The number of brands and different “gauge”
(size/compatibility) of tracks makes building up your child’s train track
collection from scratch an overwhelming challenge. When we started out, we had several
misdirects and learned some lessons the hard (and expensive!) way. I hope I can save you some time and some
money by sharing with you some of the lessons I learned. This particular post will not be
all-encompassing, but there will be more to come!
Today’s post will be focused on starting up your train track
collection. These are the major considerations.
After “Choosing Track Type”, all other sections are focused specifically
on the Wooden Railways.
Choosing Track Type
Choosing the “gauge” of your track and then following it
consistently is perhaps the most important decision you can make. In our early days of train toy collecting, we bought anything that looked fun and assumed it would all be compatible. It's not! Even within the Thomas
brand, there are several gauges to choose from.
The different gauges I am
aware of include: Wooden Railway,
Take-n-Play (plastic), and TrackMaster (plastic, with motion). Of course, it's easy to tell the difference between a wooden and a plastic track, but it is more difficult to tell the difference between the train engines and cars. They are
close enough in size that looking at a picture online will not give you enough
information to determine compatibility, so you have to look for subtle clues.
http://amzn.to/1ai9sQM
Wooden Railway gauge
The method of connection for
each track type is different. As you
might expect, this means the trains you buy for the track are also
different. Each type has a slightly
different tread width (width between wheels).
If you are trolling Craigslist, again, look for the subtle clues to show
you which track type:
http://amzn.to/1aROdYh
Wooden Railway trains
http://amzn.to/1aROBpL
TrackMaster trains
http://amzn.to/HlZE1p
The wooden railway and Take-n-play trains are the most deceptively similar. Both have magnets for coupling and fully functional wheels. I ended up with a set of each because I couldn’t tell the difference. But if you look closely, the wooden railway engines have round magnets and larger wheels. The Take-N-Play have little cube-shaped magnets with rounded corners. Their tread width (width between front wheels) is narrower, and their wheels are smaller.
I don’t have much experience with the TrackMaster, but from
what I can tell, they are easier to tell apart.
They are slightly larger, have a cheaper finish, and feel less dense. I
am pretty certain these are not compatible with GeoTrax, but edits are
appreciated!
Brands and Compatibility
There are numerous brands out there. Doug and Melissa, Orbrium, Thomas, and Chuggington are the more common brands we’ve encountered. The good news: if they have the rounded magnets they are
almost always compatible (mostly).
Generally the tread width will be a perfect match. But on some of the trains the height of the
magnets may not line up perfectly, but they will still couple up just fine (and
they are slightly more likely to uncouple if you let them go free down a
hill). In the case of the Chuggington
trains, the trains are much taller than virtually all of the other brands. They
will work just fine on your Thomas train set provided you don’t have any short
tunnels. Most wooden trains seem to be about 2” tall,
and we have some that are 2.5” tall. I
think the Chuggington trains are 3” but we don’t own any. On my
custom built track, I started learning a little about the needed
clearances. Generally a tunnel needs to
be least 3” tall, adding at least another inch if you want a Chuggington train
(I haven’t measured for Chuggington). 3”
should accommodate the track plus the train.
Tips for Building a Wooden Railway
Having some idea of what to expect when building a railway
may help you avoid unneeded purchases, especially EXPENSIVE unneeded
purchases. You will have a myriad of
things you CAN build into your track:
hills, curves, junctions, roundhouses and other buildings, scenery (such
as trees or little people), signals and signs, and of course the trains.
Hills
A standard hill seems to be about 2.5” from “bottom to
bottom”. If you plan to have any
elevated track, that 2.5” is enough to fit most trains (plus the track which
runs underneath) “just barely”, but only if the elevated track spans between
supports rather than resting on top of a structure. If you get a slightly taller train or you try
to do something like cross under another track
with the bottom of a hill, then you are likely to have interference
issues. You can expect to have at most a
quarter inch vertical play if you want to try to shim something to make it a
little taller. In a future segment, I’ll
talk about how to easily build hills to a custom height. Until
then, if you are planning your own custom hill, what I have discovered is 6
inches may be too tall, 2.5 inches is too short. 4 inches is probably about right.
