If you have a young child who loves trains, you're in good company. Generations of children have been fascinated by them: lining up toy trains, begging to watch real ones go by, and learning the names of engines faster than they learn the names of relatives. Wooden train sets, train books and train shows have been children's favorites for a very long time.
Why trains? There's no single answer, and every child is different. But there are some good reasons trains seem to capture young imaginations so well.
They're big, loud and powerful
Few things in a young child's world are as impressive as a real train: enormous, loud, rumbling, and so powerful the ground shakes. For a small person in a big world, there's something thrilling about watching something that strong. And when they play with toy trains, they get to be in charge of all that power.
They're predictable
Trains run on tracks. They go where the tracks go, they stop at stations, and they come back around. That predictability can be very satisfying for young children, who are working hard to make sense of a world that often feels unpredictable. A train on a track does what you expect it to do.
Many children also enjoy the patterns and rules of trains: engines in front, cars behind, signals that mean stop and go, whistles that mean particular things. Learning those rules gives them a feeling of mastery.
They're full of moving parts
Wheels that turn, rods that push, couplers that hook together, doors that slide open, switches that change direction. Trains are wonderful for children who love to figure out how things work. Even a simple wooden train lets a child explore how things connect and move.
They connect to the real world
Unlike many toys, trains have a real-life version that children can see. A child who plays with a toy freight train can spot a real one at a crossing and recognize the boxcars and tank cars. That connection between play and the real world makes play more meaningful, and gives children something to talk about.
They tell stories
Every train is going somewhere and carrying something. That makes trains natural story-starters. Where is it going? What's inside? Who's waiting? Children build whole worlds around their trains: towns, stations, farms, and adventures. Our read-aloud train stories grew from that same idea.
They can be sorted, lined up and organized
Many young children love lining things up and putting them in order. Trains are made for this: a train is a line of things in order. Building a train, rearranging it, and sorting cars by color or type can be deeply absorbing.
They grow with the child
A toddler might simply push a train back and forth. A preschooler might build a track and run a route. An older child might plan a whole railroad with switches and sidings, read about famous engines, or get into model railroading. Trains can stay interesting for years because there's always more to discover.
What about intense interests?
Some children develop a very strong, focused interest in trains, wanting to talk about them, play with them and learn about them constantly. Strong interests like this are common in early childhood, and they can be a great way to build knowledge, vocabulary and confidence. Many parents use a child's love of trains as a doorway into other subjects: counting cars, reading train books, learning about geography and history, or understanding how machines work.
If you ever have questions about your child's interests, play or development, your pediatrician is a good person to talk to.
Feeding the interest
If your child loves trains, there are lots of ways to enjoy that together:
- Read train books from the library, both stories and nonfiction picture books about real trains.
- Watch real trains from a safe spot, like a station platform or a park near the tracks, always well back from the rails.
- Visit a railroad museum or a heritage railway that runs train rides.
- Build together with a wooden or plastic train set.
- Tell train stories, like the true stories of Big Boy and the Golden Spike.
- Play train games together, like the three in The Train Yarder.
See Train Adventures Off the Screen for more ideas.