I am making a wooden toy train layout (Brio and Thomas type) for my grandkids, ages 4, 2, and not yet born. Their Mom says they are too young for an electric O-27 set, and while Grandpa would prefer that not to be the case, he respects his daughter-in-law's opinion.
So, to both save money and provide a big supply of "track" for my project, I went online (Amazon) and bought five bargain sets of "100 pieces" or more of assorted track, etc.,, from several different Amazon-associated vendors (I was worried about quality so I shopped different companies), I had never heard of any of the companies making this cheap track, but hey, how difficult can it be to cut and router wood? All were inexpensive compared to standard store-bought Brio, Thomas, and Chigginton prices, but one set was very inexpensive: 140 pieces of nicely finished wood track pieces for about $25, which when it arrived was in a simple plastic bag marked "China."
As I was laying out and assembling the layout, etc., something just didn't seem right. Finally I figured it out. Normal toy train track curves are made for eight pieces per circle - 45 deg per piece. The Chinese curves were the right diameter, but exactly 40 deg each - nine pieces per curcle. Wow. Who ever heard of that? Mistake, deliberate - who knows. But weird . . . .
Anyway, the boxes of track labeled "Indonesia" land "Norway" work well - apparently they have protractors that work in those countries . . .
