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Vehicles, Go!
Trains Go
"The big steam train goes, CHUGGA chugga chugga CHUGGA chugga chugga CHOO CHOOOOOOO!" The diesel train goes, "zooosh zooosh ZOOOOOOOOSH ding ding ding!" The American goes, "clang clang clang TOOT TOOT!" All aboard! Take a trip on eight noisy trains as they huff, puff, and toot-toot their way through this lively board book! Perfect for the young train enthusiast.
16 pages, Board Book
First published January 20, 2012
7 people are currently reading
210 people want to read
About the author
Steve Light
44 books61 followersSteve Light grew up in an enchanted place known as New Jersey. He went on to study Illustration at Pratt Institute, he also studied with Dave Passalacqua. Upon graduating he did some corporate illustrations for companies such as: AT&T, Sony Films, and the New York Times Book Review. Steve Light then went on to design buttons that were acquired by the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum. He has since published several children’s books with various publishers. He has read and told stories all over including The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art and The Milwaukee Museum of Art.
Steve loves to draw. He draws everyday whether it is drawing in his sketchbook or on fancy paper for an illustration. Steve loves fountain pens and collects these ancient artifacts in order to draw with them. He also loves making things. Steve usually makes things like sculptures and toys out of wood. Steve loves sharing his art and stories with children.
Steve loves to draw. He draws everyday whether it is drawing in his sketchbook or on fancy paper for an illustration. Steve loves fountain pens and collects these ancient artifacts in order to draw with them. He also loves making things. Steve usually makes things like sculptures and toys out of wood. Steve loves sharing his art and stories with children.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 80 reviews
January 6, 2019
This is very fun indeed, and rather popular in our house right now. PSA: If you really commit to the noises you get a very excited small child who does not easily go to sleep.
July 6, 2025
My 8 month old loves this book. She enjoys imitating the onomatopoeia as I read. I love the illustrations. The length and size adds to the overall effect of the artwork - it really looks like a train “going” on the tracks. A favorite from the library that I may purchase to own.
February 24, 2013
So 'trains and trucks' should probably be its own genre of preschool book. I was wondering how this one could possibly be any different from David Crews' whole series. Not much. The impressionistic style is similar in many ways. But I did enjoy the presentation of lots of different kinds of trains. The double-entendre of 'go' for both motion and the noise something makes was fun. Unfortunately, the caboose page is obsolete. You'd have to go to an old-time train museum or ride a historical train to even know what a caboose it.
The long format was really interesting, and probably sets this book apart from others at the bookstore. Maybe a pain for librarians and teachers because of the odd size? Unless the board books go in a bin.
The long format was really interesting, and probably sets this book apart from others at the bookstore. Maybe a pain for librarians and teachers because of the odd size? Unless the board books go in a bin.
August 29, 2014
This is another book I picked up off the shelf at the library based on the appealing illustration on the cover. I like the child-like quality of the paintings, the bold colors, and the fact that the book has a long horizontal layout so that each train can "go" across two pages. It was fun to read, too. My toddler liked all of the train noises. I think it will be even more fun when he's old enough to participate in the noise-making.
Updated August 2014: We checked this out of the library again, this time by my son's choosing. He's now 2 and, as predicted, he really enjoyed mimicking all of the train noises. One funny thing, though: because most of the trains aren't illustrated with their wheels directly on the tracks, he thinks that all of them are flying trains. Oh well!
Updated August 2014: We checked this out of the library again, this time by my son's choosing. He's now 2 and, as predicted, he really enjoyed mimicking all of the train noises. One funny thing, though: because most of the trains aren't illustrated with their wheels directly on the tracks, he thinks that all of them are flying trains. Oh well!
May 13, 2012
Love this book. We have it on loan from the library. My son wants it read every day and night. Each page is a different type of train and the noise it makes. Love the words the author chooses, as well as the illustrator's designs and font choice. I enjoy reading as much my son likes having it read. Well, maybe he likes it a bit more. Definitely a must-read if you have a little reader who enjoys trains.
January 2, 2017
The kids loved this book. Owen kept saying "ding ding ding." :)
May 18, 2018
Super fun read aloud, and kiddo loves turning the big pages.
March 20, 2019
Genre: Baby/board book
Awards: None
Audience: 1-3 years old
A. This book is a board book because its pages are made of cardboard. It is intended to be read to babies, which is demonstrated by its use of repetition and illustrations.
B. Perspective is used in the illustrations in a way that allows children to feel that they are right in front of the train. This lends the trains illustrated a sense of action and excitement.
C. I would use this book in a one-on-one story time to create positive interaction around a book; in this way, I would hope to stimulate an early love for literature in the child.
D. What were the pictures of on each page? Trains.
Awards: None
Audience: 1-3 years old
A. This book is a board book because its pages are made of cardboard. It is intended to be read to babies, which is demonstrated by its use of repetition and illustrations.
B. Perspective is used in the illustrations in a way that allows children to feel that they are right in front of the train. This lends the trains illustrated a sense of action and excitement.
