[neil_s_wood]

While I was back in Scotland I had a bit of a family day out at the Bo'ness and Kinneil Heritage Railway. This was a popular event and, on the day I was there, was mobbed. It was marketed as " A day with Thomas and friends". While you may scoff this actually allowed my wife, son and sisters family to all go along as opposed to me going on my own as is usual with railway related events. There was decent cafe and supporting entertainment such as bouncy castles, a magician, a O gauge model railway and a fairly reasonable shop with DVDs (other then Thomas), books and so on. The train ride is short, about twenty minutes, but you can hang around and look at the trains or get off at the other end and have lunch then come back later. There are quite a few trains and I thoroughly recommend it.

Here are some clickable thumbnails of the railway.




You can also get on board and get an explanation of how it all works too. My little boy wasn't too interested though.

I was initially sceptical about the Thomas the Tank aspect of things but now see that it is an ideal model for preserving heritage railways. All you do is hang a face over the front of a steam loco and you multiply your takings by eight. I can live with that if it allows the increased funding to preserve more railways. Here are some pictures from the Bo'ness Railway.

Here is a link to the Bo'ness and Kinneil Railway for further information.

 

[ozwarrior]

Just like in modelling the little fella seems unmatched in bringing the general population on side. My club has a stand at the Gold Coast Show this weekend and guess what the raffle prize will be? We're going to make some money....................

 

[Dennis David]

They must have several examples of Thomas as we had him in Santa Cruz as well though from the looks of it the locomotives seem more realistic in the UK.

 

[neil_s_wood]

QUOTE (Dennis David @ 31 Aug 2006, 00:29) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>They must have several examples of Thomas as we had him in Santa Cruz as well though from the looks of it the locomotives seem more realistic in the UK.
The locomotives in the television series and books were based on British locos so it follows that they would look more realistic. I noticed that the blue Thomas loco was identical to the toy one my son had.

They have a Thomas day out thing in Melbourne too. They stick a face on the front of Puffing Billy and watch the money come rolling in. It's a real winner as whole families go to these things and much needed funding is generated.