I miss my wooden train and todays stuff doesn't help

Well, my friend, in an enigmatic way, we all may be in a similar situation, from the standpoint that we may never be able to achieve the childhood dreams of building that grand railroad empire. For me, it was Gumby and Pokey shows that widened my imagination. I wish I could return to those days, despite having one parent who was drunk all the time, they were good times.

@Paul Kallus posted:

Well, my friend, in an enigmatic way, we all may be in a similar situation, from the standpoint that we may never be able to achieve the childhood dreams of building that grand railroad empire. For me, it was Gumby and Pokey shows that widened my imagination. I wish I could return to those days, despite having one parent who was drunk all the time, they were good times.

its like that country song

you're gonna miss this you're gonna want this back ...

we wanna grow up and be big but once we're big everything stinks

now adays i have o gauge and the newest train simulator but its not the same as being 5 and taking over the house with an enormous wooden train

heck I had PSR on my wooden trains before it was cool

I think you'll find that having a child, grandchild, nephew, niece or even just a neighborhood child to entertain will bring back some of the joy.  Wooden trains are inexpensive and kids usually love them.  You still have a lot of life ahead of you with any good fortune.  Glass is usually half full, rather than half empty much of the time, in my experience.

Nothing can return what you lost, including those childhood years people who should have had better sense took from you. That said, you might keep an eye out at thrift shops and yard sales because old Brio sometimes shows up. Lots of track got lost, so many people learned to buy 3” furring strips and use the nearest woodworking equipment to replace it. It’s not the simplest thing at first, but it turns into that and anyone can have full trackage rights through the living room.

If you don’t mind plastic, a 3D printer can also crank out tons of track, locomotives and rolling stock. If it needs to be wood, and I fully understand that (if you think model trains are fussy, you haven’t met a crocheter who absolutely has to have Bates rather than Boye hooks…🙄) Wal-Mart nearly always has wood starter sets at Christmastime. The quality isn’t original Brio, but it does work.

Always remember: it’s never too late to have a great second childhood, and today is the best time to start.

@Becky, Tom & Gabe Morgan posted:

Nothing can return what you lost, including those childhood years people who should have had better sense took from you. That said, you might keep an eye out at thrift shops and yard sales because old Brio sometimes shows up. Lots of track got lost, so many people learned to buy 3” furring strips and use the nearest woodworking equipment to replace it. It’s not the simplest thing at first, but it turns into that and anyone can have full trackage rights through the living room.

If you don’t mind plastic, a 3D printer can also crank out tons of track, locomotives and rolling stock. If it needs to be wood, and I fully understand that (if you think model trains are fussy, you haven’t met a crocheter who absolutely has to have Bates rather than Boye hooks…🙄) Wal-Mart nearly always has wood starter sets at Christmastime. The quality isn’t original Brio, but it does work.

Always remember: it’s never too late to have a great second childhood, and today is the best time to start.

well wooden trains are extremely robust and reliable and you can stage a pretend end of the world disaster

like this

https://youtu.be/K0G-KQ5BriY

something you can't do with o gauge

sadly i really do think my wooden train days are over as i live with my godparents and they say i'm way too old for wooden trains even though i still enjoy hot wheels

plus i already have a lionel set under the tree and i think it would be greedy to get both wooden and lionel trains in the same year

Who says we have to give up wooden trains? Years ago I found this beauty in an antiques shop in Copenhagen, made by Kai Boysing, apparently a famous Danish designer of toys. This has been a favorite for many years...

@HiramO posted:

Who says we have to give up wooden trains? Years ago I found this beauty in an antiques shop in Copenhagen, made by Kai Boysing, apparently a famous Danish designer of toys. This has been a favorite for many years...

both sets of parents say so

unless something changes my wooden train days are over

i got o gauge though and train simulator

but whittle shortline is extremely tempting

Try looking for Holgate trains/toys on internet.  They made a variety of wooden trains/toys, and many are listed for sale

When I was five, my mother put a wooden engine that she thought I wasn't using into a school rummage sale.  I indignantly marched up to her and demanded a quarter so that I could buy it back... 

