‘Thomas & Friends’ Exhibit Opens Jan. 12

‘Thomas & Friends’ Exhibit Opens Jan. 12

By Jermaine Pigee, assistant managing editor

An 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 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

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.”

Visitors can also explore various Sodor destinations, including the Sodor Search & Rescue Station on an oversized Thomas Wooden Railway train table.

“Kids can use that table to build train routes, using their problem-solving and engineering skills,” Walker says.

“Thomas & Friends” also gives children the chance to work with one another. They can make new friends while loading luggage, livestock and other freight into the coaches of two train cars, loading coal into Percy’s coal box or filling his tank with water.

Children can also suit up as train conductors to exchange money and sell tickets to other visitors riding the train, and set up a train schedule.

“Those activities are going to require some basic math skills,” Walker says. “This exhibit will definitely keep a little one’s minds and hands busy.”

Visitors can also explore measurements, conduct magnetic experiments and search for vocabulary words.

Guests who are unfamiliar with the characters, or who want to learn more, can wander through a “Thomas & Friends” retrospective, which features model train engines from the original live action series. There are also copies of the original drawings and manuscripts from the Rev. W. Awdry, who created the “The Railway Series” for his young son 70 years ago.

There’s also a collection of memorabilia documenting the history and evolution of “Thomas & Friends” through books, TV and toys.

As of 2014, the “Thomas & Friends” TV series reached 110 million U.S. households and an even larger audience through internet streaming, DVDs and toys. It debuted in the United Kingdom in 1984 and came to U.S. TV audiences in 1989. Rock star and Beatles member Ringo Starr originally provided the voice for Thomas on the series; in time American comedian George Carlin took over the role.

This exhibit was designed and developed by the Minnesota Children’s Museum with help from HIT Entertainment, a subsidiary of Mattel, Inc. It will be in Rockford through May 12.

Admission is $11 for adults and children or $1 for museum members.

“It’s a fun, adorable exhibit and we think it’ll be very popular,” Walker says.

Learn more at DiscoveryCenterMuseum.org. ❚