| Thanks for your interest in my unique train cradle! As a 3rd Generation Railroader, I made this for my daughter, who arrived on this earth on July 18th 2006. I have had this design in my head for quite some time but wanted to wait until I was a good enough woodworker to do hand cut dovetails as well as waiting for my first child. This project took a few years, but the wait was certainly worth it as can be seen here. |
| This is more than a cradle! It's a toy box too! This design took up too much time and work to just last the baby a few months as a cradle. For that reason I designed the cradle to have several compartments, both to give the cradle the look of a train, but also to store stuff. When my daughter out grows this as a cradle, she can store her toys in it as well. I designed the rockers to be very shallow for this very reason. |
| Surprising Storage! The cradle is large in size because of its distinct shape, but the cradle portion itself is standard sized at 3'-0" long and 1'-6" wide and is 1'-0" deep. There is access to the radiator portion of the train which also serves as a cradle hood (the baby would sleep backwards in this cradle), while the fuel tank drops down for storage as well. Furthermore, the short hood opens up for additional storage and the air component compartments has drawers for even more storage. Additional design elements include short rocker supports to help "hide" the rockers from view so the locomotive shape takes precedence. The car body portion of the cradle is made up of raised panels to give the appearance that they are car body doors as would be found on a locomotive. Finally, all joinery was with hand cut lovetail, dovetails and mortise and Tenons. The cradle uses White Pine throughout due to its economy, and for good reason. Just about every part had to be duplicated to come out right. |
| Dovetails and Lovetails! I designed this cradle to use two sets of hand-cut joinery. Dovetails, which uses the age old method of interlocked fingers, and this one see at left. They are Lovetails, where a heart shaped socked is cut out, and a heart shaped pin is inserted into the socket. It makes for a strong, but distinctive joint. More importantly, it will show a yet to be born daughter, that this was a true labor of love. |
Train Cradle:
| No Ordinary Rockers! These are no ordinary rockers. They use 2 pieces of glued up wood to give the rockers extra width. The curvature was also very shallow to allow the cradle to be very stable. Furthermore, the shallow radius will allow the cradle to act like a stable toy box in the growing tears to come. The extra compartments were included to give the cradle its distinct locomotive shape, and for added storage. |
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