October 5, 2024 - January 5, 2025

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.

Things to do:

Baggage Loading

Load luggage, livestock and other freight into the coaches of two train cars.

Percy's Coal Engine

Load coal into Percy's coal box and fill his tank with water from a water tower.

Percy's Wobbly Wheel

Experiment with wheels, rods and bolts to fix Percy the Engine's wobbly wheel.

Sodor Train Table

Explore the favorite Island of Sodor destinations on a themed train table.

Thomas Retrospective

View items from the history of Thomas from his original books to TV and toys.

Thomas' Cab

Climb into Thomas’ cab and explore the engine’s inner workings.

Ticket Station

Work the ticket office to sell fares to other visitors taking a ride on the train.

Location

2100 Patriot Boulevard
Glenview, IL 60026
(847) 832-6600

Get Directions

Hours

Open today from 9:30 am-4:00 pm

Open tomorrow from 9:30 am-4:00 pm

More Information

Admission

General Admission

  • Children (1 – 16): $20
  • Adults (17 – 64): $20
  • Seniors (65+): $18
  • Infants (Under 12 months): Free
  • Members: Free
  • Military/Veteran: Buy 1, Get 1 Free
  • Museums for All Program (EBT/WIC cardholders): $3/person (up to 4 admissions) *P-EBT not valid

All children must be supervised by an adult at all times.

Click here for advance general admission reservations and save $2 per ticket.

 

Members-Only Hours: 8:30 – 9:30 AM Daily
The Museum is closed for general admission on these holidays:
New Year’s Day, Memorial Day, July 4, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve

Please check our list of dates with adjusted hours.


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THE PLACE WHERE AWESOME LIVES