Puzzle Description:

In honor of my son, this is Thomas the Tank Engine. However, when he saw the half-solved puzzle from across the room, he said it looked more like Stepney.

#1: Mark Conger (aruba) on Apr 4, 2004

Choo!

nice picture, but too easy

A very nice train. well done!

Nice finished image. Thanks Jan!

Always loved trains from the little wooden ones as a child to riding the big ones today. But not haveing kids, I'm a bit ignorant of the Stepney fellow. Is that a character from the Thomas show?

There are hundreds of engines in the Thomas books/videos. Stepney is one of them. However, my son has passed through his Thomas phase and all my Thomas expertize has slipped from my memory, so I can't tell you a thing about Stepney.

Isn't it interesting what parenthood does to your memory?

Thanks for the puzzle :o)

Stepney is actually a real engine. It is currently running on the Bluebell Railway in England. Therefore he was only in about four or five stories.

Cool Corey. :)

I knew that. In fact, I once wrote an essay on the subject.

Beyond cool Jan. I loved the links. I'm dreaming of a railway vacation now. Thank you.
And again, I liked the puzzle.

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Re: #11... Why on earth did you write an essay on Thomas, trains, etc? I briefly glanced at it, and was amazed (or shocked) that you would go to such lengths and research something like that. Why? What was the point? Maybe you really enjoy that sort of thing (research and writing). I ditto the last comment posted on that essay.

I try to engage with the subjects my kids are interested in, so my eyes don't completely glaze over whenever they start talking about them, hence the research. I like to write, hence the essay.

I think it's awesome you take the time to gain knowledge wherever possible. It's a very admirable trait. It's better than dads/people who just don't care enough to learn about other people's interests.

To each his own. Anything in excess is bad, even knowledge. I would rather play with my kids and roll the trains around on the floor or on a track for hours and hours, rather than read about trains for hours and hours, and then write for hours and hours just to be able to explain how a train works, with all the parts, how they work, and the different names for the different parts based on what country you live in. Kids don't care about that. They just want to play. So therefore Nicole, I hope you understand my point of view, and not just your own.

Actually, my son was never that interested in playing with trains. Rolling trains around never interested him long. He was more interested in collecting them and hearing stories about them.

Every kid is different, and so is every parent. You gotta do what works for you. I can't actually roll trains around with a kid for hours and hours. After about 15 minutes I fall asleep on the floor. So, though I'm glad that works for Adam, it isn't for either me or my son.

I read him thousands of Thomas books and stories, and watched hundreds of Thomas videos. He's still an obsessive collector of facts, but now it's mostly Pokemon facts rather than Thomas facts. Yes, I have a draft "Parent's Guide to Pokemon" that I haven't gotten around to finishing and probably won't.

Though he's done with Thomas, I still read to my son every evening. I've read him the entire Harry Potter series (twice), all 13 Lemony Snicket books, all 11 Hornblower books, "Ender's Game", "His Majesty's Dragon", and Niven's "Gift From Earth". I'm currently starting the third book of "Lord of the Rings" for both kids, and starting Twain's "Mysterious Stranger" with my son. They like it, and I like it. I've always enjoyed reading aloud, and it's great to be able to read really fun books to the kids.

Of course, I still go through "Goodnight Moon" a couple times a day with the little one, who just recently started turning the pages for me.

Yep; everyone is different. I love to read, too. Most children like to be read to as well.

Jan, have you every tried any of Terry Pratchett's kids books? You guys might like the "Wee Free Men".

Or the one, "Wee Free Kings..." LOL

no the other one is call wintersmith...

sorry adam couldn't resist.

Hes one of my favorite authors btw.

I did read him "Mort". I like the Discworld books better than "Wee Free Men".

Well, technically Wee Free Men is a Discworld book, but I know what you mean.

He wrote some other non-Discworld series that are kind of fun, "Truckers" "Diggers" and "Wings".

"The Carpet People" was pretty fun, mostly because the idea of microscopic people living in my carpet cracks me up.

I also like the Johnny books (Only You Can Save Mankind, Johnny and the Dead, Johnny and The Bomb).

I don't think the Trucker's series is sold in the US. I bought it while visiting New Zealand, but I donated the whole set to a charity auction, where it went for a ridiculous amount of money.

Just recently read "Nation." Kind of liked it, and it certainly is a book that never quite goes where you'd expect it to. The main characters are a young man and a young woman, but instead of being the story about a romance between them, as anyone would expect, it's the story of a nation. Odd.

Haven't read that one yet, but it's on my ever-growing "to do" list.

I think I got the truckers series via ebay or amazon or something.

Hmmm...I see it has finally come out in the US. It is certainly on Amazon. Guess no more chances to sell sets of these for $150.

The image is recognizable, but what does the title refer to? I'm sadly ignorant on the subject of Thomas and his cohorts.

I love that you go to the trouble to research what your kids like. :)

Thomas is frequently referred to as a "really useful engine" which is the highest praise Sir Topham Hat has to offer.

Really good easy puzzle!

Interesting discussion in this thread.

yes - comments very interesting

I don't know how I missed the comments the first time around.

I'm glad you featured this oldie. Somehow I missed this puzzle.

Just in case anyone has the wrong idea, "Featured Puzzles" are selected entirely at random from among the more highly rated puzzles at each difficulty level. No human is involved in the selection, except for all the good humans who rate the puzzles they solve. The idea is to do exactly what it did for you: draw attention to good old puzzles that people might not have seen.

This was a great idea. My ability to log on to the internet has been a kind of on again off again thing, so enjoy this section very much and look forward to it every day.

An interesting read in the comments--and yes I agree the Bromeliad trilogy is a good way to start with Pratchett! I bought the trilogy as a 3-in-1 book, used, cheap. A search on Amazon indicates they were reprinted in 2012.

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