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Discovery Cube OC Hosts Thomas & Friends: Explore the Rails

From now through January 4th, 2015

December 14, 2014

Guests are invited to climb aboard on an imaginative adventure featuring everyone’s favorite train engine!

The world’s most beloved blue engine rolls into Discovery Cube OC just in time for the holiday season. Thomas & Friends®: Explore the Rails is an interactive, hands-on exhibit, and is locally sponsored by PBS SoCal. The exhibit is set to run through January 4, 2015. Featuring the favorite engines and destinations from Thomas & Friends, the STEM (Science Technology, Engineering and Math) -focused exhibit seeks to engage children 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 1500 square foot 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 confront 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.


Inside the Exhibit:

Climb into Thomas’ cab and explore the engine’s inner workings. Flip levers and investigate other moveable parts that trigger train noises such as braking, whistles and steam. 

Fix Percy’s wobbly wheel by removing and replacing parts and experimenting to find a combination of wheels, rods and bolts that work. Discovery Cube Hosts Thomas & Friends Exhibit 2

Explore the favorite Island of Sodor destinations including: Tidmouth Sheds, Brendam Docks and the Sodor Search & Rescue Station on an over-sized Thomas Wooden Railway train table. 

Work with old and new friends loading luggage, livestock and other freight into the coaches of two train cars.

Collaborate with others to get Percy moving by loading coal into his coal box and filling his tank with water from a water tower.

Suit up as the conductor to exchange money and sell tickets to other visitors taking a ride on the train. 

Wander through a Thomas & Friends retrospective featuring model engines from the original live action series produced in London, copies of the original drawings and manuscripts from the Rev. W. Awdry, the creator of Thomas & Friends, and a collection of memorabilia documenting the history and evolution of Thomas & Friends through books, television, and toys.

The Thomas & Friends exhibit was designed and developed by Minnesota Children’s Museum in partnership with HIT Entertainment, a subsidiary of Mattel, Inc. The national tour is sponsored by 3M. PBS SoCal is the local media sponsor for the exhibit and the television home for Thomas & Friends.  PBS SoCaL is excited that their PBS show is being brought to life by this dynamic exhibit for Thomas & Friends’ fans across Southern California. 

Thomas & Friends: Explore the Rails is included with general admission fees. Tickets can be purchased at Discovery Cube Orange County or online at www.discoverycube.org/oc. General admission prices are as follows: adult ($16.95), senior ($12.95), and children ages 3-14 ($12.95).