Micro Machines Trains

It’s amazing what you can get on eBay these days. These are another find by my Mum who’s always on the look out for new toys for my little boys… and me

Micro Machines – little car models with loads of accessories, popular in the 90s and also a popular game from CodeMasters – were made by Galoob and distributed in the US and UK. There are a couple of great sites out there that list what used to be available:

Micro Machines World
Micro Machines Museum

They also made a trains collection and thanks to eBay we now have a fair amount of it. Here’s what we have at the moment:

Locomotives

Steam Locos

• Black Loco 3283 (pictured)
• Black Loco 601 (same as 3283 with subtle colour differences)
• Blue Loco with Micro Machines logo on tender (pictured)

The Steam Locos are great with working side rods. They are pretty difficult to get to stay on the tracks though. The colourful wagons look great being hauled behind them.

Diesel Locos

• Santa Fe (GP 40)

I’m not very well informed about US railways – but this seems to be quite an ubiquitous US loco. There are no carriages for it to pull but there are some Burlington Northern Wagons

Train Sets

• TGV Sud-Est (pictured at the top of this post)

The TGV Set comes with 5 vehicles – 2 locos and 3 carriages. The middle carriage has 2 identical couplings so that each side of the train can couple to it. This makes it a vital carriage to get if you see these sets on eBay. Some are offered without this carriage, making it impossible to make the train up properly.

Wagons

• Tanker Wagons
• Container Wagons
• Cattle Wagons
• Coal Wagons
• Lumber Wagons
• Cabooses

There are many and varied wagons available ranging from tankers to trucks, containers to cabooses.

The wagons are mostly in bright colours and are all very well made. The style of the couplings on all the Micro Machines trains means that it is not easy to make long trains up.

This is because the couplings are fairly loose – sometimes they de-couple, sometimes they all bunch up due the looseness of the coupling arms.

The couplings on the wagons seem to be held on by a screw – I wonder if it’s possible to modify them to be closer to the body of the wagon and therefore a stronger coupling. I read lots of Railway Modelling magazines but I’ve never seen any articles on modifying this series

One of the wagons – the multi coloured one below right – has a switch on the side. I think this has to do with sound or something – one Micro Machines series (Power Sound Trains) had this – however I can’t find a way of getting inside the wagon to replace the battery.

And if you think British Outline N Gauge doesn’t have very close coupling, then you haven’t seen these yet!! (See the TGV set at the top of this post for an illustration of the large gap between vehicles!)

Track

Most sets came with track – but with these items being bought from eBay, we don’t know which track came from which set. However we have more than enough straights and curves of both types.

Galoob made 2 types of track – initially with a central groove and subsequently with a wider track groove for the trains to fit in. I think we have a mixture of stock built for both types of track. Some locos and wagons don’t work so well on the later track.

We have 2 points that came with the Engine House (see below) and I know there used to be a track pack available to buy that had 2 points in. However, the trains are fairly easy to find on eBay and plenty of curves and straights of both types – not so however the points. They are rare I would say and only come up very occasionally.

Accessories

• Train Station
• Trestle Bridge
• Engine House

The Engine House is a great little add-on. Coming with 2 points, it means there is somewhere to store spare engines. It’s a shame there was never a sidings accessory to store spare wagons!

The Train Station is clearly a useful add-on – somewhere for trains to stop; a reason for them to exist! It came with a large oval of track. The picture to the right shows it with only the main structures added. The set included loads of little extras – platform furniture etc – to be added but I didn’t have time to add these before taking the photo.

The Trestle Bridge is great too – a lovely bridge for the trains to go over, and for cars to go under. It’s quite long too so it frees up lots of straight track to make a really big oval of track. The picture to the right only shows one half of the bridge.

Overall Thoughts on the Series

The locos and wagons are really well made and it’s great to have some track to run them on. The accessories really add to the series, giving the trains a good landscape to run in.

In terms of the standalone sets, I think one major omission is a level crossing – after all their main business is cars – you would think it would be a no brainer to include a level crossing! There was a sort of Super Set available (Mega Train City?) that was all pre-moulded including a level crossing. But a standalone crossing would have been better in my opinion.

Otherwise, the only thing needed is more points and buffers etc to make sidings or loops. The series is clearly meant as a train novelty for the cars series but nevertheless, just a few more additions would make it a better integrated set.