Christmas Choo Choos

My 1 year old is into trains. Decided to give it a shot for the Holidays. I found a nearly identical train for sale for $14.99 on the net. I worked from the image. The body, dowels, wheels, and axels are all poplar. I cheated and bought the wheels and axles. If you’re curious, I always am, 2 dozen wheels and axles ran a little under $10. The dowels and a couple BF of poplar were another few bucks. If you can add, you’ll notice I didn’t save money on this one.

Some suggestions, for small parts, I wish I used spray paint. Takes forever painting the tiny parts while trying to hold them. Also, use a drill press for the wheel axles. Easy to set a standard depth and the use of a fence will allow for even spacing and uniform height of all wheel. I finished it with laquer (allowed t to fully cure before giving it to a kid of course). I suppose mineral oil could be used as well.

This is one of those projects that was simple to make two. I went ahead and made an extra for an upcoming birth in my family. All the setups are the same, so the time to do a second isn’t much more. In that regard, this could be a fairly easy assembly line “toys for tots” type of project.

-- Jeff, South Carolina