Has anyone glued a Thomas train set together?

[jess_g]

The one at the docters office seams glued together and than glued to the train table too. My son seamed to play with it a lot better than he plays with the one we have at home where the pieces are everywhere in his room.

Has anyone glued there set together at home? What type of glue should I use? How do you set it to dry? Did you use clothes pins or anything to hold it together while it dried?

Thanks,

Jessica.

[new_mommy25]

I don't think I would glue a train together. When your DS gets older he will spend hours taking apart and putting together new configurations. The Thomas track is very expensive and that seems like a huge waste to me. I think the main reason places glue everything together is so that the kids won't mess it up and things don't get stolen. But I don't think that is approriate for the home.

Do you know about suretrack? here is a link
http://www.trainsgalore.com/osb/itemdetails.cfm/ID/392

I don't own any but I'm planning on getting some. My DS has trouble with elevated pieces and always knocks them over.

Hth,

[August Mom]

I agree. I wouldn't attach the track together in a permanent way either. It takes the creative fun out of playing with trains. DS designs new layouts all the time. I also was thinking of the Sure Track as an option.

If you do decide to attach it, I would not use Thomas or Brio track. I would buy bulk track from one of the train websites or get the track at Target, etc. That way if you decide later that your DS wants to take the track apart, you aren't out as much as you would be with Thomas or Brio track. I don't actually know how to attach track together, but at my local independent toy store, they told me they nail theirs together.

[lisams]

I wouldn't do it! He'll eventually get how to play with them without it falling apart, and then you'll be stuck with one configuration which will be very boring to him. If you do it, buy a cheap set (like the one at Target) and glue it to a big piece of thin wood and set that on top of the train table. That way you won't ruin the table or the nice set.

Lisa

[Andrea S]

I would not glue it. Andrew loves putting the track together. Plus with all the money invested in it I would not want it glued down.

Andrea
mom to Andrew 8/14/02

[new_mommy25]

I bought a bunch of cheap track on clearance at Ross this past weekend. I got a figure 8 set for 8.99 and a larger set with two bridges for 9.99 . HTH!

[Raidra]

I posted a similar question a while back because I was so frustrated with constantly setting up tracks for Colwyn to play with. Now, though, he's much better at it and will leave the tracks set up for a day or two without destroying it. I think it helps that the tracks we have are on a table rather than on the floor.

He's also much better with it since we got him the Thomas clock tower.. he's obsessed with putting anything and everything through there, so he leaves the rest of the track alone. ;)

[MelissaTC]

I wouldn't glue it. Before you know it, he is going to be making his own configurations, etc.. My DS is 2 1/2 and that is what he does all day long. It was frustrating to see him rip apart the whole thing but he slowly started to become interested in piecing it together and creating his own track. Give it some time! In the meantime, buy those pieces that PPs mentioned....

Good luck!

[jubilee]

Thils is interesting to read the responses. My husband is a model railroader (HO scale) and he is insistant that we will nail a set together for Logan. My husband's set is permanentally mounted, so he thinks our son's should be too. I'm going to have him read this so he might see the value of not gluing/nailing it.

[s7714]

I honestly have no opinion as far as whether or not you should glue it down...but I can tell you that I managed a toy store for a couple of years, and we used an instant bonding contact cement type glue for wood to glue down tracks and similar wood items. No clamping was necessary because it was instant, but we always let it set up overnight. Sorry I can't remember any brands or anything. I doubt you'd need such a super strength adhesive for a train that is played with normally (versus a display constantly being trashed by kids and adults on a day to day basis ;) ), but your local home improvement store (or better yet a wood crafting store) would probably be able to direct you towards a decent adhesive.

If you went with nailing down the track instead, you could probably remove the nails and disassemble things at a later time. (Just make sure you pre-drill all the holes in the track or it'll split!) But, you'd have to regularly check to make sure all the pieces were secure, because a loose piece with a nail embedded in it could be a dangerous thing for a child to get a hold of.

HTH,
Jennifer
Mommy to
Annalia 3/03
DC #2 EDD: 6/05

[JennSimm]

I bought a floor model brio set, and the track was already glued down. My boys are not old enough to use it yet, but my girls didnt mind, and they loved playing with it.

Jenn

[cdlamis]

Will the track clips mentioned work for the Costco train table set? I dont know much about train sets so I don't know if ours is Brio compatible.

BTW- thanks for the tip about these clips. I really hope it works for us and DD. DH will thank you since he is the one who always has te re-assemble the tracks. :)

http://www.trainsgalore.com/osb/itemdetails.cfm/ID/392
TIA~

Daniella
Mom to Julia 6-13-02
and Isabella 12-18-04

[jasmine]

Hi,

One thing we've recently done to keep DS's interest in playing with his train table is to rotate sets in and out of play. We have in rotation Percy's chocolate factory, the interactive roundhouse set which we got for $20 at Target before xmas, and also the wooden 70 piece car set and the 120 piece wooden mountain train set (both on clearance at Target right now for either 50% to 75% off - they were regularly $50). So we're glad that we did not glue our first set down since that would have made rotating them harder.

