AP Features, October 17th, 2007
Former President Jimmy Carter joined a group of squirmy children Tuesday in welcoming Thomas the Tank Engine — the smiling, chubby-cheeked storybook locomotive — to south Georgia.
In a speech, Carter said 10 trains a day passed his rural boyhood home and he often stood along the tracks and waved at the engineers "who were my heroes."
"I grew up surrounded by the sound of trains," he said, praising "the enormous benefits railroads brought to this country."
The event highlighted a "Day Out With Thomas," an event that over the next two weekends will feature 25-minute rides on a train pulled by a Thomas replica, plus storytelling and other children's activities.
Sponsors said they've already sold 14,000 tickets at about $17 each. It also marked the fifth anniversary of the SAM Shortline Excursion Train, which carries about 27,000 tourists a year to Carter's hometown of Plains and his boyhood home in Archery.
Spewing white smoke, the Thomas replica pulled a nine-car train from a station at the Georgia Veterans State Park west of Cordele. It crossed nearby Lake Blackshear, chugging past bald cypress trees, fishing boats and a pecan orchard, before returning to the park.
Carter and a group of VIPs rode in a refurbished 1939 observation-lounge car that once was a part of a prestigious train known as the "Champion," running between New York and Miami. After the 25-minute ride, Carter nestled in a wicker chair and read a story about Thomas the Tank Engine to about 50 children, aged 4 to 6, from area schools.
They took the train ride in regular passenger cars. Seated on bales of hay, some of the children squirmed as Carter read from a book, with Thomas billowing smoke.
Later, few of the children could remember Carter's name, although they knew he was a former president. One said the most memorable event for him was using the train's restroom.
"A Day Out With Thomas" is a family event that offers children and their parents an opportunity to ride trains pulled by the plucky engine, first popularized in stories by a British minister and later on British and American television.
The train will steam into 47 U.S. cities this year, offering rides for children and their parents, said Marc Schneider, senior vice president and general manager of HiT Entertainment.
