train brain

An impromptu shopping spree this weekend has brought back my latest obsession; which oddly enough is Thomas the Tank Engine. To be fair (to me) I do have a two year old, so it's not too far of a stretch. It's just that they're so classy and cute, and he loves them. LOVES!

Anyway, I do recognize that they're obscenely overpriced, but I have been planning and scheming and I want to save all my wonderful surprises (and cool tales) until everything is put together, but I will spill the beans on 'The Plan'. Simply, that my genius husband who has mad-sweet carpentry skills will build a train table for our little guy. We just need to decide on the track layout...

So here I be, scouring the interwebs for the ideal track that doesn't have too many pieces outside of what we've already scavenged, but will be the most fun because we're nailing them babies down (I'm not a big fan of having to constantly re-set the track, and Bugaboo gets extremely frustrated when it all comes apart). I did find the track layout blueprint archive, but it doesn't have either the set I currently have or the one I've set my sights on, but it has got me thinking.

This is my favourite so far:

It's far better than just a straight loop (oxymoron; awesome), but we actually already have most of the pieces (not the crane and stuff, but the track pieces and the bridges).

I think I have my husband convinced to go pick up the lumber tonight, and one of our awesome neighbors has already offered to help (not that he needs it, but now he has no excuse for delay). I've kind of been nagging at him to get on this, because Bugaboo will need a good distraction (and a bit of a treat) when the baby gets here, which leaves us with only a month to finish things. Wish us luck!

PS (aug 16th): interestingly enough, one of my favourite sites, Ohdeedoh, just posted and article about train layouts and their discovery of an entire site dedicated to them. Perhaps we are on the same wavelength?