Which wooden train track brands fit BRIO, and which only seem to
Most wooden railway is built to the same 45 degree curve, so it plugs together. The catch is that plugging together is not the same as closing a loop: a curve on a different radius joins fine at both ends and quietly leaves the loop a few centimetres out. Here is what is known about each brand, from measurements where anyone has published them.
| Brand | Fit | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Thomas Wooden Railway | Goes together | The classic wooden range and the 2022 revival share the 45 degree curve. The separate 2017 to 2021 "Wood" range does not: it turns 60 degrees and needs adapters. |
| Melissa & Doug | Goes together | Eight curves to a circle, same family. Sold as compatible. The exact radius is not published. |
| Bigjigs Rail | Probably, unmeasured | Straights and track width match. No source publishes the curve radius, so a layout using its curves may not close. |
| IKEA LILLABO | Goes together, stiffly | The large curves match: same 45 degrees, and a radius within about 3 mm of BRIO. The short curves do not. They are half the angle on the same radius, not a tighter turn, so a single one leaves a loop 22.5 degrees out and it will never close; use them in pairs. The peg neck is also 11 mm against BRIO 12 mm, which is why the two jam. Its Y pieces are fixed three-way branches with no moving blade, so a train takes whichever road its wheels find. |
| Hape | Probably, unmeasured | Looks like the same family and is sold as compatible, but the brand publishes no piece geometry at all. |
| Supermarket own-brand | Probably, unmeasured | Usually the same family. One measured exception, J’adore, has an 86 mm curve radius against BRIO 182, so it will not close a loop even though it plugs in. |
| Plastic snap track | Different system | TrackMaster and Take-n-Play are a different system, not wooden track with a peg on the end. |
| LEGO City train track | Different system | Set 60205 and the copies of it are LEGO’s own plastic track, not DUPLO. Its curve turns 22.5 degrees, sixteen to a circle, on a 320 mm radius, so nothing about it lines up with DUPLO’s 30 degree curve. The planner cannot lay it out yet either: 22.5 degrees needs a different kind of exact arithmetic from the one it works in. |
How to use mixed track in the planner
The planner only lays out track whose measurements are sourced, which today means BRIO and LEGO DUPLO. Where a brand is marked unmeasured, count its pieces as BRIO and check the first join before trusting the plan. IKEA’s short curves are the one common trap: half the angle on the same radius, so use them in pairs.