One thing we did do with the Car Set is to use double sided tape to hold the bridges to the track. This provides just enough stability to keep the tracks from falling off the bridges and since the tape is easily removed we can take the set apart to put away for the next rotation.

[sobers3]

Has anyone used the Little Tikes play table for their train set up? I'm wondering if the surface is large enough? Dimensions are 51x28x19, so inside play area would be slightly smaller.It would be ideal for me as it would be light weight and easily movable. Also, what age is ideal to start with wooden trains? I don't want to start too early. I gave my DGD a Bitty Baby at 3years old, but now at 4 years 1 month she really loves her.


http://www.littletikes.com/toys/Toys-Detail.aspx?Product_ID=3137&Description=EasyAdjust%e2%84%a2+Play+Table%09&ProductCategory=table

[jess_g]

We are going to glue the track together and glue it to a board (not the one that came with the train table we will save that one). To start with we have a thomas figure 8 set I bought for $35 so I am not too woried about ruining that set. I did not mention that my son has a lot of fine motor delays and cannot put the tracks together himself so I think for him glueing the set together makes sense. He can still play with the train cars just not take everything apart. I am also going to put a little people set on one end of the table for him to play with too. I think that will make a nice play area.

Thanks for the advice,

Jessica.

[youngmommy]

Bumping this post.

I don't want to glue my whole train set together, but I would like to glue the bridge. DD is 2 and a half, and has no problem putting track together. Her problem is with knocking the bridge over and not being able to put it back together again. I am a total Thomas newbie, so I want to ask all of you Thomas experts if there's any reason I would not want to glue the bridge together? Is there anything else she can do with it?

This is the bridge I want to glue:

http://www.windsorpeak.com/dc/user_files/36898.jpg
http://www.windsorpeak.com/dc/user_files/36899.jpg


Also: are there any updates from those of you who glued your track? Tips on which glue worked the best?

[jwozy]

We glued our bridge together and some of the roof pieces with wood glue and it hasn't been a problem for us.

[jess_g]

Hi I started this post last year and thought I would post an update. At the time my boys were 2 and 5 years old. I wanted to buy a train table and then glue a train set together on the table top but was not sure how to do it. I did glue some pieces together with Elmers Wood Glue and it stayed glue for a long time but in the end we ended up buying a train table with the tracks glued down to the table top already. It was a set a family had bought at a toy store and came with a lot of trains and tha table too. It was a great compromise for us as my son was 2 at the time and his older brother was taking all the tracks apart before and making the 2 year old very upset. It has worked out great. He can play trains without worrying about his older brother taking it apart and the set is very solid and has a bridge and a tunnel and the roundhouse too. If we had to do it over we would definitly do it this way again. We also have a big train set from target that my son puts together on the floor to play with so he is able to make up his own configurations too if he wants to.

Hope this helps some, My son plays with his train table evey day and still loves trains so it was a great present for him.

Jessica.

[jvs195]

We too have trouble keeping the bridge together. I decided I will try that sticky candle wax before resorting to glue. I used to have some for keeping candles in holders and used it for my dollhouse to keep tiny table settings in place, but need to track it down again. Maybe Michaels?

[youngmommy]

If I could get it for a good price, I would absolutely buy a table with everything already attached. I can only find 2 on ebay right now, and one is local pickup only. For the other they want $100 shipping. <sigh> Maybe I'll post it to my favorite searches with a distance limit. Maybe the local pickup table will help someone else though.

http://tinyurl.com/uqv6r

[deannanb]

I bought a $20 set from Target and glued it to a piece of fiberboard (very think piece of wood). DS plays with his trains all of the time. I just have the tracks sitting on the ground. We don't have a table yet.

I figure when DS is older he can use the good brio set we have.

[jess_g]

Just wanted to mention that I have seen these on craigslist as well so its worth checking there too. Just search under "train" or "train table". They are kind of hard to find but they are out there and we love ours!

Jessica.

[ray7694]

I have a basic train table that we use for lots of different things like Legos, Thomas Big Loader Set, and Trains. We purchased a Thomas set and nailed it to a thin board with little nails. We can still use the table for other things and my son plays with the train set much better when it is nailed down.
You can always take the nails out when they are older if you want them to put it together.

[leeza]

A friend gave us the tip to glue the tracks together and down using a hot glue gun... then you can peel it all apart when your kids are ready. Sounded brilliant to me!

[HHCs Mom]

We bought some used train stuff locally and they had hot glued the tracks down on the table. We just bought the tracks and other pieces, not the table, but you are definitely able to peel off the hot glue later on if needed. Some of the pieces we got still have hot glue on them and I'm able to peel it off easily. So, if you want to glue, use a hot glue gun and you'll be able to peel the tracks up later if you want. I can see both points, however, about gluing vs. not gluing.

A friend with twin boys has taught hers not to mess with the tracks. ;) They aren't allowed to move the tracks around yet because they can't put things back together but she or her DH will change up the configuration every so often to give them variety. Once they are older, she'll tell them they can change up the tracks on their own. Works well for them. :)

Kim
~ mama to a sweet boy named Harrison ~ 4.6.04
...and #2 due 5.24.07!