Welcome to the Island of Sodor

One of the ladies at Playgroup mentioned The Train Shed to me.
She mentioned it because as soon as we get to Playgroup James locates the rubber (yep they're old and he loves them) Thomas and James engines. He carries them everywhere and they even lovingly get put into the pusher and fed, as well as put down the slide and into the sandpit. The boy version of a doll I guess. :o)
He gets extremely distressed if the other boys take them, and they take them, mainly because they know how he loves them and how upset it makes him. I know this because we've often arrived and no one is playing with them, as soon as Jamie takes interest the boys are after him.
(One Mother makes sure her son gives them to James, the other just lets her boy taunt James - don't worry I follow them round till they're not looking and reclaim the trains.)

...anyway, back to the Train Shed. As soon as the website came up James nearly climbed the breakfast bar to get to the computer. He sat and watched it for ages and cried when I shut it down. (He kisses and cuddles the engines before we leave Playgroup and they go 'night night'... he's ok with that.)

So the website mentioned a market on the second Sunday of the month, we thought that would be a good time to visit. Dan thought any time would be a good time as it's at a winery.
(The market wasn't worth it and Dan didn't get a chance to visit the winery.)

[Unfortunately I had the beginning of what turned out to be a 3 day migraine, this may explain some of the photos.]

So here he is... the man (train) himself - Thomas!

and here I am with the kids. You only pay for the kids to ride and the adults get to ride free with the kids. (Well it's built into the price really, but hey, it sounds good.)
The little models were extremely accurate. We didn't actually ask, but we're pretty sure they would have had to pay some sort of royalty or fee to set this up - hence the price of the tickets.
This was my view - it was pretty chilly that day too and the winery is at the top of a hill so even more chilly!
Hmm think I might have to invest in some anti-wrinkle cream. I don't seem to have as many wrinkles when I don't have a migraine. (Don't tell me otherwise, ignorance is bliss.)

Now, you're wondering why James doesn't have the biggest smile in the world aren't you?
Well apart from the fact we should have left a lot lot lot earlier so we weren't running into sleep time, he was so overwhelmed by it all we don't think he actually knew what to do or say. Georgie had enthusiasm for both of them and jumped excitedly round everywhere. James did just keep pointing out Thomas and yelling at Thomas. (He now carries at least one Thomas everywhere, even when he's sleeping.)
Away goes Thomas. The track was quite large and we even went through a little tunnel.
While Dan was off having a pie I rode the trains. He had the big camera (hence all the above photos, he was actually the first one on the train... ) and I got to play with the little camera.

Me and James.


Don't mind the eczema all over my face, not sure whether it's a food intolerance or still a reaction to the really really strong antibiotics I had to take for the ear infection.

The train track.
Waving to Mavis as she and her passengers came past.
Heading down to the tunnel on Gordon, who wasn't painted yet. I think they said it would take another 3 weeks to get him looking like Gordon.
Heading into the tunnel.
Toby!!! We love cute little Toby.
Waving just became conditional, every time they passed the platform Georgie waved her hand in my direction.
Here they come on Toby.
They have done a great job with decorating all the carriages and engines.

What's your job?
I drive Thomas the Tank Engine.
Would hardly pull the girls but you would be the hero of many 5 year old boys.
Later in the day the lines got longer and to get on the train you wanted you had to let people go past. Sometimes this resulted in you still missing your train.
James really just wanted to ride with Thomas once he'd had a go at a few of the others and he was heading into serious tired territory. Unfortunately Thomas had to have a rest for a while but he did come back out towards the end and we got another go. (Thank goodness.)
James just loved leaning back and chilling out as we went round.

And here's James looking all shiny, red and vain. :o))
Dan got to ride on James and so did James.
They have a shop full of Thomas stuff here too and some little trains running on tracks. Georgie found a face painter and James, well he was very very happy just walking round the shop drooling at admiring all the Thomas stuff.

Here comes James. The landscaping at this place cold do with a bit of a spruce up. There are just piles of train scrap and used tools and odds and ends everywhere (reminiscent of a particular Trout Farm I used to visit when I was younger).

Sometimes the platform was busy and you had to wait for the other train to leave. It was very hard to keep the kids inside the carriages at this point.
Making them wave at Mummy helps,




but not much.Hey true blue.. is it me and you... is it Mum and Dad.. is it a kangaroo....
(Sorry this photo just made me break into John Williamson's song)
Ok, so they're getting tired and train travel is not quite so glamorous as when we got there this morning... can you tell?
As we were leaving Percy and Toby were on the turntable so we could take some photos.
Georgie was excited...
James was tired and had in his hot little hands a Thomas the Tank Engine metal lunch box, from the shop.
Getting him to look and pay attention - impossible.


Nope, the box wins.
It's a good box. Holds lots of his trains. Has lots of characters on it.
He wanted the Thomas the Tank Engine vtech kids computer, for $99.95. He got the $10 box.
Our little friend Toby.
We tried again, but the box was still winning.
Oh look, he's looking up. I think he was telling me who was on his box, but at least he's looking in the right direction.
And again.
We're all tired by now and ready to go home. It was also spitting lightly. My head was truly aching.
It was a nice day and we were lucky it wasn't busy. The kids wouldn't deal with long lines for trains.
I'd advise if you're going, to take food with you. It was pretty expensive and not a lot of choice. (Normally I am very prepared with lots of food, trust me to choose this day to just buy it when we got there... I blame my headache.)

I'm sure we'll be seeing these trains again, one day.
Some little flicks for you...