Ben Franklin Ltd

[automata]

Hello everyone, I'm a newbie to model RR, and I want to purchase my first train set. Recently I've been looking at the Ben Franklin Ltd set. It looks good and is easy on the wallet. Plus, with Christmas coming up, it'll look fabulous chugging around my wife's village set. I was wondering if anyone has this set or in the least seen it in action, and any opinions about it.

I plan to really get into railroading after the holidays, and advice for an ignorant newie will be greatly appreciated. 

[SteamGene]

Would this be a Hawthorne 'Village set?  If so, you are paying about four times the MSRP for the art work on the cars.
Gene

[automata]

No not the Hawthorne train. The Ben franklin Ltd. I believe it is a discontinued model, I saw somwhere that there were only like 600 made. Comes with a 4-4-0 Steamer w/tender a combine and 2 coaches. Also includes plasticville Independence Hall.

[newguy]

Hello,

You may take my advice with a grain of salt. It is only advice.

If you plan to only use this train set for your Christmas needs and then store it away each year then I think that it will be fine for that purpose.

Do you intend to make a layout after the holidays with several trains running? If so, you may not want a Christmas-type train running with the rest of your trains because it wouldn't be realistic. Also, the type of track that it comes with it is not the best type. It appears to be Bachmann steel E-Z track with black roadbed. Eventually you would want to use the nickel silver track. (Bachmann also makes nickel silver E-Z track with grey roadbed) The nickel silver is less corrosive and resistant to rust. You can connect the two types but it would look like a checker board.

If I were you, I would get a train set that can be used year round that has a steam locomotive and coaches similar to the Ben Franklin Ltd. but are not just for holiday use (green, red and white). Almost any steam locomotive will look good going around a Christmas tree or other decorations.

I just gave this advice to another person who is looking at starter train sets. I'll cut and paste my advice here:

Bachmann is very user friendly for beginners. If you get a Bachmann Spectrum set (Spectrum is the upper-end line of Bachmann's products) you will not regret it. You always get what you pay for.
My other bit of advice would be to get a train set that has a DCC on-board locomotive. If you expand and want to add more trains later you will want DCC - trust me! DCC allows you to run several trains independently of each other. Bachmann offers a few of these sets and they can be found on wholesaletrains.com. This is the least expensive site out there.

Check out this link. I wish this had been my first set: http://www.wholesaletrains.com/Detail.asp?ID=200429888

The Ben Franklin set may be inexpensive but if you buy it for the holidays and then turn around and have to buy another starter set for your hobby then you may end up spending more money than if you had just bought one quality set.

That's my two cents,

Good luck,

New Guy

[SteamGene]

New Guy is correct about the track - the black roadbed track is not the best to have.  Since you are expanding, it's best not to use the steel with nickel silver.  OTOH, you may want to run the train just because you like it.  I plan on running my Harry Potter over the VT&P on occassion.  After all, a magical train should be able to perform magic, right? 
Gene