My 5258 train arrived yesterday. So here's a few pictures via Flickr of the unboxing and comments.
The box, lid flips up, does not come off and it opens "upside down" - the "hinge" is at the bottom where the red stripe with writing is.
Box sides, no nice dioramas here.
Inside the box, some track, cargo boxes, a few bags, and another box:
The contents:
Contains 12 curved tracks
2 straight tracks
3 box cars without lids
2 bottom side panels for engine
14 track clips (one bag contains 12 clips)
2 klickies in one bag
a bag containing the instruction manual, decals, engine roof, and latches for the flatcar.
a bag containing 3 cargo box lids, 2 clips for the straight tracks, 2 couplers for the engine, 4 buffer stops for the engine and a piece for the engine roof.
Opening the next box we see the RC controller at the top, the engine and flatcar. Note that this box did not fare to well on it's voyage from the Eastern US to the West Coast. Notice the coupler to the left that came off the flatcar.
Overall, I have to say, I'm a bit disappointing in the packaging. All the other RC trains have much nicer packaging with fixed compartments to hold everything and lids that come off. Makes me yean for the days where trains where packed custom styrofoam containers inside the box.
The engine as it comes right out of the box:
Another look at the engine: The battery pack is contained at the top under the screw. It takes six AA sized batteries. No batteries come with the train, so you'll want some on hand.
Opening the first bag we have the latches for the flatcar, the instruction manual (slightly bent because it was not in the smaller box), the decals, engine roof, and product pamphlet.
The bottom sides of the engine are not attached. You get to attach them. These seem rather permanent once you attach them. I'm surprised they did not come attached.
Engine with sides attached:
Opening another bag, we get the lids to the cargo boxes, 2 track clips for the two straight tracks, two couplers for the engine, four buffer stops for the engine and a grey square piece that does on the roof.
The engine with the roof, sides, buffer stops and decals applied.
Another shot of the engine:
The flatcar with the latches installed:
Remote control. The left upper 1/0 button turns it on, the upper right button searches for frequencies.
The bottom left button turns on the engine track sounds - makes a noise like the train is running on real track.
The bottom middle turns on the lights. The lights are really nice - there 3 white lights on in front and 2 red lights on in the back. When you change the direction, the lights change too.
And the bottom right button sounds the horn.
Takes a 9 volt battery that wasn't supplied.
The damaged box within the box.
Flatcar with cargo boxes.
So, I was curious about the engine size, so I compared it to an old freight engine. It's a bit longer.
How does it compare with a 4029 engine?
Let's remove the roof, and it's just about the same size.
How do the cargo boxes compare to the old cargo containers. These boxes were used with the conlines ship and the eurotrans flatcar.
The 3 together are smaller than the old container.
Overall, I'd say this is a rather nice train aside from the packaging which could be improved. The RC controller is easy to use, the lights are fantastic, and the engine with 6 batteries instead of 4 seems more powerful, but I haven't tested it's pulling power compared to other engines yet. The engine block is bigger than the other RC engines - distance between the wheels is longer, so retro fitting an old electric style engine block is not straight forward like it is on the other RC trains. I'll probably get another next time a 20% off sale comes along
