We got derailed and now we’re back on track

It has been a while since our last post and we do apologise (shakes head with disappointment).  We were knee deep in chocolate at Easter and as we near Christmas, there’s a weird sense of Déjà vu happening again.

However the best way to get back on track is to have a spark of creativity and get on with the project at hand.

Over the next couple of weeks we will be taking lots of photos of the wooden railway sets, trains, buildings and accessories.  We’ve got close to 250 items, including many rare and hard to find collectables.  For example, Polar Express, Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends, Bob the Builder and his friends too, and some themes that BRIO have released over the last decade.

Getting the creativity juices flowing

To kick start the photos we have set up the photography equipment, and taken a few test photos to share across our social profiles.  Here is a photo taken of one of the sets we have, any guesses to which one this is?

We’ve uploaded this photo to our Instagram profile, which can be found at http://instagram.com/mywoodenrailway and if you want to follow us, our handle is just mywoodenrailway.

This photo shows part of the BRIO 33274 railway set, which came with an adventure tunnel, platform, engine shed, magnetic crane, signal and lots of pieces.  We believe this pre-loved set originally came with a BRIO play table, but even without, it’s an amazing set to own.  So much imaginative play can be had with this set when you add the trains, wagons and passengers.

Social inspiration for our photos

Over the next week we are going to upload some photos to Instagram and hopefully, there will be a nice surprise.  Let’s hope we pull off what we intend to do with some flair.

We’ve noticed that our Pinterest community is building and now has over 150 Followers.  Check out the boards we’ve created at http://www.pinterest.com/mywoodenrailway. Our most popular board is the Train Track Layouts, and this is the one that receives the most re-pins.  It got us thinking about how we use the many social media profiles in our personal lives and how we could use the photo and videos we intend to produce in the future.

Rather than simply copying the same photos into every social profile, maybe we can have some fun with them in a slightly different and quirky way.  If you have Liked us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/mywoodenrailway you will start to see some of our Instagram photos appear over the next week.

If you like our social creativity, please do give us some feedback, and like, comment or share the photos.

Many thanks,

My Wooden Railway Team

Creative Easter ideas!

Happy Easter! Easter Sunday has arrived and it’s rainy. Typical. But fear not. Why not get out the train track and use your excess chocolate eggs to have some Easter fun indoors with these creative Easter ideas.

We actually prepared this a few weeks ago, but had lots of fun using a big bag of Cadbury’s Mini Eggs and a giant Cadbury’s Easter Egg.  Here are a few suggestions to pass the time away today and forget about the weather.

Building an Easter Egg chocolate tunnel

You may have seen this image on our social channels, Twitter, Facebook and Google+.  It looks more tricky that it actually is. If all fails, you can eat the final creation.

1. Firstly find yourself the largest Easter egg you have.  Hopefully you have saved the best until last.
2. Unbox the egg carefully and place into the fridge and leave in there for an hour or two.
3. If you have a giant egg such as the Cadbury’s Dairy Milk or Cadbury’s Mini Eggs, the middle section is an oval which is ideal for the tunnel section. If not, don’t worry.
4. Find yourself a sharp knife and make the blade relatively warm (run under the tap or take straight out the dishwasher once finished).
5. Take the egg out of the fridge, carefully and gradually score an oval into each side of the egg until you make a hole. Warning, the egg may get fragile and warm in your hands.
6. Once each oval is hollowed out, repeat the above near the base of the egg to make a flat edge.
7. Marvel at your creation for just a moment and place back in the fridge to harden up.
8. Build your train track and get the trains out.
9. Finally take the chilled Easter egg out of the fridge and place over the track for the trains to travel through.
10. Once you’ve finished playing or get hungry, enjoy your chocolate tunnel!

Don’t forget to take some pictures and videos of your Easter ideas and chocolate creations.

Load up the train carriages with Mini Eggs

If you have got some Cadbury’s Mini Eggs for Easter, these chocolate eggs make the perfect cargo for your carriages. They don’t melt quickly which means you can have fun loading them onto the trains and then unloading into your mouth.

