East Anglian Railway - Thomas Tank Engine

It seems lots of parents took their kids away for a short break during the Easter holiday and for a split second I was feeling guilty about not sorting anything out for us. Then I stopped and thought about everything the boys have done during the Eater half term and I think it is safe to say it has been pretty full on and they have had a great time. They have had a day in Wizz Kids, been to the Heritage Motor Museum, been on a Gruffalo hunt at Thorndon, been Golf over Lake Meadows, a Wonka Easter Hunt at Nevendon Manor, been to Hyde Hall for an Easter Hunt, been to London Aquarium and been to Disney on Ice at Wembley.So today was bank holiday Monday and the last day of the Easter break and we went out on a bang, well a puff! We took the kiddies to the East Anglian Railway Museum where they had a Thomas the Tank Engine event where the kids could ride on all the old steam trains etc.

A great "Day out with Thomas" at East Anglian Railway.

As we crossed the railway bridge the boys immediately got a glimpse of the real life Thomas.

Me, Joshua, Brandon and Holly in front of Thomas.

Joshua and Thomas.

Brandon and Thomas. Brandon wearing his Thomas the Tank Engine baseball cap for the day.

We had a choice to ride on Thomas, Percy, Daisy and Toby. Of course the boys chose Thomas for their first ride and this was a wise choice as it was by far the most popular and the queues soon got bigger. 

Inside Thomas the carriages were very traditionally with lots of wood and individual cabins with sliding doors.

Holly was wide awake during the Thomas ride and sat with me in her harness. This picture has got to be one of my favourite Holly pictures as her face is just a picture.

Some old train cranes.

An old repair train.

The boys were fascinated by the Fat Controllers control room with the old signals and manual levers for track changes.

The driver on Thomas getting ready for the off.



Not really sure who this Thomas character is.

After Thomas we decided to hitch a ride on Percy who was pulling open time cattle carriages fitted out with bench seats. For once the bank holiday weather was gorgeous, blue sky's and sunshine and therefore is was absolutely beautiful to sit in an open top carriage and have a ride up and down the track on such a nice day.

Tina and the boys take their seat in Percy's open top carriage.

A rare picture of all five of us.

The carriages soon filled up and then we chugged our way down the track taking in the scenery. Oh and getting soot from the engine dropping down on your head.

Percy chugs up to a beautiful arch bridge way.

All 5 of us with Percy the steam train.

Joshua and Brandon on the back of a very old pick-up truck.

Some of the old tracks behind the museum area still have the old manual track change levers. I demonstrated to the boys how these work so that they could see the tracks switching as the lever flipped over. It was quite amusing to then see the two of them trying to lift the levers themselves (without success!).

Mighty mouse Brandon just about gets the track lever off the ground.

Joshua uses all his strength and gets the lever higher than Brandon, but still a long way off of the flip point.

Brandon posing with Toby train.

Brandon steering Toby.

Joshua steering Toby.

The final train we went on was Daisy. I think Brandon's eyelashes are longer than Daisy's!

Another great day out and some great memories for the kids to look back on. Also a very good way to sign-off our 2014 Easter Holiday. For a bank holiday the traffic was surprisingly kind to us and now we have three very tired children tucked up in bed and ready to get back to some normality of school tomorrow (well not Holly obviously).