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‘Thomas & Friends’ Exhibit Opens Jan. 12 By Jermaine Pigee, assistant managing editor
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n unmistakable blue train and his pals will steamroll into Discovery Center Museum, 711 N. Main St., this weekend, for a four-month stay. The Rockford appearance marks the first time the exhibit will be in Illinois. “Thomas & Friends: Explore the Rails” is a 1500-square-foot interactive exhibit that invites children to engage with familiar faces and enjoy playful opportunities while exploring concepts in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). It’s geared to children ages 2 to 7 and is presented in both English and Spanish. “A popular children’s exhibit that is full of science content is a perfect fit for our museum,” says Ann Marie Walker, the museum’s marketing director. The transportation adventures of Thomas the Tank Engine and his rail yard friends, including Percy, James and
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Smart Living Weekly
Gordon, have entertained children for decades through a TV show, books, movies and toys. The fictional train characters deal with everyday obstacles, overcoming them through problem-solving, fair play, friendship and the help of children who visit the museum. “For toddlers, there are simple activities like sorting colors and identifying shapes,” Walker says. “For the older kids, the exhibit has more complicated engineering obstacles and activities, such as completing a train track using track pieces with various levels of elevation.” Sodor – where Thomas and his friends live – is brought to life throughout the exhibit. Children can climb into Thomas’s cab and explore the engine’s inner workings; they can flip levers and investigate movable parts that create train noises, including braking, whistles and
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steam; and they can fix Percy’s broken, wobbly wheel by removing and replacing parts and experimenting to find a mixture of wheels, rods and bolts that work. “His wheels are a little shaky and kids are supposed to fix them and tighten them up so he can run down the track,” Walker says. “More importantly, it gets children thinking about the technology behind steam engines.” Guests who explore the exhibit, which is staged in a 5,000-square-foot space, continuously find themselves surrounded by train parts. “Every person has a purpose and, with a train, every part has a purpose,” Walker says. “We’ll have a 3-D wall with funnels, lanterns and buffers. It lets visitors know what each part is and how it’s used in trains. Children can take old parts off Percy and replace them with new parts.”
