Training in Early Childhood

When you’re getting your European facial, surfing the Web or kicking back with a magazine and a cafe latte, think of me. I’ve been exiled to the Island of Sodor.

It’s a place where everything you need to know, my 3-year-old can tell you.

This is a place where Thomas the Tank Engine lives with his friends Gordon the Express Train, Henry the Green Engine and countless other talking locomotives who teach my little Marcos about good manners, friendship and loyalty.

The trains, the subjects of an obscure series of 1940s English children’s books written by the Rev. Wilbert Awdry, are now memorialized in wooden figures, books, videos and a television show geared for the 2-to-7 set.

Figures I would get into the Thomas thing in his watershed year. Thomas, a blue goodie-two-wheels, has now come to a theater near me and is a regular topic of discussion at home. Peter Fonda and Alec Baldwin: The Mena family has been waiting for you for months!

The movie, “Thomas and the Magic Railroad,” is about how a resourceful 12-year-old, who with help from little engines, triumphs over evil diesels to preserve the Island of Sodor.

As if we Menas weren’t entrenched enough already. It all began so simply last year with a figure-eight track and one train. Months later, we bought a few more trains (Toby, Mavis, Bill, Ben, Douglas, Donald and James, to name a few). Harold the Helicopter flew in soon after.

These characters are now landmarks in our lives. We celebrated the birth of my daughter by buying the Express Coaches. When Marcos turned 3, he begged us for a 415-page hardback book titled “Thomas the Tank Engine: The Complete Collection.” The pages are brown from wear.

With our train obsession growing, I turned not to a family therapist but to Ron Runolfson, owner of Ron’s World in San Clemente. Every day, Runolfson watches kids play at his store’s Thomas the Tank Engine train table. The Menas are not alone, he says.

“It does become a passion. It permeates every part of a child’s life,” he said. “It is not a toy. It is a system that teaches them positive values. It stirs their imagination.”

Britt Allcroft, the English filmmaker and producer who found the original Thomas stories in a library and made them into a television series in 1983, offered me extra comfort.

“Children embrace these stories as their own. There is a quaintness that has to do with their British origin, [and] the trains are soothing. We are in a highly noisy, highly technological society. In our homes, we need that gentle pace,” she said. “I’m no psychologist. I’m a filmmaker and mother too. . . . There is a quality in these stories that nourishes children.”

Indeed, Thomas is corny, but at least he’s not a video monster or a knife-wielding movie character. Marcos really likes to “read,” he can make up a story, and he can recognize sad and glad feelings, thanks to Thomas and friends.

Allcroft says Thomas’ debut on the big screen offers some digital effects, including manipulation of an 18-inch Alec Baldwin, live action human photography interacting with animated and digital effects and sparkling gold dust. But she promises Thomas’ innocence has been protected.

As we waited for the film to be released Wednesday, my husband and I nourished Marcos’ addiction by looking for train-related activities. Our son’s obsession has become ours.

We hit the train at Irvine Regional Park, the Thomas play area at Adventure City amusement park in Anaheim, and the miniature trains run by the Orange County Model Engineers at Fairview Park in Costa Mesa. After watching my son’s amazement with Amtrak in Fullerton, I called the toll-free number and asked how much it would cost to get to Albuquerque, N.M., where I would like to visit.

When I learned it would be $1,200 for the family, I promptly directed Marcos to the Metro Blue Line in Long Beach.

One dollar and 35 cents later, we were off to see the Watts Towers. For a long time, I had wanted to visit them too. As Marcos enjoyed the ride and the view of train yards in Southeast Los Angeles County, I wondered how I would persuade him to get off.

I told him we were going to visit Cranky the Crane. I’m not sure I convinced him that the wiry structures in Watts were the real Cranky, but that’s OK, because Thomas has taught him that imagination is as important as reality.