Toddlers first toy train

This has been a hit with my six grandchildren.  Keep buying Thomas and Friends locomotives and rolling stock, and they keep taking them home to add to their collections.  The die-cast AA battery-powered locomotives attract the most interest, followed by rolling stock with sound features.   

Fisher-Price Thomas Wooden Railway Grow With Me Play Table

What, me worry?

My youngest is 3 now and we have had great success having the little ones use Lionchief remotes to run "their" trains. The huge knob and simply control is totally safe since it uses a wall watt for power. No more dangerous than having a lamp plug in  

If you want a train the little one can hold in their hand and walk around with it I would get a Brio or Thomas wooden train that runs on batteries on the wooden track  

However, my experience has been that they are always drawn to the big trains and want what I have no matter what you do. Which is why I keep MPC era trains that they can push and be rough with without having to worry about it breaking. 

Any way you include some trains for them is great so enjoy!!

You can't go wrong with LGB (my daughter loved her first set), but Lionel does make battery-powered plastic-tracked G gauge trains like the Polar Express, Hogwarts Express, etc. 

With toddlers I strongly suggest something they can push by hand. They don't understand the magic of electricity at that age nor do they care. They wont something they can touch.

The Lionel starter free spinning 2-4-2 steamers are best for this. You can make them run around the track as an attention getter but they, the toddler can always push it by hand the thing they love the most.

gg1man posted:

With toddlers I strongly suggest something they can push by hand. They don't understand the magic of electricity at that age nor do they care. They wont something they can touch.

The Lionel starter free spinning 2-4-2 steamers are best for this. You can make them run around the track as an attention getter but they, the toddler can always push it by hand the thing they love the most.

Yes! This is exactly how my son was as a toddler.  I got a Lionel conventional 2-4-2 scout starter set when he was four and he wouldn't ever let me hook up the power he always wanted to push it.  

I also second the Thomas play table with wooden track and rolling stock.  Off brand wooden track can be bought in bulk off amazon much cheaper than the Thomas brand track.  

When my son was into Thomas about two decades ago most of his track was off brand. Sometimes they would have a little trouble connecting but Mike never cared, it never stayed together long enough to make a difference.

Wooden Trains, such as Brio.
The track is easy to connect and very forgiving.
Pushing the trains by hand is more fun that working a control.

My wife got this battery operated train for my grandson on QBC about 4 years ago. She said to try Amazon.

Hope this helps.

Richard

When my boys were tiny, the only wooden train/track stuff was Brio Thomas the Tank Engine .... imported from Sweden. It was very expensive. Invested a large amount of money in more track items and trains. But, worth every penny.

I know you are asking about O size stuff, but all that wooden track stuff kept my boys interested for hours on end ... both alone and with each other. It was all on the floor, so they built large layouts and kept changing them. 

Then again .... I can see how having O for him now, may more encourage interest in real model trains with you later.

Good luck.

And don't forget the Thomas the Tank Engine videos. Gives their imagination a little nudge.

Dang that Fisher-Price table says ages 2 to 4. I am too old. I really wanted one. Maybe I should have some kids so I have an excuse to buy one.

And don't forget the Thomas the Tank Engine videos. Gives their imagination a little nudge.

I thought the ones narrated by Ringo Star were outstanding. Something about the way he spoke. George Carlin took over for the last few videos that we purchased. He did a good job, just not quite as good as Ringo.


I imagine they've gone through a few narrators since.  

By the way, Lionel made a "G" gauge Thomas the Tank set. We had one.
Unfortunately, in my opinion it was not well made. The couplers broke if you looked at them the wrong way, and the track we had was poor. The ends of the rails didn't align with the plastic base, making it difficult to assemble a layout. I replaced the broken couplers one last time and sold it.

I got my son started on Thomas when he was 3 or 4. We had the blue plastic track and battery operated engines. He would play with them for hours (OK I did too), and had a blast. They changed manufacturers as he started to out grow them and the quality slipped a bit. The track was really strong and had simple plastic tabs on the ends, similar to Lionel FT. They made switches and even a wye. The stuff we had was made in the early to mid 2000's.

For O gauge I would agree with the previous posts, some MPC's or a Scout set would be good.