Thomas & Friends™: Explore the Rails!

Oct 5, 2024 – Jan 5, 2025

Included with general admission

All aboard! The world’s most beloved #1 blue engine rolls into the Museum this autumn. Thomas & Friends™: Explore the Rails!, an interactive exhibit created by Minnesota Children’s Museum and inspired by the popular children’s series now on Nick Jr, steams into Kohl Children’s Museum. 

Featuring the favorite engines and destinations from Thomas & Friends™, the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) –focused exhibit seeks to engage children, ages 2 through 7, and families in foundational skills that foster STEM literacy through playful learning experiences. The exhibit incorporates foundational STEM practices that encourage thinking mathematically, making comparisons, experimenting to solve problems using a variety of methods and tools, thinking creatively and reflecting on actions and results.

Visitors to the exhibit will be delighted as they find themselves surrounded by the Island of Sodor’s iconic locations: Knapford Station, Sodor Steamworks and much more. In the exhibit, children help Thomas and his friends solve a variety of challenges, from a simple sorting and shape identification activity to more complex engineering obstacles, such as completing a train track using track pieces with different levels of elevation. As children encounter new challenges and test their abilities, the smiling faces of Thomas, Percy, Victor and others are there to offer encouragement and remind children how “really useful” they all are.

• Climb into Thomas’ cab and trigger train noises such as braking, whistles and steam.
• Fix Percy’s wobbly wheel by experimenting to find a working combination of wheels, rods and bolts.
• Explore favorite Island of Sodor destinations on an over-sized Thomas Wooden Railway train table.
• Load luggage and freight into the coaches of two train cars.
• Get Percy moving by loading coal into his coal box and filling his tank with water.
• Sell tickets to other visitors taking a ride on the train.

The Thomas & Friends exhibit was designed and developed by Minnesota Children’s Museum in partnership with Mattel, Inc. Fisher-Price, the leading manufacturer of infant and preschool toys, is the presenting sponsor for the exhibit.