Best Children's train table - Recommended for toddlers and preschoolers

My boys both loved playing with a train table. They are perfect for toddlers upwards. My sons both played with them from around 18 months when they would pull themselves up and pick up and look at the trains and track. As they got older they are great for imaginative play.

Children's train tables are great for keeping play at children's eye level and keeping all the mess of the floor. Storage facilities in a lot of the train tables make clearing up quick and easy. Just throw all the trains in the storage compartments and everything is tidied away and in the right place for the next play session.

Many train tables have dual use and you can use them for other activities such as race tracks or drawing. Also a lot of train tables can be used for years. Once your child has passed the train stage the table could be used for lego or crafts.

If you keep your train table is good condition, in general they have a good resale value on sites like craiglist or ebay. You could also consider buying one from these sites or even building your own to keep the costs down.

Read on to find the best children's train table for you.

There are lots of considerations you need to think about when buying a train table:

Size - You need to consider where you will put it and whether you have the space. Size is also important for playing. The table needs to be wide enough so that you have enough space to build your train tracks. Also is the table big enough for more than one child? This may not be important if you just have one child but if you have siblings or friends around often - it can be useful to have a bigger table.

Storage - In my experience the best train tables are ones which have ample storage and make it easy to clean away all the train track and other accessories.

Fixed molded tracks or non fixed tracks - you can get train tables where the tracks are fixed. The advantages of this is that you don't lose pieces of track and don't have to set it up every time you use it. I find that fixed tracks for younger children who get frustrated when the train track you have just built has broken. And it stops them asking you a zillion times to fix the train track. However, my sons loved a train table without a fixed molded track as part of the fun for them especially as they get older is building the tracks on the table and designing different set ups which is great for their imagination. So which one you get will really depend on what's more important to you.

Multi-Use - Some train table have more than one use. Some can also be used for drawing and other craft activities.This is good as your child gets older as they have space other activities. Others are also designed to be used as a lego table or for cars. My youngest son is car mad so loves playing with cars on the train table too.

Safety Features - consider the edges of the train table when you are buying. Some train tables have rounded edges and this is great if you have any young toddlers or babies around as there are no sharp edges on the train table for them to fall against.