My daughter recently has become obsessed with trains so I took to the internet and started searching. Before a minute and a half I was totally overwhelmed. I had to set down some ground rules. First I wanted all wood - for some reason I've got it in my head that toy trains should be wood. Light, kind of bleached, birch wood. Then I wanted the train pieces and traks to be PVC, lead and fire retardant free. Little pieces way too easily find their way into little mouths. And finally I looked for a sort of Euro/German/Swiss sensibility. After all, if I was going to ride around on a train in circles for the next two years I would want it to be Euro/German/Swiss.
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| This simple Melissa & Doug set is a great place to start. |
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How great is this "high speed" modern train from Plan Toys?
Top that Amtrak. |
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| Traditional locomotive, Plan Toys. |
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Recycling? Fun!
Also Plan toys. |
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| More from Plan Toys. Comes with bicycle to ride to train. Very Euro. |
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| Trudi set with lots of bells and whistles (no, no pun intended.) |
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And Conductor Carl. Love the little church and steeple.
I'm kind of imagining this to be a little village in the Swiss Alps. A little village where after my ski lesson I go and get raclette and chocolat chaud with my gorgeous ski instructor, Jean-Claude. Wait that's my fantasy, scratch that/ |
