Play Room Problems: Wooden Train Storage

My husband and I were putting our heads together to try to organize our mound of wooden trains. Sometimes I wish I never opened the door to the Thomas the Tank Engine flood gates. The original books are wonderful, but the marketing based TV shows will end you and your dear ones in a hemp of trains. Putting the "collection" factor aside, all of my children have really enjoyed watching, reading and playing Thomas. It all started when my daughter was 2 and received a train table for Christmas. Well, 7 years and two boys later, we have quite the Thomas the Tank Engine exhibition.

The play room problem here is the boys dump the container of wooden trains or take all the trains and leave them covering the train table. Being store in a container in the train table, the trains are nicked and scratched from being all jumbled together. These problems can be prevented if each train has it's own visible spot. Here are some solutions:

• Train Rack from Train Rack Store ~ They sell a few different size racks ranging from $19.97 to $49.97. The rack pictured here is $39.97 and fits about 30 trains. The racks are perfect, but at 60 trains and counting - Yikes! That would be about $80 bucks. Even with the free shipping, it is just too much for us to spend on train storage. Since I found this merchant by googling, you may like to know that besides his website, you can buy his racks on Ebay too.
• Rain Gutters ~ This idea was originally for books, but I am thinking it might work for trains. It does not look as nice as the Train Rack, but whole lot cheaper. Check out how to make it here at Family Fun. We are definably going to use this idea in the book nook, but for books :-) However, it would be more permanent than the Train Rack.
• Ledge ~ Another idea is to attach wooden track to a wooden ledge or chair rail with a flat top, then attach it to the wall. To keep cost down, we could buy the track from IKEA or any other non Thomas brand of wooden tracks. This would be more work and cost than the gutters, but it might look nicer. Also, it too would be more permanent than the Train Rack.
• Draw Dividers ~ I am wondering if I can make draw dividers work with our existing bins in the train table (our train table came with 4 bins) or with pull out plastic drawers, which have the added benefit of keeping the trains dust free.
  

I will have to keep my eyes peeled for other solutions. Maybe I will wander over to the Container Store, it is a haven for type A personalities like myself. Please post your own train storage ideas.

Perhaps I can persuade the boys to ask for Train Racks for their birthday presents instead of more trains.