Fisher-Price Geotrax Rail and Road System Grand Central Station

This is a great train set. My kids love to play with it. Had we known it was so large, we may have reconsidered the purchase. Setting up is time consuming, so to make it worth it, you almost have to keep it put together. If you have a play/rec room where this could be put together and kept out, this is a great toy for your kids. If your home is small, like ours, it's not practical. Finding room in our home has been a challenge. This train set is durable and of quality craftmanship. Our 19 month old can play with it too and we don't worry about small pieces or fear her breaking it.

I purchased this as a Christmas gift for my 2 and a half year old grandson who loves trains. He has played with it for hours and my daughter tells me it's his favorite toy. It's easy to operate requiring only minimal adult assistance. Sometimes the track will separate or if he puts the train on the track going the wrong direction the train will derail. However, its simple to get it all going again. This train is great for ages 2-4. It might be too simple for a child older than that. I would definitely recommend this to anyone with a toddler who loves trains.

I bought this for my almost 3 year old son and he loves playing with the people and pretending with the trains. He does need help with assembling the track, but once its together, he will play for hours.

My three year old son got this station set from an aunt for Christmas 2008 and it has been the best toy so far. Being a model railroader myself, I found myself just a bit envious once I put it together and watched my son play with it. I loved the control of the engine so much I've bought two more engines and a additional track set for some expansion so I can play with my son as well.

The Pros:

Each different looking engine has it's own controller and run independantly of each other, making adding additional engine sets easy if you have more kids that want to control the train.

Track is durable, easy to link together and setup.

Setup of the station was easy, stickers were already applied and one step in the instructions was already done.

You can buy additional/replacement Geotrax parts and single peices of track through the Mattel Parts Shopping website(Fisher-Price must be affiliated with them).

The Cons:

The engine will eat the three AAA batteries fast so have lots on hand or rechargables.

The engine's top speed will be a bit slow for older children but is really perfect for younger ones, especially if you add another train or two.

The two paraell switch tracks are only to be found in this set(cannot even buy additionals from the Mattel website), and only as a righthand turnout, no left one is avalible. So if you are designing a layout with more of these you will need to buy another Grand Central Station set. It would be nice to offer these on their website or in a track set. You can buy the full curved turnouts in sets or online however.

While on track, this set could of benifited from a few more peices, particularly straight sections to make the sidings a bit longer for the two optional layouts it diagrams in the instructions. Since the rail track pack is generally not that expensive, throwing one in would not of raised the price of this set all that much and elevated this set from a great toy to phenominal, as the track pack includes trees and signs to add to the layout.

All in all this is a great set and if you are a model train enthusiast, you may likely find yourself playing with this set too!

My son (2.5yrs)loves it and we recently added the GeoAir tracks. The set can be found for half the price (~$50) at Target or ToysRUs.

Not sure why but Amazon has jacked up some of their toy prices since the holidays. Very disappointing.