Help Problems with my train set!!!!

[ErinP]

DS just got a Brio 75 piece set ( I think it's harbor action) and the Brio table and board. We just set it up and within a few minutes the chaos began. The set was sliding everywhere, the tracks were disconnecting, the trains didn't seem to fit on the tracks. My 2 year old and 4 year old were VERY frustrated. They usually play with train sets at stores and museums for hours, that's why I asked for one for Christmas. This was a gift from my MIL and she claims she spent almost $1000 for this set. She just went to her local toy store and ordered it figuring for that price it was the best. What a waste of money. What should I do. I didn't research trains yet, but I say a BAttat one for a fraction of the cost at BJ's . Should I tell her and ahve her return it or are all trains sets made that way. I was thinking about supergluing the tracks together and to the Table but then I can't really change it around

[kedss]

I volunteer at a children's museum, and they have a train table st up where the track is stapled together, I guess its like a really heavy duty staple gun with tiny staples, and the kids love playing with it, because the tracks don't come apart. But we also have a bunch of tracks on a different table where the kids can sit on a carpet area and put together and take apart the tracks. You might consider gluing/stapling the expensive one and getting a cheaper set that they can also play with. I don't know if other people have had problems with the Brio, you might check with folks who have them at home. Were the trains with the set or were they purchased seperately from the tracks? You might go talk to someone at a toy store and see what they say. Even if its not the one where your MIL bought it from, it may just be a bad set.

hth

[tribecamom]

don't glue it because when the kids get older they will have more patience for layouts

try this: http://www.trains4tots.com/suretrackclips.html

it made a big difference for my two year old

[ErinP]

Thanks for the advice- I just ordered the clips. Someone also suggested cement glue that peels off that I'm going to try on a amall part of the track to the table so it doesn't slide. As for the cars they all came in the big green 75 piece set that IMO is WAY to overpriced! What was my MIL thinking....? I guess I should be grateful that I didn't waste my money, but I'd rather return it and put the money in a college fund!

[jess_g]

You might want to wait before using glue on the tracks to try the suretrack clips out first. I did find that the clips made the train tracks less slippery than they were before and thte glue might ruin the board.

After glueing a few pieces together myself and trying sure track (it did not work well for us) I ended up buying a set that is all glued down and so far the kids love it. It has a lot of extras (like the roundhouse and the train sheds and a lot of raised tracks) that I would not have been able to do myslef, so for us it was worth it to buy one all glued down. Since you have a nice set already you might want to glue it all together yourself though. I would recomend using Elmers Wood Glue if you did that. Or you could keep the train table, return the expensive Brio set and by a set from ebay that is alreday glued down to the board. My set cost $250 but came with 20 thomas trains and was already put together for us.

Good luck with everything,

Jessica.

[Momof3Labs]

If you are going to glue tracks, I'd do it with a cheap set and not a super-expensive Brio set! Your kids will outgrow a glued-down set before too long (DS wanted to build tracks by 2.5 years old; he got his trains at 15 months).