Easy DIY Valentine Freight for Wooden Trains

Here’s one of my favorite things the Little Engineer and I came up with for the Valentine’s Day in Vicarstown layout:  DIY valentine freight to load into the Troublesome Trucks! I was just going for visual effect when I started on these easy-to-make felt hearts, but they have a nice, firm, and fuzzy tactile aspect that makes me want to pick them up and move them from car to car.  They feel more substantial than they should, like they might even last us a while. A year after originally writing this post, they still look great!

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While the felt hearts look especially nice with wooden trains, these valentines would work with other kinds of toy trains as well. So if your Trackmaster or Take-n-Play trains are feeling festive this February, they could pull their own Valentine’s Day freight, too.

How to Make Felt Heart Freight

We used a pack of felt heart stickers that came in a nice variety of colors and three different sizes.

Find two bigger hearts and one (or two) smaller heart. Stick the two bigger hearts back-to-back and put the smaller heart on top. You can put a smaller heart on the backside as well, or even stack multiple sizes on one side, but it’s optional.

Ideas for Valentine Train Play

It doesn’t take long to fill a few freight cars with these cheerful valentines. The trains can deliver them from station to station, bring them to a big Valentine’s Party at Tidmouth Sheds, or give them to each other or their drivers. Maybe all the valentines on the Island of Sodor have gone missing — oh no! — and the engines have to hunt around the island to find them all. Or perhaps Sir Topham Hatt is looking for the perfect valentine for Lady Hatt, and he enlists Thomas’ help. That could be a fun way to practice following directions and identifying colors and sizes

We’ve used the felt hearts in two different Valentine’s Day activities:

Valentine Counting Activity with Thomas and Friends

Building a Book-inspired Valentine’s Day in Vicarstown Wooden Train Layout

Train Books and Gifts for Valentine’s Day:

The Little Engine That Could’s  Valentine’s Day Surprise	Thomas in Town: Valentine’s Day in Vicarstown
Thomas’ Valentine Party	NameTrain Heart

More train activities and ideas for Valentine’s Day:

Building a Valentine’s Day in Vicarstown Book-inspired Wooden Train Layout

You’ll find lots of ideas for decorating a wooden train layout for Valentine’s Day in this literacy activity, inspired by the Thomas & Friends book, Valentine’s Day in Vicarstown.

Train Valentines Round-up

Looking for train valentines for your little engineer to hand out? I had a hard time getting train valentines the first year I looked for them, so I tracked down as many as I possibly could to share here. Here are some great train Valentine’s Day cards available online, and a list of free printable train valentines as well.

DIY Train Track Valentines

If you’re looking for an unusual — and unusually pretty — train valentine for your child, these DIY train track valentines might be just the thing!

DIY Engineer Stripe Heart Pendants

These make beautiful gifts for train lovers (or the mothers of train-loving kids) for Valentine’s Day — or any other special day!

Valentine Counting Activity with Thomas and Friends

Another fun activity inspired by Valentine’s Day in Vicarstown. The Little Engineer still asks to play this one a year later.

DIY Felt Valentine Train Play Set

A pretty and engaging felt train play set that’s quick to make for Valentine’s Day.