'Thomas & Friends' exhibit opens at Long Island Children's Museum
An enormous cheer erupts from the kindergarten class as an educator from the Long Island Children’s Museum welcomes students from Westbury's Dryden Street School to the new "Thomas & Friends: Explore the Rails!" exhibit.
“I think that response might have been an indication that it’s going to be popular,” says Maureen Mangan, communications director for the Garden City museum.
The traveling exhibit, which features replicas of Thomas the Tank Engine and other trains from the "Thomas & Friends" television series that airs on Nick Jr., will be at the museum through May 10. It was put together by the Minnesota Children's Museum and designed for ages preschool through 7.
A reverend from England created the train stories for his son in the 1940s, turning 105 tales into the Railway Series of books, which later inspired the TV show. "Thomas & Friends" started airing in the United Kingdom in 1984 with former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr as the first narrator.
Here are six ways kids can explore on Thomas the Tank Engine’s recreated Island of Sodor:
1. Climb on Thomas
Kids can climb aboard a Thomas the Tank Engine at the Long Island Children's Museum in Garden City. Credit: Howard Schnapp
The centerpiece of the exhibit is the blue Thomas the Tank Engine. Kids can manipulate the levers, pretending to be the engineer. “It’s awesome,” Damien Nugent Farley, 5, says of the train. “It looks like a real one.
2. Try the enormous train table
Johan Acosta, 5, works the train table at the Long Island Children's Museum in Garden City. Credit: Howard Schnapp
The table, bigger than the size of a Ping-Pong table, recreates the Island of Sodor where Thomas lives. Kids push miniature trains and other vehicles around the track to explore the island’s locales. It’s wheelchair accessible. “They’re turning knobs, they’re pulling levers, they’re playing collaboratively,” principal Gloria Dingwall says of why she thinks the exhibit is educational as well as fun for kids. “I don’t know how we’ll get them back on the bus.”
3. Man the ticket booth or baggage area
Anastasia Balthazar, 5, mans the ticket booth at a new Thomas the Tank Engine exhibit at the Long Island Children's Museum. Credit: Howard Schnapp
Laminated pretend money helps kids pay the listed price for tickets to destinations around the island. Kids can load the freight — soft suitcases and even piglets (puppets, of course) — onto the train and take a seat themselves.
“Loading and unloading train cars can be a good workout, and it’s also a great workout for your brain,” reads a plaque next to the station. “Children use various math concepts, including shape identification, sorting and counting to get the job done.”
4. Be the conductor
Kids can don a conductor’s uniform and hat. Pia Naik, 5, put the conductor hat over her braids, put on the jacket and stayed in it her whole 30-minute visit. “I got the tickets,” she says as she delivers them from the ticket booth to passengers Rodiana Bassiouny and Jollie Remarais, also 5, who inserted them into a ticket slot.
5. Work on the engines
Damien Nugent Farley, 5, plays engineer at the new Thomas the Tank Enginethemed exhibit at the Long Island Children's Museum in Garden City. Credit: Howard Schnapp
A huge model of Percy lets kids use oversized nuts and bolts to tighten the green engine’s wobbly wheels. Kids also put coal on a conveyor belt and build up steam to make the whistle blow.
6. Take a fun picture
Visitors can have their photo taken next to a mural of Thomas and email it to themselves to later be shared with friends and family.
The kids’ review of the exhibit was summed up by Alijah Hinson, 5. “I love it because I love Thomas,” he says.
"Thomas & Friends: Explore The Rails!"
WHEN | WHERE: Through May 10 at the Long Island Children’s Museum, 11 Davis Ave., Garden City
INFO: 516-224-5800, licm.org
ADMISSION: $14 museum admission (free younger than 1)
GOOD TO KNOW: The museum is also accepting donations of Thomas the Tank Engine trains and tracks. For more information, call Erik Schurink, director of exhibits, at 516-224-5881.
Beth Whitehouse writes about families, parenting and great things to do with the kids on Long Island. She’s been a Newsday editor and shared a 1997 Newsday staff Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the crash of TWA Flight 800.
