man, we've be eating well with trains as of late

now this? as much as I never did have the set, still very much remember and love it
second hand nostalgia if you would

I don’t know why, but the inclusion of “Deluxe” in the name makes me think of The Jeffersons, but this does not look anything like the sort of train they’d be likely to use.

I'll admit that I never really saw the point of a radio-controlled train. I mean, what can you tell it to do besides go forward or back?

We so need the dedicated trains theme back, the City ones are peak but we want more than a couple of releases every couple of years.

https://brickset.com/minifigs/cty0079/overalls-with-safety-stripe-orange-orange-legs-red-construction-helmet-smirk-and-stubble-beard That's the same dude who has fallen into the river in LEGO City!

@TheOtherMike said:
"I'll admit that I never really saw the point of a radio-controlled train. I mean, what can you tell it to do besides go forward or back?"

The point was it eliminated the need to plug the toy into the wall. The problems were twofold. The RC train motor was tested by Philo to be both the most power-hungry _and_ the least powerful of all the train motors, so even when you try to use the motor with some other control system, it's garbage. And the RC control system required constant line of sight, which basically makes it useful for a proper layout with, you know, buildings. We've had members bring some of the RC trains to shows to run, but they've always been converted over to use either 9v or PF motors.

Didn't get this one ("Dark Age":)); did get the 2014 edition, and I'm glad I did.:)

@PurpleDave said:
" @TheOtherMike said:
"I'll admit that I never really saw the point of a radio-controlled train. I mean, what can you tell it to do besides go forward or back?"

The point was it eliminated the need to plug the toy into the wall. The problems were twofold. The RC train motor was tested by Philo to be both the most power-hungry _and_ the least powerful of all the train motors, so even when you try to use the motor with some other control system, it's garbage. And the RC control system required constant line of sight, which basically makes it useful for a proper layout with, you know, buildings. We've had members bring some of the RC trains to shows to run, but they've always been converted over to use either 9v or PF motors."

Who is this Philo person? I think you meant to say useless for a proper layout.

I'll agree the radio controlled trains were pretty bad especially compared to the 9V they replaced. That's why I only own one of each of the cargo and passenger trains, I was not impressed.

@oldtodd33 said:
" @TheOtherMike said:
"I'll admit that I never really saw the point of a radio-controlled train. I mean, what can you tell it to do besides go forward or back?"

What can you do with any train but tell it to go forward or backward?"

That was my point. I just don't see the point in making something that can't be steered radio-controlled.

This one has to be my favourite from all the City cargo trains. Besides the design, the inclusion of four wagons certainly makes it seem more deluxe, if ye will. :p

Got this as part of one of the super sets. Nice train.

Ah yes, the two-set RC train theme. It was a stopgap that only existed because Power Functions wasn't ready to go yet, after 9V was getting taken off the kids market due to concerns about powering things from the wall around children. (Which didn't seem to be a cause for concern in 1991 when 9V premiered or even the 80's with the higher voltage of 12V!) The encased magnets (the first variety) were also crap.... though they eventually fixed that issue circa 2010, while the motors were absolutely awful. Add into that you can't use this on big layouts (needs line of sight), and you start to wonder why they even bothered with RC trains at all!

A nostalgic one today! This was City's first line of trains and this was City's first freight train. Cool inclusions were the flatbed with crane and the assortment of different types of cargo cars. And a truck AND forklift to haul stuff off-site. And plenty of cargo too! Very complete as a playset!

The green locomotive and the green car at the end made it feel complete as a train and the colors made it stand out from what came before too!

@oldtodd33 said:
"Who is this Philo person?"

Philippe “Philo” Hurbain benchmarks LEGO motors so you can figure out which ones are worth using:

https://www.philohome.com/

"I think you meant to say useless for a proper layout."

Yeah. I’m going to blame that on Apple Autoincorrect trying to be “useful”.

IMO best Lego City era.

@PurpleDave said:
[[ @oldtodd33 said:
[[[[I think you meant to say useless for a proper layout.]]

Yeah. I’m going to blame that on Apple Autoincorrect trying to be “useful”.]]

There's a reason I call it "autocorrupt" and keep it turned off.]]

@Formendacil said:
" @oldtodd33 said:
"Who is this Philo person?"

First century Jewish philosopher in Alexandria.

Didn't know he was into LEGO."

You would be surprised just how many people have a secret LEGO hobby! Not that I would know, practically no one around me is interested.

Because of how low quality images were at the time, coming in tiny pamphlets advertising other City sets, I always visualised the controller as having two yellow joysticks sticking up.

Something that’s always fascinated me about this brief period of trains and goes along with the story that these were rushed out to tide people over until power functions, the controller itself seems to just be a reshelled version of one from a duplo set released 6 years earlier: https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=dupcontrol&name=Duplo,%20Toolo%20Remote%20Control%20Unit%20for%20RC%20Dozer%20(2949)&category=%5BDUPLO,%20Toolo%5DT=C&C=5

@TotalMaddness:
I’m unclear if the RC train system was rushed out as an interim system, or if they just go caught flat-footed when it bombed. I believe RC followed right on the heels of 9v being retired, but there was a gap between RC and PF that could be accounted for with an unplanned ground up redesign.

For what it is, this and its passenger train counterpart are decent trains. Motor, line-of-sight and 1st gen enclosed magnet coupler issues aside, they are fun trains that get set up around the Christmas tree every year along with some PF and PU trains. My nephew loves playing with all of them. Let’s not forget that these were not designed to be used on giant display layouts. They were designed to be used with the set of tracks that they came with as well as maybe a slightly larger layout that a child might have with extra track purchased separately or from other train sets.

Whether or not RC trains were meant to be the successor to 9V or not I don’t know. But I imagine that there was a decent amount of cost associated with bringing the system to market. To simply do so as a stopgap measure before bringing PF to market seems unlikely, but again I don’t know. I’d think that it was initially meant to be the permanent replacement for 9V, at least for trains, but didn’t do well enough to continue with further sets. Or maybe TLG just received too much negative feedback. If so, then maybe they pivoted to include train motors and battery boxes into the PF system, either from the beginning or as an afterthought. All pure speculation, as I have no inside knowledge of decisions or timing of either system.

Whatever the case, the RC trains are fun for what they are. I purchased both as I was coming out of my dark ages. I was also lucky enough to be able pick up the last of the 9V sets while they were still available direct from TLG, or still affordable on the secondary market, while they were being phased out. I never had any LEGO trains as a kid, but always wanted them. I’ve since made up for that.