Woodat.com

Alrighty, so my 2 year old nephew is obsessed with toy trains.  He plays with them constantly and they’re the first toy he goes for whenever he gets the choice.  Unfortunately, all the brand name stuff out there is rediculously expensive.  A single piece of Thomas the Tank Engine official brand track is around 8 dollars or so.  The engines and cars are also on the prohibitably expensive side.  So to build up any kind of decently large collection you’d have to invest several hundred dollars.

Or I could build it almost entirely from scratch.  With a bandsaw, drill press, and a bit of woodworking skill it would easily be within the realm of possibility to build an entire train set for far less than I would pay to buy it.  I can choose the designs, get the proportions more decently correct (the Thomas ones are horribly misproportioned), build the set as large as I liked, and most importantly give a truly decent Woodmas gift because it’s handmade rather than purchased.  With this goal in mind I set to work.

Now as far as building anything goes, the first step I always take is research.  To that end I found an excellent resource online.  I’m obviously not the first person to have this idea, as this gentleman took the same course of action 10 years ago for his son.  The Hoogerland National Railways site had everything I needed in terms of knowledge and wisdom in getting started on this matter, and was an excellent resource.  Indeed, the first engine I made was directly based on his own plans (mine are mostly a copy of his, and I give him full credit for creating them).

Using the knowledge gained from the HNR page, I quickly sketched up my own thoughts and plans.  Here’s the links to the various sketchups.  They’re scaled and printable so anyone can work off them:

Locomotive:  http://woodat.com/train-build1.jpg

Freight/coal cars:   http://woodat.com/train-build2.jpg

Flatbed barrel car:   http://woodat.com/train-build3.jpg

Plans in hand, next step was to aquire the materials.  The wood is almost exclusively from Home Depot/Lowes.  I used oak whereever possible as they had quarter, half inch, and three quarter inch planks for only a couple bucks each.  As it stood though the “printed” measurements were all a quarter or half inch off on all the wood. I’ve yet to figure out why they put incorrect measurements like that on all wood sold here in the US.  Anyway, dowels and a bit of 1/8th bassboard also from Michaels to build the boilers and the places I needed a thin platform to put things on.

The wheels (and the barrels) came from Michaels arts and crafts.  The wheels came in packs of 12 for $1.20. The axles are just half inch wood screws (smallest I could find).  I still ended up drilling out the axle holes larger in the wheels but that’s actually easier (though more boring) than one would think.

The magnets are special ceramic doughnut magnets which I ordered cheap from one of my favorite supply stores online: Surplus Shed. This is the third order I’ve placed from here, and have never had any troubles.  My last project from here was a set of photocopier lenses which I used to build a homemade telescope.  But as discussed on the HNR page, the ceramic doughnut magnets are by far the best option for this project, as they are decently strong and the hole allows me to attach the pushpins straight through onto the wood without cutting/modifying them.  The magnets were a pack of 10 for 1.20.  Ordered a hundred to be on the safe side (bulk discount )

The pushpins themselves are from walmart, they are simple apolstery nails. A pack of 30 for a dollar.

And finally, some standard wood glue for the wood and some “Goop”(TM) to secure the magnets/pushpins to the wood also from home depot.

And so, with a bit of cutting, drilling, and gluing, I was able to turn out my first engine:

The wheels are on temporarily to test.  Magnets don’t go on until after the painting/sealing process.  But as it stands it took less than 20 minutes to cut all the pieces out, drill the holes for the dowels for the smokestack/boiler, and a few more holes to guide the axles in and drill out the wheel holes (which lets them spin easier).  Of interest, it is spoken about on the HNR site about the exact width and measurements the wheels have to be in order to work in the 6-wheel configuration; but I’ll make mention of it again here though.  The wheels on any truck need to be 1/2″ away from the rear edge of the wood where the magnet is mounted, and for the 6-wheel configuration the wheels need to be spaced 7/8ths inches apart.  What’s more, the wheels actually need to have at least a 16th of an inch clearance between the body and the wheel.  They have to be loose so they don’t bind when the train goes around corners.

So, all that done, and a few more minutes sanding, then it’s on to finishing up the rest of the carriages.

After sanding, they were then ready for painting.

The paint is just cheap acryllic paint from walmart.  I’d have loved to use a spray paint primer but sadly I couldn’t locate anything that was lead free that didn’t cost an arm and a leg.  A few layers of this paint though seems to have worked just as well.  A spray-on sealant waterproofs it and makes the paint more durable, so nothing lost there in the end.  You can see a few more painting closeup images here:

With the painting in place, and a few coats of sealer to protect it, the last step was to attach the magnets.  To ensure the cars were compatable with all the other toys out there I actually took a test magnet and pushpin in to walmart with me.  I spent a good 10 minutes in their toy department lining up the magnet with the toys they had on display so I knew the right polarities for front and back.

With a guide I built from that I attached the magnets by pushing the pushpins through the holes in them then gluing the bottom before pushing the remaining exposed pin into the wood.  The result is near identical to the real deal, and extremely simple.

And so here it is, the finished product.  For those wondering “what about the tracks Woody?!” I will concede that they are bought. Ikea sells the tracks (and some very simple trains) for far cheaper than the other namebrands, and it’s compatable with just about everything (well very nearly).  25$ provides more than enough track for a simple set.  32$ provides a rediculous amount :)  Anyway, here’s the pics of the final train:

I’ve actually gone on to build a second smaller green tank engine (pics soon hopefully), some closed freight cars, and a couple passenger cars also.  All in all a fun project.  Given the extra detail I put into painting (the wheels especially I could have used a spray bottle for) it was about 2 hours per car, so with the second set about 30 hours total from start to completion.

The only painful irony of this is dispite it being a labour of love, I’m well assured that my nephew will never realise they are hand-made, let alone the effort it took to build them.  Not that it matters I suppose