MB Wooden Railways
A different approach to wooden railways

Welcome to MB Wooden Railways, which is part of a larger site concerned with Miniature Buildings .  It discusses aspects of Brio (and compatible) railways and my own, not entirely usual, approach to them.  For my other articles on the subject please go to Railways Articles

Wooden Train Power

This is an updated text of material previously published. A more structured approach than the earlier 'stream of consciousness' article.

Spoiler alert : this is repeatedly identified as one of the most powerful engines available.  The only problem seems to be that many people do not really want it at the head of their trains.

A recurrent theme in two Facebook groups ( Brio Train Builders and Official BRIO Trains Engineers Club , "BTB" & "OBTEC") is the power or lack of it in the various battery powered engines available from Brio and other manufacturers.  Fascinating as Facebook groups can be, they are notoriously bad at building a knowledge base of accumulated wisdom.  The same questions and answers of varying quality keep repeating.  Both groups are Brio focused; although compatible brands do get a look in they are not given the same level of attention.  I still have not yet found a group looking at the full range of wooden trains - do you konow of one? There are a couple focused on the Thomas & Friends range but that's not really what I am after.

This article seeks to gather together in one place some of what has been said over the last few months.  It seeks to go deeper than the contributor who answered "depends on how much power the engine has" to the question "How many cars can a motorized engine pull?". It aspires to be more useful than this singularly pointless Youtube clip "How many carriages can Thomas pull?". I really cannot recommend you wasting your time watching it.

One linked issue is that many engines, or trains formed of engines plus some wagons, struggle to get up the standard Brio bridge ramp.  Indeed, it is this difficulty that often prompts the question about which engines have enough power.  Modifying track to deal with this is considered in another article on Bridges .

At least for now, this is still a gathering together of others' views.  It is not I'm afraid a rigorous testing of trains.  I do not have enough variety in my collection to do this.  

It should go without saying that battery strength and condition play a big part too. In BTB Chris Neuhahn reported some tests he ran with Brio train 33595: "With a fresh AAA battery. It is took 20s to do the loop. At one hour it took 27s. At 2 hours it took 30s. At 3 hours it took 46s and died shortly after". Geoffrey Brigman suggested that "sometime rechargeable batteries run on a slightly higher voltage which may help some".  Yet Pete VanLaar suggested the opposite "don’t use rechargeable batteries try using some Duracell or energizer regular batteries".  In a thread, begun by James Langan, Bethany Barlow said "The only one we can get on with is the USB rechargeable one from brio. Anything with batteries just loses power too quickly and then can't handle bridges or pulling a carriage".

My own experience is that performance is also strongly affected by dust and hair trapped in the mechanisms.   'Tekku' in OBTEC reported that "With our heavy play, we are running through the rubber tires of the motorized Brio loks in 6 months. Then train looses traction more and more and get stuck" and several agreed.  Including Ruth Belcher who referred to "the rubbery exterior of the wheels wear[ing] down, resulting in the wheels losing their grip? That’s what happened with one of our electric engines, from our son pushing down on it too often".  A very different suggestion came from Simon Short in Jan 24 BTB: "You say there is nothing wrong with rubber on wheels but if you suspect their might be try taking the rubber out of the wheels with a pair of tweezers, then wrapping some cotton thread around the centre of wheel, about 20 winds each I do, then replace rubber and they're good as/better then new".

But, enough introductory stuff.  Which engines offer real power and which are not really up to the job?

It is perhaps no great surprise that the most common recomendation is for the Brio series of "Mighty" engines. Which, it s often said, come in three colours - gold, red and green. It would be logical to think that the three versions differed only in colour but there is a thread running through the conversations that casts doubt on this. In particular a view that the gold is the best and that the green version is the worst.  Yet opinions vary - Brio's Mighty Green Engine is, for example, described both as one of the strongest and 'terribly slow'.

Although the models look the same the green version is actually packaged by Brio as "Big Green Action Locomotive {33593}" even though some vendors do refer to it as 'Mighty Green Action Locomotive'.  The red {33592} is marketed as "Mighty Red Action Locomotive" and the gold as "Mighty Gold Action Locomotive" {33630}.  There was also, at one time a "Mighty Black Engine #319" but this seems now to be a rare collectors' piece.

In a OBTEC discussion started by Charlotte Allred on 29/11/23, Caroline Wade wrote "We have three BRIO battery engines and the Mighty Red is the fastest and can pull the most cars. The green is terribly slow, and the Steaming Engine falls in between."  I am unsure if her reference to "the green" is to the Big Green Action model {33593} or to another model.   Pete VanLaar said "Pull power [Brio Mighty] is probably the best. In either gold, green or red". Lilli Brotzmann said "this one [? Brio Mighty Green ?] is very strong. Chris Wolstenholme also said "Mighty Red is the strongest we have"

Andy Laverghetta in Jan 24 suggests "any of the Brio mighty action locomotives" but qualiifes this by saying he only has Brio.   Magdalena Grabczewska and Karl Gregory both found the green mighty to be less powerful than the gold one.   Mark Magana also added a vote for the gold Mighty but goes on to say that there are green and red versions.   Nikki Shears experience is different "our gold one doesn't even go round on the track I assumed a fault with the train design but maybe it's just ours"

