I’m actually looking for a little bit of advice today.
When we were preparing for Squidgy’s birth, we were advised to ‘make sure that the new baby brings a present for big sister’. Apparently it’s meant to appease the jealousy monster. Personally, I think this new adjustment is going to depend on many more factors than merely what present is brought, but I wasn’t going to argue too much with the wisdom of those gone before, and we had wanted to buy Ameli a train set for ages, and thought this was the perfect opportunity.
So, we looked around and eventually found a train set on sale, and bought it. I wanted to be particularly careful that the set we bought would be Brio compatible as that seems to be the measure against which all wooden train sets are judged: Are they, or are they not, Brio compatible. And if they are, they should by default be compatible with each other.
So we bought a train set, and the morning after Squidgy was born, we popped her in a Moses Basket next to a train set in a box, and when Ameli came downstairs, we told her her sister had brought her a present. She was ecstatic and her and daddy immediately set about building this set.
So now my question is this… or my questions, as the case may be: how much do we buy? How big do we make the set? Do we stick to one type, or do we mix and match among the compatibles? Have a look at these lovely Brio Train Sets from The Wooden Toyshop and you’ll see what I mean. There are so many options to choose from, and so much you can build on, but what would you recommend as the ‘basic’ necessities for a fantastic make-believe railway?
We lucked out and got a HUGE set at a garage sale. I got rid of all the non Brio track, and most of the Thomas trains, and we still have twice as much as we can fit on our train table.
In my experience, while all Brio compatible track links to Brio, it doesn’t all necessarily link to each other.
As for how much, Moira seems happy with one bridge, a big round track and a roundhouse most of the time. We occasionally set up a larger twisty track, but she gets frustrated when it’s too twisty because she likes to work with a really long train.