My son really loves anything to do with trains, and since he was about two and a half we have started to build up a Brio train set for him, stating with a starter set. At Christmas "Santa" added to his Brio some new tracks and a few new trains.

I ordered my Brio from Amazon as they were doing some good deals and I got one pack of curved tracks and two packs of straight tracks for £17.50.   Each pack has four track sections so altogether this has made a nice extension to my son's track and the curves are an essential if you want to make a track that goes round.  The curved track pieces are about 20cm in length.

My son is almost three, which is the recommended age for Brio, however I do think he was ready to play with it from two and a half, with some adult intervention.  He can now put the track together himself, even if it sometimes doesn't match up and has lots of dead ends, but I feel this is part of the play.  

The track itself is sort of like a jigsaw and I feel it helps develop coordination skills.  Also, I find the Brio is excellent for creative play and my son will draw other toys into his train play, such as cars, Lego and plastic animals.  So the track has more than one function, there is the building of it and then the actual playing with it, although mostly these are done side by side.  Whilst he is playing with the track and train he talks a lot about what he is doing, and makes train etc noises which is really quite cute.

My five year old daughter also likes joining in too so I can see this Brio being played with for quite a few years to come.  The downside is that it is quite expensive, but if you can get pieces on offer, or even second hand then I think it is worth it.  Brio is made from good quality wood, beech I believe and nicely carved and sanded down.  The joints seem easy to put together even for little hands, so it's a well thought out toy.  Each piece of track can be used on both sides, so one curved piece can curve to both the left and right depending on which way up it is.

At the moment we would be lost without this Brio and it is keeping both my kids very entertained!  Plus, I have to admit I rather like playing with  it too!