. They ran on 45mm track, about 1 3/4". That's the track that garden railroaders use to run trains like LGB outdoors, sometimes called "G gauge" track. In fact, the first generation of these advertised themselves as "G Gauge" prominently on the box. Many garden railroaders bought these for visiting kids to run, rather than risking expensive models. They are also useful for adding some "Christmas cheer" inexpensively to your railroad.

The current offerings now run on 2" track, which Lionel disingenuously calls "Ready to Play." They are mostly made from the same molds, however, and share many of the same features. So when we discuss trains pulled, say, Lionel's battery-powered 4-4-0 "General," we'll discuss both the "G gauge" and "Ready to Play" trains in the same article.

Both generations of these trains offer many versions, and they hold up as well as any other line of battery-powered trains and better than most.

A quick comparison:

• Lionel's Battery-Powered G-Gauge Trains - These are discontinued but they still come available on auction sites, etc. They are rugged and reasonably reliable (meaning they typically last a few seasons, as long as you don't store them in a hot attic or such). These will all run on a garden railroad, as long as the track is smooth and level. Even if you don't have a permanent garden railroad, it's nice to know that there are many sources of G Gauge trains and track.

  For a very detailed review/analysis of these trains, check out our article "Lionel's toy 'G' Trains."

• Lionel's Battery-Powered "Ready-to-Play" Trains - These are pretty much the same trains, but their wheelbase has been widened to run on 2" track that nobody else sells. Yes, that's a marketing ploy to keep customers from mixing in trains from other vendors. But, like their predecessors, they are rugged and reasonably reliable. They also have some improvements over the G Gauge sets, including:
  • The batteries are in the locomotive instead of the tender, so the locomotive is more likely to stay on the track and may be able to pull another car.

  • The remotes sync to the individual trains, so you can run multiple trains at a time without interfering with each other.

  To be as transparent as possible, all of the trains I have described above are toys, and few of them will last more than a few seasons. None of them have customer service departments worthy of the name "service." On the other hand, even with prices rising they cost much less than similarly sized track-powered train sets. In the worst case, if you buy one and it gets damaged in the first year, you can always try to buy another one in the after-Christmas sales. Which will give you at least one more car and lots of extra track.

Battery Power

You can even take the G gauge versions to other people's garden railroads and run without worrying about what kind of power and control system they have.

All of the trains in this class so far take six C cells. The remotes for the "G gauge" trains take two AA batteries, and the remotes for the "Ready to Play" trains take 3 AAA batteries.

Always buy alkaline batteries. And if you're going to have these running a while, consider buying two sets of the C cells (the batteries in the remotes last longer).

Finally, many of the battery-powered trains I see in non-working condition at flea markets, garage sales, etc. were damaged by leaking batteries. ALWAYS take the batteries out of the train and the remote when you put it away, even if you plan to get it out again in a few days.

Remote Control and Sound

The remotes look much the same between the two generations, but the antenna is hidden in the "Ready to Play" sets. (Probably too many people reported breaking the antenna in the first generation sets.)

The "G gauge" locomotives have an automatic time-out circuit that shuts the train off if the remote has been turned off for ten minutes - a nice battery-saving feature. The "Ready to Play" locomotives will beep loudly if the remote is shut off, reminding you to turn the locomotive off manually.

Range of Operation - When a "G gauge" locomotive gets out of range (about 15 feet in my back yard), it slows, stops, and goes into "blow-down" mode. The "Ready to Play" equivalent might start beeping. So on a really big loop of track, you have to walk around with the train. If kids are operating the train, they don't mind walking around with it anyway.

Momentum - One unique feature of the "G gauge" trains is that they have "momentum." That is, when you turn the dial to go forward or backward, it takes them several seconds to get up to speed. When you want to stop them, it takes them several seconds to stop. That was a feature that model train operators like, but it confused everyone else, so they took it out of the "Ready to Play" sets.

Independent Operation - The "G gauge" sets all used the same remote control frequencies and overlapping codes so you couldn't operate two of them within, say 20' of each other. But the "Ready to Play" locomotives link to their remotes, so you can operate two or three sets in the same location. (I've never tried more than three.)

Sounds - The locomotives have a "white-noise" chuffing sound (similar to Bachmann Big Haulers) that turns into a "blow down" sound when the train stops, not a bad feature either. Each remote has at least a bell and whistle button. Some of the trains come with a separate button with notes on it. The sound it makes depends on the train. For example, on the Polar Express, the button summons Tom Hanks' voice saying "All Aboard!" On the "G gauge" Christmas Memories train, the button starts the train playing Christmas carols.

Available Locomotives

Each train in this class is pulled by one of two locomotives:

• A Berkshire-inspired locomotive with a 2-8-2 wheel arrangment. This was introduced for the Polar Express set, the first set made in this class. Lionel now uses it in other sets as well, including Christmas and non-Christmas sets.

