Last year my son's got a train set and since then we have asked family members if they are stuck to what to buy them for Christmas and birthdays extras for their train set would be excellent like more track, more trains, stations and tunnels. A family member bought this set after finding out Chad Valley track was compatible with the set we had. This particular set doesn't need to be added to another set and could quite easily be played with alone although I would point out with just set you would be a little limited to track design.


*****The set contents*****

In total this set has sixty pieces so it does make a good first train set. Within the set there are twenty one pieces of wooden track which are compatible with leading train set makes such as Brio, Tesco, Early Learning Centre and the KidKraft set which we have. The pieces fit perfectly to our set and other Bigjigs pieces we have. The pieces of track do feel lovely and smooth to touch. There are a range of style pieces with this set the straight pieces are rather short and there is quite a few of them, there are a few corner pieces and a couple of sloping pieces to fit the bridge that is including.

All put together it makes a good size loop which has a slight slope to go over the small blue bridge. Once set out it does have quite a basic feel to it the style of accessories add to this feel. The set does come with a good amount of very simple accessories with a simple looking train with two magnetic carriages and a blue car. Along with this are four basic buildings which are a square piece of thin wood stood in a stand painted with building details also there are traffic lights and plenty of road signs, basic shaped people and trees. All of this makes up a fun wooden train set for children three years and over.


*****Playing opportunities*****

Even though there is a limited amount of track your child can have plenty of fun making their own track using and expanding their imagination. All the accessories make the track look more fun and your child can weave the track round them. As your child's imagination grows I feel you will need to expand the track which is easy enough as it is compatible with lots of other brands. My boys have used the set to expand their already large collection of wooden train track and accessories. The short pieces of straight track have made things interesting for my eldest son who is four years old and enjoys making his own track up.


*****Durability*****

For the price you pay for this product and the amount you get you would think the quality would be a little poor. But you could not be more wrong, yes it isn't up to the quality of the Brio products and you could tell by the feel of the product but it is still good quality. I do feel the accessories are very average but again you can't expect too much for the price you pay. They are more for decoration around the track. We have had this set for a good few months now and it has been put to the test with my youngest son who is a little rough with wooden products and it is still in perfect condition. The blue bridge is maybe slightly flimsy but is still standing in our household!


*****Price*****

As with all Chad Valley products they are great toys on shoe string budget. They give you good quality toys that have little fault with them just maybe not quite as well thought out than other leading brands. This particular set will cost you £9.99 and is available from Argos. I would highly recommend this product it would make a great fun gift for any child train mad or not. My only negative is although it does say it is a sixty piece train set it isn't as big as you would expect as there is only twenty one pieces of train track, so you have been warned!


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