Forest Train Coloring Page

This forest train coloring page looks through two giant tree trunks at a small steam engine on a quiet line. The number 3 engine pulls a coal tender and a car stacked with logs, and a long curl of smoke rises through the trees. A deer stands in the front, a fox sits by a patch of mushrooms, and an owl peeks out of a hollow on the left. Thick leaves cover the top of the sheet.

Most kids take thirty to forty minutes. Ages five to eleven will like hunting for the animals. The trees are long and simple, and the train gives careful colorers something to enjoy.

Woodland colors

Start with the leaves. Use three greens, from a dark pine to a pale mint, and give each clump its own. Doing that makes the canopy look deep. Keep the sky between the trunks very light, as if the sun were coming through.

Dark brown suits the two giant trunks in front. The middle trees can be a warmer brown, and the far ones a pale tan. Those three steps give the forest real depth.

The engine should be the brightest thing in the woods. Try a red boiler, a green cab and yellow wheels. Paint the logs brown with cream ends, and draw a ring or two on each one. The fox wants a strong orange, and the mushrooms look best in red with white dots.

Tips for this forest train coloring page

• Color the leaves in small circles. The scribble looks like a mass of little leaves.
• Run your strokes up and down on the trunks to match the bark.
• Leave the smoke white, since it will stand out against all that green.
• Use a light hand on the far trees and press harder as you come forward.

Short on time? Finish the train and the three animals, and just scribble green across the top.

Logging trains

Long ago, trees were cut deep in the woods, far from any mill. Short rail lines were laid in to bring the logs out. Those tracks were often rough and steep, and normal engines had trouble on them.

A Michigan logger named Ephraim Shay came up with a clever fix. He built his own small line in 1875, and then he worked out an engine that used gears. All the wheels were driven, so every wheel helped to grip the rail. He got a patent in 1881, and Lima Locomotive Works went on to build about 2,770 Shay engines. They were well suited to logging, because they could run on steep or poor track.

The engine in our drawing is a plainer kind with rods on the side, but the job is the same. Find out more about the Shay locomotive and how its gears worked.

Into the woods

Take the page on a walk. Bring it to a park, sit under a tree and try to match the bark and leaves with your crayons. Real trees have more colors than kids expect, with gray, purple and even orange in them.

Back home, make bark rubbings. Hold a sheet of thin paper on a tree, rub a peeled crayon across it sideways, then cut out the pattern and glue it onto the trunks in this drawing. It adds a nice bumpy texture.

You can also play a simple game of I spy with the three animals. Which one is hiding best? What might each one think of a noisy train coming through its home? Kids often have strong opinions about that, and it can lead to a good little story.

More trees and trains

This forest train coloring page sits with our other train coloring pages. Color the orange friend again on the fox sheet, or see the woods in winter with the deer in a winter forest.

Questions