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CommentsMelissa & Doug Deluxe Wooden Railway Set
From the Manufacturer This amazing set includes all rail fun: a great Roundhouse engine shed, dozens of tracks in curves and straights, trees, workers and even traffic signs! There are multi-piece trains and magnetic peaks cranes, switches and a T-junction for passing lanes! A suspension bridge, bridge and tripod roundtable, too! A huge potential! Age 3 + 28.75 x 17.75 x 6 Box 128 pieces Choo! Choo! There are hours of fun around the corner in luxury with this wooden railway series. Everything you nee Read more about Melissa & Doug Deluxe Wooden Railway Set
This train set is absolutely awesome — right out of the box. You can tell it has quality craftsmanship and from the start is a way better deal than the overpriced Thomas Train sets and track. My husband is a hobby woodworker and the first thing he said was “wow, this is much better quality than I was expecting for the price!”
I could not find another set with as many “goodies” as this one has (bridges, supports, roundhouse, two trains, etc), all in one box and WITHOUT a bunch of “extras” that a young child won’t play with. Most of the high piece count sets I saw online were 50% people, trees and signs — but this one is mostly all track, bridges and usable accessories! It comes with 2 trains and a little semi with a 5th wheel trailer that runs on the track as well — very cute!
The layout plans they send you (4 in the box) are super helpful to combine designs with a little time and effort or use their designs. We spent about $20 at Menards and bought a 4×4 sheet of pre-sanded plywood to anchor this set to. The hubby routed the corners and edges smooth, and trimmed it down to about 4×3′ to fit the train set. Then he predrilled and counter sunk screws into the track and the supports so everything is secured down. This is absolutely PERFECT setup for a 2 year old boy being, well, a 2 YEAR OLD! He’s rough and still learning fine motor skill control, so it’s much more fun to play on a set that doesn’t fall over with clumsy, rough play!
So my hubby made some extra risers out of 2×4’s and he built a “high rise” section of track to make one big “roller coaster” leg that went from end to end, sending the trains down the hill at a pretty fast clip, and our son giggles when they derail on the other end from such high speed!
We also purchased the Mountain Tunnel Accessory Set that looks not only realistic (way better than Imaginarium from Toys R Us and others we looked at), but also seperates into two pieces: the top comes off to make another tunnel, the bottom piece has two tunnels that criss-cross. Our son LOVES THIS! He can take the top piece off and put it over other places of the track all by himself. It’s pretty sturdy, thick and hard plastic, but not indestructible of course. It’s stood up to his rough play so far, and we’re VERY pleased with the quality and durability. Amazon was the best price and shipping (not free when I bought it) that I found online.
The two trains included with this set run perfectly around the track — the wheels/axles are placed at the very ends of the cars, which is absolutely necessary in design for the cars to go smoothly over the up or downward curves of hills. Otherwise, the ends of the car will catch on the track and the train will separate. We found this out when we used the big diesel train (3 piece set from Imaginarium @ Toys R Us) on the hills. While the diesel engine and the 3 axle car work fine, the 2 axle car catches because the axles are set farther in from the end. Melissa & Doug sell a very similar set and it will likely have the better design with no problems catching on the hills — so I recommend their set over the Toys R Us one I bought.
EXCELLENT BUY, EXCELLENT TOY — ALL the bells and whistles of the more expensive sets but at an affordable price and still a high quality set! Plus it is compatible with the big name cars and track (Thomas, Brio, etc). There are multiple manufacturers for THomas, however, and some of them have different sizes than others, so you have to watch. But if it fits on the regular size Thomas track, the cars AND the Thomas track are compatible with this set — so very handy. (We did a lot of research into this before buying!)
The roundhouse is VERY GOOD QUALITY, and every bit as good as the Thomas one we saw in Toys R Us. Our local store has a train set (secured to a table) set up at the store for the kids to play with — so we got a lot of ideas on setup from that, and also could have a hands on quality comparison. ALL THE PARTS to this set are good quality for a wooden set and we are absolutely, completely satisfied with this purchase.
