Wooden toy train

Wooden toy trains are a system of small toy trains that run on wooden track. The tracks feature grooves which serve to guide the wheels of rolling stock.

Traditionally parts are made of hardwoods which resemble anthropomorphical, fictional, and prototypical railroad equipment. Early wooden trains connected to each other using metal hooks, these have since been replaced, for the most part, by small magnets.

Most manufacturers have supplemented the wood with plastics, such as the use of plastic wheels mounted on metal axles. The majority of the rolling stock, track, fixed plant, and scenery accessories are still made of wood.

History

Early Companies in America

In 1936 Marshal H. Larrabee II founded the Skaneateles Handicrafters, a toy company which made wooden toy trains and wooden tracks. [ [http://www.tacny.org/technologist/issue0601.html Technology Club Newsletter from June 2001] ] The gauge was very similar to that used by most companies today, and so the rolling stock is compatible. However, the connections for the track pieces were of a different design than the jigsaw style "peg and hole" system used today. [ [http://www.google.com/patents?vid=USPAT2254153 US patent 2254153 from 1940 concerning Marshal H. Larrabee's Wooden Toy Train system] ] Trains were usually left unpainted and unstained, the parts being made of maple. In 1956 Playskool took over the sales for Skaneateles Handicrafters keeping the design style and track connecting system [Set by [http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/collection/database/?irn=253652 Skaneateles Handicrafters for Playskool] in the collection of the Powerhouse Museum in Sidney, Australia.] well into the sixties. Marshal H. Larrabee sold his company to the Germany based Habermaaß GmbH in 1980. It was renamed to T.C. Timber and kept producing in Skaneateles until 2002, when the production line was closed down. [ [http://www.tacny.org/technologist/2002/issue0902.html Technology Club Newsletter from September 2002] ]

During the fifties the Jack-Built Toy Manufacturing Company had an own range of wooden toy trains (ca.1956-62) under their brand name "Jack Built Snap Trains", [ [http://www.oldwoodtoys.com/jack_built.htm Article by Dave Pecota] ] that were manufactured in Japan. They were compatible with the products from Skaneateles Handicrafters in size and make except for the coupling system. Although the rolling stock could thus be used on either tracks, neither the tracks or the rolling stock could be combined. Jack-Built used a snap system for both the rolling stock and the tracks. California based Ben Orel filed US patent #2847798 [ [http://www.google.com/patents?id=tLdeAAAAEBAJ&dq=2847798 US patent 2939245 from 1960 concerning Ben Orel's Wooden Toy Train "snap" coupling system] ] in 1956 and was granted the patent for his "snap coupling" system two years later. In the US patent #3013726 [ [http://www.google.com/patents?id=xWhEAAAAEBAJ&dq=3013726 US patent 3013726 granted 1961 concerning Ben Orel's Wooden Toy Train reversible track system] ] , submitted by Ben Orel in 1960, he describes how the track could be rotated and thus a "rail" and a "road" side could be used. This is quite similar to what Learning Curve later used for their "Thomas & Friends" range. Already in 1958 Ben Orel submitted a patent for magnetic couplings [ [http://www.google.com/patents?id=50lsAAAAEBAJ&dq=2939245 US patent 2939245 granted 1960 concerning Ben Orel's Wooden Toy Train magnetic coupling system] ] , this may have been the earliest attempt to use magnets with the wooden toy train system. By the mid sixties though production seems to have stopped and the company disappeared from the toy market.

Early Companies in Europe

In 1958, BRIO, based in Osby in southern Sweden, introduced its wooden toy train system with wooden tracks in Europe. It may have been the first company to use the "peg and hole" system, used to connect the track pieces, in mass production. The metal hook system for the rolling stock has since been replaced by magnetic connectors. BRIO was also one of the first companies to use beechwood for such products.

Another Swedish company that started producing a similar toy at about this time was Micki Leksaker in Gemla.

