A reader wites:
Can you use battery operated trains for gardens trains or is electric better?
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Thank for getting in touch. Most garden trains are made to run on track power. At the moment, only cheap trains like New-Brite come set up for battery power (that's to save the cost of power supplies and metal track). If you want to got sturdy, well-made garden trains, you'll probably wind up starting with something that is track-powered. And later on you can convert to a battery/Remote control setup if you want. But it will add some cost, due to the cost of a decent remote control transmitter and receiver, and a rechargeable battery that won't explode in your train.
This may change eventually, as some manufacturers are working toward battery power, but so at the moment your choices for battery power are either real cheap or fairly expensive, and your choices for track power include everything in between.