Wooden train set- advice please!

[JerryLeadbetter]

DS will be nearly 2 come Christmas, and I am looking to get him a wooden train set from us, as he loves trains and anything on wheels at the moment and I think it will get well played with.

We would love something that is sturdy and unlikely to break easily, and that can also expand and have more bits added to it over the next few years.

I have heard Brio is good but expensive- is it worth the price? Don't mind paying a bit more for something that is going to last, but at the same time if there is something similar out there for cheaper then obvs i'd rather buy that!

Can anyone recommend a decent train set? What do your DCs have?

TIA

They all fit each other, so anything is expandable. I'd recommend IKEA.

I have 4 ds so have tried most brands of train set and the one I always recommend is Big Jigs really good quality and some lovely big sets.

We bought
this
when DS had just turned 2, he is almost 4 and still plays with it every day.
We have bought lots of thomas the tank trains to go on it.
We also have track that can be built on the floor and that is a mixture of brio and ikea.

Having it made up on the table was a huge bonus for us as it kept it all in one place and was the perfect height for DS to play.

Have a look on eBay. There will be parents out there who've bought loads of sets over the years and sell them together as job lots - you'll probably get one for 340 - 50. Your DS won't notice that it's not in a box, and you can ask family to buy extra bits for it next birthday. If you get loads, your son may only need a bit of track and a few engines at this points. You can bring extra bits out at Easter, birthday as a drip feed. No need to buy new at this stage.

Thanks all!

Will have a look on ebay and see what there is out there, was thinking about that- DS is too young to care if something is new or not!

whoneedstosleep that train set on the table looks incredible! Can the tracks also be moved off the table if desired?

Yes, it can. We sometimes use the table for his farm set!
It has 2 large drawers at either side which is great for storing the extra bits on.
My DS is a big Thomas fan so we bought Thomas engines but that set comes with plenty of engines and people.
It has been our best ever buy!

It was so cute, DS couldn't believe it was still there when he came downstairs on boxing day to find it was still there. He though it was a one day only thing.

It was £99.99 when we bought it almost 2 years ago, but still worth £129.99 imo.

I bought ds a brio set over the space of three or four years. He played with it a lot. My nephew is now 'looking after' it, he plays with it every day as well. I started off buying a basic figure of eight, and would add little bits at a time. It's now huge, and has bridges, trees, houses, workshop etc. I dread to think how much it's worth. There are other places that you can get brio type, just check that they all fit together before you buy them.

All the main supermarkets/toysrus and brio all slot together. We bought big bumper basic pack from asda, had lot sof track and a couple of bridges (I don't think they still do it) Then we bought a couple of Thomas Trains, and one ofr 2 fancy Brio bits. Over the years we have added to it. Bought loads from ebay. Look out for the bits that split the track into 2 (like points but no moving bits) also very cool bit called wacky track in US and crazy track in UK, it is flexible so fits the gap in a railway layout. Also the smaller tighter curves, turntable, train shed and bridges/tunnel are all popular with us.

We found Ikea didn't fit properly with the others, was a very tight squeeze.

I am not a fan of the table as my ds used to build track that went uder the sofa, out into the hall, took cargo from Tv to the coffee table etc. That was all part of the fun. Also his set was quickly just to big to do anything fun on a table.

ds is now 9 and can still be found "building a raiway for his sister" on occasion! Best toy we ever bought

We bought a mixture of the wooden Thomas, Tesco, Brio and a few bits off the internet. It was the best and most used toy our boys ever had and was easy for people to add to at birthdays and Christmas. It's currently in the loft waiting for our new baby to play with it.

We bought the same track as Whoneedstosleep, for about £70-£80 from ToysRus, last Xmas when DS was exactly your DS's age. It is lovely but large!! I was nearly in tears when DH made it last Xmas eve and I saw how much space the table takes up! should have read measurements more carefully! You also get a lot of bits & pieces to go with it and we thought DS may be overwhelmed, particularly as it's recommended for 3yrs+ I think. What we did was take the hardboard base, built a simple loop track on that using the bridges/cave etc and gave him some of the bits and pieces, keeping back a fair amount, but enough to be exciting. The lovely table and drawers have been stored in the garage & when he moves into his bigger bedroom we may set it up there for him. We left the middle of the track empty (no train shed or other bits yet on yet) as we found DS liked to sit in the middle to play. In fact so did his friends! We also now have a box of goodies left over for this Christmas when I think he'll really get the benefit, especially as his imaginative play is far more developed now. It's worked well for us.
Hope that makes sense!

I bought for my ds when he was 18 months a Thomas table from ebay.
I thought my husband was mad at the time because it cost about £100.

Best money ever spent on a toy for him, he still plays with it and his little brother is going to be about the same age now and we are going to buy bits to go with it.

A bargain and the resale will be good too.

We have the IKEA one, it's very good. It fits together with Brio and bigjigs track.

We started with the ikea one and have added lots of bits of BigJigs over the years. My boys now 5 & 2 and both love the railway, it will go on for years yet. A company called Mulberry Bush sell very good range of wooden railway sets and additions.

We spent a fortune on Brio and also got some cheap expansion packs. ds loved his trains for only about a year so it wasnt a long lived toy for the price (with ds everything was dinosaurs after age 3 and the train set never got looked at again!).

As a parent you can clearly see/feel the difference in quality between Brio and cheaper makes.

He had as much fun with the cheap stuff as the Brio as at that age they dont care about the quality its all about their imagination and for that quantity (to build huge tracks) is sometimes better.

We bought the IKEA track and then various Brio trains (especially Thomas and friends!) over the years. The IKEA track is compatible with Brio so we used that for the bulk of the set (now vast!!) and have added assorted turntables and points from Brio. I would say it is one of the best things we ever bought for our son - I especially love the fact that it fits into one of those wheely boxes that goes under the bed (when he doesn't have a hugely complicated layout as a trip hazard all over his bedroom floor). I would start with the basic (and cheap) IKEA set for starters - more than adequate for a child who is not yet two and you can gradually expand if it proves to be a hit.

We've got various bits of Brio, Thomas and bigjigs. For track, I do find the Brio better quality than bigjigs but it does fit fine (even if you need to shoogle it a bit) and tbh, DS doesn't care less.

I always thought that the john lewis set was a nice starter set (though it's gone up in price and is currently out of stock).

We never bought a train table - we've got a lot of track and it just wouldn't fit on most of the tables I've seen. I do have a couple of low/wide trofast units from ikea pushed back to back which makes a good size surface as a play table with the benefit of storage underneath!

We have a mixture of Tesco and ELC and a little bit of BRIO. It all fits together fine, some of the cheaper ones (only one or two pieces) are flat on the back rather than being reversible, but it doesn't affect the play value. When ds was 2 he didn't seem massively interested, now that he is nearly 3 he can build it himself and loves making large tracks, with a little help.

If you don't get a table for storage (we don't have space) then you will need something, we keep our 2 and a bit sets in a Really Useful Box 9L and it just about fits (except one enormous Tesco bridge).

We got DS1 a wooden train set from John Lewis for £30 when he was about 2. It is a great starter set!

We got Thomas Wooden Railway from this shop because I am a total sucker.

It is good though.