Toys for a Lifetime: Circus Train

(Page 2 of 2)

December/January 1997
By Will Shelton 
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4. Prime and paint everything in bright circus colors using non-toxic paint (children like to chew on the darnedest things).

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5. The wheels for the engine are two layers of 1/4" plywood glued together. Cut the wheels from plywood, or cut sections off of a dowel of the proper diameter. If you use a dowel for the car wheel make them 3/4" wide. It's surprising how many people will throw a broom away when the bristles wear out; they're throwing away a perfectly good $3 dowel.

6. You can vary any of the dimensions you want as long as the adjoining piece has been dimensionally corrected to fit. Let's say you have a scrap piece of 3/8" plywood instead of 1/4". By all means, use it! Just compensate for that extra 1/8".

7. All patterns are laid out on a grid of one-inch squares.

8. When you cut around the animals, leave the cross-hatch area intact.

9. An easy way to get all the patterns to scale is to take the pages to a copy center and have them "blow-up" the patterns so the squares are exactly 1" x 1". Then all you have to do is trace and cut out the pieces. At the copy center, also have them make several copies of the cage top/bottom. Glue (rubber cement) this to the wood. Then cut and drill following the pattern. When you're done, simply peel the paper off. You can do this with the animal patterns too.

10. Attach all wheels using a 1 1/4" #6 screw with washer for the cars and a 1 1/2" #6 screw with washer for the engine.

11. Align and screw in cup hooks for car couplings.

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Comments

  • sophie berry 1/17/2009 10:56:55 PM

    what is the link to enlarge the circus train drawings please.
    sophie.

  • Judy Salter 12/11/2008 6:18:18 PM

    Thanks for the link to enlarge the drawing. I will get my husband to the workshop this weekend! Best wishes for the holidays.

  • Glen Kadelbach 11/18/2008 9:13:20 PM

    Hi,

    Please email me the image. Too small to see. Would like to build one for my 3 yr old. He loves trains.

    Thanks,
    Glen
    glen@kadelbachfarms.com

  • Judy Salter 11/15/2008 3:37:26 PM

    I would love to make this, but no amount of enlarging renders the plans workable. Can you please add this back onto your web site in a usable form? Christmas is a-comin! Thanks

  • ramona viera 10/17/2008 12:22:53 PM

    my grandson and i looked for hours for the toy train plans he wanted and yours look simple and fun but sooooooooooo small! i'm a beginner. can i get something bigger? i'm retired and my pastime is building bird houses and toys for my grandkids. Mona

  • Bob 1/7/2008 1:35:39 AM

    The plan is so small it's unreadable.

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