Held onto the little bugger until it disappeared in a move years later.   

Mitch

I had contemplated getting some Brio (or equivalents) to set up and test track plans for their operational capabilities. If they were satisfactory to me, fine. If not,  then rip it up and re-arrange the pieces.

Cody

You can increase you love and joy for a wooden train it make your own wooden train.  You will really be invested in it, enjoy planning and building it and appreciate it way more than one you just buy.

Charlie

Some people collect them...  On Ebay I've seen mint sell for quite a bit!  Get yourself a shelf, and start collecting.  Do what makes you happy.  Some people just don't understand hobbies.  There are people that collect tops, erector sets, farm toys you name it.  There really isn't any difference from one thing to the next.

Strombecker made kits of the earliest trains (such as Dewitt Clinton)  I think in the 1960's and 70's.  I collected some of the kits at train shows and built some in recent years.  I'm 78, no one told me I was too old for wooden trains.

Bill

Didn't they sometimes gave a separate gathering at York for fans of wooden, cast iron, and other floortoys, so have at it!  I built many of the "O-sized" Strombecer kitsd and wished l could power them ro run with Marx.

I still have a bunch of wooden trains, track, and accessories in a bucket in my room. I haven't played with the stuff in a while, but I have some cool stuff, including a homemade roundhouse, a working sawmill that cuts logs in half (the log halves are held together with magnets), a bit of Thomas the Tank Engine stuff, bridges, track and switches, and a big mountain (also homemade).

A Wooden Homemade Toy train just to keep this topic going.

While planning the layout, accumulating material, track, switches, etc. in Jamaica in 1976, I built a wooden toy train pull toy for my young son and baby daughter.   This train now has been also enjoyed by my seven grandchildren, the youngest now 12.  The train was made from scrap ½ inch, ¾ inch wood and a heavy mailing tube for the loco.  The wheels were cut with a 2 ¼ inch hole saw (2 ½ for loco drivers) and an electric hand drill.

The crane car has a wooden tooth gear to hold the cable in position.  The search light car was made from a discarded flashlight reflector and head and powered with flashlight batteries.

Pictures of Tootle Wooden pull train including Coal Tender, Gondola, Flat Car, Searchlight Car, and Crane Car and Red Caboose.

Charlie

Wooden trains currently at Menard's, note the tan boxes on the right:

When my oldest son was about 6, my wife's Mom, in her 70's, used part of her meager income to buy a simple Brio train  set for him.  She found it at a store near Disney World in FLA, where we had taken the whole family in a 'just in case' scenario for my 6 year old son who was about to have open heart surgery in a few weeks.  Over the years, that set has been played with countless times, track, cars, trains, accessories added for birthdays and Christmas, with the trains being pushed along an encyclopedia of track plans from the minds of children.  Now, that same oldest son at age 43, has his 4 year old daughter playing with the same set.  This picture is of her, and it will be hard to believe, but she set this whole track up by herself, only needing my help when a piece did not fit the way she wanted it.  My oldest and his brother, and I, set up many a Lionel layout on the floor in our house over the years, complete with return loops, crossings, blocks and signals, but never had a table layout for them.  Remains to be seen if I can get my granddaughter to catch the O gauge bug, but I am trying.  One note in the 'find a use for everything' world I grew up with where both my parents were adults during the Great Depression, dad and mom being born in 1908 and 1913, respectively, are those brown triangle shaped 'mountains'.  They were the corner protectors for a roll top desk that was in a huge cardboard box, bought from Home Depot when it was a brand new business.  There are actually 8 of them, 4 for the desk and 4 for a matching file cabinet, but she only wanted a two mountain range that day. The corner protector became Brio mountains, and the roll top desk is still the land of bill paying and model building.