Chuggington Wooden Railway System

One thing that I’ve learned about every child that I’ve come into contact with so far, is that they have a love affair with trains. Riding on them, watching them go by and making train noises. That’s why I was excited to see this Chuggington Lift & Load Figure 8 Wooden Train Set arrive on my front step for review a bit ago. My excitement paled in comparison to the three smallest Nicholes, especially Sir Twizzler, who is the train lover of my brood.

Along with the track setting, there are lift and load pieces that come along with it. All of which are wooden. It includes interactive loading and cargo lift (working magnets are involved) and a steep incline for the train and train car to glide over.

When I broke out the train set, Sir Twizzler came right over, and I’m certain that this is the position that he would still be in if I didn’t interrupt him constantly for things like breakfast, lunch and dinner. He’s enthralled with the actual Chugginton piece, and often claims that as HIS train when he and his sisters have a bit of free time during our homeschool sessions. One of the aspects that I love the most is the fact that it’s a wooden play set. Call me crazy, but there’s something completely pure about wooden toys. I don’t know if it’s old time nostalgia working here, but I think that they top my list of toys that I enjoy my children playing with. No threat of melting, or even really breaking all that easily. They are sturdy, and most pieces don’t have sharp edges. Also, NONE of the pieces are small enough to swallow which is awesome when you’re dealing with two year old twins who want to do everything they see their siblings doing. It makes for an hour or two of imaginative play. Can you imagine THAT?

For those parents who want gender neutral toys as well, this comes painted with primary colors only – red, yellow and blue.

As you can see, the three amigos love playing with this train set, and even enjoy taking the track pieces and making a perfect circle, and sending Chuggington around, and around, and around. I could see this being a perfect gift for Christmas or birthdays (hint, hint) in the future.

The only issue I have is that I have to have proper storage for it, as storing it in the box that it came from is not the way to go for our house. It may be for yours though. To fix that issue, we purchased a small bin from the dollar spot at our local Target and store the pieces there. It makes for easy access for the kids, and they can also put the toys back in their proper place without having me come and figure out proper pieces to sections in the box, but that’s the only complaint (if you can really call it one) that I have.

This was one of the rare times that I could take pictures and no one was staring directly in the camera because they were THAT involved.