Product Description

Choo! Choo! There's hours of fun right around the bend with this Deluxe Wooden Railway Set. Everything you need to recreate an amazing train world is included. There are ascending tracks to move trains overhead, plus a spacious Roundhouse engine shed. Dozens of tracks comes in both curves and straight lines, and trees, workers and traffic signs add to the realism.

Set also includes multi-piece trains, magnetic-tipped cranes, switches, T-junctions for passing lanes, suspension bridge, trestle bridge and roundtable. Build new configurations every time! 138 wooden pieces in all.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #250 in Toys & Games
• Brand: Melissa & Doug
• Model: 701
• Released on: 2007-03-13
• Dimensions: 29.00" h x 17.90" w x 6.10" l, 17.90 pounds

Features

• 128 pieces
• Tremendous Value
• Includes a spacious roundhouse engine shed, dozens of tracks in curves and straights, trees, workers and even traffic signs!
• Includes multi-piece trains and magnetic-tipped cranes, switches and a t-junction for passing lanes.

Amazon.com Review
With nearly 100 wooden track sections and supports, and over 30 accessories, including a fright train, passenger train, and suspension bridge, the Melissa & Doug Wooden Railway Set is ideal for the young train engineer. Designed for children ages three and older, the set includes easy-to-follow instructions for four different track configurations, giving children hours of playtime as they build the perfect layout.

Wooden Railway Set Ages: 3+ Requires: Adult assembly

What We Think Fun factor: Durability: Ease of assembly: Educational factor: The Good: Durable, all-wooden construction will provide years of train-engineering fun. The Challenging: Younger children will need help building out the set. In a Nutshell: A well-constructed, old-fashioned train set for endless hours of immersive play.

Use the flatbed truck to transfer cargo to and from the train. View larger.

Kids will love to play conductor of the passenger train. View larger.

Six-piece freight train with cargo provides hours of loading and unloading fun. View larger.

Durable Solid-Wood Construction for Years of Use
With the exception of the durable plastic uprights on the suspension bridge, the plastic wheels and steel rivets on the trains and truck, and the small, steel screws that hold many of the accessories together, the Wooden Railway Set is made entirely of solid wood that will last. Every track piece and accessory is sanded to a smooth finish, and when screws are used, they are set below the surface of the wood, providing a smooth surface for little hands.

The track pieces snap snugly and easily into one another with no excessive force or tools required. With over 100 track pieces and bridge supports to work with, the biggest challenge for your child will be to keep all the pieces organized during their building process.

One piece of advice for parents: add the Melissa & Doug Multi-Activity Table, so your child can easily build out the set and you can keep the pieces contained.

Freight Train, Passenger Train and Flatbed Truck
The Wooden Railway Set includes a six-piece freight train with cargo, a four-piece passenger train, and a three-piece flatbed truck with cargo. The trains and the truck each feature durable plastic wheels held to the bodies with smooth, steel rivets.

The flatbed truck allows your child to replicate the real-world transfer of cargo from the train to the truck, and then on to the neighborhood stores for the final delivery. The set also includes train engineers who can help direct traffic as the trains come in and out of the station.

Several Accessories for Added Fun
To load cargo on and off the trains, the set includes two magnetized crane assemblies -- a tower frame and an A-frame -- that each feature a lever for raising and lowering the cargo. It also includes a suspension bridge, trestle bridge, a five-way switch, and a roundhouse engine shed where the engines can park when not in use. Several trees and road signs are also included.

Old-Fashioned, Energy-Free Fun
With no electrical parts, flashing lights, or battery-operated motors, the Wooden Railway Set is designed to offer your child imaginative playtime. The tracks and trains are designed to be compatible with most popular wooden tracks, so you may be able mix and match with pieces of other sets you may already have.

With the included easy-to-follow visual instructions, the set can be built out in numerous ways, giving children hours of immersive play time as they build the perfect configuration.

What's in the Box
Six-piece freight train; four-piece passenger train; three-piece flatbed truck; over 100 solid-wood track pieces; engine shed; five-way switch; suspension bridge; trestle bridge; A-frame and tower-frame crane assemblies; railroad workers; traffic signs; trees; and visual instructions for layout options.

About Melissa & Doug
Started in the garage at Doug's parents' house in 1988, Melissa & Doug has grown to become one of the most popular toy makers in the world. Their toys have garnered dozens of parenting and "best toy" awards over the years, and have been featured widely in national print media and on television.

One of the company's points of pride is that their toys are thoroughly tested for safety, and meet all US consumer product safety regulations. The toys are tested at the factory of origin during various phases of the production process to assure that every toy meets the company's stringent safety requirements every step along the way. In particular, the paints and coatings on Melissa & Doug toys are tested frequently to be sure they meet, or exceed, government recommendations limiting heavy metals and lead in children's items.

Since day one, Melissa & Doug has been in compliance with every US consumer product safety regulation and will continue to stay compliant as the laws continue to evolve, assuring parents that their children can have a safe childhood while playing with Melissa & Doug toys.

