Archive for Sunday, June 3, 2007

Youngsters spend day with Thomas

Six-day event expected to draw more than 16,000 fans of tank engine

By Steve Vockrodt

June 3, 2007

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Thomas the Tank Engine makes one of his many stops for rides Saturday in Baldwin City. The six-day event is expected to draw more than 16,000 fans of the children's television series character to Baldwin City.

Photo by Steve Vockrodt

Thomas the Tank Engine makes one of his many stops for rides Saturday in Baldwin City. The six-day event is expected to draw more than 16,000 fans of the children's television series character to Baldwin City.

Baldwin City was probably the only place in the world where Trenton Barnhart wanted to spend his Saturday.

At 18 months old, the toddler has developed a keen interest for two things.

"He's crazy about trains," Steve Barnhart, Trenton's father, said. "And he's crazy about Thomas."

It so happened that Thomas the Tank Engine - a retrofitted train based on a popular television series character - made its appearance in Baldwin City on Saturday, the second of six days the attraction will be in town.

Thomas is the main character in "Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends," a British television series based on a talking train.

A train at the Baldwin City depot - decorated to resemble the Thomas character with peering eyes on a blue, moonlike face and a permanent grin - gave hundreds of visitors a 5-mile low-speed ride in the Douglas County countryside.

"It's just a nice ride in the country," said Mike Fox, president of Midland Railway and the Thomas event chairman.

Along with the ride is a carnival-like setting with magicians, firefighter demonstrations, funnel cakes, cotton candy and more.

Fox said that initial ticket sales were slow but picked up significantly as the opening day of the event drew near.

He expected that it would draw somewhere around 16,000 people over the six-day event, which is down from the 17,300 people who came last year.

Fox suspected that gas prices might have kept people away this year, but said that drawing 16,000 people would be suitable anyway.

"The work and preparation is really worth it when you see the kids having a good time," Fox said.

One youngster who had a good time was Joe Schneider, who wore a Kansas Jayhawks shirt and rode 60 minutes from La Cygne with his father, Richard Schneider.

"It was great for him," Schneider said. "He loved every minute of it."

Meet the train

Where: Baldwin City (park at Baldwin High School, 415 Eisenhower Road, and take a free shuttle to the event)

When: Today, Friday and June 10 from 9 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5:15 p.m.

Tickets: $16; available by calling (866) 468-7630 or online at www.ticketweb.com.

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