C. I would use this book in a one-on-one story time to create positive interaction around a book; in this way, I would hope to stimulate an early love for literature in the child.
D. What were the pictures of on each page? Trains.
September 13, 2017
Children love to learn about trains. Throughout this book it shows pictures of many different trains and the sounds they make. The different size text and use of repeated lettering is appealing to children and fun to read and act out the sound. It teaches children that there are many different types of trains that look and sound different. The train tracks continue on each page and look as though drawn by a child. This creates a child friendly reading experience.
January 3, 2017
Great beginning reader for a child that loves trains!
I went to read the book to my son, and he ended up reading it to me. I was shocked! When I asked him how he memorized the book when I hadn't read it to him, and he told me he kept looking at the pages until he figured out how all the words sounded.
Great book.
I went to read the book to my son, and he ended up reading it to me. I was shocked! When I asked him how he memorized the book when I hadn't read it to him, and he told me he kept looking at the pages until he figured out how all the words sounded.
Great book.
June 15, 2024
You will always be able to find this book on your bookshelf. Either because of the unusually long and unique shape of it, or because your children will request it again and again.
The text of the book is written so phonetically accurate, imitating the different types of trains. It is both delightful to read, as well as educational!
The text of the book is written so phonetically accurate, imitating the different types of trains. It is both delightful to read, as well as educational!
April 26, 2025
Put this extra-long book right alongside Diggers Go and Airplanes Go. It's another winner! The sounds seem accurate, colors are mostly isolated in the illustrations for easy identification, and orientation of the text always matches the train.
May 9, 2017
My nephews love this book, have taken it out countless times from the Library.
August 5, 2018
Rebecca is a big fan of the noises that trains make! So much fun
September 28, 2018
A fun read-aloud!
December 29, 2018
Short and kiddo loves the sounds
January 31, 2019
Perfect for babies
September 15, 2019
Read at A Day Out With Thomas outreach event - 9/15/2019
January 26, 2021
I would have liked more story instead of just the sounds. To each her own I suppose.
May 16, 2021
Library: Begin with Books - Things That Go
July 16, 2021
Me: I like it better than the first as it felt more distinct.
Alex: I like all the trains!
Owen: I like all the noises
Alex: I like all the trains!
Owen: I like all the noises
November 6, 2021
Daphne loves the sound noises.
July 17, 2023
A good "lap story" for toddlers if you are good at making sound effects. It's a bonus if you can bounce baby to simulate the train going up mountains and whatnot.
February 7, 2024
I read a lot of train books to kids this is the best one I have read in a while. The art is great!
January 17, 2025
Onomatopoeia master class 🤌🏼
November 22, 2025
riveting experience
March 3, 2023
S loves this book!! We've read it to him 5-10 times a day. We borrowed it from the library but it might be time to purchase it for our own library
March 11, 2012
Richie’s Picks: TRAINS GO (board book) by Steve Light, Chronicle, January 2012, 16p., ISBN: 978-0-8118-7942-2
“Down by the station, early in the morning
Listen to the hissing of the big old gal.
See the diamond stoker warming up the smoker
Chug, chug, toot, toot
Clear the track!
--from a very old version found on Youtube by Ray Noble and his Orchestra
“I agree with you that they should have kept the train in, because children love to make the "choo-choo" noise.”
--one of my library school students writing about an old picture book that had been abridged when it was adapted for the board book format.
“Amtrak’s origins are traceable to the sustained decline of private passenger rail services in the United States from about 1920 to 1970. In 1971, in response to the decline, Congress and President Richard Nixon created Amtrak. The Nixon administration secretly agreed with some railroads that Amtrak would be shut down after two years. After Fortune magazine exposed the manufactured mismanagement in 1974, Louis W. Menk, chairman of the Burlington North Railroad remarked that the story was undermining the scheme to dismantle Amtrak. Though for its entire existence the company has been subjected to political cross-winds and insufficient capital resources, including owned railway, Amtrak’s ridership has maintained consistent growth.”
--from the Wikipedia article, “Amtrak”
I love trains. I always have. I sometimes think that there is something inherent in humans that makes us train lovers.
We had an ancient model train set that ran around the Christmas tree when I was little. The transformer burned out around the time of the British Invasion, but I still have a few of the old train cars stashed in the attic at the farm.
I learned as an adolescent how to ride the Long Island Railroad, and that’s how I traveled with friends to my first rock concert in New York City (Sly and the Family Stone and Rare Earth at the Garden). I've always loved train rides. Out here in coastal northern California, the trains have been absent for decades, but we’ve been fighting in recent years for high-speed rail between Sonoma County and San Francisco. That would be so cool to get on a train and head down to the city. Buses are a valuable component in a mass transportation network. But a bus is just not a train.
What I love about Steve Light’s board book TRAINS GO is two-fold: action and sound. I love the trim size which is six inches high and twelve inches long. When you open up the book you have a two-page spread that is six inches high and two feet long. This gives lots of room for trains to go whooooooooooshing by. Real action!