There was a long tradition of wooden toy-making along the mountain forests surrounding Bohemia. Seiffen made wooden figures and Christmas decorations and Blumenau created building blocks and construction sets. Mass production techniques of polishing and coloring wooden toys were established and perfected in the Bohemian areas. Some of the early sets exhibited train designs that were later used for the wooden track trains. In 1949, Hermann Eichhorn, of the Blumenau tradition and origin, founded his company for wooden toys in the Bavarian town of Egglham. In 1961, he started producing his version of the wooden track railway system. Eichhorn claims that his company is the first to have systematically used the "vario system" for the connectors. Eichhorn did apply for a US-patent [ [http://www.freepatentsonline.com/5427561.html US Patent 5,427,561 from Jun.27,1995] ] for a "Battery powered toy train" in 1994. In 1997 the company had to be sold to the Simba-Dickie-Group that moved production to the Czech Republic. In February 1999 two fires totally destroyed the old factory buildings in Egglham and consumed most of the company's archives and work models.

Heros (He+ros), the company of Hermann Rossberg of Lam in the Bavarian Forest near to the border of Bohemia, influenced train design in the Blumenau tradition. He too started a line of wooden track trains using bright colors in his train designs. In the seventies the company exerimented with plastic tracks based on the peg and hole design of the wooden tracks but soon returned to the normal wooden tracks. [Set [http://213.179.68.166/nb-cgi/query1.pl?DEF=c%3A%5Cdata%5Csp_nb%5Chida;DATEN=c%3A%5Cdata%5Csp_nb%5Cinv;THE=c%3A%5Cdata%5Csp_nb%5Cidx;USER=test;BAG=1;POS=1;DOK_TPL=foto_list.tpl;LIST_TPL=foto_doc.tpl;FCT=g;i3370=;N_3370=0;R_3370=%3D;i499=;N_499=1;R_499=%3D;O_499=and;i2017=heros;N_2017=2;R_2017=%3D;O_2017=and;i140=;N_140=3;R_140=%3D;O_140=and;i353=;N_353=4;R_353=%3D;O_353=and;i360=;N_360=5;R_360=%3D;O_360=and;itext=;N_text=6;R_text=%3D;O_text=and;query=and:2017:=:heros*;result=11;KEY=inv%20n1002970; "Kleinstadt 4800"] , Spielzeug Museum Nürnberg, Number 1977.43]

The Nineties, new Companies and new Ideas

"Thomas the Tank Engine" is a character created by the Rev. W. Awdry in "The Railway Series" of children's books. The books were first published in the U.K. in 1945. In 1984 a television series called "Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends" was made adding to the popularity of the "characters". It was first shown in the United States in 1989. John W. Lee founded the company "Learning Curve Toys" in 1993 with a wooden railway system called "Thomas & Friends" based on the Thomas the Tank Engine characters. This made the wooden toy trains even more popular than before. Learning Curve introduced some new designs for the track surface, such as the "Clickety Clack" rails patented 1995 [ [http://www.freepatentsonline.com/5454513.html US Patent 5,454,513 from Oct.3,1995] ] and the newer tracks in 2003 [ [http://www.freepatentsonline.com/6648237.html US Patent 6,648,237 B2 from Nov.18,2003] ] with a relief to supply better traction grip for battery powered four wheel drive trains patented in 1998. [ [http://www.freepatentsonline.com/6089952.html US Patent 6089952 filed on Jan.28,1998] ]

With the popularity of the toy system rising due to the success of "Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends" new markets outside of the traditional groups and countries where opened. While companies such as Mapple Landmark adjusted it's existing line of "Name Trains" to the gauge of the vario system in 1993 others such as Whittle Shortline established in 1997 started producing rolling stock based on more realistic designs of existing American examples. While Brio and "Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends" clearly favoured the steam engine era, Whittle Shortline expanded into heavy duty diesel engines of designs hardly known in Europe. In the product line "Trains of the World" shown in the Brio catalog of 1998, Brio presents several historic steam engines, such as the Mallard or the Flying Scotsman along with several modern high speed trains such as the Shinkansen, TGV or ICE. The only diesel unit is from the Santa Fe line. Another project based on real life prototypes is the "New York City Subway Wooden Railway" by Muni-Pals.

