Train tracks - am I being dim, or is the set wrong?

[splishsplosh]

I've recently bought a wooden train track set from Tesco, and as the dc really enjoy it, bought some additional track, also from Tesco.

The box of additional track pieces contains 2 switch tracks - but they are both the same configuration - with 1 sticky out bit, and 2 holes (technical terms there!)

Now maybe I'm being completely dim, but I just can't make the track connect up to make a closed system and think that 1 switch track needed to be the other way round - 2 sticky out bits, 1 hole - in order to work.

Am I right, in which case it's a really pointless collection - or am I doing something wrong?

Hope that makes some kind of sense!

Em, is it [[http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.215-0155.aspx this one?]

Not that I have an answer, but it's somewhere to start...

Brilliant.

this one?

...or they needed to offer sections which have holes or sticky-out bits at both ends so you can connect properly. Looking at the link, there is a comment from a reviewer which seems to suggest they had the same problem.
I'd write to Tesco and ask if they can show you what they think you should be able to do with the bits they provide...
This is just the sort of thing that Watchdog might like...?

I think the 'branch line' is maybe supposed to go to a dead end or a station or something, not to connect back into the loop?

DD has something like this

Those are the bits we got with a different make too. Seems whoever came up with the combinations wasn't thinking about loops, just sidings.

well it isn't a "set" as such is it... it isn't sold as a complete set that you can make a specific track with

it's just some extra pieces:

'Sidings'! That's the word I was looking for. You'd think after three years of Thomas The Fecking Tank Engine I'd remember the word siding.

Probably too busy trying to chew my own foot off to escape his tediously dull and crushingly moralistic 'adventures'. Sigh.

*Boulevard" yes that's the one

Maybe I was just being too ambitious then, envisaging creating some kind of layout where you could drive the trains round in different ways - it does say on the box it's an extension pack and that will help you build any kind of formation... well, any kind of formation as long as it ends in a dead end / sidings!

I did have a look on internet and found a different make where you could just buy 2 switch tracks, and they had one of each kind (1 hole, 2 sticky out pieces and vice versa) so there must be a demand for loops!

If I put the 2 identically configured switch pieces into the track, I seem to end up with 2 dead ends... just seems a bit disappointing

you can get small bits with the same configuration at each end for just this situation. BigJigs make them and probably the other makers too.

Companies that make wood train tracks (Brio or cheap knock-offs) do sell individual sets of points so you can get some that will fix back onto your track.

I loved ds's wooden train track but he's grown out of it. Although I did struggle to contain myself when he put it together All Wrong i.e. not the combination I'd have chosen. We ended up with bucketloads of the stuff - I loved putting together really complex layouts that wove in and out of all our furniture.

Btw, the original Thomas stories by Revd. Awdry were moralistic because they were written in the 50s - so you have to compare to Enid Blyton. Plus he was a vicar, of course.

They were all based on real life - Revd. Awdry was a steam railway enthusiast. Stuff such as the village cricket match where the ball ended up in a wagon and the players chased the train up hill and down dale really happened.

The one that always got me because I 'knew' the engine was the one about the little lost engine, left in his shed when the steam narrow gauge railway was closed. Always left me choked up. The real engine is called Prince and used to be on the Ffestiniog railway in N Wales, where my Dad used to go and play trains.

You need gender adaptors and we got ours from Ebay.

Just buy lots more track. You can get bits with two male or two female ends, but you may as well go on eBay and find a big job lot with those as well.

Lots of track really is worth it. Much more fun for parents

Thanks all, I'll look into it - the dc seem perfectly happy with a simple circuit, it's me who wants a more exciting system!

Still maintain though that the Tesco extension set is pretty annoying, as it's led to me needing to buy more track to utilise what's in their selection.