  I have photos and notes to share about the Berkshire-drawn Christmas trains as well, so stay tuned. In the meantime, our article "Lionel's toy 'G' Trains." has many links to content about this class of train.

• A 4-4-0 "old-timey" locomotive that most Lionel fans call "the General." This generally pulls freight cars and has been painted in many different versions, although Christmas and kid-oriented themes predominate.

  The "Ready-to-Play" versions run very reliably. So do the discontinued "G gauge" versions when you can find them in operating condition. In fact, I think those run more reliably than the other battery-powered Lionel "G gauge" trains.

  For a detailed description and review of Lionel's battery-powered "General" locomotives and the trains they have pulled, please click on the photo to the right. That article also has links to videos that show those trains being compared and running outdoors.

I am and will be reviewing the Lionel battery-powered Christmas trains according to which locomotive is pulling them, because the differences otherwise are mostly down to paint jobs and track width.

Honorable Mentions - In addition, there are two "honorable mentions," trains that aren't strictly for Christmas, but which I set out for young holiday visitors:

• Lionel's Thomas the Tank "Ready to Play" train. Lionel never made a battery-powered G-gauge version of this, but the "Ready to Play" set is delightful. It's sturdy enough for most children over the age of 5 to handle and for children as young as three to operate with the remote. I'll post a review and photos of this train when I get a chance.

• Lionel's battery-powered Hogwarts Express trains. They made this in "G gauge," and now they're making it in a "Ready-to-Play" version. The main difference is which track they run on - almost everything else is identical. I have an article describing the differences in more detail here.

  For myself, I've discovered that the older, "G gauge" (#7-11080) version runs very well on my garden railroad track, even if it's a little small for my buildings and accessories.

  In addition, a reader has determined that if you have a file and a dremel, it's possible to convert the "Ready-to-Play" set to G gauge. Click on either of the little pictures above right to see articles about those topics.

Test Early

Whatever you buy. be sure and try it out as soon as you get it. Don't wait until a week before Christmas to learn that you made a mistake or the product was damaged in shipment. And if you do that, please don't contact me and ask me to "save Christmas" for you. Yes, I get lots of those contacts every year, which explains why I took my phone number off the site.

And after you've tested it, take the batteries out until you plan to set it up for Christmas.

Next Steps

Finally, if you have any questions, testimonials, recommendations, or photographs you'd like to share with other readers, please contact me. In the meantime, may your holidays and all of the days in your life be blessed!

Paul D. Race, Proprietor

For More Information

Note About Video Resolution: Most of the videos were recorded in HD, so when you watch them, Watch them full-screen, and look for the letters HD on the little gear. If "HD" isn't there, click on the gear and select HD. The "default" and "auto settings" are often much lower resolution.

EZ-Tech Christmas Train Articles and Videos

• EZ-Tech Christmas Trains - Overview and locomotive descriptions
• EZ-Tech Christmas Cars - Different cars you might find in different sets
• Video - EZ-Tech Action Cars on a Garden Railroad. I put action cars from different Christmas sets together in one train and ran it on my raised platform railroad, so you could see them in, er, action. 1.5 minutes.
• EZ-Tech Disney World Trains - A fun variant of these sets, including delightful observation coaches.
• Video - Disney World Train on our Garden Railroad. It's short but show how the train looks running on an existing garden railroad. 27 seconds.

Lionel G-Gauge and Ready-to-Play Battery Powered Christmas Trains

• Lionel's Battery-Powered Holiday Trains. An overview.
• Lionel's Battery-Powered General and its Christmas Trains. Reviews one of the most reliable locomotives of this line.
• Video - Lionel's G-gauge General on our Garden Railroad - Pulling a train on our raised platform garden railroad, first with train sounds, then with Christmas songs. 1 minute.
• Video - Lionel's Gauge 2 North Pole Central with Carols - Lionel's Ready-to-Play General pulling a Christmas train on a temporary railroad. 1.5 minutes
• Video - Lionel's Battery-Powered General and its Christmas Trains - A detailed live comparison of both the G-gauge and Ready-to-Play Generals. 32 minutes.
• Video - Lionel Lines' Scientific Toys/Ez-Tec Battery-Powered Christmas Train (1980s) - Before making their own line of battery-powered G gauge trains, Lionel commissioned EZ-Tech to make a Christmas train with Lionel's name on it. 1.4 minutes.
• Lionel's® Toy "G Gauge" Trains. Reviews the Lionel's original line of G-gauge battery-powered trains, now discontinued, but still available on used markets. Though the article focuses on the non-Christmas trains, the information applies to the Christmas trains as well.