I don't collect lego trains but when I saw this in the shop at home catalog I had to have it. in my opinion I made the right choice getting it. at the moment, this is my favourite set.

figures
pros: all civillians are only found in this set, conductor is also only found in this set, engineer is rare
cons: conductor without bread can be found in other sets

engine
pros: looks nice
cons: none

tender
pros: nice detail
cons: none

passenger car
pros: nice detail, easy to seat passengers
cons: doors hit the bar piece when they are opened

tree car
pros: 3 trees
cons: none

open freight car
pros: lots of presents
cons: none

caboose
pros: nice detail
cons: doors hit the bar pieces when they are opened

pieces
pros: trees
cons: none

build
pros: not easy but not hard, strong
cons: none

price
pros: worth it
cons: expensive

I recommend this set to any lego fan

This is a great set that I get out every Christmas to play with (I do get it out other times of the year, too).

Good:
Realistic
Present Train car
Presents
Santa minifig
Loads of Minifigs
I'm sure you can put a Power Functions motor on it so it can go around a track.

Bad:
Nothing

Overall:
5/5
OR
10/10

You could also try to use the motor from the motorized Harry Potter train.

This is an excellent train set with bricks in colours that match with each other well. The locomotive comes with four waggons or even five if you indlude the tender. There are also many minifigs. But it's a pity that the engine driver is always the same in so many train sets. And by adding the motor quite many parts of the tender have to be removed. But as I said: the colour combination is very appealing. Additionally, the locomotive itself looks great, but a bit small; just compare its length to the passenger car or the car with all the toys on it.

I stumbled across this train by chance. I had no idea it existed as I only came out of my Dark Ages in 2013. I'm not a fan of the City theme and since most trains are released under that category, I never fêla an attraction for LEGO trains. However, the Creator-ish quality of the train, the possibility of matching it to the Winter Village sets made it a must have for me. So I Bricklinked it. It was very expensive but still, less than the few sets available on that same site or elsewhere on the internet.

Box/Instructions

I do not own either as they can't be purchased anywhere. There were some instructions on Bricklink for 100 Euros at one point but as much as I am a completeist, I could not resolve myself to shelling those hard-earned euros for instructions freely available on PDF. As for the box, I never saw any for sale anywhere. Good luck to you if you need one!

Parts

This is one of those set with very few light bluish gray (LBG). I am always stunned to see tons and tons of LBG bricks in almost all Creator sets but this one has next to none. Since it's almost 10 years old already, the colours are fairly basic, lots of green, red and white, obvious as this is a Christmas train. But also a few yellow and blue here and there. The rarest parts are the white windows of the passenger car. They are valued at around 10 euros each and you need 12. They however look lovely and give the train a very genuine, somewhat vintage, appearance. You also need 2 long red train plates, not as hard to find or expensive, but not very common either. I really like the two LBG rats, the cat and the bunny. Why a bunny, normally associated with Easter in a Christmas train? I still love it with its little head pointing out of all the presents.

Minifigures

There are two train employees, one engineer and four passengers, for a total of seven. One man is wearing what looks like a red biking suit; perhaps LEGO meant him as someone wearing a snow-suit. There is an angry man (he seems grumpy with his frown) and a happy lady who is very 'businessy' looking with her blazer. I do like her generous hair and smiley face. Finally, a boy in tan. Was he meant as a child? He seems a little bit out of place in my opinion. I'm quite happy with seven minifigs and find the train complete with this arrangement. Of course, it looks even better with modern children minifigs placed in it.

The build

This set being almost 10 years old, its building construction is somewhat basic. Nonetheless, I find it charming. The different train cars provide for a non-repetitive build, using a variety of colours and bricks. The "presents" wagon is full of mini-builds and a lot of fun. Not having the original instructions created a challenge as the PDF's showed all the black bricks as "merged". It was not the end of the world and I was able to fully build this very nice train.

The completed model

It looks great. Each car has its own colour theme, black and green for the engine, white for the passenger train, red and green for the tree cargo car, brown and white for the presents car and green for the caboose. It' s surprisingly long, over a metre! I found some instructions online to motorize the train however it's just fine as a push-along. The added pine or fir tree leaves adorning the sides really add a holiday feel to the set. Keep in mind that the train will seem rather large in comparison to the official Winter Village buildings.

Overall opinion

I really like my 10173 Christmas Train. I can't find many flaws, however, if I must, I would have made the engine a bit longer as its 12-stud length is dwarfed by the length of the whole train. But it's quite minor and in no way reduces the appeal of this great set. I gave it a five-star rating for value as its original price was under US$100. It's unfortunate that it's so expensive to build nowadays (especially because of those 12 super expensive train windows) but it makes a great addition to any Christmas or Winter Village setup.

This is a nice little set with 6 parts. Let's get the bad part out of the way - there's no engine to automate this train and move it. The engine is extra and it's a 9V engine. You can't fix the RC engine onto this train. That's not a big downer though, as you can still attach this to either of the trains released in 2006, preferably 7898 to tow it.

Things that are good about it:
* Presents
* Lots of interesting parts including a trike and a skateboard and a number of animals
* a nice colour scheme - green and white and red with the festive trimmings
* 12 magnets!

The design is good overall and visually pleasing as well. It takes a while getting used to the fronds on the side of some of the carriages, but when they are considered as decoration, it works perfectly.