Day out with Thomas

All aboard at Heywood Station

East Lancashire Railway made children’s dreams come true this weekend by bringing Thomas the Tank Engine and friends to life in the day out with Thomas experience.

Starting off at Heywood, families boarded the train, which took those aboard to Bury Bolton Street station.

Heywood station Manager, Joe Verity said: “It’s a very popular event. It gets more successful as the years go on.”

Once at Bury Bolton Street station, children could ride Thomas as well as meet the Fat Controller. Other activities also included Troublesome Trucks, face painting and balloon modelling as well as Doctor Doolally and his talking Toucan.

Joe added: “There are different activities at each stations.”

Kathryn brought her son Míchéal along and said: “My friend told me about it and because my son likes Thomas, we thought it would be good to do.”

When asked about riding Thomas, Míchéal said: “I’m excited. I’m going on him and I’ve never been on him before.”

Sarah Lloyd brought her daughter along for the event, she said: “She likes Thomas so it seemed like a good thing to get involved with.”

With the event proving popular with families with young children, Joe said: “We’ll definitely keep running the event.”