Smiling Steam Train Colouring Page

This steam train has a face on the front of its boiler, with round eyes, curved eyebrows, a little nose and a wide smile. Above it, the funnel sends up two puffs of steam, drawn as soft cloud shapes. Behind the boiler sits a cab with a curved roof and two windows, one square and one taller rectangle. Underneath, the train stands on three large wheels, each with a circle at the centre, and two round buffers poke out at the very front. The whole engine sits on a track that curves away into the distance, made of two rails crossed by a row of sleepers.

The big round boiler and cab give a child plenty of easy space to fill in with one bold colour, which is a nice change from pictures that demand a different shade for every bit. The face, windows and wheel centres are smaller closed shapes, so they are a good place to practise staying inside the lines once the large areas are done. The track sleepers repeat in a simple pattern, which some children enjoy colouring one by one and others will happily skip. It is also an easy picture to talk about while colouring: where the train might be going, why it is puffing steam, whether it should be red or blue.

Nothing on this page is fiddly, so it suits younger colourers as well as children who want to finish something in one sitting. There is enough going on with the windows, wheels and steam clouds to hold an older four or five year old's interest, but a two or three year old can manage it too by sticking to the big shapes and leaving the small ones for later.