So we recommend for the youngest engineers, that you anchor this set to a big piece of plywood or something, but just use screws and counter sink them, so they’re out of the way but you can take it apart later when the child is older and can handle rearranging it and putting together the track by himself. Our little guy can do this and we have other track that he can put together and play with, but the main set is MUCH MORE FUN for him with it secured, until he’s bigger and more coordinated!
We already have a little play table for him, so we made a small frame on the bottom of the trainset board to fit snuggly over the table we had and keep it from sliding or moving around. We can move this set to the floor or on the table, and even me, THE WIFE, can pick it up and move it without too much effort!
We added our customer pictures to the product images.
CHOOOOO CHOOOOOOO!
This set is wonderful and wonderfully priced too. We were going to buy the Thomas expansion set for $40 and when we saw this we bought it instead and got so much more! We use it with our Thomas and Brio trains and tracks and for a fraction of the price of the Thomas train sets you get a ton of tracks, trains and accessories. Great deal! We are going to get the Melissa and Doug train table also. It’s so much more reasonably priced than most other tables and even has a storage drawer that does not cost extra.
As I child (in the 1960s) my neighbors had a wooden train set. My favorite thing in the world was going over to their house to play with it. Later I got a cheap imitation plastic one, but still spent hours and hours playing with it. So when I saw this in a local toy store I snagged it for my children last Christmas.
I was very pleased that the track seems to be made of solid oak that will last forever. I like the two trains that came in the set, and how the cars work with the loading and unloading facilities. I like the diversity and quantity of pieces.
I am disappointed with the quality of the turntable. It is hard for a child to turn and jams regularly.
I am really disappointed in the geometry of the pieces. It is supposed to take 8 curved pieces to make a circle so each curved piece should be exactly 45 degrees in curvature. This is not true. Even in the simple circles the short curves require the slop in the connections to make it fit. It really takes 9 pieces to make a nice circle with them. Then there is the turnouts. The curved section of the turnout should match a big curve track exactly. They are short by over 1/8″. The straights come in 6″, 2″, and an odd ball 4.25″? At first I thought this was intentional to make up the difference for a reverse curve coming off a switch track. Unfortunately this is not true with either the short or long curves. The only way to make a nice siding is to use enough pieces that the slack can force the configuration. Properly designed track pieces would make it easy to build standard configurations without the joints straining to make it work right.
Finally the track layouts they provide in the few instruction sheets are difficult to build (especially for young children) and worse to run. It is like the person designing them threw them together because they looked good and consumed most of the pieces in the set. Many of them (including the one on the cover) don’t even have the same distance of straight on the opposite sides of the oval. The errors in the usage of curved tracks is even worse. It is impossible to teach a child good geometric concepts using the plans provided with the set.
3.0 out of 5 stars
lots of work for parents
I have a three year old who is obsessed with trains. There is nothing wrong with the quality of this product.
4.0 out of 5 stars
all aboard
The train set is wonderful. Our grandson just loves it.It comes with many accessories to keep any child busy and hold his/her interest.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very nice
Very good quality. I have seen better quality products in commercial settings, so this is not the top of the line.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great set for a great price.
My nephew loves this set – it joins up well with his other sets and it’s nice that this one has a lot of the small “joint” pieces that are missing in other sets.
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Wonderful Complete Train Set at a Bargain Price
I can’t say enough great things about this train set. It is well made and has enough pieces to make a very interesting layout.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great set
My almost 2 year old loves this train set. We had to create our own layout because my son kept tearing down the bridges, but that just means that this will keep him entertained…
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great, but doesn’t fit Thomas trains
this set is awesome, and super durable, but the Thomas trains are too big to fit.
5.0 out of 5 stars
The BEST train set!
This has EVERYTHING! We got this for Christmas, and it was around $70 at the time I think. Anyway, I was very impressed with how many different set-ups you can do (directions) or…
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great wooden railroad tracks
This is a great product! The biggest selling point for us is that the connectors are actually part of the track and not a glued in piece. Each track piece is one piece.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Wooden Train Set
My husband and I bought this set for our 2 year old son for Christmas and he loves it. We wanted something that would be compatible with other sets or trains, to be able to add…
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black friday 2009
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