If you know anything about Thomas wooden trains please come in...

I am going insane trying to figure out what to get my 2.5 yr old DS. DH & I decide to get him Thomas trains and track to add to his small collection that he already has. He has the wooden starter track plus a small basic expansion track set and a couple trains. I got him a few trains at Marshalls for a good price so now I want to get him some track or accessories. So I was searching on Amazon last night and drove myself crazy. There are so many options. I bought nothing and literally dreamed about trains last night. Can anyone recommend a wooden set, either Thomas & Friends or a compatible brand. I'm seriously so confused between all the sets (Figure 8, Conductor set, Water Tower set, etc, etc, etc) or even getting pieces separately. Help!

And thank you for reading my rant about something so silly.

Re: If you know anything about Thomas wooden trains please come in...

My son loves the crossing (think it's Hatt's Crossing) and the sodar signal house. He also likes his tunnels and bridges.

Re: If you know anything about Thomas wooden trains please come in...

My kids loved tunnels and bridges, the deluxe cranky, the barrel roll station, and the water one that pulls down. I would not get the wash down station because most trains cannot fit through the bars.

If you know anything about Thomas wooden trains please come in...

My son loves whispering woods and any tunnel and bridge.

Re: If you know anything about Thomas wooden trains please come in...

We have this, super inexpensive but lots of pieces. http://www.amazon.com/Wooden-Train-Track-Piece-Pack/dp/B005AW85YG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1354070932&sr=8-1&keywords=tracks+wooden

If we ever need expansion pieces, I tend to go with the TRU brand "Imaginarium", they are WAY cheaper and still fit.

We got him this last Christmas.
http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=12010341

Re: If you know anything about Thomas wooden trains please come in...

Also, Totsy is having a Train event, lots of sets deeply marked down.

http://www.totsy.com/sales/tomy.html

Re: If you know anything about Thomas wooden trains please come in...

Thank you everyone. I'm going to check out the stuff mentioned in TRU this weekend to see it all in person and decide what to get before going crazy online again!

Re: If you know anything about Thomas wooden trains please come in...

The thomas figure 8 set (any of them) are really great - we had that and then a random imaginarium type set which came with some buildings/bridges/trees. If you are up for getting a train table - the imaginarium train table comes with a giant assortment of tracks and will work with thomas trains just fine.

I just bought thomas stuff for a friends' son that will be 2 in February and got him a collection of the electric ones - search electric thomas, percy, james on amazon - they are metal but work on the wooden tracks and can pull other trains/cargo cars - a lot of fun!!

Re: If you know anything about Thomas wooden trains please come in...

Honestly if you are going to invest in a big item, go with tidmouth sheds. Its so identifiable, the kids love it. Then just buy regular tracks, target has one, Costco has had them in years past, a pp had a link to one. We have 4 different brands they all fit fine.

The more pieces the better IMO. We have the water tower, an oil depot, knapford station (great add on BC it comes with a microphone to announce trains), a quarry tunnel, a drawbridge, cranky the crane, etc. It was money well spent as some pieces were my now 11yo nephews, and my 5yo still loves to build tracks in his room!

Also AC Moore has some stuuf and its usually on sale for 40% off and when its not on sale, you can use the coupon!