I bought this Toy State #5430 "Christmas Magic Express" secondhand very cheap taking the risk it won't work. I was aware the quality of these sets is not very good but I figured I could always chop the engine and place a LGB or Playmobil motorblock in it or use the cars with another engine.
The wheelbase fits the tracks perfectly. The engine runs on 4x C-type 1,5 volts batteries (6 volts total). The dining car and the pumpcar have a light that is powered by a 1,5 volts AA type battery. The tender can play 19 Christmas tunes (but I do not recommend it...)
During the first test run the locomotive runs without any problems solo on the layout. I like the speed, not too fast at all.
But the engine does make the same sound as a small vacuum cleaner... You can hear it in the video below.
Does somebody know if this is the sound these sets normally have or is there something wrong with the gears?
Running the complete train was no success btw. The engine simply could not pull all cars through the curves. The train gets stuck. This is most likely caused by the two animated cars; the moving bear conductor and the pumping toy soldier. The animated figures are connected to the axles of the cars to make them move. This is causing resistance on the axles and the wheels start to brake because of this. Also, both these cars seems to have a slight bit wider wheelbase on the axles driving the animated figures. The wheels do not run as freely as the other cars. It's fixable I believe.
The wheelbase fits the tracks perfectly. The engine runs on 4x C-type 1,5 volts batteries (6 volts total). The dining car and the pumpcar have a light that is powered by a 1,5 volts AA type battery. The tender can play 19 Christmas tunes (but I do not recommend it...)
During the first test run the locomotive runs without any problems solo on the layout. I like the speed, not too fast at all.
But the engine does make the same sound as a small vacuum cleaner... You can hear it in the video below.
Does somebody know if this is the sound these sets normally have or is there something wrong with the gears?
Running the complete train was no success btw. The engine simply could not pull all cars through the curves. The train gets stuck. This is most likely caused by the two animated cars; the moving bear conductor and the pumping toy soldier. The animated figures are connected to the axles of the cars to make them move. This is causing resistance on the axles and the wheels start to brake because of this. Also, both these cars seems to have a slight bit wider wheelbase on the axles driving the animated figures. The wheels do not run as freely as the other cars. It's fixable I believe.
-
2
- Show all
