About Wooden Express Coaches

We have these - you wouldn't think they would be very popular, but my two and a half year old really loves them. For some reason he is fixated on the fact that Thoams pulls passengers. The word passengers is really a mouthful for him, but he slows down and gets it out because he finds it really important to say every time he puts the express coaches on. We don't have Annie and Clarabel, so these are his only passenger trains.

The Express coaches are long with gray roofs and windows, and yellow and red sides.

My son has played with his Thomas trains since he was under 1 year old. We discovered Thomas on a vacation when a family seated behind us was playing with several of the trains. My son got ahold of one and did not want to give it back-so much so that the father ended up giving us one of the trains. I think the train was Duncan, and they said they had several of him.

I think that the Thomas the tank engine sets are the absolute best sets you can buy-much higher quality than the knockoffs or look-alikes. The Brio sets look similar but the trains don't have faces and the accessories are not as well built. The train tables are shorter, a little smaller, and less sturdy -- the Round House has no turntable in front and the doors are harder for little hands open.

The plastic Thomas sets, called Thomas motorized road and rail, seemed to me to be room for the youngest kids who like Thomas. My boy, at 2 and one half, has put away his plastic set for good in favor of the wood and metal trains.

It seems to me that the children like Thomas because each train has its own personality - that's why my boy likes them. Joe's first trains were a used of lot of several trains from the ebay. Used, they came a little beat up but still in great playing condition -- and my boy plays with them everyday.

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