wooden train sets

[zoobaby]

Any ideas for wooden train sets? Bigjigs, Brio, Ikea?

What do you think? Also, does anyone know if they are all compatible/interchangeable?

[anotherdayanothersquabble]

They are all generally compatible. The John Lewis ones were good value in my day (eldest child 10). We have two very large under bed boxes which are a mixture of tchibo (like Aldi/lidl), John Lewis, tesco, oxfam, plus special pieces from Brio like Thomas engines and bridges and eBay purchases especially for double ended pieces. We bought the basic sets and family bought some special pieces. Battery operated trains are lots of fun, the tesco one was great.

[NiceOneCenturion]

Brio, bigjigs, tesco and I think Elc all fit together, the IKEA stuff has slightly different connectors.

Tesco do quite a good starter set for very cheap, about 60 pieces for £12 or something like that. We bought that as you get quite a bit of track to get you going, and found it good quality, then we topped it up with Brio for the more interesting extras, cranes, bridges, different trains etc, as they are great but a lot more expensive.

We've had some bigjigs bits and they are fine too.

[Spottybra]

I think most work with each other. We have brio and some ELC and others that were given as gifts and they all get made into a big track with stations, bridges, etc.

[zoobaby]

Thanks for the info. Good to know you can go budget then add on with more bits. Didn't think of battery operated just yet, but may need to research.

[stargirl1701]

There are issues with bridges. Some trains don't fit under some bridges. We just stuck to one brand.

[BikeRunSki]

Most fit together, except ikea - which will if forced - although thrme bridges are too low for some other engines. It's handy to have some ikea stuff as you can push the end out and make male- male or female-female pieces which are handy.

[ImAMonkeyMess]

We have a mix of brands here, too. All seem to work well together but admittedly we haven't attempted anything too elaborate yet (the fat controller is only two!)

[SizzlesSit]

Ikea and brio dont fit, at least not easily enough to avoid a toddler tantrum!

We just have brio, expensive but gets used every single day so worth it.

[annarachel]

We bought recently Frosty 24pc Wood Train Set from Toys R Us at $24.99. It's a basic wooden train but next will be move to another Wooden Railway Coal or may be KidKraft Wooden Waterfall Mountain Train Table and Set. Click here to see kidkraft wooden train, it's simply awesome for your kids but it cost almost $199 so will be on 2nd priority.

[zoobaby]

I've looked at a few other revies and all say the same about the Ikea stuff. Never thought about height restrictions for the trains so that's a good thing to keep in mind.

The Kidcraft table looks good, but alas we live in a flat so I need to get something that packs away. The advantage is that you can get heaps of pieces and make a massive track. Can't believe how excited I am about getting a train track (sad I know). I'm the same about lego and can't wait until DS is old enough for that.

[zoobaby]

Can anyone say whether the Thomas and Friends locomotives happily fit on the Brio or Bigjigs tracks?

[JassyRadlett]

The JL starter set looks really good value - we got a Brio set for DS for Christmas that was 40% off, or we'd have gone for JL.

[BrieAndChilli]

We have brio, tesco and big jigs tracks and assessories. Plenty of wooden Thomas trains which fit fine but any plastic, die cast, take along or other Thomas trains dont fit

[zoobaby]

Thanks for the info everyone. Any clues on the best time to look for sales? Pre or post Christmas? It's so hard to know these days.

[Parietal]

we have lots of JL basic track plus special bits of brio get given as birthday presents.

[stargirl1701]

For Brio, eBay. We have found boxed sets at very reasonable prices.