Harry Potter
The Hogwarts Express is a magical train in the Harry Potter series of children's books, and has been popularized in the feature films based on the books. Several model trains have been made of the Hogwarts Express. Hornby makes an OO-gauge version, though this is a "Castle Class" locomotive, as opposed to the "Hall Class" locomotive portrayed in the films. Marklin train sets produces a three-rail HO-gauge version, and a two-rail HO/OO gauge has been produced by Bachmann train sets. Lego came out with a variety of L-gauge versions, but all have been discontinued. Finally, Lionel train sets has recently released an O-gauge version, available in the 2007 catalogue.
The Polar Express
The Polar Express is a popular children's book that was adapted into a feature film. BRIO Train sets version of the Polar Express train set is designed in a figure-eight layout. The train set features the home of the little boy portrayed in the book, as well as the North Pole and a mountain tunnel. A bell sounds as the wooden train - which is comprised of an toy engine, a tender car, and a passenger car - passes the signal. The set also includes homes and posable boy and conductor figures. Highly detailed and reasonably priced, Lionel's Polar Express train set is a realistic reproduction of the train in the book and the film. The coach and the observation-car window silhouettes depict scenes from the film, and the set also includes four characters, a FasTrack oval track, and a transformer.
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Thomas the Train Sets
Thomas the Train is an anthropomorphic tank locomotive from the Thomas the Train Engine books, film, and television series. There are several versions of Thomas the Train toy sets: "Take Along Thomas," which has gray tracks; Tomy's battery-operated engine, which comes with blue tracks; ELC's wooden engines, which come with wooden rails and roads; Lionel's O-gauge electrical railway; Hornby's and Bachmann's HO/OO-gauge electric railways; Tomix's N-gauge electric railway; and Lego's Thomas the Train engines and tracks.
John Deere
Modeled after the well-known brand of farming equipment, Athearn's HO-gauge electric train set includes, pre-assembled, an F7A locomotive with dual flywheels, a grain car, a flatcar with two tractors, a tank car, and a caboose, as well as easy-to-assemble rail-bed tracks. In addition, the set includes finely tooled end rails and ladders, clear-glazed windows on the cars, and rolling stock with automatic couplers and hobby-profile wheel sets.