We do like our choo-choo noises, and TRAINS GO is a grand feast of onomatopoeia. This is all about the sounds of trains:
“The freight train goes, SQUEAK CLANG TING BING BING BING!”
“The mountain train goes, TRIP TRAP FUFF PUFF TRIP TRAP FUFF PUFF TRIP TRAP FUFF PUFF!”
The diesel train goes, “ZOOOSH ZOOOSH ZOOOOOOOSH DING DING DING!”
I can’t really do justice to the text here, because the letters that form these sounds are an integral part of the illustrations and of the movement of the trains from left to right across each of the two-page spreads. Therefore, the book does in spades one of those things that we hope to accomplish in a board book: the teaching of infants and toddlers how a book works and how we turn pages from right to left.
“Oh did you ever take a trip, baby, on the Mobile Line?
I said hey lawdy mama, mama, hey lawdy papa
Talkin’ ‘bout the Mobile Line.
That’s a road to ride to easy your worried mind.”
--John Sebastian’s version, on Youtube, of an old Peter Stampfel & Antonia Duren tune
I don’t know what it is with us boys, our trains, and our train noises, but this is a great one that really young kids are going to adore.
Richie Partington, MLIS
Richie's Picks http://richiespicks.com
BudNotBuddy@aol.com
Moderator http://groups.yahoo.com/group/middle_... http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/people/facult...
“Down by the station, early in the morning
Listen to the hissing of the big old gal.
See the diamond stoker warming up the smoker
Chug, chug, toot, toot
Clear the track!
--from a very old version found on Youtube by Ray Noble and his Orchestra
“I agree with you that they should have kept the train in, because children love to make the "choo-choo" noise.”
--one of my library school students writing about an old picture book that had been abridged when it was adapted for the board book format.
“Amtrak’s origins are traceable to the sustained decline of private passenger rail services in the United States from about 1920 to 1970. In 1971, in response to the decline, Congress and President Richard Nixon created Amtrak. The Nixon administration secretly agreed with some railroads that Amtrak would be shut down after two years. After Fortune magazine exposed the manufactured mismanagement in 1974, Louis W. Menk, chairman of the Burlington North Railroad remarked that the story was undermining the scheme to dismantle Amtrak. Though for its entire existence the company has been subjected to political cross-winds and insufficient capital resources, including owned railway, Amtrak’s ridership has maintained consistent growth.”
--from the Wikipedia article, “Amtrak”
I love trains. I always have. I sometimes think that there is something inherent in humans that makes us train lovers.
We had an ancient model train set that ran around the Christmas tree when I was little. The transformer burned out around the time of the British Invasion, but I still have a few of the old train cars stashed in the attic at the farm.
I learned as an adolescent how to ride the Long Island Railroad, and that’s how I traveled with friends to my first rock concert in New York City (Sly and the Family Stone and Rare Earth at the Garden). I've always loved train rides. Out here in coastal northern California, the trains have been absent for decades, but we’ve been fighting in recent years for high-speed rail between Sonoma County and San Francisco. That would be so cool to get on a train and head down to the city. Buses are a valuable component in a mass transportation network. But a bus is just not a train.
What I love about Steve Light’s board book TRAINS GO is two-fold: action and sound. I love the trim size which is six inches high and twelve inches long. When you open up the book you have a two-page spread that is six inches high and two feet long. This gives lots of room for trains to go whooooooooooshing by. Real action!
We do like our choo-choo noises, and TRAINS GO is a grand feast of onomatopoeia. This is all about the sounds of trains:
“The freight train goes, SQUEAK CLANG TING BING BING BING!”
“The mountain train goes, TRIP TRAP FUFF PUFF TRIP TRAP FUFF PUFF TRIP TRAP FUFF PUFF!”
The diesel train goes, “ZOOOSH ZOOOSH ZOOOOOOOSH DING DING DING!”
I can’t really do justice to the text here, because the letters that form these sounds are an integral part of the illustrations and of the movement of the trains from left to right across each of the two-page spreads. Therefore, the book does in spades one of those things that we hope to accomplish in a board book: the teaching of infants and toddlers how a book works and how we turn pages from right to left.
“Oh did you ever take a trip, baby, on the Mobile Line?
I said hey lawdy mama, mama, hey lawdy papa
Talkin’ ‘bout the Mobile Line.
That’s a road to ride to easy your worried mind.”
--John Sebastian’s version, on Youtube, of an old Peter Stampfel & Antonia Duren tune
I don’t know what it is with us boys, our trains, and our train noises, but this is a great one that really young kids are going to adore.
Richie Partington, MLIS
Richie's Picks http://richiespicks.com
BudNotBuddy@aol.com
Moderator http://groups.yahoo.com/group/middle_... http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/people/facult...
November 29, 2021
An engaging board book about trains, great for my 19-month-old.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 80 reviews