It just goes to show that if kids love a character, no obstacle is too great.

I’ve mostly succeeded. We own Thomas the Train railways, but it is a train set, not a bath set. That’s an important distinction for me. Also, Brio isn’t sold in any local stores. The few train cars I’ve picked up via garage sales have been plastic and that negates any affinity I might have had for the brand.

I don’t mind Thomas train sets because it stops there. We don’t own any other Thomas merchandise. My daughter has never expressed a desire for more.

I think the danger is in creating a snowball effect. We own Winnie the Pooh books (the originals plus some nice older Disney-made stories), and a plush Pooh. If I bought my daughter more plush characters from the Hundred Acre Wood and cemented an overriding interest in one set of characters, she would want them wherever she saw them in stores. That’s just a guess. It’s not a matter of moderation, but of being more guarded and having absolute limits.

Unfortunately, the snapping track is quite a bit harder for small toddler hands to put together than the wooden Thomas/Brio at Grandma’s. At 2.5, my daughter still needs a little help with a few of the Geotrax pieces (and she’s had it since she turned 2), but within a few months I think she’ll be able to do it all solo. This hasn’t stopped her from enjoying it, but the combination of this issue and the presence of passengers has meant we spend less time on track layout, and more time shuttling between various destinations to load, unload, and have discussions among passengers about where to go next.

Ashley, Eagle Mountain, eh? I went by the names on the box, but if a Thomas fan sees it as something more specific, great.

JMo, a correction… I *profiled* the Whittle Shortline Railroad based on the company’s website. Reviews contain the word “Review” in the title and discuss my family’s use of the product. I can’t recommend Whittle because I haven’t seen and used it, but I can say it looks interesting from afar.

As for your 2-year-old, I’d begin with basic track and building blocks like I did. My start-slow situation was influenced by my wife not caring for train toys, but another issue is whether a 2-year-old can handle the toys responsibly without banging them up. If it’s OK, then you can look at buying a large set from the start and then supervising play (the common age guideline is 3 years). But also, visit a toy store that has a train table first and see how your kid responds.

Tiffany, wooden railways and plastic Playskool trains are a world apart. I’d guess that many parents who invest in wooden railways have a visceral reaction to Playskool. If you don’t mind Playskool, then stay in that universe. As for the falling-apart problem, I’ve not experienced that. If you pick up the track, sure, it falls apart. If you bump elevated track, sure it falls apart, but fixing it is part of the fun and responsibility of building a train set.

STL Mom, I’ve a devout garage saler and I’ve seen wooden trains perhaps three times in four years. Maybe it’s my community, but the train sets seem to pass through other channels as prized possessions, having a higher resale value than *cough* Playskool and other plastic toys. In the previous paragraph I wrote “invest” instead of “buy” because wooden trains cost more than plastic and parents seem to hold onto them much longer and then sell them for more than their plastic counterparts. Visiting garage sales every week can quickly turn you off the glut of plastic everything out there.

I was thinking about the Whittle Shortline Railroad you reviewed in Dec.

Would love some advice…