I (and lots of other family members) bought Thomas train wooden track stuff for my DD who was my first child. I am really glad that we decided to stick with the one brand so everything matches, and that I was able to get the entire extended family on board with this. It was good quality stuff... only one piece has broken after many years of play. I can't say for sure that the Thomas brand is still that high quality, though, as this was back before they changed styles, and it seems everything always goes downhill anyway. It seemed like it cost a FORTUNE at the time, but looking back, it has been SO worth it. It has been played with off & on for years, both by the DD it was originally purchased for, and by younger siblings. I fully intend to keep all of it and I know the grandkids will love it too when that time comes.

As far as advice, I recommend putting most of your investment into different track pieces, rather than different trains to put on the track. At least in my family, most of the play involved setting up complex layouts, rather than actually running the trains. A typical Saturday morning play session might go like this: spend half an hour setting up a track layout, spend 5 minutes running the trains around to see how many different ways they can get from point A to point B, spend another half an hour tweaking the design while occasionally running a train to test the track, move on to something else once the track is "perfect". Related to this, the really short pieces, about 1-3" long get used a lot to fill in holes when you are trying to make pieces connect. Buy lots of those. Also, I am really glad we never bought a train table. My children's track layouts often took up much more floor space than even the biggest table I've ever seen, so a table would either have limited their creativity or not been used most of the time. Plus, all the pieces we have fit nicely into one small u-haul moving box, and the table would have been a bit more difficult to store when not in use. Having things spread out on the floor also made it easier for several family members to play all at once, where a train table would either have been small enough it would get crowded fast, or big enough that it was hard to reach the middle.

We got one of the Imaginarium sets as a gift from the in-laws. It's a lot of bang for the buck, and I think they got it on sale at Toys R Us for $99. Comes with the train table, a full set up with bridges and tunnels, cranes, trains, and people. The trains don't have faces like the Thomas trains, but everything else is compatible. The only thing is I think the magnets are reversed on the Imaginarium trains, which means they would be backwards if you were going to hitch a bunch of Thomas and Imaginarium engines together. The cargo and passenger cars can go either way.

Sad that I know this so well. I think we could have done without the train table because many of our layouts are much bigger. But when we have other little friends over, it's nice to make a simple setup on the table and have them focus on that.

We have no room for a table, so we don't regret not having one. The floor is adequate. But if you have the space, a table would rock. The younger kids, especially, tend to destroy the tracks they've set up just by moving the trains around. They're not agile enough yet on the floor.

That said, my main piece of advice is look at how the bridges/tunnels are constructed. Do they require supports underneath/multiple pieces? Or are they stable blocks themselves? The ones with supports are really only OK for older children. My little ones knock them over all the time, and we even had to remove one pair from their train bin.

For storage, we have a cube system (with the soft fabric bins), and all our train pieces live in one bin. We have two sets: a Thomas set and a Pottery Barn set. I like the PB tracks much much better, but the Thomas trains are more interesting. Everything is interchangeable.

I'd skip the table. Also, I purchased a huge box of generic tracks pretty cheap on Amazon. We have plastic clear bins with attached hinged lids that I got at Officemax that we store toys in. One bin for Legos, one bin for train stuff, etc.

I agree with no train table. You can go to Barnes and Noble for that, and since your kid is 2.5 he will soon be building his own track. It's nice to spread out and not be limited by the size of the table.

Don't regret our train set purchase for a minute.

Accept now that that beautiful track set up today will be destroyed by tomorrow. My husband was hung up on the fact that my kids build and rebuild the tracks - part of the fun!

Grandpa is making one for DD for Christmas. They had great fun together playing on the train table in a book store a couple of months ago.
He is making it on a board that will fit under our couch so we can put it under there when not playing with it.
Our is going to have the main track fixed down I think, DD is only 16 mos so if its not fixed the track will get broken up constantly.
Im not sure what the plan is for when she wants to change the track around or add to it.

Never got trains for DS. He liked to play with them, some, at daycare and preschool but they were never THE toy. His best friend on the other hand was SUPER into trains and still outgrew the train table quickly. I agree with PPs that I'd skip the table, and/or get something that's multipurpose (trains, arts/crafts, Legos).

Bought a ton of tracks and trains on Craigslist for $50. My 4yo and 6yo (and my husband!!) play with them at least weekly. They spread them all out all the floor and make huge tracks. I can't imagine trying to contain them on a train table, not to mention all the space it would take up. We store them in one of those reusable blue IKEA bags.

Honestly - I wish at that age we had just bought a set on craigslist. Train tables are one of those large items that children outgrow relatively quickly, so there are always tons of people trying to get rid of them (kind of like play kitchens, play houses, etc.). Also, at that age, kids don't know or care if an object is brand new. Saves you the hassle of having to get it all out of the packaging, set it up, etc.

I would have stayed away from Chuggington. The trains are too big for some of the other bridges and tunnels and the buildings are pretty cheesy and flimsy.

We got a plain train table from Target, and continue to use it for Legos. Still most trains and Legos end up on the floor

We are building our collection now and also have decided against the table. We store them in a big plastic bin. We have a few Ikea sets. Amazon sells boxes or I think 100 pieces at seemingly reasonable prices and I've been eyeing those. I'm also eyeing a few sets of add ons like trees and street signs so he can build more of a city than just the trains. We use just the Ikea trains...so they're not Thomas branded or anything like that. He has a train table at school and friends houses and Barnes and Nobel so at home I prefer to just leave them in a box and save the floor space for building and everything else.