 Battery-Powered Large Scale Christmas Trains
Lots of folks who love trains and Christmas learn ways to combine the two indoors. Outdoors, however, can be tricky. Nice, new Christmas train from LGB or PIKO can cost hundreds of dollars, which might not be a problem if you're using them in a reasonably safe place like I usually do. But if you want to run them in your front yard, say, at the risk of bad weather or even vandalism, you might not want to spend that kind of money.
There are, fortunately, several inexpensive battery-powered solutions that still look good to visitors and passersby. Yes, you'll spend money on batteries, but not several hundred dollars. And most of them will run on the same track diameters as your garden trains (from LGB or PIKO, etc.). So you can use the same roadbed, and, except for Lionel's "Ready-to-Play" trains, you may even run them on your garden train's track.
About Roadbed - The plastic track that comes with battery-powered "G gauge" or "Ready-to-Play" trains will last several months outside if it's supported properly. If you're placing it on, say, a concrete patio, or even a reasonably solid wooden deck, that will be fine.
 But if you plan on placing it, say, in your front yard, you'll need something more substantial. For that sort of thing, I use a roadbed made of pressure-treated lumber that I support on posts, but which you could lay on concret blocks, or even lay on the ground and shim up with wood scraps.
You can use our instructions for making the roadbed "stringers" from our "Building a Temporary Outdoor Railroad" article. (Note: this will work for running Lionel "Ready-to-Play" trains outdoors as well, since the diameters of the track curves are the same.)
Train Choices
Your most likely choices for battery-powered Christmas trains big enough to be seen outside are trains that run on G gauge track (45mm), and Lionel's "Ready-to-Play" trains, which run on 2" track (about 51mm).
"G Gauge (45mm) - If you are going to run the trains on an existing garden railroad or if you are going to use brass 45mm track you already own, you need to look at trains that are or were available in "G gauge." These include:
- EZ-Tech G gauge trains
- New Bright trains
- Lionel's discontinued G gauge battery trains
EZ-Tech and New Bright are sold in department stores during the Christmas season (which starts before Halloween these days). Different versions are offered every year, so I can't recommend particular trains, but my experience is that EZ-Tech trains are more rugged and generally more impressive visually than New Bright.
 "New" EZ-Tech trains are produced every year, though the differences mostly involve which of the 2 or 3 of the 5-to-6 car types they will include in each set. Sometimes the names of the trains change, which chiefly involve changing the stickers on the pieces. The pieces are relatively sturdy for toy trains, and the size of some is impressive.
The big "stars" of the EZ-Tech trains (and some New Brights) are the animation cars, with elf figures and snowmen moving as the train travels. Toy-like they may be, but they catch people's attention.
We describe the individual pieces of rolling stock you're likely to find in EZ-Tech Christmas train sets in our EZ-Tech G-Gauge Christmas Trains" article.
 Lionel's "G Gauge" battery trains have been replaced by "Ready-to-Play" trains, which run on 2" track. However, if you can track down the G gauge version, they're pretty solid, and they have an additional, battery-saving feature: they shut off automatically if you stop the train and don't push any buttons on the remote for a while.
Only a few of the Lionel G Gauge Christmas trains have animated cars, but they came in a wide variety of colors and names, including Frosty the Snowman, A Christmas Story, the Polar Express, the Hogwarts Express, and others. The 4-4-0 that pulled most of the Christmas-themed trains and the 4-6-0 that pulled the Hogwarts Express are pretty solid and reliable. The 2-8-4 that pulls the Polar Express set is solid, but, with the batteries in the tender, occasionally pulls "wheelies" on the curves (a problem that the "Ready-to-Play" 2-8-4 solved by putting the batteries in the locomotive).
Note: We have an article profiling Lionel's battery-powered trains in general here.
Lionel "Ready-to-Play" Trains - These are mostly re-engineered versions of the "G gauge" battery trains, though there are a few new products, like a Thomas the Tank set and a diesel-pulled passenger set. The track ovals use the same diameter track, so if you don't necessarily need to use 45mm ("G gauge") track at this time, you can still build a supportive roadbed for "Ready-to-Play" track and replace the track with 45mm track later on the same roadbed.
Again, only a few of the "Ready-to-Play" trains have animation, though the currently-made Frozen set includes a spinning Olaf that delights young Frozen fans.
So far, Lionel has been introducing a new set every year, and they don't always keep the old sets going. So if you love, say, "John Deere," and you see a "John Deere" set, don't assume you can pick it up next year.
Plastic Track Issues - Although all "G gauge" trains run on 45mm track by default, the track that comes with them is not necessarily interchangeable. So if you set up an oval for a Lionel "G" train to run on, your EZ-Tech train will run just fine on it. BUT you can't expand your Lionel "G" track setup by adding EZ-Tech track or vice-versa. The track pieces don't attach to each other the same way. I run these mostly on brass track I used on garden railroad clinics, so that's not an issue for me.
One of the big downsides of "Ready-to-Play" sets is that nobody else is making 2"-gauge track, so if you want to buy more track, you have to spend too much to get it from the Lionel dealers. In my case, I've picked up most of the "Ready-to-Play" sets I've tested used from train shows, garage sales, auction sites, etc. So while I've gotten a locomotive or two that weren't optimal that way, I have accumulated more "RTP" track than I'll likely ever need.
Battery Warnings - If you are checking out one of these used (or if you get one cheap online) be certain to check the battery compartment immediately. Used battery-powered locomotives almost always contain dead or dying batteries, and you may have to clean the acid out of the battery compartment or even sand corrosion off the contacts. That said, permanent damage is rare, but it does happen.
If you buy a new set, make certain you remove the batteries every time you put the train away. Yes, I know that's a hassle, but lots of folks leave the batteries in thinking they'll run the train again soon.
For More Information
Because we've broken our information about these trains up into many small articles and videos, we're listing them here to make them easier to find.
Note About Video Resolution: Most of the videos were recorded in HD, so when you watch them, Watch them full-screen, and look for the letters HD on the little gear. If "HD" isn't there, click on the gear and select HD. The "default" and "auto settings" are often much lower resolution.
EZ-Tech Christmas Train Articles and Videos
Lionel G-Gauge and Ready-to-Play Battery Powered Christmas Trains
Conclusion
Yes, it may seem as though there are a lot of "caveats" to choosing a battery-powered train for a Christmas display, but the other "side" is that many of them are fun to run and to watch. And you can let visitors and children run them without fear of having a $400 train destroyed. (Or vandalized or stolen.)
And many of them have cheerful features you don't see on model trains, even Christmas-themed model trains.
Here's hoping that we've given you some ideas for a rewarding holiday season.
- Paul
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