My son is a big fan of the Rev. Awdry series “Thomas the Tank Engine”. He pours over the little catalogue from the store and really wanted a train table. They are in excess of $200 here so I though ‘Hey I’ve got all this really expensive hardware kicking around in my wood shop I should take a stab at making a table’. So I fired up sketchup,

measured Paul and started drawing. Once I had the drawing I figured out how much wood I’d need and then sorted through the wood pile and was all set to build a table.

I knew that I wanted to work on inexpensive wood because I was trying a bunch of new things and didn’t want to ruin expensive wood while I gathered experience. Re-purposed pine and new MDF was all that was used in this.

It took about 2 weeks from concept to finished product so I am very please with the final product. Paul thinks it is “Really cool, Dad”.

I was living in Wpg. at the time and had no room for woodworking tools and the spare bedroom/workshop that had been renovation central and with Lauren’s arrival it was converted into a … can you believe it… a bedroom.

Anyway all my tools were now out at my Dad’s welding shop about a 1/2 hour drive away and even further in the winter (and I had a 4 wheel drive at the time). Now Dad would go out and start up the wood stove if I ‘phoned him early enough but depending on the weather it could take a full day to heat up above 0 C never mind comfortable. Anyway, I had the bug in my ear to build my little girl a kid sized chair (found a plan on a web site for it) and no real woodworking tools. So I went to my local RONA and bought some dimensioned boards, borrowed my brother in law’s router and got my table saw and some hand tools out of storage at Dad’s to make this little chair.

Work pressures being what they were I only managed the odd 1/2 hour here and there (spending much of it kibbitizing with my Mom who felt we didn’t visit enough, which was probably true or cleaning various welding paraphenalia out of the way ) so progress was slow and cold and sporadic. I finally got it together and had to find a place warm enough to paint it and let it dry before it froze. Its made of pine boards and a whole lot of mistak…learning opportunities. It stands about 18” high and about 9 wide it should have been an inch or two deeper so it would be less tip resistant. Lauren and Paul have both decorated it since with various stickers and unidentifiable substances. Lauren loved it and her little brother uses it as well. I guess I need to make him a matching table or something…,maybe a barrister bookcase…