To be fair, if you talk about ertl without talking about the thomas stuff, you ain't said enough. There's a reason they're still saught after even though they're 30+ year old children's toys.
For those asking "why didn't he mention Ertl Thomas?" He says at 6:29, "this set was the only time that Ertl would release anything train related *in this line* " He is referring to Ertl Farm Country. Ertl Farm Country and Thomas and Friends are two seperate things. Stop complaining.
Growing up as a kid in rural towns, this was one of the coolest things a train kid could have...or one of Athearn's John Deere train sets. Fun fact: Ertl also sold HO scale rolling stock with novel removable loads (as in the whole floor/deck could be unscrewed and swapped with one that has a load).
This kinda reminds me of a toy train set my grandma got me (bless her credit card-indebted soul) from Toys-R-Us back in, like, 2004. I totally forget what the line was called, but I think it also had similar expandability issues. It might also just be a hazy childhood memory, because I cannot recall many details about it.
It would have been fantastic if they included a grain hopper or livestock car in this set, you could put cows in the livestock car and if you had the grain elevator you could unload you grain hopper. Or track packs and maybe a small town station. would have been great.
Since this set is compatible with American Flyer S gauge trains, you could use an American Flyer S gauge operating cattle car. The AF cattle car & stockyard used a vibrator mechanism (with directional fibers under the bases the cows feet were on) to enable loading & unloading the cattle into the stockyard or loading back into the car. American Flyer also made an operating passenger car & commuter station using the same mechanism (with similar bases under the passenger's feet). If you wanted some real hilarity, you could have the passengers troop into the cattle car, or the cows unload onto the passenger platform! 🤣
They could have also had like a track expansion pack and maybe some additional Rolling Stock you can assemble and add to the train but sadly they never happened but it would have been cool though
You got my attention when you mentioned the set was built to 1/64 scale,& confirmed it when you showed it running on an American Flyer layouy next to the beautiful AF Missouri Pacific streamlined passenger train. 😊
okay okay hey. I HAD THIS AS A KID!! and I LOVED it because to me it was the most realistic toy train i had had to date. i still think about it from time to time, then i see this in my feed! wow
@@BIG_RED_PRODUCTIONS_official I'd hardly call ERTL's Thomas line "flawless"; it had its share of issues; durability, proportions, and a coupling system where engines could pull rolling stock but not other engines (though this was somewhat rectified at the tail end of its lifespan).
Strange that they went with the Soo Line out of all railroads for this set. I guess it makes sense since the Soo was a very agricultural-focused railroad? The red scheme never gets enough love.
The nearest soo line served would have been in dubuque. In the 1994 time frame, dyersville would have been served by the chicago central & pacific, and later Candian National. At least they did a midwestern road though.@@modelrailpreservation
@@andrewebensberger235 True. I grew up in Davenport, IA, which was Soo Line territory (That and the Iowa Interstate, and, at the time the DRI LIne), I would have been 10 years old in '94. Dad took me to Dubuque after report cards came from school. Two rides on the Fenelon Place Elevator for every A, one ride for every B. Plus a stopover in Dyersville for some inexpensive Ertl toys. Usually we could get ones that the box was damaged, and as a kid back then, I didn't care if the box was torn! Soo Line stands out in my memory far more than the Chicago Central, though I do remember seeing some of their locos.
I found the caboose from this set at the TCA meet in York, PA, for a quarter. Missing trucks, but interior parts were inside. I bought it, and used the interior pieces to interior detail a friend's American Flyer Reading caboose. Turned out nice.
They should have considered molding the boxcar in brown plastic since Soo Line had brown boxcars with white lettering. Or included stickers for Conrail!
ERTL also made HO Scale products. They made 1910's era box cars, flat cars, gondolas, and loads you could haul. Their quality was quite poor and flimsy though. They also made buildings like a station, barn, warehouse, farm house, mill, and farm vehicles for HO too. Don't know their quality as I never used them but I would trust them over their rolling stock.
I have mine buried in storage. Mine was like the box and had the White boxcar blue roof. My Building was also blue with a white roof. Every Thing else is the same as yours.
Will you be interested in taking a look at the 奥乐仿真火车模型 Chinese range of toy trains? They have quite an extensive selection including some typical Chinese trains and a Bavarian steam loco with a smoke generator. Maybe it can rival Plarail on the tier list?