Other companies concentrated on related items such as Nilo and KidKraft, that make train tables among other things. Suretrack sells it's track securing clips and Choo Choo Track & Toy Co., founded in 1999, have concentrated on producing and designing tracks and accessories.

Electronics and Asian Production Sites

Electronics

Although the original push along trains made mostly of wood still resemble the core idea of this system toy and as of 2006 is the base of all the involved companies production lines, electronics have gained access to the wooden world. After introducing battery powered engines in the nineties, remote control has been added by 2002 and so called smart track has introduced plastic parts to the wooden track pieces. In 2006 Brio even introduced a theme resembling electronic networking with some electronic gadgets. Altogether this has led to some new track designs allowing better traction for the self powered trains or means of communication between the tracks and trains by some magnetic or electronic gadget.

Asian Production

As with other toys, many wooden trains and track are manufactured in China and other Asian countries as of 2008. The lead paint problems of 2007 [ [http://recalls.rc2.com/recalls_Wood_0607.html Lead paint recall of June 13th, 2007, by RC2 Corporation] ] have brought this to public awareness. The connections are a lot older though. Already in the fifties the Snap-Trains of Ben Orel were made in Japan.

Probably the first major brand that was manufactured in China was the Chicago based "Thomas and Friends Wooden Railway". Some of the design, such as the character faces and the spoked wheels have stayed unique to the brand while other things, such as the modular build of the units with a rectangular single block wheel holding chassis and individual buildup on top, have become widespread designs in china and elsewhere. Another major brand is Maxim. Starting with traditional rather plain and abstract designs, Maxim sold products under the name "Tumble Tree Wood" for retail stores. They have since adopted the current design with the winged number on their rolling stock. The main supplier is a factory in Dong Guan, China. The trains with the winged numbers are also sold by other brands such as Babalu in Germany. In 2004 [ [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/18/business/worldbusiness/18toys.html?pagewanted=print New York Times article of September 18, 2007] ] Brio of Sweden moved most of their production to three factories in Guangdong Province, China. A more recent brand is Melissa & Doug that is also produced in China. Smaller projects were the short lived ventures of Remus or Europlay.

A producer that has sold it's products under very many brands including its own name is Mentari Massen with its main factory in Surabaya in Indonesia, founded in 1988. Their items have been sold as sets or individually bundled under such brand names as elile, FunToys, Toytopia, The Toy Company, Bino, Snap on Tools and Bigjigs as well as Mentari Toys or Mentari Group.

A quite prolific producer with its own clear design is Plantoys of Thailand. They have been making children's toys and furniture from rubber wood, which has since been adopted by other companies. They have a range of car and city related sets that could be used as accessories for the wooden toy train ranges of other producers. They had a joint venture with Brio in 2001/2002, being present in the Brio catalogs of the time. By 2007 they started their own line of wooden trains, that has been expanded in 2008.

In 1986 Bigjigs Toys Ltd started out by selling a large range of wooden jigsaws. Then in the 1990s they moved into the wooden railway market with a small core range of wooden railway system items. In 2007 they re-launched their railway range under the brand Bigjigs Rail, in new blue sky and green hills packaging. There are, as of 2008, over 70 pieces in the Bigjigs Rail range with 15 being added in 2008. Bigjigs Rail offers quality with relativeley inexpensive prices. Some items of the range are clearly produced by Mentari Massen, such as the sets BJT010 - BJT015.

