Which train set?

[sabrinatheteenagemortal]

We want to get dd a wooden train set for Christmas. The one I know is great is brio (well it used to be anyway) but I've seen loads of other, often cheaper options. Can anyone answer the following?

1. is brio really worth the price?
2. is there a better option or an as good but cheaper option you would recommend?
3. how compatible are the different types?

Thank you!

IMO Brio is worth the price, we had lots, got loads of use out of it and then it has resale value when finished. You can also get it secondhand.

We found all wooden ones compatible. Our boys had a mixture of brio, bigjigs, John Lewis, IKEA and Lidl track and they all worked well together. We bought a lot second hand too.

My main advice is the ones with wooden track and then plastic joining bits are much less durable than all wood.

Oh yes Bigjigs was also excellent, I suspect much of what I thought was Brio was actually that thinking back a bit!

I like the big jigs stuff as brio has a lot of plastic.

My dd was much more interested in hers once we got her some Thomas trains with faces. DS couldn't care less about the faces. Go figure ..,

We had Brio and it was great.

We had a mixture, asda used to do a really good starter set then buy a few proper Thomas trains if you want. As long as it's the all wood kind they are compatible. I sold ours for around 75% of the cost a few years later, not exactly an investment but better than most toys

Get a battery powered train and a couple of posh bridges - the Brio collapsing bridge is a lot of fun!

We inherited a lot of brio and have been bought brio and bigjigs add ons. Bigjigs always break in our house. Brio totally fine, old and new

I would buy the Brio starter set and add tonitnwith cheaper sets. If going that route let family members know you are buying the set and maybe they could buy bridges, level crossings and tunnels etc as their presents giving them the option to go Brio or Brio compatible depending on their budgets.

We have the Aldi one and it's great. Came with an electronic train and lots of wooden bits to set the scene around the track

Tesco used to do a really great set. I'm not sure if they still do but dd2 got my younger brothers set which was pretty much all from tesco. We added a few bits of bigjigs, and bought a few Thomas engines all compatible.

Brio and bigjigs are fab. We have most of our brio second hand from Facebook and they are so much better quality than the others in my experience (working in a school I’ve seen most of the different versions!).
Electric trains are always a hit too.

Also had brio for mine

My main advice is the ones with wooden track and then plastic joining bits are much less durable than all wood.

Echo this. Go for all wood.

IKEA also do wooden track sets that are also interchangeable with Brio and are very good value.

Brio or Big Jigs. Some of the others were definitely of poorer quality, lidl was really bad. Lots on second hand sites or we always found some great sets in TK Maxx.

I would also choose stations etc that have integrated track, not ones that sit alongside the track.

Points, curved pieces, buffers, male and female pieces and tracks that zig zag are really useful when making a bigger layout.

Thank you all! Sounds like I won't go too wrong. Will definitely be needing to buy a Thomas as she loves him atm so good to know it should work with most. I think I shall start with brio/big jigs as she will get money from family so it gives a good 'thing' to spend it on!

1 pack of ikea track is handy. It has plastic connectors which can be pushed out and slotted in to other lives to make male/male or female/female pieces, which you will need at some point when building tracks.

John Lewis have some great add on pieces that are super reasonable. Like the train garage, bridges and train wash.

We inherited Brio from a friend and added in more IKEA tracks and then some Big Jig pieces and all of the John Lewis additions.

I have been buying trains and track for years.
My advice would be the track itself doesn't have to be expensive but the bridges, train sheds etc are what really make a difference.
We have track from all over it all goes together but then buy nicer bits to go along with it.
Thomas trains were such a hit in this house too.
Enjoy x