Brio - in particular the smart track / engine

[Biscuitsandtea]

Gi,

Can anyone suggest a shop that sells a good range of Brio?

In particular I'd be keen to get one of those 'smart engines', but don't seem to be find them new anywhere online. I've looked on JL, the Entertainer, Toys R us, Amazon etc. you can still get the track bits on amazon but they're no good without the engine.

I've looked on eBay too but would kind of prefer new as its for a present.

Any suggestions?

Well that should have started with 'Hi'

Ds got a smart engine at some point. It was quite clever and everything but it only lasted a few weeks before it died so I owuldn't bother personally. Think MIL got it from TK Maxx.

Is that the range where the trains stop/start at the smart track? If so, I'm almost certain that it works with any battery operated brio train. I had the same problem last year when looking for an engine.

It is yes, but I thought it needed to have the micro chip in the train?

Ah, I've just had a look at what DS has and it's the auto stop start track and station (which def does work with all battery engines). I looked everywhere for the smart track stuff (over a year ago) and apart from odd bits of track it was out of stock everywhere.

Ah maybe I'll investigate that instead then - at least it gives a bit more variety. Presumably the smart engines are a bit crap (?) if they're still unavailable a year later!

My guess is they were discontinued but shops still had stock of bits of track etc. DS seemed happy with the autostop stuff though these days it's all about Thomas engines and accessories!