The track system

The gauge

Described in the metric system the grooves appear to be 3 mm deep, 5 mm wide and have 20 mm between them. The tracks themselves are 40 mm wide and 12 mm high. To be kept on track the system can be reduced to a shallow groove 30 mm wide as in some road systems or small ramps that allow the vehicle to get on or of the track from the floor, or a middle section 20 mm wide and 3 mm high as in some beginners tracks or double track road systems. Most modern track systems have a somewhat sophisticated profile with varying degrees of slanted sides for the grooves or rounded edges. In the imperial system the tracks have been described with grooves an eighth of an inch deep, a quarter of an inch wide and have three quarters of an inch between them. The tracks themselves are one and a half inches wide and half an inch high. [ [http://pw1.netcom.com/~thoog/hnr/hnr.html Todd Hoogerland on the Gauge Standards] ]

Flipping track pieces

Some track pieces such as curves and points have grooves on both sides so that they can be used from both sides. By flipping the piece around one can convert a left-hand curve or point to a right-handed one. This feature seems to be unique to the wooden track toy train systems. Another possibility is to have the two grooves for trains on the one side and the single wide groove for roads on the other side. Learning Curve made such tracks for their "Thomas the Tank Engine" theme.

The Vario system

When trying to document a layout with exact geometry one quickly notices that a lot of layouts one builds with real track do not work using a CAD system or some track layout program. [ [http://www.aracnet.com/~seagull/brioray/background.html John Mechalas on track layout geometry with the Vario System.] ] This is due to the so called "vario system" which allows some play when joining the tracks, so that with some wiggling around one can make layouts line up perfectly with no danger of derailing the trains that don't use the exact geometry of the pieces. This is achieved by making the pegs somewhat smaller than the holes. The round part of the hole sometimes is not an exact circle, but rather an ellipse allowing the tracks to connect with a small gap between them. Also the neck gap doesn't have a sharp edge at the end of the track but is carved round. This may have started as a production loss or to make it easier for small children to join the tracks. Some sources state that Eichhorn was the first to design the connections using this system.

Some track and layout geometry

Though not all manufacturers use the same system for their track piece designs some principle standards have evolved, as the geometry involved with track systems tends to pose the same problems to everyone. The first question may be how to divide the circle. The standard for wooden tracks is eight pieces. The next important length is the diameter of the circle made of a line along the center of the tracks. This length is useful for figures such as an eight with the crossing at right angles, a simple L-figure, a bulge to one side or a spectacles or Mickey Mouse head, to name the simplest.

A division in two gives a handy piece of straight track. For the figure eight one could use two straight pieces to go underneath and a use a bridge made to the same length to cross over the other straights. If one wants a crossing on the same level, the diameter can be divided by three and a crossing piece made with straights of that length. Of course one can also produce pieces of a quarter diameter length to put to the left and right of a central bridge piece that is half the diameter long. As one can see it turns out to be useful to determine the length of the straight tracks by dividing the diameter of the circle made by the curves. Brio uses the lengths of half, quarter and eighth as well as a third and sixth.

To solve the problems of the offset produced by points that branch out at the same angle producing parallel tracks, it is also useful to design such points and switches so that one of the short straights can compensate the offset. An easy way to design points is by tracing a long and a curved track to the same piece using the same connecting point as the origin. Such a merged piece can thus serve as a curve for one branch and a straight for the other while using the same dimensions as the other pieces.

Road systems

Several approaches have been made over the time to add a road system to the railway tracks. The first and still most widely used level crossings use simple ramps that enable vehicles to cross the thick tracks from whatever undergrounds the tracks are placed on. The simplest way to add roads to this existing solution is to provide a layout printed on a paper or plastic sheet or even a carpet that uses the dimensions used by the wooden tracks. Some companies have made thin track pieces out of plastic or other materials that can be joined by some connecting system and have special crossover pieces to allow playing together with a wooden railway system. The next step seems to have been road track pieces of similar thickness as the railway tracks but using some other connecting design. Using the same "peg and hole" system as the railway tracks seems to have come later. The "Thomas the Tank Engine" theme from Learning Curve used track pieces that had the traditional railway design on ,one side and a new road design on the other. These roads had the same profile and measurements as the railway tracks, except that the part between the grooves was missing so that the road was a broad "groove" with sidings. The road vehicles and the railway rolling stock could be used interchangeable on both systems. Brio had introduced a track with wider grooves that was used for trains aimed at a younger age group. These used the same connection system as the other tracks and had the same distance between the grooves. This made it possible for the normal trains to run on the wider tracks. When these wide grooves have the same width as the "Thomas the Tank Engine" road pieces they can be used as a two way road. Other companies have since adopted this system.

