Thomas The Tank Engine and Friends

National Railway Museum

Lipson Street, Port Adelaide

Sunday 19th July 2009

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It is school holidays and what do you do in Adelaide to amuse the children? Well taking into consideration that we have no theme parks as such in the state, you save up lots of pennies and take the kids to the train museum. They have put on a special 'Thomas The Tank Engine and Friends' display to try and cash in on the parents and carers home with their children.

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I have been to the train museum a number of times and find it an entertaining day with my son - he is of course train obsessed so it more than satisfies him every visit we make. I do however have a problem with the cost associated by parents just for a 'Thomas' face to be put on a train. My cost for the day was:

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$18 x 2 per Adult entry fee

$2 x 10 for train rides

$4 x 2 for cup of coffee

$15 for 'Toby' train upon exiting

$1 x 2 for hand made badges

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Plus other food bits to spend throughout the day - I easily spent over $100, on what should normally be a fairly cheap day out. I don't normally complain about costs and I appreciate that advertising and extra staff would mean that the National Railway Museum would have to recoup some of their costs, but seriously, make it a good day out for all - yes charge an entrance fee, that is expected, but don't charge for the train rides, kids are so excited about going on them, make the experience enjoyable for all.

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Ok, I have that off my chest and will continue to point out that despite costs, we did enjoy ourselves through out the day, Sir Topham Hat was available to answer an abundance of questions by my 3 year old son, there were live performances available - I believe a puppet show called dancing monkeys and the general atmosphere was enjoyable.

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Normally most of the trains are open for people to climb on, but today for some reason they were closed and were only for enjoying from afar, which was also a little disappointing.

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This is an annual event, I believe held every July school holidays. My advice would be to give the school holidays Thomas event a miss and just go to the train museum on a normal weekend - there will be less crowds, the train rides will be free, you can go in and view more trains and you will save bucket loads of cash!