Straight Track
Fortunately, there’s a lot more “play” in lining up tracks
side to side. Any given track piece has
a certain amount of side to side play to allow to tracks to line up and
join. The amount of play varies brand to
brand, but generally it will be about 5 degrees. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to get out
protractors and compasses to lay out your track ahead of time. You can just have fun following your
imagination in building a track and count on having enough adapter pieces of
various sizes to “make it fit”.
Sometimes the fits will be tight, sometimes a little loose.
While we are talking about making it all fit, perhaps the
most important rule you can follow is to have a lot of different size pieces,
particularly the straight runs, have lengths as small as two inches and
male-to-male and female-to-female adapters, you probably will need at least one
for every “line” on your track.
Turns
Virtually every “turn” piece I’ve encountered covers a 45
degree arc, so you always need two pieces to make a 90 degree turns. There are generally only two different 45
degree arcs: a small and a large. They have a different radius, but they both cover
45 degrees. Both are useful, the narrow
radius is great for tight corners, but the larger radius is useful if you need
to turn at the bottom of a hill and you don’t want a runaway train to derail
Wooden
curves, different radius, but same 45 degree arc
Junctions
Junctions, oh are they ever confusing! They are the most common reason you need the
male and female adapters. Referring back
to Figure 3, that 90 degree “T” is the most valuable piece you can buy in terms
of versatility. The other 45 degree
junctions are great, too, better for tight spaces.
Price Hints
Finally, let’s talk about
MONEY.
The really short answer
is: $100 ought to get you a nice used starter
train set including table, track and some nominal trains. For this price, expect some wear on the table
and maybe even the tracks and minor blemishes on the trains.This can be an expensive hobby. Craigslist is the friend of the cost conscious. Much of our collection has come by swooping in on our friends who decide to sell off their trains, stalking craigslist (during the early build-up phase), and just by lucking into something at a yard sale. Your best bet is to know what something costs “new” so you can decide if that used item is of value. A 2’x2’ off-brand train table (very small) will run you about $90 new, deals aplenty for $60. A more common 40”x60”-ish train table will run anywhere from $100-$300 depending on how fancy it is and what pieces come with it. Amazon is a great place to comparison shop prices. Individual straight and curve track segments cost $1-2, while that most valuable “T” costs around $8. If you are at a yard sale and you see a box full of pieces, if you can pay less than $1 a piece, I promise you have gotten a good deal. Our best score was a 40x60 table with a full set of trains, tracks and bridges for $40 at a yard sale. New brand name trains run about $10-20 each, and off-brand trains that kids would still like can be had for as cheap as $5.
What do our kids like?
How much quality can you
sacrifice in buying used pieces? In our
experience, the kids don’t notice the condition of the track. They don’t care about the wood color, and
they would only notice pieces that don’t fit well and cause derailing or
decoupling. They DO care about the
trains they get. While they will play
with the cheapest train engines, they seem to prefer the ones with some detail,
even if that detail is painted. In the
attached picture, which do you think the kids would prefer? At first, I thought I had to get the Thomas
character engines, which can run as high as $20 (new). My kids never play with these. They also tend to shy away from the cheap
wooden engines with no detail. My kids
would much prefer the middle engine to the other two. My son’s new favorite engine cost $5 at
Cracker Barrel and is similar to the pictured middle engine (he strongly
prefers steamies to diesels though). I
think in general, our kids also prefer the trains that have “features” like
articulating wheel assemblies, smooth turning wheels, maybe even lights or
whistles (we don’t have any of those -- yet!).
Anything which will allow them to run the trains a little faster or be
able to push them and let them go a ways on their own definitely makes them
more desirable.
Which do you think the kids prefer? Ours prefer the middle one
Bringing it back to the station
In summary, while there are an overwhelming array of choices
and the prices can bust even a robust budget, if you do just a little
preparation you can buy more track which will allow you (and your child) more
opportunities to build custom tracks.
And it is the building of new tracks and then playing in those new
configurations that our children have found the most fun and I have found the
most rewarding. So that’s my final
tip: if you think you need to screw down
your tracks so they don’t move, I would suggest against it, or at least not the
whole thing. Allow yourself extra track
and the ability to re-arrange the tracks so your creativity can flow!
All aboard!
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