There seems to be a broad consensus that the Brio Green 7 or Red 4 shunters are powerful and that coupled with one of the Mighty range is the best combination for pulling long trains.  There was a strong recommendation from Chris Wolstenholme in Jan 24 (BTB). Rob Hunt (on OBTEC 17/12/23) recommended this Brio shunter as being "capable and travels at a good speed":

The same shunter (Brio World 33214 Freight Battery Engine) was recommended in BTB at (Jan or Feb 24) by Andy Laverghetta and Hannah van der Deijl. Aso in Jan 24 Mel Barns quoted YouTuber Jake Trains as saying his"go-to’s for power and reliability are the green #7 and red #4 Battery Freight Trains".  Pete VanLaar also recommended the Brio 7 shunter illustrated above: "These pull about 7-10 on full battery and are not the fastest but you can chain link a bunch together to pull anything"

The theme that the shunter can be added into a train headed by one of the Mighty engines is repeated several times by Chris Wolstenholme and others.  One reson seems tobe that it has magnets front and back so can be added in the middle of a train.   Rosie Horne added her vote for tis idea saying "coupled with the green shunter [they]"pull really well together".

Chris Neuhahn in BTB (Feb 2024) mentioned the Brio 33595 motorized train which he said "handles regular ramps with fresh batteries. However, with slightly higher ramps, it struggles for traction and can only manage them solo."  The whole issue with ramps is considered further in my Bridges article.

Brio themselves promote their Turbo train as their fastest, but whether this is only for the short period after the turbo button is pressed is not clear.  Sheniz Raif said "I thought the BRIO 'World Battery Powered Turbo Speed Toy Train for Kids' was better than some of the others".  Pete VanLaar said "fastest is the Turbo".  More support for the Brio Turbo train came from several OBTEC members in April 2023; one claimed it would pull 12 cars.

The view of Ruth Belcher (BTB Jan 24) is that "the [Brio] Smart Tech trains are weaker in general"and that "the Smart Tech engines aren’t the strongest even with new batteries".  But others, notably Andy Laverghetta, thought the unit was defective .  Árdís Pétursdóttir had problems with "the blue smart tech one that can record sound" but also with other models that others recommend.

In a thread, begun by James Langan, Bethany Barlow reported trouble in Feb 24 with a blue Smart Tech engine struggling to climb a ramp.

There are of course many brands other than Brio. One that gets a lot of mentions is German brand Hape.  Sheniz Raif said "I’ve found most of the Hape battery powered ones to be quite strong".  Faith Matulla also supported Hape.  Catherine Hobbin said "Our strongest is a Hape red yellow and blue first train."  Mel Barns (BTB Jan 24) said "probably the mightiest train in my house is by Hape, and it’s colored like toddler toy so it loses its appeal after a while".  Other votes for Hape number 1 came from Dean D-mite Cook and Jeffrey Oliffe in BTB Jan 24 "The red train has much more power pull’s more trucks up slopes with ease".  Piotr Wozniak (BTB Jan 24) recommended "Hape- either the propellor one or the blue intercity locomotive charged via USB cable" Jared Wein Jaws in BTB (Feb 24) says the Hape red engine number 1 "is the most powerful we've found". George Blandford supported the recomendation "best ones for ever are Hape trains" . More support for Hape earlier in Feb 24 from Selena Loving in BTB who said "Hape are pretty robust".

There is also support for the Playtive brand sold by the Lidl supermarket chain.  Sheniz Raif said "the Lidl own brand (Playtive) ones were also quite good".

Dean D-mite Cook comments negativly on a White train (from ?) saying that "it doesn't like to stay on the track when going around a corner".

One alternative is this Lidl/Playtive shunter which Dv Mrry says in BTB jan 24 "is but [by?] far the fastest and strongest of all the engines we have".

In Jan 24 BTB Helen Crispin says a 'dark green train' from John Lewis is the fastest battery train they own.

A video from Chad Constable in BTB (feb 24)shows a green engine [?Brio mighty?] stalling in the middle of a hill climb.

Iny McLauglin, John Jeren and Bea Aguirre in BTB (Feb 24)both say that motorized Thomas trains have not performed well on brio/wooden track.

Gregory Brigman in BTB (Feb 24) posted this picture and says:

"I am not sure on the brand of the top one it comes up on Amazon in different color schemes but it pulls good..  I like the 2nd one [?a diiferent coloured version of the green shunter?] from because plan is to couple another one to it to make dual freights, just haven’t got there yet.  The third one [?Brio Mighty Red?] pulls good too, I don’t like in reverse so much and sometimes struggles on the smaller tighter turn pieces".

In Feb 24 in BTB Rosie Ullah mentioned the Bigjigs Mallard as being "SO fast" but liable to break if not allowed to run free

Although not directly about power there was a brief exchange in OBTEC 2/6/23 about this Brio remote control train. The concern was that the RC only worked 50 cm away from the train. The response was that this was not correct but that "because it is an IR control you have to aim it directly [very accuratly] at the train".

As always, please e-mail Miniature Buildings if you have something to add. Comments, criticisms, extra thoughts, pictures, or even complete articles for inclusion in the Miniature Buildings site are all welcome. Or if you would like to be added to my mailing list to hear when a new article is published.

David, March 2024,