The rolling stock and accessories

Design origins and developments

The early sets such as of Skaneateles [ [http://www.google.com/patents?vid=USPATD128493 Early train design from 1941] ] , Eichhorn and Brio seem all to have used rather simple and abstract designs. The pieces where not painted, so that trains and tracks had the same surface. The normal early trains had engines and wagons carved from a single piece of wood each and being connected with hooks and eyes. Painted sets may have become common in the early seventies as well as the use of magnets as connectors. Engines carved from a single block were commonly painted black in Europe with bright red funnels and wheels. The early trains made with construction sets and larger pull along trains may have influenced other early train designs, that where built of several wood pieces ("cut broomstick design" among others). Normally each wood piece had an individual single color, thus the resulting engine, for example, could sport six different colors. One each for the base plate, the cylindrical boiler, the drivers cabin, the cabin roof, the funnels and the wheels. Sets with painted patterns seem to have become more popular in the late eighties and nineties. This may have been due to the success of the "Thomas the Tank Engine" series and the wish for more realistic real world designs.

As of 2007 there seem to be several directions the design is taking:
*One group seems to emphasize the material wood. Some are simple "back to the roots" designs, while others take a more artistic approach, searching for new ways to abstract the train theme.
*Another group tries to stay true to the material wood but use more realistic designs with series based on famous real life trains.
*A modern view is to use more and more plastic and building battery powered and remote controlled objects, with electronic devices gaining ground.
*Specialty trains for specific things like alphabet trains, name trains, decoration sets like birthday trains with candles and promotional designs for special events.

Bridges and tunnels

Early Skaneateles sets had rectangular supports that raised the track gradually. Due to the different connection system Skaneateles used at that time, tracks could be easily bent upwards at the connection point. The two-piece bridge with massive, self supporting, ramps has been common since the sixties. Provided with supports, this bridge could be easily elongated using normal straights. More modern bridge designs have used large amounts of plastic since the eighties, reducing the amount of wood needed and thus producing lighter and cheaper designs. A sturdy basic bridge is the three-part bridge with the connections in the ramp section. Such designs seem to be aimed at the youngest players as they don't come apart easily. However, the design is not extendable. The two part bridge led to the development of some raised track pieces. First versions had viaduct like designs or sported some sort of gadget like a Drawbridge. Later ramps were track bent in S-shape. As these were not self supporting new sorts of elevated track pieces were introduced. These consisted of a short piece of track raised by four legs. These supports were stackable and based on a square design, so that the direction could be turned by a right angle on the different levels.

Buildings

Early buildings had windows and doors made by drawing lines in a single color on simple rectangular blocks. Sometimes they had slanted roofs made with another piece of wood, painted another color, stacked on top. A common early station design consisted of a simple platform with a roof on two or three supports along the longer axis. Later buildings have printed multicolor patterns. There have always been building sets that where similar to the popular wooden building blocks allowing lots of individual designs. Since the nineties building designs have become more sophisticated and interaction with the trains has increased. Learning Curve may have made this approach popular with many designs based on story plots of the "Thomas the tank" series, such as a grain loader accessory [ [http://www.freepatentsonline.com/6592427.html based on an US Patent filed on Feb.11 1999] (Toy vehicle grain loader accessory)] or a logging mill. [ [http://www.freepatentsonline.com/6015329.html US Patent filed on Jan.28 1998] (Toy vehicle logging mill accessory)]

