Marooned

Will the fun never end at the Dell’Aringa household? Not if I have anything to do with it! Yesterday we got a wonderful package at the door: A Lionel Hogwart’s Express train! Whoo hoo! How did this happen, you ask? Well, as you know I finally decided to read the series – along with my two daughters. We are all currently on book four and really enjoying the series. My daughters, well – maybe they are enjoying it a little TOO much!

Anyway, I’ve had this N-scale train for years (since about 2001) that we would set up at Christmas. Nice train, high quality, but small and it didn’t run all that well on the bumpy floor under the tree. Knowing the girls would love a Hogwart’s train (and knowing I would too) I decided to sell a few things to see if I could raise the money. Sure enough, I was able to sell my train, along with my electric guitar/amp combo I no longer use. The result – well, see below. You can tell that the girls were, well, a little excited.

The train box is opened for the first time

My daughters go bat-crazy over the train

All set up and running under the tree

I’m definitely impressed with the train, it looks great. While running, the cars are all lit up (along with the engine light) and it has the smoke and even a whistle. Certainly it’s not quite the craftsmanship of the old days (lots of plastic abounds) but it’s pretty well put together.

Although I had trains when I was a kid, this is my first ever Lionel set, so I’m pretty excited. Gotta go, I’ve got a train to catch!