Using Vine to capture 6 seconds of video fun

Vine is an app that you can you download to your smartphone (iOS and Android) which creates a 6 second video that is looped.  You can take a continuous capture, or with the press to record function, create a stop motion effect video or with difference scenes.  After you are done, you can share on Twitter and Facebook.

Enhance your track with Easter chicks and bunnies

It might be likely that you have some Easter nik naks around the house already.  These little chicks and bunnies are very cute, and scatter them around the train track to add a healthy dose of Springtime feeling to your creative play.  You can also consider cutting up the used Easter Egg boxes if they have Easter characters on them, and stick them to the trains or stations.

Using Google+ to create an animated gif Auto Awesome’ness

If you have a Google account, you can upload your photos into your Google+ account or activate the auto-backup feature. If you have taken more than 5 photos that Google believes to be similar or sequential, it adds some special effects called #AutoAwesome.  Basically, it uses the photos and creates a motion gif.

Creating a farm scene after Easter

If you were inspired by our creative farm scene, we used pieces from the BRIO 33719 Farm Railway Set and the BRIO 33603 Silo Set.

Have fun this Easter, but don’t forget there’s no need to eat all that chocolate today. There’s always Bank Holiday Monday.

My Wooden Railway Team

… going on a journey together.

Valentine’s Day is a special day to tell someone that you love them.   But true love doesn’t have to be about lavish gifts or expensive getaways, but sometimes the smallest things can mean so much more.  Like a single rose and a packet of Love Hearts.  It definitely works for us!

Love is… a single rose and a packet of Love Hearts. Happy Valentine’s Day.

Love is very much like two pieces of wooden train track.  If they fit, your journey will be smooth. If not, you could be in for a bumpy ride 😉

Have a great Valentine’s Day.

My Wooden Railway Team

London Tube Strike February 2013.

Brick wall and head comes to mind.

London Underground tube strike for 48 hours in February 2014 creates travel chaos

Hope you get to work and back home safely during the tube strike if you are commuting into or across London in February 2014.

My Wooden Railway Team

Grab your party  popper, it’s time to celebrate!

Happy New Year from everyone at My Wooden Railway.

Time to celebrate and look forward to an exciting 2014 for My Wooden Railway.

It’s 25th December… It’s Christmas!

We would like to wish you all a very Merry BRIO Christmas.

Unfortunately it hasn’t snowed, but this festive scene we’ve put together using pieces from the BRIO Polar Express wooden railway set should bring a smile.

Merry Christmas from My Wooden Railway

Christmas doesn’t seem like Christmas without the Polar Express.  Therefore we’ve got the elves on their handcart, Father Christmas next to the North Pole Christmas tree, the Polar Express engine and tender, and even the Hot Chocolate carriage!

Ho ho ho,

My Wooden Railway

Remember, remember, the fifth of November.

Wishing everyone a safe and enjoyable #BonfireNight this evening. Wrap up warm.

The classic verse that many of us remember from our childhood days…

“Remember, remember, the fifth of November.

Gunpowder, treason and plot.”

I see no reason, why gunpowder treason

Should ever be forgot.”

Try and explain that to a pre-schooler or a reception child.  Or the back story of this rhyme and the history that surrounds Guy Fawkes without sending fear into them.   Let alone discuss the rationale of people sending fireworks into the night sky in answer to the ‘why’ question, or make reference to the effigy strapped to the top of a burning furnace in the local school or park!

Fireworks night, Guy Fawkes night, Bonfire night, whatever you choose to call it, sadly isn’t a single night.  We normally have to endure a week-long public demonstration of neighbours boasting the length of duration and the loudest decible level of their back garden firework display.  You can quickly see the appeal of wanting to attend a more organised event though, knowing there is less chance of wayward rockets coming your way whilst eating a hotdog or burger and holding a sparkler.

