Train sets/tables

[halfpint]

I think we're going to get B a train set and probably a table for his big birthday gift. We have a really small set of tracks from M&D, and some of the little wooden trains that magnet together - seems to be a fairly universal design. 

Any recommendations for larger toddler-friendly sets? I don't think I want the Thomas stuff, it seems so overpriced. Maybe it's worth it?

I mostly want to avoid cheap plastic stuff. 

We were looking at this set - 


www.toysrus.com/buy/trains/imaginarium-mountain-rock-train-table-5f60c7e-22711866 

or maybe this one - 


www.walmart.com/ip/42568310?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=0&adid=22222222227030385586&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=c&wl3=65034230049&wl4=&wl5=pla&wl6=57409967583&veh=sem 

[adlove]

We just bought that same Imaginarium set for my daughter's 2nd birthday. It's great quality and she's loving it so far. I'd love to have a table to get it up off the floor but we have really limited space. She has a few thomas magnetic trains and they work great with the trains in the set too.

[Ashley&Scott]

I love our Thomas Wooden Railway stuff, but I bought it on CL & at garage sales so I didn't pay retail.

[whitepicketfence]

Jul 28, 2015 10:16:16 GMT -5 Ashley&Scott said:

I love our Thomas Wooden Railway stuff, but I bought it on CL & at garage sales so I didn't pay retail.

We have a bunch of Thomas trains for our train table (DD2 loves trains & cars) and I did the same thing. We bought the train table from CL and the trains/tracks as a huge lot on eBay.

[auntie]

IME, and I have a railfan at home, if they'll get heavy use Brio are the best quality. Compared to the wooden Thomas, Ikea, and Lionels the Brios look new.

We never did the table; it's kind of limiting in terms of open ended play.

[oceanstbride]

DS received a small Brio "starter" set for his 2nd birthday and it's really nicely made. A cousin bought it for him bc he had a huge Brio collection growing up and said they held up really well for years. (Note: I didn't do any research on train sets and have no idea how much they all cost!).

[jessnpaul]

My FIL made our train table but we used Brio tracks on it.

[crispnclean]

The link to the Imaginarium set isn't working, but we were given an Imaginarium train table and train set recently and DS loves it. It seems like it's good quality. I don't know a lot about trains, but I do know not all tracks and trains are compatible, so make sure you double check that the trains and tracks you buy will work together.