Ipswich builds longest toy train track

Ipswich is poised to claim a world record for building a toy train track so long that it would surround the Melbourne Cricket Ground four times.

A team of 20 from Ipswich's The Workshops Rail Museum, west of Brisbane, built the track using more than 10,000 Thomas The Tank Engine Fisher-Price TrackMaster pieces in about a week.

A toy Thomas The Tank Engine took three hours to meander its way along more than two kilometres of track on Thursday, marking a new Guinness World Record.
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The track is 364 metres longer than the current record holder, built in Japan four years ago.

The Workshops Rail Museum director Andrew Moritz says the record attempt has been registered with the Guinness Book of World Records in the United Kingdom and is just awaiting confirmation.

He said the track is six times the height of the Eiffel Tower or long enough to surround the MCG four times.

It will be on display at the museum on Saturday.

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Staffordshire Longest Toy Train Track set World Record

The world’s longest toy train track was today unveiled in the grounds of a Staffordshire theme park.

A team has spent two days assembling the track’s 10,530 pieces at Drayton Manor Theme Park near Tamworth, and the completed structure is long enough to surround the football pitch at Wembley five times.

Drayton Manor’s attempt has hit its target 1,800 metres, and the park is now waiting with baited breath for official confirmation from Guinness that is has smashed the world record – which currently stands at 1,650.14 metres at Thomas Land in Japan.

Drayton Manor, which recently became home to Europe’s only Thomas Land attraction, teamed up with toymakers Tomy and Hit Entertainment to try and break the world record.

Tomy’s chief executive Robert Mann said the team wanted to design “the most magnificent train track in the world”.

He said: “It was a challenge to build, but after a bit of huffing and puffing we have reached our destination and now have a fantastic 1.8km long train set. We are waiting with great anticipation for Guinness World Records to confirm we have broken the world record.”

Drayton Manor’s managing director Colin Bryan said it was “an amazing occasion”.

Excited young Thomas the Tank Engine fans were at the park today to catch the first glimpse of the lengthy structure, which – were it a full-scale train track – would measure 89 miles long, the same distance as the M40 motorway. The track will be on displayat Drayton Manor today.