Which brings us back to keeping kids safe on Bonfire Night.  The little cherished ones are likely tucked up in bed now, but it’s worth reiterating what you probably already know in case you are organising your own event this weekend.

Fireman Sam’s Top 10 Safety Tips for Bonfire Night

Here’s Fireman Sam with this his top tips to keep safe on Bonfire Night.

Bonfire Dos and Don’ts

• Site bonfire well away from houses, garages, sheds, fences, overhead cables, trees and shrubs AND ALWAYS AWAY FROM FIREWORKS.
• Build the bonfire stack so that it is stable and never light with flammable liquids.
• Keep everyone away from the fire, especially children who must be supervised at all times, and pets who are best kept indoors.
• In case of an emergency, keep buckets of water, the garden hose or a fire extinguisher ready.
• Pour water on the embers before leaving.

Firework Dos and Don’ts

• Keep fireworks in a closed metal box and take them out one at a time.
• Follow the manufacturer’s instructions on each firework. Read them by torchlight – NEVER a naked flame.
• Light fireworks at arm’s length using a safety firework lighter or fuse wick. NEVER go back to a lit firework.
• Always wear gloves when handling sparklers and hold at arm’s length. Once finished, put in a bucket of water.
• Never give sparklers to children under 5.

Our Top Tip

Find your local organised event this weekend, buy some ear defenders, and go and enjoy yourself.  It’s a lot less stressful too.  You might come back with a neon flashy light, which the kids will love now the evenings are getting darker.

Keep safe,

My Wooden Railway Team

There are two important things a parent looks for in a toy for their child. Firstly it is whether they will enjoy it. With so much toy advertising on the television between episodes of Peppa Pig and Ben & Holly’s Little Kingdom, children are saturated with marketing for gadgets that imitate their parents tablets and mobile phones, to toys that glorify pulling out bogies from their nose or dogs having a poo. Secondly and slightly more selfishly, is whether this toy will last more than a few weeks in their attention span or durability.

Toys don’t come cheap these days, and as we near Christmas parents will be faced with the excessive toy demands from their children or the expectations set upon themselves to keep up with the Jones’. The last thing you need is to find all those toys during the holidays not being played with because the kids are simply bored.

Let imagination set the destination

The beauty of a wooden train set is that is gets better and better over time. BRIO have a lovely marketing strapline, ‘let imagination set the destination’. With a wooden railway you can keep adding track, trains, stations, bridges and much more.  Children are rarely hindered with using their imagination in any way. They will often get as close to the ground to role play the trains going through tunnels and round the tracks.  Every time you get the train set out, different layouts and stories can be created.

You will get many years of enjoyment owning a wooden railway set.  BRIO is traditionally made of beech wood, and the quality can easily be felt compared to cheaper brands who make wooden train track.  Regardless of brand, a train set remains a stable edition of any young child’s toy box.  Often handed down to younger siblings and generations, you know that owning a wooden railway will bring endless hours of fun and creativity for everyone, a truely timeless classic toy.

Happy Halloween everyone!  31st October is the time of the year that we like to get really creative, but we need some help on what to carve into the pumpkins.

A quick search into Google Images for pumpkin templates and the search results brings back far too many choices.  Although we do like the fact that Google have sorted out the designs into themes, e.g. bat, cat, Disney, spider, witch, etc.

We need your help on a pumpkin design

There are four pumpkins ready and waiting to be carved, but we need your help.

Contact us via our social media channels and suggest what pumpkin design we should carve out.  We might have one spare pumpkin ready to dedicate to one of our Friends or Followers.  Don’t expect us to put it in the post, but we’ll make sure that we take a photo of our attempt to recreate the idea you suggest.

Should we do a face, an animal, an object, a word, or something else?

Many thanks,

My Wooden Railway Team

Pumpkin Update

We got the pumpkins carved and here’s our candlelight masterpiece.  The bat and spider got lots of compliments, but we think the lantern design is simple and effective.

Happy Halloween to all our Friends and Followers on our social channels.