Huh, somehow I missed this set. Despite it being battery, and the other issues you pointed out, it actually seems to run at a reasonable speed. I expected it to be like the old Lionel where it ran at mach 3 around the track. The caboose has a better interior than some other models do.
Very interesting that this exists, as Ertl had purchased model car kit company AMT 11 years prior. I actually have 2 AMT/Ertl kits: A 1977 Ford Cruising Van and a Supernatural branded 1967 Chevy Impala.
Really interesting set. I had the Ertl farm set when I was a kid but never knew about this set. Not a complaint, but I think it's odd that Ertl had the rights to make so many 1:64 scale tractors and they chose to make... those... plastic tractors to put on the flat car?? So weird.
He is referring to the Ertl Farm Country line. Ertl didn't make any of trains for the Ertl Farm Country line. You are thinking of Thomad and Friends. Two seperate Ertl ranges
I didn't know ERTL made this set, or that it even existed at all, until seeing this video. The main train toys I know of ERTL making are their Thomas & Friends merchandise. Also, you know what toy train line I really think you should take a look at? Power Trains and Power Trains 2.0 by Jakks Pacific!
Being a big fan of the Soo Line , i'd LOVE to have this set ! It's "toy-like" features make it even More endearing, in my eyes 👍 i've got an old Burger King "Anastasia" promo-set that's almost Perfect TT Scale ... sometimes these TOY sets can be super Cool 👌
Great video, man! Keep up the good work. It's a shame we didn't get more stuff in "hot wheels" scale. I had the Hot Wheels Power Express set growing up. I've been looking for a replacement on Ebay, but haven't found one where the condition and price match up with what I'm comfortable paying.
When I look it up about the (Real) 4403 on RR Picture Archives, what’s really confuses they were a few of the Ex-SOO Line Engines were on the same number. I don’t know if it’s currently operational it says they now active on service on Canadian Pacific? (I guess)💧
Thanks for this video! I didn’t know where this came from, but I got the locomotive and crossing together at Goodwill for a while back, and decided since it was like two dollars, I’d grab it for a small display piece. The locomotive still works, but the one of the crossing guards are gone, and the other had its gate missing. They also seem to be colored gray in this video, whereas mine are painted black. Mine also didn’t have stickers applied.
@strasburgrailfan90 They did. They made a set of die-cast train cars based on Looney Tunes in 1989. They were different from the Thomas toys, as they were bigger and had the character figures protrude from the train cars, but they still used a hook-and-eye system, though it was different from Thomas' as well. The train cars consisted of Bugs Bunny in the engine, Foghorn Leghorn in the tender, Daffy Duck in the passenger coach, Elmer Fudd in the box car, Yosemite Sam in the oil tanker, and Sylvester and Tweety in the caboose. ERTL would later recycle the basis of these train cars for ones based on Lamb Chop (as Lamb Chop's Play-Along aired alongside Shining Time Station on PBS in the 90's) and McDonald's.
It wasnt made for model railroaders actually was made for toy farmers .....alot of people make farm layouts as well as 1-64th scale trucking of the ertle line up....
@@MilwaukeeF40C a lot of toy farmers never really cared...my uncle and his friends would have meets like model train clubs, I never really understood it ...he had like 15 foot by 8 foot table but they did mix scales, as long as it was close....it's a different breed than model railroaders
Have you placed the Ertl buildings side by side with Plasticville buildings and see if they look close in scale? What opinion of yours and Seymour Salvage would you guys have of using the set as part of a Christmas tree layout? I wonder if they considered making a weight-activated mechanism for the semaphores like the one that Lionel offered in the early 1970s? You could always kit-bash the "freight station" to make it more prototypical.
@@cobramerciless - The Plasticville buildings were sized larger than S gauge but small than O gauge, so they could be used with either. I remember seeing the box for the barn back in the 1970s that had near the top "O-S scale".
As an avid farm toy collector growing up I wanted this set so bad when I was a kid... but looking at this, it's pretty much trash compared to all of their other sets. It looked way cooler in the catalogue
You forgot to mention that ERTL also made Thomas the Tank Engine diecast trains from 1984 until 2004 when the range got discontinued and replaced by Take Along. The trains are some of the most sought-after pieces of Thomas merch and are probably collectible nowadays.
