Hi Ladies,
My Son is really into Thomas the Train. I was wondering how do you get the wooden track to stay together. I've looked at the train track they have set up at Toys R Us thinking they used some sort of clip but they nailed there track all down. I was wondering how other people keep there tracks together. Thanks in advance for your help.
Can you use sticky tack to temporarily hold it together while they are playing with it? I dont know how much space is between the peices and how that would effect play (bumps in the track, wheels getting stuck, etc). But then you could put it in a bag and use it the next time!
SZ
You could buy little clip things made to hold the wooden tracks together but I really don't see the point.
One reason that makes trains such a great open-ended toy is that kids can change the layout. It's a great early introduction to geometry and higher math (angles and such trying to get the curves to line up correctly) and good for logic building. I know little kids take it apart alot, but isn't that the whole point? My kids now range from age 6 to age 1 and all love our wooden trains. All of them went through a stage, around age 1, when they just destroyed it as soon as it was together but they learned pretty quickly to leave it in one piece if they wanted to drive the trains on it (I only rebuild a track layout once a day). My 15 month old just ended this phase... now she's trying to put track together and just yesterday figured out how to make the tracks go in a circle so she can drive the trains in a circle. She was so proud of herself.
My kids hate playing with the train tracks at the Children's Museum and other places where they are glued down... they love being able to reconfigure the track to soemthing they want. Just driving trains around an existing track gets pretty boring pretty quickly and they lose interest.
My son re-designs his track almost everyday and he has fun doing it. Are you want to make the track permanant?
Is he setting up the tracks on hardwood floor or on the carpet? I've noticed that they slide a bit more when played with on a hardwood floor and don't stay together as well. When they're on the carpet though, they stay put and are easier to play with. My son is also obsessed with Thomas the train so we've handled every type of track. Hope this helps!
We take our track apart almost every night/time we get them out. We like to rebuild each time and see what new things we can come up with. He's pretty gentle with the track while playing with it so it stays together during play.
The tracks aren't meant to stay together - they just do that at the store so people don't steal them. A big part of the fun is to take it apart and re-make it in different configurations.
We never put our tracks together permanently, but I know someone who bought the display model on the Thomas train table from Hobbytown USA and it was all glued with some special hobby glue. I would call a hobby store that sells Thomas and ask them if they can offer suggestions. Hope it helps!
You can get a product called SureTrack Wooden Train Clips... it snaps on and secures the track, but it nice because it is not permnament and can be easily removed. I bought mine at KinderHaus toys, but you can also buy them online... just google "SureTrack"
Long story short - we don't keep the tracks together! Both my boys have so much fun putting together new track designs and layouts. It's part of the creative process (and good problem solving too!). So I would suggest leaving the tracks loose and letting your son go to town with them!
We used hot glue after the first set and I seemed to be picking up the track more than he was playing with it.
yeah, we love putting together different tracks. i think your son would lose interest pretty quickly if the track was glued/nailed down. also, it's more fun to put the tracks on the floor-- there's more room to make a big track that goes all over! (not to mention that crawling around is great for brain development...)
Our 4 year old is OBSESSED with Thomas! We have the wooden track and the take-a-long tracks. The wooden ones are not meant to be permanently attached, it gives the kids more creativity to change their station. Our son changes his, if not once a day, several times a day. We bought him the train table so he can store his engines on one side and track in the other, it has worked out great! If you start to add to his set, you will notice the possibilities are endless. Enjoy!
I think they're meant to be taken apart and put back together. Our daughter has a wooden one, and takes it apart and puts it back together all the time. I think there are tracks that can be made "more permanent"...there's a train set at the Barnes & Noble on Hwy. 37 in NOblesville that's on a table that's maybe a foot high....that might be something to go take a look at to see how they've done it.
Good luck!
