Train Table Questions--please come in if you have one

NicoleWI · September 2012

I want to get DS a train table for Christmas. He's loving "choo-choos." Saw some old posts about the Orbrium sets avail on Amazon (supposed to be nice at a much cheaper price). Has anyone tried that brand? What did you think? Or, what do you have and do you like it?

Lastly, I don't really "get it." Does it make more sense to get some kind of table to leave this thing set up on, or can it just be put up/taken down on the floor easily enough? What do you do? Thanks!!

Kie310 · September 2012

Train

We have this Imaginarim one. My son still loves it, he got it about this time last year. I love having the table to have it all on. We don't take it down often, and it has the drawers for when we want to.

It's at TRU all the time. We got WAY lucky and got it for $89 last year. I have never seen it that cheap again. but it's worth the money IMO.

smerka · September 2012

My son just got into trains. I bought him the TRU house brand, Imaginarium, starter city set. It was forty or fifty dollars. He seems to really like them so I found a huge pile of tracks and such at OUAC for $40. I don't plan on getting him a train table. I think most of the fun comes from setting the track up and the table would limit the size. I store everything in a plastic bin.

TriciaandSean · September 2012

We have the Melissa and Doug table and just a simple track from target, Circo brand. For now my son has fun setting up the track and pushing the trains around the track, eventually we'll get more track and more accessories. We have a variety of different trains and they all work on the track, some are a little tall to go under the bridge, but he can still use them on the rest of the track.

jday1229 · September 2012

We have an old Thomas table that was a hand me down and we leave it up in his room all the time. Our model doesn't have drawers under it so we added a couple of the circo storage bins with wheels from target and those have been great since we can also use them for other toys or move them to another room to play with. I don't think I would like the attached drawer models as much. You can usually find a table with tons of accessories at consignment sales and craigslist for a fraction of the price you would pay for them new.

PajamaTime · September 2012

We bought a Kidcraft train table off of Kids Woot. Great deal and my son loves to play with it. Kids Woot has different train tables offered periodically so you might want to check them out as Christmas approaches.

MrsCAA · September 2012

We have an imaginarim similar to this one, and DS loves it.

12bailey18 · September 2012

We also have an Imaginarium one and both DS and DD love it. Scope out Black Friday sales for one. That's what we did last year and got a great deal on one. That thing gets played with everyday and we've had it over a year. I love it because it has storage drawers also. We have it centered in our play room and it stays up all the time.

libra31 · September 2012

We have this one and love it. It's compatible with all Thomas stuff too.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/KidKraft-Wooden-Train-Table-with-3-Bins-and-120-Piece-Waterfall-Mountain-Train-Set/4939527

1026pumpkin · September 2012

We have the imaginarium from TRU and love it. We got it on sale for under $100 and it came with so many things, we didn't need to buy anything else. It is compatible with wooden Thomas and Target Circo pieces. We use ours daily and like leaving it set up. Try checking Craig's list for used ones even cheaper.

groovygrl · September 2012

We have the Thomas one, my mom gave it to them & she reallllly wanted to get the Thomas one for whatever reason. It doesn't have drawers which I thought twas going to bug me but it is ok. Drawers would be nice but I got large plastic bins that slide under and have lots of stuff stored under there, a bin for tracks, one for trains & accessories, one for his other trucks/cars, etc. He loves that we can turn the table top over and have it flat (with the 'island of sodor' pictures) or use the side w/ built in tracks. My kdis are 3 & frequently use the built in tracks as well as building tracks. The top is in 2 pieces though, which some of the reviews criticized but really doesnt pose any problems at my house.

as for whether a table is 'necessary'- it isnt necessary but I would say if you have the space & can afford one to go for it for a few reasons. 1. they can stand or kneel by it instead of crawling around which can be uncomfortable (possibly more important for you if you're playing along ). 2. it keeps the stuff more more contained than if LO did it on the floor. 3. if your floors are carpeted & semi-plush, sometimes things don't sit as well, 4. you can always use your floor to set up really big sets if you want but this prevents as much cleanup. 5. it can be used to play w/ other stuff too- cars, trucks, blocks, my kids will set up a picnic on there, etc.

Also you didn't ask about it but just an FYI our first set was thomas figure 8. It was fun for a bit but definitely not enough tracks. I went to target & got their figure 8 wooden tracks and IMO they are equal quality & I prefer the bridge piece on theirs by far- the thomas one is constantly falling off. Then I got a thomas 'accessory' kid that has a few good pieces to be able to be more creative with the tracks (tracks that split, tracks that have 2 'male' or 2 'female' ends which can be important if you ever get a roundhouse) , etc.

All that to say you dont have to get the thomas track sets unless you want the special accessories that go with the sets- the circo/target tracks work great for basic tracks and will save you a lot of $.

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Train Table Questions--please come in if you have one

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