Thomas the Train

About four years ago DH picked up a Thomas the Train set on the last minute, deeply discounted, just barely enough time before Xmas sale on Amazon.  We pull it out each year to play with it and the rest of the time it sits in it's box waiting for next year. 

Last year we put it under the tree.  Thomas had been played with enough that he wasn't working so well.  We taped a bunch of silver dollars to weigh the engine down in hopes that it would get better traction on the track.  That kinda worked, but not really.

This year we learned that toys don't fix themselves while packed up and sitting in the garage.

BG suggested a complete clean out because she could see stuff wrapped around the axles inside the engine.  I've done that a million times with the vacuum cleaner so I figured it was a really good idea.  Then I took Thomas the Train completely apart. 

There was a little bit of stuff stuck in there.  There was also a moment when I wasn't sure if all the King's Horse and all the King's Men would be able to put Thomas together again. 

After being put back together, Thomas worked great for about fifteen minutes and went back to getting stuck in various spots around the tree.  Normally in the back. 

We will still pull him out every year.  It really is more for show than a toy.  Especially when it plays the Thomas the Train Theme song the entire time it is running.  One can only take so much of that.