Make a Handmade Circus Animal Train Set

By Will Shelton
Published on December 1, 1997
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A wooden circus train for your child and the child in all of us. See the text for a link to the downloadable construction details.
A wooden circus train for your child and the child in all of us. See the text for a link to the downloadable construction details.
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Circus train materials list.
Circus train materials list.

You may have more fun making this handmade circus animal train set than the kids will playing with it. 

My father had a small workshop in the basement for as long as I can remember. He loved to putter and make things. He built a lot of the furniture in the house and was always making things for the kitchen to help mother. For us kids, he made toys for Christmas and birthdays. If the door to the basement was locked, we knew he was working on something for us.

My children still play with some of the toys my father made. Handmade to me means made with love. My favorite toy to this day is the model-pond yacht; my sister has the six-car circus train on her mantle. What could be more exciting to a child than a steam locomotive? Well, maybe a circus. And the combination of the two, a handmade circus animal train set? Well, that’s got to be some powerful magic. I know our childhood imaginations went on a lot of train trips.

The building of the engine, tender (coal-car), and circus cars is pretty straightforward. Cut out the individual pieces and glue them together!

See train construction details.

See circus animals construction details.

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