The Workshop
250 trains a month, and not one of them off a line.
We could make more than that by buying the parts in. Not doing that is the one decision this whole workshop is arranged around.
Why we build this way
One unglamorous idea.
A toy that is worth repairing will be repaired, and a toy that gets repaired gets handed down. Everything here follows from that — the species we buy, the finish we use, the fact that the axles are steel rod and not dowel.
Most wooden trains on a shelf are built to survive the warranty. These are built on the assumption that the second child gets them, and then the grandchild. That costs more per unit, and it means the only way to make more of them is to put another maker on another bench — never to shorten the build.
We are opening with a first production run of the nine pieces in the collection and a small number of founding customers and stockists. If you are reading this early, that is why the queue is short.
We will fix anything we make, for as long as we are making them, for the cost of shipping it back to you. It is not a marketing line. It is just cheaper than building things badly.
- Solid North American hardwood
- Black walnut, hard maple, cherry and white oak — milled from board stock in our own shop. No plywood, no particleboard, no veneer over filler.
- Cut, shaped and finished by hand
- Every locomotive is band-sawn, spokeshaved and block-sanded to 400 grit by one maker, start to finish. The tool marks you can feel are the point.
- Food-safe hardwax oil
- A penetrating plant-based hardwax oil — no lacquer, no polyurethane film to chip. It wears in rather than wears out, and it can always be re-oiled.
- Built to be handed down
- Steel axles, hardwood wheels turned true, and joinery that is glued and pinned. These are the trains that end up in the second child's toy box, then the grandchild's.
On the bench
Six steps, about eleven hours.
That is for a locomotive. A log car is closer to three. Most of the time is not in the shaping — it is in the sanding and the waiting between coats.
01
Board to blank
Rough lumber comes in at eight quarters and sits in the shop for a month before it is touched, so it moves here rather than in somebody's living room. It is then ripped, jointed and thicknessed to the blank sizes for each part.
02
Turning and sawing
Boilers and wheels are turned on the lathe. Cabs, decks and sides are band-sawn just outside the line and pared back to it. Every wheel on a given locomotive is turned in one session so they match.
03
Fitting
Axles are drilled on a jig, not by eye — it is the single thing that decides whether a train tracks straight or wanders. Couplers are bent from brass rod and fitted one at a time.
04
Breaking every edge
There is not a sharp corner anywhere on a finished piece. Every edge gets broken with a block and then sanded through to 400 grit, which is most of where the hours go.
05
Oil
Three coats of plant-based hardwax oil, wiped on and wiped back, a day apart. It soaks in rather than sitting on top, so it cannot chip, and any scuff a decade from now sands out and re-oils in ten minutes.
06
The last look
Every piece is rolled across a flat bench, picked up, turned over and checked by hand before it is boxed. A surprising number go back to step four.
Four woods, and a reason for each.
Black walnut
Dark, stable and hard enough to take a knock without denting. Everything structural that we want to look heavy is walnut.
Hard maple
The densest thing in the shop. It takes a crisp edge and it is what every wheel and axle bearing is cut from.
American cherry
Starts pale, darkens for years. The only wood we use specifically because of what it does after it leaves.
White oak
Open-grained and tough. Used for platforms, decks and anything that gets dragged across a floor.
All four are North American hardwoods bought as board stock from regional mills. We do not use plywood, MDF, particleboard, veneer or any tropical species.
Come and see the collection.
Nine pieces, all of them made the way described above.