I bought this Toy State #5430 "Christmas Magic Express" secondhand 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 testrun with locomotive runs without any problems on the layout. Testrun with the complete train was no success unfortunately. The engine could not pull all cars through some of 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.
The engine does make the same sound as a vacuum cleaner...
Does somebody know if this is the sound it normally has or is there something wrong with the gears?
Outdoor testrun Christmas Holiday Express (Toy State)
