Let's all play with wooden trains

[Ellie]

I've searched thE. Net and cant find a wooden train enthusiasts club therefore I propose we start the first.

Go to Ikea and buy a train set. How much you buy is up to you but the cheapest is a figure of eIght for £6.99 so you have no excuse.

I bought two figure of eights, a long viaduct, and some switches for under £25.

If you want to power it buy a brio electric engine off amazon for ten quid/

Build an imaginative track, take pictures of it, and share it here!

Icant be the Only person bemused by the endless possibilities of a wooden train set!

Yeah!

 

[Ellie]

So I bought a Brio electric train. It doesn't fit under the arches of the Ikea train set, is incredibly slow (a full circle in 33 seconds), can't pull many Ikea wagons, struggles over bridges, and is poorly made.

And it was 12 quid :|

It does however work fine with the Ikea tracks and wagons, I guess.

Anyway what I really want is some of the proper shit like:

 

[Ellie]

Also

Why does a station need a helipad

 

[Ellie]

I'm not mad! Tell me I'm not mad! Tell me!

 

[Toams]

Also

Why does a station need a helipad

You see it's for helicopters

 

[Ellie]

Primed my trains ready to paint, will post pics when they're done. I'm painting them realistically.

 

[Ellie]

So I'm going mad.

All primed black ready to paint.


[flash=552,406]http://bb.hbgames.tk/upload/train.swf[/flash]
(right click -> play)

 

[Ellie]

And yes, that is a working light


Probable source imagery:

 

[Venetia]

you are adorable :cute:

 

[Ellie]

Current wooden tracks look like this:

Very strong but very bulky and not very realistic.

My thoughts is to design a track where the wheels go on the outside, allowing for a beamed track bed and bevelled tracks.

This would also allow tracks to be closer to the ground and narrower, so as to look more realistic.

 

[Ellie]

Today I went to Tesco and bought:

£10

Bits of track, odd wooden bits, and a suspension bridge

The bridge is amazing.

I also bought a high speed train (£3) and a steam train (£3). The high speed train comes in engine and carriage configuration, which is rubbish because the carriage has the same magnet on each end. This means you can connect two engines and a carriage (leaving you with a useless spare carriage), and no more than one carriage each train

The steam train comes with just the engine and steam tender car, but can pull one (only one) HS carriage or the HS carriage and engine (which looks odd but works).

Much better quality than the Ikea lot, though no junctions or anything. They all work together though.

 

[Ellie]

High speed train:

Steam loco:

Together:

The Tesco track has much righter curves than Ikea to allow more complex layouts, however, while they can get around the following:

They struggle with changing directions and can't do this:

 

[Ellie]

Tesco do a remote controlled Pendelino, however it only comes with one engine, no carriages or reverse engine at all which is silly. It is also very poor quality and plastic. it is only £8 though.

 

[psiclone]

how are you buying these things for 10? only place i've seen these trains is at toys r us, and they're like a ridiculous amount of money. like 70 bucks for a set of like 10 track pieces and a train

 

[Ellie]

toys R us only really stock Brio trains which are amazingly expensive.

Tesco is a supermarket giant, and Ikea is Ikea.

I guess ebay is your best bet in wherever you live :/ although Asda (Walmart) also stock them! The bridge isn't as good as the Tesco bridge though:

Is the Asda one.

 

[Prexus]

I was going to say you have a crappy hardwood floor, but then I realized that is a table.

You have a crappy hardwood table.

Also I used to have sets of the Brio trains from over 20 years ago, that were worth a fortune. So I've sold those. They were fun as a kid, but I don't see the draw in wooden trains as a hobbyist. My grandfather has electric trains in his basement that I would love to inherit, the track runs the entire perimeter of his basement.

 

[Ellie]

My idea was to try and start up a company creating realistically scaled and carved wooden trains, as a poor man's electric train, however on finding out the price of CNC routers my dream was Shatnered.

 

[Ellie]

Latest ventures: bought another high speed loco and carriage (£3 for the two).

That leaves [loco]-[car]-[loco] configuration, due to the magnet limitations can't use both carriages without some modifications. But that's ok as that leaves a car free for the steam train:

 

[Ellie]

The nicest stations I've found are by Bigjigs toys:

A nice through station with two platforms;

Quite a small one.


I think building one from scratch would be better though, perhaps incorporating various elements from companies like bigjigs:

I mention a level crossing purely because that is the layout of Narborough Station, Leicestershire. The station has it's own level crossing as it makes sense - trains are stopped at the station allowing cars to go through.

 

[Ellie]

Tesco have started selling the high speed train in a shiny silver livery; shame I already bought the ones I need for now Ah well, there's always... the future.