nice wooden train sets at Tuesday Morning (pic)

[LucyG]

I posted this last week, and ended up getting the set over the weekend. It looks really nice, so you might want to check Tuesday Morning if you're in the market for a Thomas-compatible train set (with track and accessories).

It's by Maxim, and the Maxim website says they are compatible with Thomas & Friends. It's 100 pieces with trains, track, accessories, a tunnel (plastic), and a good-sized wooden storage box. My Tuesday Morning has them for $70, and lists the department store price as $150. Anyone have experience with Maxim wooden trains? Will DD miss not having a train table, or is the floor just as good for train work for a beginner? Is this a good deal? Thanks for any help you can give!

Here's a link to the Maxim website. It's the New Mountain Train Set on the far right on the bottom row.

http://www.maximenterprise.com/trains.htm

Edited to add picture of the set:

http://www.windsorpeak.com/dc/user_files/22122.jpg


http://www.gynosaur.com/assets/ribbons/ribbon_sapphire_24m.gif[/img][/url]
2 years and counting!

[nitaghei]

I think it's a pretty good price for a set that large. We also have a large generic set and have added on some Thomas stuff, and it's worked out quite well. The only thing is that I've seen some posts about how some of the larger Thomas pieces (like the aquarium cars) may not fit under the bridge or tunnel of the other brands. So far, we've been fine. The generic and Thomas tracks fit well together, and all the Thomas engines/cars we have all go under the bridges that we have.

We also started out with the floor. I didn't like the idea of a table restricting the layout. It mostly worked. Our problem was that we had two dogs then, and they would just run over and break up the layouts, even if DS left them intact for a while. We have only one dog left now :(, but still have the same problem. We ended up getting a relatively cheap train table from Target (about $80) - and DS actually does play better now. He likes to stand and move around the table, and push the trains around. Even so, I don't think a train table is essential in any way. You could just use your coffee table, or a toddler play table to do smaller layouts.

HTH

Nita
mom to Neel, January 2003
dog mom to a PWD and a cocker(at the Rainbow Bridge)