The Corona virus and lockdown has not been kind to young children. Many of them have been kept indoors for months.

We own a collection of child-safe wooden trains however there was a demand for trains that resembled the ones we had seen and travelled on. This was a tall order. Any retail model would have been trashed in short order, to say nothing of the potential danger to the children’s health from small pieces. Whatever was produced had to be simple and safe.
After some thought a plan was devised.  The "train" could be printed onto paper and then rolled into a tube to give a 3D effect. This is safe, cheap and child friendly with limitless possibilities. The children would have fun cutting out the shapes (under supervision) and could play with the results.

One or two examples were created. The result was an instant and ongoing success. Since that time a number of images have been created. A longer train can be created by joining two or more tubes together using a rolled up piece of paper. Other ideas include using the tubes that contain sweets to make festive stocking fillers –a nice idea for the festive season.

Please feel free to download and use the PDF templates for non-commercial purposes.