Freight Train by Donald Crews The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper Maisy's Train by Lucy Cousins The Goodnight Train by June Sobel The Little Red Caboose by Marian Potter Changes, Changes by Pat Hutchins

It's not a book, but Julian has the wooden train tracks, and he totally loves them. I know you hate Thomas, but there are generic wooden ones availble, as well. I think we got him a pretty decent track-and-train set from Ikea, for 20$. They are awsome, because they dont run on batteries, and made out of wood (so they will LAST). Julian's been getting really good at setting up different track designs..soo it really challenges him to use his brains.

I love wooden train tracks! I used to play with one when I was a little girl. A lot of times you can find them at second hand stores, too.

I bet you could even find tons of them on Ebay. And from my experience, they dont neccisarily have to be the same brand to work together...we mix the Ikea ones with the thomas ones, and I think Brio has some, as well. And they are pretty timeless....they arent a "fad" that the child will pass in a few months. They just last for soo long, too..Julians are mostly hand me downs.

We have some of the wooden train tracks. They are hand-me-downs from when my kid brother was little. She loves them - I think it's what set off the train obsession. Some are Brio and some are Thomas - while branded stuff is less than ideal, it's mostly the show/books that gets on my nerves. Thanks for the book suggestions, Hilary.