Train table

Spencer playing with the Spencer train
Spencer playing with the Spencer train
Spencer has recently gotten quite interested in trains. I had been thinking about getting him a train table for several months for Christmas, but hadn’t made up my mind. The last time we went to the railroad museum, he started talking about how Santa was going to bring him a train, so then I decided to get one. I did a bunch of research on train tables online, and most of them had very mixed reviews. Then I saw some instructions on how to build one, and decided to give it a try. I ended up mostly following the instructions in this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0NhM8H0fus
Train table
Train table

The main change I made was that instead of making the table 24″x48″, I made it 38″x48″, to fit the tracks we bought. I’m glad that I waited to build the table until after we got the tracks, and that I tested them.
Train table top view
Train table top view

It ended up taking me most of the day on the 23rd to build it. The thing I am most proud of is that the only thing I bought was wood filler, and some 3d nails. All of the wood was just scrap sitting in my garage. Of course, since it was scrap, it wasn’t necessarily the nicest stuff. I had exterior grade plywood, which had quite a few knots, which required filling. So I ended up using a lot of wood filler. This was my first experience with using wood filler. There were many different brands to choose from. Most claimed to be stainable, but it didn’t seem like it took the stain very well. So the table doesn’t look that great, but it is sturdy. I think we will eventually paint it. Spencer doesn’t seem to care at all how it looks though. He likes it very much, and that is the important part.

For the legs, I used pine 1″x4″s. For the lip around the top I used 1″x3″ douglas fir, which I have been using to trim out the doors I have been slowly installing in the house. So that wasn’t really scrap, but I had already had them lying around.

One corner of the table
One corner of the table

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