About Wooden Oliver Train

Oliver is a small green engine who comes by himself, alhough he should come with Toad, his brake van. Oliver has a number 11 on his side in yellow, and also has a small circular logo next to the eleven.

My boy does not have Oliver, and doesn't seem that interested in him. We have not yet seen any books or videos with Oliver in them though. Oliver also comes in the Sodor gift pack with Henrietta.

Oliver's brake van is a grand example of why I encourage my son's love of trains. I'm not saying I want him to be a conductor or an engineer when he grows up, but right now, his mind is cementing neural pathways that have to do with engineering and language concepts, just because he is interested in the Thoms trains. Did you know that a brake van is just what the UK calls a caboose? Well, my son and I talk about how the caboose works and what it is for and it's relation to the entire train, and he just learns and learns and wants to learn more.

My son has played with his Thomas trains since he was under 1 year old. We discovered Thomas on a vacation when a family seated behind us was playing with several of the trains. My son got ahold of one and did not want to give it back-so much so that the father ended up giving us one of the trains. We protested but he insisted, saying they had several of that particular one because sometimes you get a free train when you buy a video, or duplicates come with sets.