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The Play Trains! Guide to Wooden Train Sets: expert advice on the best wooden train set to buy for your little engineer.

The Play Trains! Guide to the Best Wooden Train Sets 2021

Searching for the best wooden train set for your child? I've turned my expert eye on the wooden train sets that currently on the market so that you can make an informed choice. A train set can sound good on paper, but there's nothing like hands-on play to tell you whether it's going to be the right ...

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Wooden Train Track Stacking with Vegetables -- a fun way to get little engineers interested in veggies!

Wooden Track Veggie Stack: a Wooden Train Activity

What do you do when you want to introduce your children to all the wonderful things that the world has to offer, but all they want to do is play trains? You bring the world to the train set! If anything has ever exemplified this philosophy of mine, it's this wooden train track and toy vegetable ...

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Handcrafted, realistic wooden trains: a review of Whittle Shortline Railroad

Whittle Shortline Railroad Review: Realistic Wooden Trains

Does your child like real trains? The bright colors and friendly faces found on many wooden trains appeal to a lot of children, but there are also plenty of kids who really want their toys to look like the real thing. And if you're looking for wooden trains that truly look like real trains -- or ...

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Dreamup Toys Wooden Train Set with DUPLO-compatible Block Platforms

Dreamup Toys Wooden Train Set Review

Children love to combine their DUPLO blocks and LEGO bricks with their wooden train sets. But, if you've ever tried it in your home or classroom, you probably have had the same experience we did, with the tracks sliding off the blocks and bricks. That's why I thought Dreamup Toys block platforms ...

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The Play Trains Ultimate Wooden Train Guide: The Best Wooden Train Tables for Toddlers and Preschoolers

Best Train Tables — The Ultimate Wooden Train Guide

Along with wooden train sets, wooden train tables are a classic feature in the children's playroom at home and the preschool classroom. It can be hard, however, to get an idea of all the options that are out there -- after all, I consider myself a pretty expert train stuff finder at this point, and ...

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DIY Rainbow Wooden Train: beautiful, vibrant, non-toxic dye brightens up a wooden train set, inspired by the book 150+ Screen-Free Activities for Kids! Perfect for playing out the classic board book, Freight Train by Donald Crews.

DIY Rainbow Train Set

The unfinished surface of wooden train tracks makes an excellent canvas for all kinds of creativity! And ever since I found a new source for unpainted wooden train cars, I've been working on a number of different DIY train sets to share with you. This first one is the one I'm most excited to share ...

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Jingle Bell Coupling Chains for Wooden Trains: a fun, hands-on science exploration for Christmas or any time of year from Play Trains!

Jingle Bell Coupling Chains for Wooden Trains

Here's a jingle bell train activity we did last year, but I never managed to write about the photos -- which means I've been looking forward to posting this for twelve months now! My son has always been very interested in couplers and coupling chains. For a long time, when I'd want him to hold my ...

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Jingle Trains: how to temporarily turn wooden trains into wooden train jingle bell shakers! Fun for ringing along with Christmas carols or for music activities all year long. http://play-trains.com/

Wooden Train Jingle Bell Shakers

We love experimenting with adding other sensory elements to wooden train play. Adding sounds to our trains always is especially fun, and these wooden train jingle bell shakers are no exception. This is the perfect way to get child who loves trains involved in making music, whether that's Christmas ...

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Do you really need a train table? Honest advice and the pros and cons of train tables from a wooden train expert and mom. http://play-trains.com/

Do You Need a Train Table? — The Play Trains! Ultimate Wooden Train Guide

Do you need a train table? The best decision regarding whether a train table is worth the cost and the space will be different for every family and school. So let's go through the pros and cons of train tables, things I've learned through lots of experience and through talking with other parents and ...

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Temporary alternatives to gluing wooden train tracks down to a wooden train table, recommended by Play Trains!

Alternatives to Gluing Wooden Train Tracks to a Train Table

Many parents decide that gluing wooden train tracks to their child's train table is the way to go. If you've ever watched a toddler playing with a wooden train set -- tracks being pulled apart, bridges getting knocked over, the child getting frustrated, and parents rebuilding the layout over and ...

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Train Gifts for Kids: Pink Trains, Train Sets, and Train Accessories

Pink Train Sets, Toy Trains, and Gifts for Kids

Girls can play with any color of trains, and boys can play with any color of trains -- plain and simple! I consider all of the trains I recommend here on Play Trains! to be for both boys and girls. However, while one shouldn't assume that trains for girls have to be pink, if a girl likes the color, ...

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Autumn Zoo Train Play from Play Trains!

Autumn Zoo Train Play

Looking through photos from last year, I found this fun fall-themed zoo train activity. The Little Engineer and I came up with it by combining the loose parts from our October Moon Train Play activity with our DIY Zoo Train Set. I thought it was a great way to show how the activities we share and ...

