Toy Train Coloring Page

This toy train coloring page is set on the floor of a playroom. A wooden engine with a peg driver pulls a yellow car full of peg people and an orange car stacked with round logs. They roll along a big loop of wooden track on the rug. ABC blocks and a teddy bear sit in the middle, and two shelves of toys hang beside the window behind them.

This is one of the easier pages in the train set. Ages three to eight can enjoy it, and it takes about twenty minutes. The shapes are chunky, so fat crayons work just fine.

Colors for a wooden toy

Wooden toys tend to use a few clean, bright colors, with bare wood showing in between. Try a red cab, a blue boiler and a yellow bumper. Keep the base of each car a light tan, like plain maple.

Make the track tan as well. The two grooves can be a slightly darker brown, and you could color the rug orange at the edge with a cream middle. Green grass inside the loop makes it look like a tiny park.

The wall has wide stripes, so use a pale blue for every other one. A soft color there helps the toys stand out. Then pick a pink for the curtains, and let the sun shine yellow through the window.

Tips for this toy train coloring page

• Let your child pick three colors for the train. Fewer choices can make it easier to start.
• Hold the page still with tape at the corners if the crayon pushes it around.
• Color the bear with brown scribbles going the same way. They look like fur.
• Skip the stripes on the wall if little hands get tired.

Three year olds may only want to color the bear, and that is fine. Praise the choice of colors, not the neat edges.

A page like this one is also a good place to practice staying near the lines, since the wheels are small circles inside bigger ones.

Toy trains then and now

Children have played with little trains for almost as long as there have been real ones. The earliest toys were made of lead and had no moving parts. Others were simple tin toys that you pushed along the floor. In 1891 the German toy firm Märklin brought out the first track sizes that many makers came to share. It sold track, cars and buildings separately, so a family could add to a set over time.

Wooden sets work a little differently. The track has two grooves cut into it instead of metal rails, and the wheels just follow along. Our drawing shows those grooves as the rings around the loop. The article on toy trains goes into the history of sizes and makers, if a grown up is curious.

Play ideas

Bring out a real toy if you have one. Set it next to the page and match the colors, or let your child invent new ones. What would a pink train look like? Could the logs be chocolate bars?

Cut out the three blocks and turn them into letter cards. Say a word that starts with each letter: apple, ball and cat. Older kids can add a D block in the blank corner of the page.

Counting works well here too. Count the logs, then the peg people, then the wheels on all three cars. Stick a sticker on each one as you go, and the sheet doubles as a tiny game.

Next stop

This toy train coloring page is part of our train coloring pages. Little kids who like it can try the round and happy kawaii train, or the counting fun of the number train.

Questions