I bought this set last year to go around our Christmas Tree. I added 8 pieces of straight track to the tack the set came with to ensure the track goes completely around the tree skirt. The track is super easy to assemble. Take care to ensure the track couplers are seated (mated) properly so that you will have a good electrical connection and the train will ride level as it traverses each track join. The train engine has very good detail and is very hefty. In fact, all the cars have very good detail. Additionally, each car comes with metal road wheel instead of plastic. This provides more heft to each car and prevents the build-up of grime that tends to plague plastic wheel. This is my second year of running this set and have yet to clean the wheels. Having said that,I just order a cleaning kit this year to perform a good cleaning of the track. The transformer performs flawlessly and doesn't get hot. I have my layout set up on burber carpet. Make sure you vacuum the carpet before laying down the track, and vacuum once a week to keep dust and dog hair to a minimum. Overall, I love this set and is worth the price.