Does remote control 8879 work for winter holiday train?
Yes, essentially it was designed for applications like trains since it has an option to increase power gradually, unlike 8885 controller which is ON-OFF (basically with two speed settings - &quot;9&quot; and &quot;0&quot;). You can do this by turning orange disks to start moving your train. There are 9 &quot;speeds&quot; in each direction. And you have two options then to stop your train:

Hit red button below the disk to stop immediately;
Return disk to zero speed position.

The remote controller you are asking about is one of the items required to motorize the entire set as seen on the picture below. This is taken from instructions for 10254 Winter Holiday Train set.