While many children and parents around the world will no doubt be pulling their hair out trying to build model train tracks on Christmas morning, spare a thought for the makers of this amazing construction.

Assembled by Thomas & Friends Team in Shanghai, China last month, the incredible structure in the video below set a new world record for longest plastic toy train track.

Measuring an incredible 2.888 kilometers, the track was composed of 13,769 individual sections of plastic toy train track, forming a total of seven layers of track.

The attempt, which was organised by toy makers Mattel, was capped off with a toy version of Thomas the Tank Engine making the lengthy journey from the beginning to the very end of the track, with Thomas reaching the end of the line in a time of four hours 59 minutes 58 seconds.

The new record-setting track covers approximately 200 square metres, with the total length of the track measuring six times the height of Shanghai's Oriental Pearl TV Tower, and 20 per cent longer than the previous world record set in Odaiba, Japan.