Thomas the Train Questions

My son loves trains and has a few Thomas trains, but we want to get him some more pieces for Christmas and his birthday. I was looking at Target the other day and noticed there are plastic tracks and wooden tracks. Are they both compatible with all of the trains or do only specific trains work on specific tracks? I also seem to remember a friend saying a long time ago (before I had kids) that there was a less expensive wooden track that worked with the Thomas trains. Does anyone know if this is true? Can some mom's with Thomas experience recommend a few good pieces/buildings to start with that he would enjoy? Thanks for the tips!

 

I don't know much about tracks (or trains, for that matter), but for Christmas I decided to get my kids the Step 2 Deluxe Canyon Road Train & Track Table.

The "tracks" are actually just stickers, but the nice thing is that they don't come apart -- otherwise, I know my 2-year-olds will just destroy them, and there will be pieces everywhere (we already have play food, pop-up beads, Legos, puzzle pieces, and a million other things scattered. I don't need to add tracks to that!).

Also, you can use any trains or matchbox-type cars with this table. Kevan is more into little cars right now (maybe because we don't have any trains yet!), so that works.

I figure if the kids *really* get into trains, I can get them a real set when they're a little older.

I got this based on a recommendation I read here, but also check out the reviews on Amazon -- it's a big hit with most kids. Oh, and Sam's Club has it right now for $69 in the store, but Amazon's $83 shipped free is the next best price I could find.

 

ToysRUs sells the Imaginarium train sets that are compatible with Thomas. For F&N's second birthday, I got them the starter set to see if they would really enjoy their own set as much as other people's trains. It was about $35 and they adore it. It does come apart, though, which drives me nuts. I'm constantly having to put it back together. At least it's small. I'm considering the table for Christmas.

Good luck!

 

Most small wooden train tracks will be Thomas- and BRIO-compatible. We bought our train table (which came with track, some trains, and other accessories) at Costco. It works OK, but after wrestling with the low-quality wooden track parts that don't fit together very smoothly (and a couple of them actually broke), I decided I was going to try to get actual Thomas or BRIO track from now on, because in this case it seems you do get what you pay for. (However, if you can get it used, you get the best of both worlds. )

My kids are almost 4 and are just now (maybe since 3.5 or a little earlier) developing the ability to actually build layouts. Before that, we would put some track together and they would just run the trains around it. So I don't think you need to invest heavily in tracks, bridges, tunnels, etc. at your kids' age -- focus more on the actual trains. At least in our case, that was mostly what they cared about when they were younger.

 

We have this one..
http://www.meijer.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId=39715&CAWELAID=317665137

with all Thomas trains, it is compatible with both Thomas and Brio. It comes with everthing you see in the pic, you do not need any tracks just trains. This train table works best with the wooden trains but you can use diecast.

 

My mother got the girls the Melissa and Doug Deluxe Railroad set for their 2nd birthday and I think it's a fantastic set. I've heard it's compatible with Thomas (but I've never seen the Thomas pieces so I can't promise), it's very well made, and cheaper than the name brand Thomas pieces. The Amazon price ranges from $59.99 to $79.99 -- it's at $79.99 right now, and that includes everything you'll need to set up a fully working train system. I agree with Becca that two year olds are hard on train tracks... mine can hook up one or two pieces, but leave the complex layouts to their dad. Then we all sit around and zoom trains around. It's funny that you posted this today because we spent the ENTIRE afternoon playing with trains. I don't think I've ever seen my girls concentrate for this long!

 

We just got the Imaginarium table and set from Toysrus for their 2nd birthday. They are really into trains and we already had quite a few Thomas engines and one of the starter tracks. All the Thomas trains work with the track and the track is compatible. We did modify a few things to make it more 2 yo friendly and we can see that they will really grow into it. I think we got it at just the right age and the LOVE it! One of the things I really like about this set designed for the table is that everything fits pretty tight and this keeps them from pulling the track apart. I will say that they really care for their trains and tracks quite well :wub:

GL! (The only problem for us is that they do take up quite a bit of space and our house is small!)