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The Play Trains! Ultimate Wooden Train Guide -- Freight Cars

Wooden Train Freight Cars — The Play Trains! Ultimate Wooden Train Guide

One of the most common questions I get is, "Where do you find all of the freight cars for your wooden trains?" And it's no wonder, because many of our wooden train activities make use of freight cars to hold seasonal objects, sensory and learning materials, and other fun stuff. Here, I'll answer the ...

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Super easy way to make a DIY outdoor wooden train "table"...no tools required to make this mini garden railway!

DIY Outdoor Train Table: a Wooden Train Garden Railway

I'm always trying to think of ways to bring the Little Engineer's favorite indoor activities and toys outside. I've wanted to make a "train garden" on an outdoor train table for a long time now. But I was always put off by the thought of all the work it would be to design and build one. Until this ...

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Fourth of July Wooden Train Play from Play Trains!

Fourth of July Wooden Train Play

Happy Fourth of July! As I type this, I'm listening to the fireworks that (still) boom and crackle around our neighborhood. But at least the Little Engineer is finally asleep, instead of running around our backyard in the dark with giant glow stick rings, throwing them in the air and shouting, ...

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Pencil Box Wooden Train Set: a portable, travel-friendly way to bring wooden trains on adventures from Play Trains!

Pencil Box Portable Train Set

I was getting ready to photograph a different portable train set, one we've taken with us many times in the past, when I had an idea. No, a challenge. I managed to fit a train small world in a pencil box, I thought. I would be pretty awesome if I could fit a complete wooden train set in ...

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LEGO Ewok Village Wooden Train Layout from Play Trains!

LEGO Ewok Village Wooden Train Layout

Last week, I showed you a couple of fun tricks for combining LEGO with wooden trains: one for getting minifigures to ride wooden trains without falling off, and one for temporarily turning wooden trains into LEGO wooden trains that can be customized any way a child can imagine. Today, I wanted to ...

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An easy, temporary way to turn any wooden train into a LEGO train. A fun design project for kids from Play Trains!

Design Your Own LEGO Wooden Train

Early on, the Little Engineer developed an interest in designing his own wooden trains. I've often wished that LEGO made a train that was compatible with wooden train tracks, but could be customized with any LEGO bricks he wanted to use. The answer was to make our own LEGO wooden train hybrid! By ...

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A simple trick to give Lego minifigs a way to ride wooden trains -- from Play Trains!

Lego Minifigures and Wooden Trains: Tips and Tricks

This is a great way to combine old favorite toys with awesome new toys as kids grow. While LEGO DUPLO figures are a little big to go with wooden trains, LEGO minifigures are a very compatible size. They fit in the wooden train freight cars -- but, more often than not, they fall out as the trains ...

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Valentine's Day in Vicarstown: a book-inspired wooden train activity from Play Trains!

Valentine’s Day in Vicarstown: Book Review and Wooden Train Layout

The Little Engineer and I enjoy taking what we read and acting it out in play. Often, this means playing it out with our wooden trains. (Big shock, I know.) I think there's a lot to be learned from adapting a book to another form of storytelling. Also, we're hoping the photos of our layout might be ...

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Top DIY Train Projects for Kids 2013 from Play Trains!

Top DIY Train Projects for Kids 2013

I'm back with one last list of our most popular posts from 2013: our top DIY train projects for kids! Other than the stuffed animal engineer hats, these are all projects to make for or with kids for their wooden train sets. We've even used the mini light boxes with our wooden trains. Most of the ...

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Jessica Petersen, author of Old Tracks, New Tricks
Hi, I'm Jessica! We're so happy you've climbed aboard the Play Trains! express. Next stop: a trainload of fun and learning for your little engineer!

Our Book!

The Play Trains! Ultimate Wooden Train Guide -- Wooden Train Track: expert advice and product recommendations

Wooden Train Tracks — The Play Trains! Ultimate Wooden Train Guide

Copyright

Copyright © 2012 - 2023 Jessica Petersen, All Rights Reserved. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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Some product links on this site are affiliate links for products we think are worth checking out. The owner of this website is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program and the Lego Brand Retail Affiliate Program. Read our the rest of our disclosure policy here.
Building with Mini Light Boxes: Roller Coaster Tracks for Wooden Trains @ Play Trains!

Building with Mini Light Boxes: Wooden Train Roller Coaster Tracks

Train Track Counting Activity and Busy Bag from Play Trains!

Train Track Counting Activity and Busy Bag

Portable Small World: Pretend Model Train Set @ Play Trains! Come see how big the Little Engineer grinned the first time he put together this DIY train set you can take along to play anywhere!

Portable Small World: Pretend Model Train Set

Our Train Videos on YouTube

About Me

Hi, I'm Jessica! While playing trains for the last several years, my Little Engineer and I have had a lot of fun and learned so much together. I'm excited to share our discoveries with other people who have kids who love trains in their lives.

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Recent Posts

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  • The Play Trains! Guide to the Best Wooden Train Sets 2021
  • The Best Battery-Powered Wooden Trains
  • Wooden Track Veggie Stack: a Wooden Train Activity
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