Plastic and electronics

Licensing and merchandise themes

* Sesame Street - (Playskool 70s?, Strombecker-Tootsie toys 1995 [ [http://www.drtoy.com/1995/t23.html#StrombeckerTootsieToy Sesame Street Wooden Railway] listed among 100 best toys of 1995 by Dr.Toy] , DealMakers 2008 [As shown on their [http://www.dealmakers.nl/EN/SesameTrain.aspx Homepage] ] )
* Thomas the Tank Engine - (Learning Curve 1993 and Brio)
* Jim Knopf/Button - (Euro-Play pre 2000?(Tesco?), Brio from 2000 on)
* Bob the Builder - (Brio 2001)
* Benjamin Blümchen - (Eichhorn 2001)
* Curious George - (Brio 2002)
* Busytown - (Brio 2002)
* Babar the Elephant - (Brio,France)
* The Little Engine that Could - (Maxim until mid 2005, [ [http://web.archive.org/web/20050204024036/maximenterprise.com/tletc.htm Maxim page on the Waybackmachine Internet Archive] ] Whittle Shortline as of 2006)
* Winnie the Pooh - (Strombecker-Tootsie toys 2004?), (Eichhorn 2006)
* The Polar Express - (Brio 2006)

Brands

Europe

* Brio, Company founded 1884 in Osby in southern Sweden. Produces Wooden Railways since 1957.
* Eichhorn, Company founded 1949 in Egglham in southern Germany. Produces Wooden Railways since 1961.
* Heros, Company founded by Herrman Rossberg in Lam in southern Germany.
* Micki Leksaker of Sweden, may be the manufacturer of the "Lillabo" wooden train series from Ikea.
* Hartung, Berlin Germany. May sample some sets with products from different manufacturers.
* Babalu, sold only by Karstadt, Germany, produced in China. Some items may be of the same origin as for Maxim and Imaginarium.
* Bino, sells Mentari Toys sets. Old street systems with "double" peg and hole connections have been replaced by single middle line peg and covered hole connections, thus making the connection invisible from the top when assembled.
* Spielmaus, Home brand of Vedes toy shops, Germany
* "Hornby", toy train line by Hornby Railways of England.
* Bentatec, has a small line of trains with a rather artistic design.
* Imaginarium / Universe of Imagination, brand sold by ToysRus. Some items may be of the same origin as for Maxim and Babalu.
* "Tesco", sold at the Tesco stores may be related to Euro-Play
* Bigjigs Rail, Is the wooden railway system from [http://www.bigjigs.co.uk Bigjigs Toys Ltd] . There are over 70 different items in the Bigjigs Rail Range, compatible with all other wooden railway systems.
* Kids-Wood, has a wooden toy train line including a road system. Part of the Danish TOP-TOY company. Sold in the BR toy shops.
* Early Learning Centre, has an own range of wooden toys under their brand name "Wooden World". This includes wooden cars and railway systems (mainly of the type produced in China) although they also sell the "Thomas & Friends" items from "Learning Curve" as of 2008.

North America

* Skaneateles Handicrafts - T.C.Timber - Habermaas, Company founded 1936 by Marshall Larabee in Skaneateles NY in the northeast of the USA. Claims to have invented the Wooden Track Gauge. Was purchased by Habermaas Corporation of Germany in 1980. All trains produced under the TC Timber brand after 2002 are made in Germany.
* Learning Curve, Thomas & friends, Company founded 1993 by John W. Lee in the USA. Produces trains based on the Thomas the tank characters. Since 2003 owned by RC2.
* Maple Landmark, Company founded 1979 by Mike Rainville in Vermont, USA. Produces Trains for the wooden track system since 1993.
* Whittle Shortline- Company founded in 1997 by Mike Whitworth, based in Missouri. Offers a line of wooden trains based upon North American prototypes.
* Lionel - Produce a special line of realistic trains together with Maxim since 2006
* Suretrack, produces securing trackclips.
* Nilo, produces flexible tracks.
* Maxim, Making toys since 1962. Has a joint venture project with Lionel since late 2005, introducing a new line of realistic trains under the brand name of Lionel by 2006.
*Melissa & Doug, founded in 1988, have a line of train tables and complete wooden train world sets.
*KidKraft, a producer of child related furniture started to sell train sets to its train tables.
*Choo Choo Track & Toy Co. established in 1999, have concentrated on track and accessories, using mainly American beech as wood source.

