By REID TUCKER
It’s an observable fact that most little boys love trains, but Tank Palmer is well and truly mad for them – especially Thomas, the blue tank engine, star of the children’s media franchise that bears his name.
Tank, the 4-year-old son of Paxton’s Florida Farmers Market owners Dave and Heather Palmer, is so “Thomas-obsessed” that he won a national prize for it. The Palmers, and Tank in particular, were selected from among thousands of other entrants from around the world in a Mattel, Inc. and Fisher-Price photo contest to determine what kid really was the biggest fan of Thomas and pals. The prize for winning the sweepstakes was an all-expenses-paid trip to the Aug. 15 grand opening of Thomas Land USA, America’s first theme park dedicated to the characters and settings from the internationally beloved children’s books, television shows and toys.
The Palmers were given the full red-carpet treatment at the $25 million park, the newest and biggest addition to Edaville USA, a popular New England amusement park and working cranberry farm rumored to have been part of the inspiration behind Disneyland. Dave and Heather described Edaville, with its 250 acres and winding heritage railroad tracks as being “just like riding through the island of Sodor,” the setting of the Thomas stories. Obviously, Tank had the time of his life.
“This was actually the best day ever,” he said. “It was really cool to see Thomas and the other trains in real life.”
In addition to riding the rails aboard a full-size Thomas replica train and enjoying all the other Sodor-themed attractions at the park, the Palmers were treated to a behind-the-scenes tour of the operations while hobnobbing with execs like Mattel Senior Vice President Siddharth Mathur and Edaville owner Jon Delli Priscoli. The Palmer family was also honored with a brick engraved with their names and placed near the park entrance. Tank even got to march into the park with a full brass band and cut the ribbon at the grand opening ceremony.
“He figured out how special the day was pretty quick,” Dave said. “Everybody involved did a fantastic job at making Tank feel special. Every person at the park called him by name and treated him like a VIP. They were genuinely excited for all of us to be there. It was hands-down the ultimate family vacation for us at this point in our lives. It was seriously epic.”
Tank come by his enthusiasm for trains honestly, his mother said, with a family history deeply rooted in all facets of the railroad from building actual trains to assembling intricate and extensive model tracks. Tank has more than continued in that tradition, with a bedroom packed floor-to-ceiling with Thomas merchandise and other model train paraphernalia.
“We come from a long line of train lovers,” Heather said. “My great grandfather helped build the railroads and Dave’s great grandfather was a train engineer. My uncle and my grandpa built model HO trains. Dave and I got married in the Florala Train Depot. Tank really is Thomas-Obsessed,’ but I think our family is little train-obsessed also. We really are just train people.”