TrainDad

I sup­pose it’s pretty nor­mal to make a train out of card­board boxes, but this time Jonathan and I got a lit­tle bit car­ried away. We’ve been col­lect­ing big dia­per boxes for about as long as he’s been alive; they are a handy size, very sturdy, and have nice “han­dles” cut in the sides. We decided they would make a great train.

We found some pho­tos of a steam engine (the orig­i­nal Polar Express, Pere Mar­quette No. 1225) and printed them out, then adhered them to the sides of the box. At Jonathan’s request (read: demand!), we added a smoke­stack and the very impor­tant cow catcher. Just the right size hole cut in the top allows him to climb in and be the engineer.

A few more prints turned another box into a ten­der, then more for a hop­per car and a tank car, and we had a nice lit­tle freight unit going. I have to admit to a spe­cial advan­tage: the abil­ity to print onto adhesive-backed vinyl, in essence mak­ing giant stickers.

Unwrapped dia­per boxes make up the rest of the train now, along with a wire rack and a hand-held sweeper. (Any­thing makes a train, when cou­pled to some­thing else!) One morn­ing I went down­stairs to find that he had loaded each box up with stuffed ani­mal pas­sen­gers. He’s had a great time play­ing with it. Ah, these are the days!