My son is 6 and very into trains. He's had a wooden Thomas train set for years and has recently shown an interest in electric trains after visiting some electric train exhibits. At one place the guys let him vary the speed of the train and blow its horn/whistle, and those two features seemed key to him.

We'd like to buy him an electric train for Christmas but it seems the only trains with those features are incredibly expensive? I think he could do without the varying speed if he could just blow the whistle/horn, but the trains with sound seem to be the more expensive ones, just from the brief shopping I've been doing.

Does this sound accurate? What train would you recommend that might give him one or both of these features and that isn't too expensive? He is only 6. :-)  Thanks!