Little Man really loves all things Thomas, but at the moment he seems to be favouring his wooden track ( this week at least!) Due to all the different brands making wooden trains there is a huge variety of accessories available. One of the pieces we bought him for his birthday in the summer was the Thomas and Friends Sodor Oil Depot from Learning Curve.

The box consists of the wooden oil unit, which stands about 15 cms high. There is a clear plastic section at the top where you can see the oil sloshing about in. There is a red plastic handle on the front which makes the oil level move up and down when you move it and a nozzle on a string on the side for 'putting' oil in the vehicles. It also comes with a piece of track which is actually separate not attached to the unit as it appears in the picture. It is also reversible track, which is railway track on one side and road track on the other. There is also a little red wooden oil wagon included with oil written on the side and magnets on each end so you can link it up to your trains.

This toy has been a real winner with Little Man. We spend ages making huge wooden tracks on the floor and we have to have the Oil Depot out because otherwise 'the trains will run out of oil, silly!' Little man lines all his wooden trains up and fills them up with the little nozzle, making the oil level go up and down - It is such a simple thing, but keeps him and his friends amused for hours! The track links up well to all other brands of wooden track - our collection is a real mish mash! We only really use the track side of it though, as I don't see the point in paying out for the road track. We just use any floor that isn't covered in track as road.

The oil station itself is really robust, and both depot and the wagon look almost as good as new. I think it would stand up to a lot of rough and tumble, although Little Man is very precious about his trains, so none of them seem to see the brunt of his tantrums! There is a small bit of wear on the plastic on the top which must be where it rubs against other toys in the toy box but it is hardly noticeable due to the oil inside. However the plastic here is quite thick so I have no worries about leaking.

I was lucky enough to get the Oil Depot as a free gift from www.ToysDirect.Com as part of a promotion when you spent over a certain amount. So for a freebie it was a definite bargain! You can now buy it from them for £12.98 which is still a great price as the RRP is £19.99. The postage is £4.95 but that is a fixed price regardless of how much you spend and they dispatch really quickly. I would recommend this website if you have a Thomas monster like I do, as they do all different brands of wooden trains with little accessories from £1.99 and also do the Thomas Trackmaster and Take-n-play ranges too.