From the Manufacturer
This amazing set includes everything needed for railway fun: a spacious roundhouse engine shed, dozens of tracks in curves and straights, trees, workers and even traffic signs! There are multi-piece trains and magnetic-tipped cranes, switches and a T-junction for passing lanes! A suspension bridge, trestle bridge and roundtable, too! A tremendous value! Ages 3+ 28.75 x 17.75 x 6 boxed 128 pcs

Customer Reviews

Worth the $$, Excellent Quality -- our 2 year old LOVES IT!
This train set is absolutely awesome -- right out of the box. You can tell it has quality craftsmanship and from the start is a way better deal than the overpriced Thomas Train sets and track. My husband is a hobby woodworker and the first thing he said was "wow, this is much better quality than I was expecting for the price!"

I could not find another set with as many "goodies" as this one has (bridges, supports, roundhouse, two trains, etc), all in one box and WITHOUT a bunch of "extras" that a young child won't play with. Most of the high piece count sets I saw online were 50% people, trees and signs -- but this one is mostly all track, bridges and usable accessories! It comes with 2 trains and a little semi with a 5th wheel trailer that runs on the track as well -- very cute!

The layout plans they send you (4 in the box) are super helpful to combine designs with a little time and effort or use their designs. We spent about $20 at Menards and bought a 4x4 sheet of pre-sanded plywood to anchor this set to. The hubby routed the corners and edges smooth, and trimmed it down to about 4x3' to fit the train set. Then he predrilled and counter sunk screws into the track and the supports so everything is secured down. This is absolutely PERFECT setup for a 2 year old boy being, well, a 2 YEAR OLD! He's rough and still learning fine motor skill control, so it's much more fun to play on a set that doesn't fall over with clumsy, rough play!

So my hubby made some extra risers out of 2x4's and he built a "high rise" section of track to make one big "roller coaster" leg that went from end to end, sending the trains down the hill at a pretty fast clip, and our son giggles when they derail on the other end from such high speed!

We also purchased the Mountain Tunnel Accessory Set that looks not only realistic (way better than Imaginarium from Toys R Us and others we looked at), but also seperates into two pieces: the top comes off to make another tunnel, the bottom piece has two tunnels that criss-cross. Our son LOVES THIS! He can take the top piece off and put it over other places of the track all by himself. It's pretty sturdy, thick and hard plastic, but not indestructible of course. It's stood up to his rough play so far, and we're VERY pleased with the quality and durability. Amazon was the best price and shipping (not free when I bought it) that I found online.

The two trains included with this set run perfectly around the track -- the wheels/axles are placed at the very ends of the cars, which is absolutely necessary in design for the cars to go smoothly over the up or downward curves of hills. Otherwise, the ends of the car will catch on the track and the train will separate. We found this out when we used the big diesel train (3 piece set from Imaginarium @ Toys R Us) on the hills. While the diesel engine and the 3 axle car work fine, the 2 axle car catches because the axles are set farther in from the end. Melissa & Doug sell a very similar set and it will likely have the better design with no problems catching on the hills -- so I recommend their set over the Toys R Us one I bought.

EXCELLENT BUY, EXCELLENT TOY -- ALL the bells and whistles of the more expensive sets but at an affordable price and still a high quality set! Plus it is compatible with the big name cars and track (Thomas, Brio, etc). There are multiple manufacturers for THomas, however, and some of them have different sizes than others, so you have to watch. But if it fits on the regular size Thomas track, the cars AND the Thomas track are compatible with this set -- so very handy. (We did a lot of research into this before buying!)

The roundhouse is VERY GOOD QUALITY, and every bit as good as the Thomas one we saw in Toys R Us. Our local store has a train set (secured to a table) set up at the store for the kids to play with -- so we got a lot of ideas on setup from that, and also could have a hands on quality comparison. ALL THE PARTS to this set are good quality for a wooden set and we are absolutely, completely satisfied with this purchase.

So we recommend for the youngest engineers, that you anchor this set to a big piece of plywood or something, but just use screws and counter sink them, so they're out of the way but you can take it apart later when the child is older and can handle rearranging it and putting together the track by himself. Our little guy can do this and we have other track that he can put together and play with, but the main set is MUCH MORE FUN for him with it secured, until he's bigger and more coordinated!

We already have a little play table for him, so we made a small frame on the bottom of the trainset board to fit snuggly over the table we had and keep it from sliding or moving around. We can move this set to the floor or on the table, and even me, THE WIFE, can pick it up and move it without too much effort!

We added our customer pictures to the product images.

CHOOOOO CHOOOOOOO!

Great value!
I bought this set because my 5-year-old son has been begging for a Thomas the Train set and I cannot afford those prices! So I took a chance on this one, and I am THRILLED! The roundhouse is very high quality, almost identical to the Thomas the Train one which sells for $80. The set comes with lots of good quality wooden track (no splinters or sharp edges, and it all fits together fine), two bridges, a turntable, two cranes that are easy to operate, two trains, a truck, two people, trees, and signs.

Best of all, you can build the exact display shown on the box and still have leftover track! No disappointment!

My only complaint is that one of the little trains that came with it keeps losing a wheel. Not such a big deal for us, because we bought Thomas the Train engines to use instead (yes, they fit on the track just fine). This set is supposed to be compatible with Brio trains too, but we haven't tried those yet.

Great deal!
This set is wonderful and wonderfully priced too. We were going to buy the Thomas expansion set for $40 and when we saw this we bought it instead and got so much more! We use it with our Thomas and Brio trains and tracks and for a fraction of the price of the Thomas train sets you get a ton of tracks, trains and accessories. Great deal! We are going to get the Melissa and Doug train table also. It's so much more reasonably priced than most other tables and even has a storage drawer that does not cost extra.