Asia

* China - produces for many companies (Remus, Europlay, Babalu, Maxim, Early Learning Centre)
* Plantoys, founded in 1981 in Thailand. Has specialized on using rubberwood. Produces a street system that is compatible with the wooden train tracks. Changing the connection system several times, Plantoys now uses plastic connecters similar to those used by Ikea and Micki Leksaker, that fit into the all female wooden road tracks. In 2007 Plantoys started an own line of train tracks and rolling stock, using the established peg and hole system for rail tracks and magnets for the rolling stock.
* Mentari Toys, founded 1988 in Surabaya in Indonesia where the production still is while international sales are directed from offices in Taiwan. Products may have been sold under the brands elile, FunToys, Toytopia, Bino and Bigjigs.
* The Toy Company (sold in Germany under the brand name Beeboo, also sells Mentari sets under own brand)

References

See also

*Thomas and Friends wooden railway
*Model railroad layout

External links

;Self-made toys
* Track, buildings and rolling stock at [http://www.bscandm.com/trains/index.htm "Jigs and notes for making wooden train tracks"] by Brian K. Donnelly.
* Trains at [http://pw1.netcom.com/~thoog/hnr/hnr.html Hoogerland National Railways] by Todd Hoogerland.

; virtual toys
* " [http://www.aracnet.com/~seagull/brioray/index.html BRIO Wooden Railway Raytracing] " by John Mechalas using AutoCad.
* Some [http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=d354a48e35494891ad8a06dbee1d115 models] in the Sketchup 3d format by "acad whiz" as part of the [http://sketchup3dchallenge.blogspot.com/2007/08/3d-challenge-002-wooden-toy.html 3D Challenge #002 - Wooden Toy]
* [http://www.enigon.com/products/raily/ Raily for Windows] - Track layout program, with description of [http://www.enigon.com/products/raily/shared/modulbrowser/brio.html Brio tracks] .
* [http://www.trackdraw.com/ Trackdraw] - Track layout program to build layouts for Lego trains, wooden track trains, slotcars and other things.
* Several Homepages of manufactors and toy vendors have online games related to wooden toy trains. Examples are the [http://simbatoys.de/games/express/index.html Eichhorn Express] , the Brio [http://brio.knex.com/customer/TrackBuilder.php Track Builder] or the [http://littlekidstuff.com/train-game-design-build-model-railroad-set-online-3d-flash-activity.htm Train Game] . A GPL licensed arcade game using the design of wooden toy trains is Ri-Li at [http://www.ri-li.org/ www.ri-li.org] .

;Collectors
* [http://www.woodenrailway.org/ The Wooden Railway Page] - Australian enthusiast's personal website, containing photos of his large collection.

;Links
* Doug Atkinson at [http://magicref.tripod.com/trains/woodrail.htm Toy wooden Railroads] and old version [http://www.whizzo.ca/wood/woodrailpix.html here] . With a nice history page [http://magicref.tripod.com/trains/trainhistory.htm here] .
* Dave Pecota at [http://www.oldwoodtoys.com/wood_trains.htm www.oldwoodtoys.com] with information on some early North American and European manufactors.
* Thoughts on track geometry at [http://home.comcast.net/%7Etamivox/dave/train/index.html "Observations on Track for Toy Trains."] by Dave Barber.

;Museums
* At [http://www.brio.net www.brio.net] search for the "Lekoseum" to surf to the "Brio Toy Museum".
* [http://www.museen.nuernberg.de/english/spielzeug_e/index_spielzeug_e.html Nürnberg Spielzeug Museum] (Nuremberg Toy Museum, Germany) To find old trains go to the " [http://213.179.68.166/nb/ virtual depot] " and type "Eisenbahn" for train at the field "Bezeichnung" and "Holz" for wood as material.