Saturday we took 4 year old Kobe to the Illinois Railway Museum. It is a huge facility, probably a dozen "barns" that are each large enough to hold 50+ rail cars. They have all sorts of exhibits, by type and age. Trolley cars. Electric busses powered by overhead wires. Trains from steam to modern. Snowblower and snowplow engines. Passenger cars from private ultra deluxe to standard commuter cars and everything in between.
But we went for the THOMAS and PERCY train rides from the children's TV show Thomas the Tank Engine. This was our second year going to see "Thomas"
The exhibit travels around North America visiting various sites in the USA and Canada. They set up a big THOMAS store in a circus size tent so either keep your kids away or take your wallet. Last year the tent was fully stocked with lots of different train sets, both their "wood" and their "plastic" series toy lines. This year, both the lovely Mrs_Bob and I thought the sales tent was totally disappointing. I had intended buy some of the wood trains to add to Kobe's set, but even Kobe didn't want anything from the Thomas store! Can you imagine a kid not wanting a toy??? We did by a train from the Museum's main store, but it was unrelated to Thomas.
First, Kobe loves trains, trucks, diggers, tractors, etc. But he really is not a big fan of the "Thomas" TV show. He enjoyed seeing the Thomas & Percy trains, but I honestly think he had more fun just running around, playing in the playground with other kids, etc. We did take rides on both the Thomas and Percy trains, each ride was maybe 25-ish minutes. Pretty underwhelming. They had conductors on the trains that were very knowledgable about the train cars, but no characters from the TV show. So we got a history lesson about the various train cars (boring to a 4 years old but interesting to me). We did get a certificate and TV show stickers.
Not sure we will go again. It is an annual event. $25 for a ticket that gets you in for the day and includes a ride on Thomas. $10 extra if you want a second ride, which is then on the Percy train. So really not bad, especially since you get full access to the entire museum grounds, which is huge and interesting.
Probably enjoined the model train room the most. Didn't see that room last year. Large room with several very large model train set ups running around the room. Very interactive for the kids, lots of buttons for them to push to make sounds, like up features, etc. Sadly I didn't take photos in there, but it was pretty amazing.
If you have a kid or grandkid who likes trains and the exhibit is traveling to your area, I'd honestly recommend it. It is a good day out. At least one time. We had a lot of fun on our 2nd visit, but as we had been there before we didn't feel like we needed to see the whole museum again. It was a very hot/humid day, so we didn't explore the "barns" this year, and I think we'll go back, its not a bad value at $25 + $10 for rides, especially at today's entertainment prices.
But we went for the THOMAS and PERCY train rides from the children's TV show Thomas the Tank Engine. This was our second year going to see "Thomas"
The exhibit travels around North America visiting various sites in the USA and Canada. They set up a big THOMAS store in a circus size tent so either keep your kids away or take your wallet. Last year the tent was fully stocked with lots of different train sets, both their "wood" and their "plastic" series toy lines. This year, both the lovely Mrs_Bob and I thought the sales tent was totally disappointing. I had intended buy some of the wood trains to add to Kobe's set, but even Kobe didn't want anything from the Thomas store! Can you imagine a kid not wanting a toy??? We did by a train from the Museum's main store, but it was unrelated to Thomas.
First, Kobe loves trains, trucks, diggers, tractors, etc. But he really is not a big fan of the "Thomas" TV show. He enjoyed seeing the Thomas & Percy trains, but I honestly think he had more fun just running around, playing in the playground with other kids, etc. We did take rides on both the Thomas and Percy trains, each ride was maybe 25-ish minutes. Pretty underwhelming. They had conductors on the trains that were very knowledgable about the train cars, but no characters from the TV show. So we got a history lesson about the various train cars (boring to a 4 years old but interesting to me). We did get a certificate and TV show stickers.
Not sure we will go again. It is an annual event. $25 for a ticket that gets you in for the day and includes a ride on Thomas. $10 extra if you want a second ride, which is then on the Percy train. So really not bad, especially since you get full access to the entire museum grounds, which is huge and interesting.
Probably enjoined the model train room the most. Didn't see that room last year. Large room with several very large model train set ups running around the room. Very interactive for the kids, lots of buttons for them to push to make sounds, like up features, etc. Sadly I didn't take photos in there, but it was pretty amazing.
If you have a kid or grandkid who likes trains and the exhibit is traveling to your area, I'd honestly recommend it. It is a good day out. At least one time. We had a lot of fun on our 2nd visit, but as we had been there before we didn't feel like we needed to see the whole museum again. It was a very hot/humid day, so we didn't explore the "barns" this year, and I think we'll go back, its not a bad value at $25 + $10 for rides, especially at today's entertainment prices.