I bought this train for around our Christmas Tree. I have twins, a daughter and a son, and they both love watching it. They are only 18 months old, so they have knocked it off the rails tens of times, and sat on the cars accidentally a few times, but so far no damage. That said they ONLY have access to it when I'm with them, never unattended. My son likes to dance in tune to the chuffing, and my daughter likes to put her green dinosaur (Krong) on the tender (riding the boxcar in my picture) which is great for her dexterity. They both do the arm pull thing when they want to hear a whistle and go "byuuuuubyuuuuuu." Most of the time the tree and the train are behind a baby fence, and that would mean the kids would loose access to speed controls etc if not for the very nice remote control (that also has done much better than my TV remote at surviving drops so far from the kids). So that's also a very nice feature that lets the kids take turns ringing the bell, blowing the whistle, reversing at fullspeed, etc! (and this train absolutely has yet to derail on its own after a full month of this torture fest). If i had to complain about anything, it would be the lack of lighting in the caboose. The more I looked, the more it bothers me. the caboose is already painted up for lighting to prevent bleeding light, and it already has a clear dome in the top for an LED. The only thing missing is an LED (which is like $0.05 in a mass produced toy like this), some wire and a roller pickup -- which sure would be a few dollars more a unit, but if this became $5 more and had a light up caboose it would be a far better deal, IMO. If you don't care about the no lights in the caboose, then this is awesome. light up cabooses from Lionel & other O gauge manufacturers are like $10 or $20 bucks or less used all over flea markets across the globe, or $40 or $50 new here on amazon. LED kits are like $10 if you want to add some watch battery powered LEDS with a switch, or maybe a few bucks more or less to do it proper with a roller pickup truck from a donor caboose... This Engine & Tender set is built very well. I expect it will last as long as my grandfather's lionel (which is still around my fathers tree) if used only once a year. The cars are cheap, but you're basically getting a $199 (on Lionels website at time of writing) engine/tender/remote set with track + 3 cars for however much over $199.99 this is when you buy it. For me that was $40. Very good deal. When you buy other lionel cars, they will likely be heavier with sprung trucks on them, or maybe be mainly diecast metal! Be sure to put heavier cars like that in the front of the train. My kids are really enjoying it, so I might just let them consume this one via play in and over the next few years. I wasn't expecting them to care or even really notice it after day one at their age but its become the first thing the kids, my daughter in particular, want to see or interact with when they come into the living room. Every day, for the past two weeks.
