Reply to I"m so confused: Thomas the train and incompatability

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[quote=Anonymous]Long-running string...but still incomplete. Thomas trains have been produced by many manufacturers over the years and there are a lot of variations and differences.

The wooden trains with slightly curved round magnet couplers that run on wooden tracks are the most straight-forward, common, and popular. The diecast metal trains with smaller rounded-square magnet couplers are generally a little less expensive and have the advantage, for little kids, of connecting at either end whereas the flat round magnets have to connect "north-to-south".

The wooden track from most manufacturers is very similar but always slightly different (to avoid patent infringement issues). Most wooden trains will work in a satisfactory way on most wooden track.

The older Thomas diecast metal trains from the "Take Along" series fit wooden tracks but newer "Take n Play" diecast trains are smaller and do not fit wooden tracks at all and have shown up with several different types of plastic track over the decades,

For just one year (2004) Gullane/Learning Curve produced "Interactive Learning" trains with metal engines and plastic cars that use the rounded-square magnet couplers and run on standard wooden tracks or heavy plastic resin tracks that exactly match official Thomas wooden tracks. The special engines and some freight cars have bottom magnets that trigger the special "Interactive Learning" destinations like freight depot, crane, barrel loader, water tower, etc. and announce greetings and instructions when a train arrives. They are pretty cotton pickin' cute...but hard to find on eBay or Craig's List these days.

Many years ago Tomy Toys in Japan began producing "Pla-Rail" blue track motorized plastic trains and track with the same dimensions as Thomas products but apart from the Thomas train franchise. Like Japanese cars they tended to be cheap, well made and reliable with a lot of features. Eventually Tomy acquired rights to produce Thomas "Pla-Rail" trains and, more recently, "Track Master" plastic track with more realistic colors and shapes, as part of the Thomas franchise. Adapters are available, if you hunt around on eBay, that allow connections between virtually all types of tracks. The Tomy trains all have springy plastic hook couplers that are not suitable for little kids...they're actually sort of annoying for some adults...but trains do not come apart on hills or curves.

This is still not a complete description or explanation, and frustration will continue...but it's probably worth dealing with the annoyance and minimizing the cost by shopping eBay, thrift stores, and garage sales...because kids love toy trains,

One last thing...visit playtrains.com for practical help and ideas. One more last thing...visit wtrak.org for some amazing examples of how cool little wooden toy trains can be.  
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