We all know the Willy Wonka experience by now...

Many tourist railways in the UK host a Thomas the Tank Engine themed event called a Day Out with Thomas with a train pulled by an actual Thomas locomotive. Imagine if there was a shitty Day Out with Thomas that was nothing more than a ride on Thomas toy train in a warehouse and a train conductor that looks like he's on drugs. The tourist railways have a lot more dignity than to host a shitty Day Out with Thomas also it's not that hard for them to host a decent Thomas event. It does take a lot more effort to make a decent candy land but with a Day Out with Thomas, you just need a railway station just like any other normal railway station, passenger cars and you can slap a face on any locomotive and call it a Thomas character, the Thomas engine characters look like real railway engines enough. And besides, many UK tourist railways have locomotives that are similar in shape to Thomas, they paint the locomotives blue, paint a number 1 and slap a face on the front and they're good to go.

thx for the info!

There are also Day Out with Thomas events in many tourist railroads and railroad museums in America. Many of the American Thomas events don't have a Thomas that's an actual powered locomotive but rather a non-powered replica of Thomas that's placed at the front of the train and a locomotive at the back of the train does all the work. It may not be an actual powered Thomas locomotive but it looks exactly like Thomas with an actual train ride and even a fake Thomas locomotive is better than that shitty "Wonka Experience" in a warehouse in Glasgow.