Day Out With Thomas
It's "Steamies" versus "Diesels" and our favorite No.1 engine is right on track! Thomas the Tank Engine™ is pulling into the station for the Day Out With Thomas™: Leader of the Track Tour, presented by HIT Entertainment and sponsored by MEGA Brands. This fun-filled event offers little engineers and their families the opportunity to take a ride with a 15-ton replica of Thomas the Tank Engine, star of the popular Thomas & Friends™ series. Children will ride along with their favorite hero on his latest adventure. The tour, now in its 16th year, will make stops in more than 45 US cities and is expected to welcome more than one million passengers in 2011.
Day Out With Thomas: Timeline
Full Steam Ahead!
A Thomas & Friends™ Timeline
The inspiration for the creation of the beloved Thomas the Tank Engine™ and his "Really Useful Engine" friends was the Great Western Line that ran from London's Paddington Station to Bristol.
| 1916 | In the English countryside, a young boy listens to the puffing of nearby steam engines and as he imagines their conversations, he doesn't doubt that these engines have their own unique personalities | |
| 1943 | Now a father himself, the Storyteller is inspired to "engineer" tales about these steam engines to entertain his own young son when he was in bed with the measles | |
| 1945 | The train leaves the station as the first of the classic Thomas & Friends™ stories is published, entitled 'Edward's Day Out' | |
| 1950 | This Island of Sodor is "discovered" after Rev. W. Awdry visits the Isle of Man. Sodor lies between the Isle of Man and Barrow-in-Furness on the Mainland | |
| 1982 | Decades later, while filming a documentary on a preserved railway, Britt Allcroft rediscovers the tales of Thomas & Friends and is inspired to bring the stories to television | |
| 1984 | Thomas & Friends, a new animated production for preschoolers, makes its broadcast debut on ITV in the U.K. | |
| 1985 | A very special passenger hops aboard as former Beatles member, Ringo Starr, joins the Thomas & Friends™ television series as storyteller - the first of several famous storytellers to come | |
| 1989 | Next stop America! Thomas & Friends pulls in to the U.S. when it debuts on PBS | |
| 1991 | Japan is the next international stop for Thomas & Friends™ | |
| 1992 | Thomas makes his debut into Consumer Products with the Thomas & Friends™ Wooden Railway Set | |
| 1996 | Thomas the Tank™ Engine travels all the way to Wisconsin for the first U.S. Day Out With Thomas™ family event. Day Out With Thomas offers aspiring young engineers and their families the opportunity to take a ride with a 15-ton replica of their classic storybook friend, Thomas the Tank Engine, and enjoy a day of Thomas and train-themed activities and entertainment. | |
| Thomas finds his way onto the Internet as www.thomasandfriends.com launches | ||
| 1998 | Thomas goes off the rails as a Thomas & Friends™ theme park opens in Japan | |
| 2000 | Thomas and the Magic Railroad, the property's first feature film release, rolls into movie theaters worldwide | |
| 2002 | Another famous voice takes a ride with Thomas when actor Alec Baldwin narrates new Thomas episodes in the United States | |
| 2005 | Thomas & Friends™ celebrates its 60th anniversary with a year of activities, including the national Day Out With Thomas 2005: The Celebration Tour, a feature-length home entertainment release, new television episodes on PBS KIDS®, and limited edition toys and books | |
| 2007 | Thomas takes to the stage when Thomas & Friends™ Live! On Stage launches the first US live theatrical tour of Thomas & Friends™. Following its US run, the tour travels internationally to Asia, Australia, Europe and Canada | |
| Thomas Town, the first US themepark attraction for the Thomas & Friends brand opens at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in San Francisco and Six Flags New England | ||
| Pierce Brosnan announced as new special guest Narrator of Thomas & Friends™ | ||
| 2008 | Thomas Land, a $10 million theme park featuring 12-themed rides, opens at Drayton Manor in the UK. This Thomas Land attraction, replicating the Island of Sodor, is the first in Europe and the second in the world | |
| Thomas enters the Guinness Book of World Records! The World's Longest Toy Train Track record is set by TOMY and HIT Entertainment at Thomas Land at Drayton Manor in the UK. The track took 2 weeks to design, 2 days to build, and 2.5 hours for Thomas to steam around 1.8 kilometers of track! | ||
| 2009 | Hero of the Rails debuts as the first Thomas & Friends feature in CG animation. | |
| Thomas the Tank Engine gives his first TV broadcast interview on Good Morning America | ||
| Thomas & Friends™ Live! On Stage: A Circus Comes To Town debuts in the US visiting more than 50 cities from January through August | ||
| 2010 | Thomas & Friends celebrates its 65th anniversary with new CG-animated television episodes on PBS KIDS, a new CG-animated website, celebrations at Minor League Baseball games across the US | |
| New global master toy partner Fisher-Price and new master construction partner Mega roll out new lines of Thomas & Friends toys | ||
| Thomas & Friends™ launches its first mobile applications for iPhone® and iPod touch® and its first application dedicated to the iPad®. The apps chart in the top 10 paid apps for kids in their first weeks of launch | ||
| Random House releases e-book versions of favorite Thomas & Friends titles |
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