At the Matilda Mae Welly Walk on Saturday I was very very grateful for the attendance of The Toadstool.

I realised quite early on that I had not seen my children for a while and I had a flutter of panic before realising exactly where they might be and indeed where they were.

Attached to the Brio Train Track!

Esther and William love their trains. We have track, trains and accessories from every wooden train brand.

Every engine, face or no, is given a name from Thomas and then the play begins.

This week we have been testing two new rail sets from Brio.

The airport monorail (review coming soon) and this Urban Metro Railway Set.

The Brio Metro Railway Set is a wonderful set that can stand alone or be integrated with any other Brio track as well as most other wooden tracks.

This week I have been encouraging Esther and William to use the set as a stand alone before it becomes part of our immense collection of track and accessories.

I want them to really explore the metro and find all the different ways it can be used in their play.

What I love about Brio sets is that they come with a scenario and story in mind that is easy for young children to see and understand and enact.

The Metro Set, available from The Toadstool, contains

1x metro carriage ‘engine’ with lights and sound
2x regular metro carriage
7x curved tracks
1x switch track with buffer
1x metro plan and 1x metro plan holder
1x wooden block ticket machine
1x metro stop
1x tube station
1x tube tunnel
2x passengers and 1x suitcase
– See more at: The Toadstool

As soon as William realised this train makes noise and has lights, he claimed it for his own. The metro engine is wonderful for little train drivers as the faster you drive it around the tracks the brighter and louder it becomes.

William is a train driver. He likes to move the engines around the track. He likes shunting and pulling carriages. He enjoys buffering and coupling up. He loves that this set has a siding, a buffer, a resting place for the train.

Esther (and Mummy!) love the station and the moveable characters that can be posed buying tickets from the machine, planning their route with the map or waiting on the platform for their train.

I also love that the doors can slide open and shut like the magic doors at many stations.

William loves the tunnel. It is wonderful watching how differently my children play with the same toy even when playing together.

This is a Brio set with many tales to tell and is perfect for two children playing together and interacting together in the land of trains and rail.

As with all Brio trains and track this is a high quality set. Each of the trains and accessories are beautifully made and finished with attention to detail. These are toys that are built to last.

Much of our Brio has been handed down to us by family and friends so is on to it’s second generation of train mad toddlers and children.

To buy Brio is to invest in the imaginative play of the future.

I hope that one day I will be able to unpack this set for my grandchildren to use.

And I will show them this video of how their parents used to play when they were young.

We were sent one Brio Metro Railway Set for the purpose of this review.