Hotwheels Railroad: The Greatest Train Toy You Never Had

As the name suggests. If you couldn't tell yet, I like the obscure.
How many Mazda RX-7 FDs can you find?

[Pepperknight]

I think the problem was Mattel didn't release the steam engine in the first wave.

[joshuacampbell]

As a late GenX, I remember seeing these as a kid. I have a couple of the Matchbox locomotives and some rolling stock myself from when I was a kid. You’re right about the Tyco and Bachman sets offering so much more for around the same money at the time as Hot Wheels sets have always been expensive even when I was a kid. Come to think of it, I think I had a Micro Machines train, but I don’t think I kept many of them unfortunately.

[weekendrailroader]

They aren't HO scale, but they are actually HO gauge. You can set them on a piece of HO code 100 track and they'll roll just fine. The wheel flange dimensions are very different though, so they're not compatible with HO scale switch frogs and diamonds.

[bryanmoore]

All cars did come with loads. Boxcar had a box, tipping gondola had steel pipes and the Amtrak baggage car had a weird round silver cylinder that looked to me like a giant milk bottle. I had all of these as a kid and probably still do in storage. I had no idea they had become rare.

[WesternOhioInterurbanHistory]

4:36 and 5:05, this is false, both cars had special loads to carry.
In the Superails Station Set, the Burlington Northern pipe car had five pipes which could be loaded into it via a overhead dump bin, and above that on the upper level a place to dump the pipes back into the loader. The mail car had a small mail bag that could be caught from a small mail loading area on the upper level of the Superails Station, where it could also be unloaded.

[TristanMorrow]

Yep! Mattel also had a refinery switching base (same size as the freight yard). It had streets for cars and the track was an oval mainline with half a figure eight through the middle and two sidings: you'd take the tank car the oil siding, around the tracks, and to the unloading spur where it would transfer your imagination to the Hotwheels tank truck, lather, rinse, repeat -- good fun!
I'd bought it with my own money, loved the set so much, but could never find any other components after that :-( I typed (typed!) several letters to Mattel asking if there were any other parts I could buy; they were very polite but the answer was no it seems...
Haven't seen the exact base I had, tried Googling it recently out of nostalgia but will try again! (Good video!)

[ShadowVFX]

FYI, the box car (at least mine) came with a little wooden box that fit perfectly in that opening. I don't know if you'd classify that as a play feature or not, but I remember loading it on and off of my train when it came to different stations on my playset.

Also, the baggage car definitely had an item you could pick up with that hook. You probably don't have it, since you got your set second hand. But I had the original playset and I remember it specifically coming with an item that you could grab with that hook.

[seymoarsalvage]

I have two of the Chessie engines that my parents got me from a gift shop in 1998. I never knew they were hotwheels brand or there were others! I did play with them alot, those couplers sure are tough, they never did break! I still have both of the engines, intact lol

[modelrailpreservation]

These bring back a lot of fond memories for me. I had the smaller playset that had the orange girder bridge, came with the Rio Grande GP-38 and the Soo Line flatcar with logs, I remember my uncle giving it to me when I was four years old. Dad and I picked up, secondhand, the Stow-and-go folding set with a bunch of rolling stock. and lastly, the Chessie System GP-38 that was a prize a kid could win at our school's 'fun night'. I remember having to win a LOT of games to get that! The Stow-and-go set did have a working forklift that popped out of a building and could load a box into the boxcar. I still have that box. Over the years it has migrated as scenery to every single HO and O gauge layout I have ever built for myself. One downside of these trains, is the couplers broke easily. Most of mine ended up missing all their couplers but I used short pieces of steel wire rod from my grandfather's workbench to make new hook and eye style couplers. Hardly elegant, but it worked.

[joelankeny]

I had these growing up when I little. I had no idea these were Hot Wheels. I clearly remember having the F40PH and I loved that locomotive. This video brought back so many memories!

[IndianaNorthWestern]

My preschool had this, I remember when it was out for playtime, but all they had was an oval, the rio grande loco, and the BN geep that only had the lead truck lol, I always wondered what it was, and now I know, and now I can sleep easy, and just get the same stuff in HO.

[leverettrailfan]

When I was a kid, someone left one of the sets at our town dump and I was able to persuade my parents to let me take it home... under the condition that it would be going back where I got it in a week or two. From what I remember the box was blue and showed the Rio Grande GP40, a boxcar, and the bulkhead flatcar. Unfortunately it was missing the actual trains I think, as well as one section of track. I understand why my parents weren't big on it, but looking back now... I wish I still had it!

[erfp]

The trains I own of these hot wheels railroad is the BN tipper car, the Chessie System GP 40 the Santa Fe F40, two Santa Fe cabooses a TTX boxcar, the Soo Line bulkhead flat car, The BN electric Locomotive, the Rio Grande GP 40 and my rarest one is the CP Rail (Canadian Release) GP 40.

[sopmodsenior]

The box car came with a little box that the forklift in the stow and go playset could push onto a platform. The BN tipper car came with a with a load of pipes that you could dump into the hopper on the top track of the station playset and then load on the lower track. The baggage car came with a silver mail bag that the hook could pick up. To be honest I feel these were better than the average Tyco train set of the day, the track connections had a tendency to break but Tyco motors were complete trash as were the power packs. Always wanted the tanker car and the Rio Grande loco.

[patchcoatgrey]

... I heard of them, and had most of them. Sold them off back after college when I was unemployed. Used to make layouts that would run though every one of the display sets, and through my bedroom. Kind of regret selling them, but I had nowhere in my small apartment for them...

[Shortline]

These things are absolutely delightful! I remember watching videos on these when I was a kid. I always wanted the Sto and Go set. The idea of a train layout you can take along with you is genius. Too bad these didn't take off...

[chadmickelsen]

I know I still have the Rio Grande engine and believe the Soo Line bulk-head car.
Got to love Hot Wheels in the late 70's and early 80's. Dodge Aries, Mirada the Ford Grand Torino, Fairmont were my favorites

[norfolksouthern]

I have some of these too from when I was a kid stored away someplace or places, though not near as many as I once had. At one point I had 12 of the Chessie gp40s (This body better represents a gp39). I had several sets including the station and it did have some pipes that diffco dump car could dump from the top level. The baggage car could actually catch the mail capsule off the platform when it went by as well so they did have loads for them. I enjoyed these very much as a kid.

[jameschamplin]

I had them when I was a kid... in the 80s! I was way into trains and my mom would pick them up whenever she saw then in closeout stores, usually cheap cheap cheap. Pretty sure I had all but the BN electric loco and the Iron Horse. I wish I knew where all that stuff was now 40 years later.

[idxluaviation]

I just had an outstanding flashback to that chessie system GP40 that I have the slightest memory of possibly owning.

I belive that (according to my faded memory) that was my favorite train when I was little, I have no idea what happened to it or if it had any cars to go along with it but I remember carrying just it around. Wow, didn't realize it was so rare.