By Andrew Liszewski
Many people believe a Christmas tree is not completely decorated without a Lionel tree running around the base. Well, by a lot of people I mostly mean those working in the Lionel marketing department but their campaign seems to be working because I know quite a few people who make sure they have a miniature locomotive circling the tree every year.
To further drive home their point Lionel has released a special Christmas themed train that brings all the tackiness of the holidays down to the ‘G’ scale. At 10-inches tall Santa’s Express is definitely on the larger side but that allows it to accommodate a whole list of extra features including Christmas lights, chugging sound effects with a steam whistle and a small army of animated elves doing everything from packing presents to loading coal into a gift bag for those naughty kids. The fat man himself can also be found hanging off the back of the caboose waving to those who wonder what happened to all those reindeer?
Santa’s Express is available from the Herrington Catalog for $249.95.
We have the LGB Christmas train, which looks a little less tacky.