Is there a Brio gauge?

I built a fold-up Brio/Thomas layout for my 3-year old grandson last year.  There is a very tight standard for the "gauge," track connectors, and rail height (groove depth), etc., used by the wooden toy train industry.  Brio, Thomas (Learning Curve), Chuggington, Doug and Melissa, and other brands of track.  Every brand I found would connect to and work with every other brand of track.  Every wooden toy train I bought no matter what company would fit and run well on any of the track.  The connectors between cars are magnetic on most brands and not os some and there is an incompatibility there, but otherwise . . . you can mix and match, and I did.

 

Some details about the track.  The cross-section (track thickness, groove gauge, depth, angle of the sides, etc., and the dimensions of connectors between tracks, all seems to be fixed by agreement or convention so tightly that all brands of track work with one another.  But there still are significant differences, to the point that mixing track, while workable, often is not the greatest idea.  I bought a lot of track (several hundred pieces) going to Amazon where I found several different no-name ("Made in Indonesia" or "Made in Malaysia") offerings of sets of assorted track pieces 50 and 100 pieces for about 10-15% of normal Brio and Thomas prices.  This track was well made (smooth, no splinters), fit Brio and Thomas track without problems, and quite serviceable - I used a lot of it.  But, often the diameter of curves was different (10.5 inches instead of 10 inches) and in one case a Malaysian set of track had nine, not eight curve pieces required to make a circle (I was really puzzled until I figured that out). 

 

A second detail and mixing brands is the magnetic coupler height.  Almost all the brands use a smooth round magnetic ball on the end of cars to attach them one to the other.  Its a system that works very well for these small trains, and that three-year olds can master quickly.  However, some companies put the coupler ball at different heights - maybe 7/17 above track level than 5/16 or something) enough that connecting cars of these two types makes one or the other not run really well. 

 

Despite all this, I found that by shopping around, by which mostly I perused Amazon's toy section with a search for "wooden toy train" and "wooden toy train track" - I found everything I wanted at big, big discounts.   

I have a fair amount of wooden trains from when my kids were little. Most of the trains were Brio, but we also have some wooden Thomas items that were made by TC Timber. They work together just fine.

 

I built my kids a table for the wooden trains, but I did not fasten anything down. I believe that a lot of the play value is in arranging and rearranging the track and scenery.

Brio used to make wooden trestle bents. I did fasten some trestle bents to pieces of straight and curved tracks so the bent stuck out and also covered  most of the bottom of the socket (thereby supporting the next piece). I did this because my kids had a tendency to knock them over. They still could arrange the elevated track in any fashion they wished.

I recently looked at the Brio web site. It appears the line has been cut back quite a bit.

After talking with people about this and watching kids play with two big tables of Brio, etc., at my LHS, I determined this guideline which I follow with my grandkids: for children under five or six, you want a fastened down set of track.  Certainly for a three-year old or younger.  As kids get to six or seven, they both can, and do enjoy, making their own layouts.  Thus I made a train table for my grandkids that has a fixed track layout on one side and flips over to be a nice table for them to play with extra extra track I sent when they grow older. By the time they grow tired of that  . . . well, it will be Lionel time then!

quote:

Certainly for a three-year old or younger.

 

My kids certainly were arranging tracks by three. They didn't always form a loop, but Brio used to make ramp tracks to allow the trains to smoothly run on and off the tracks.

If they wanted a loop, mom or dad were there to help out.

When I was a young'un back when the earth was cooling, I had two different wooden train sets, one with plastic track and one with wooden track.  Gauge was approximately the same and I could push trains on either track.

 

I could plug the wood track into the plastic track but not the other way around.  Until that is, my genius grandfather modified one of the wood track sections with his saw.

 

And, both sets had good ol' "poke your eye out" hook and eye couplers.

 

Rusty

Toys R Us has a house brand that's compatible, and they sometimes have sales for 50-60% off list.

 

Lee's comment on fixed track for really young kids is good.  My toddler loves to play, but love yanking up the track even more.  Now he just likes playing with the cars and engines alone, like matchbox or hotwheels.

Oh, and for the Brio-type stuff, you really need to evaluate choking hazards.  For my boy, we removed things like people figures, removable doors, signs, etc. and have them stowed in a ziploc for future use.

They start having fun re arranging track well before three.  I think they have as much or more fun with that aspect of the hobby than they do with pushing the trains around on the track.  

 

We watched three little girls running trains around several rooms with two of them moving track while the third pushed "the train".  They would pick up trailing pieces and put them down ahead of the train.  The one pushing could and did suddenly reverse direction and the other two had to adapt very quickly.  This went on for about 45 minutes before they collectively lost interest and moved on to something else.

My grand daughter has 3-4 brands of wood track and all work together fine. I found a set last Christmas at a Dollar General for $5 that had a fair amount of track and some throw away accessories.  The track connected with the Brio she had. Not ALL 'Brio' style trains work on all track.....and there are two very different Thomas trains out there. Tomy had the license for years then another company took over. The two track system do not mix.

I found an article on Wikipedia.
The first wooden Thomas trains were made by Learning Curve Toys.
There is quite a bit of interesting information in the article. Here is the link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wooden_toy_train

My son learned that o scale trains could fit on Brio track especially straights. Could work for display shelves  maybe. At woodworking stores I've seen Router bits that are made to cut the grooves for this track.

Great information here and I very happy to learn that the wooden train manufactures are able to play nice with each other and make their track and trains compatible.  

One thing I learned from my grandson and have heard others say it too... don't get the motorized engines.  They start the train, watch it for a few minutes, loose interest and walk away leaving it running.  With the totally manual hands on approach, they are much more engaged in making the train come to life , adding sounds and different scenarios. Kids will play for much longer times and have a lot more fun this way.

Also, the more time that Grandpa (or grandma, mom, and dad) plays alongside the child, letting him/her call the shots, the more they'll enjoy the trains.