Thomas & Friends Building the New Line

Load the CD-ROM, sign in, and meet Thomas and all his familiar friends. Choose "Junior" or "Senior" Engineer mode, depending on ability (or confidence!), and start laying your track. Once your track is in place, move through the activities to deliver cargo and add landscaping features such as trees, bridges, tunnels, and so on. Once you have your track laid out to your satisfaction, advance to "Play Mode" and bring your new line to life.

Your engine can now travel around the track, interacting with all the other familiar personalities and sights of Sodor. Click on the items you put in place in build mode and complete the resulting activities. For example, click on the hay bales in the Farm Yard and watch as they spill on the track. Get your engine to help clear them away, so the track is safe and debris-free. Switch tracks, control your speed, and visit the Works if you need any maintenance.

Similar to previous CD-ROMs in the Thomas & Friends series, the sound and graphical quality of the package is great, and all the characters are faithful reproductions of their book and screen counterparts. The package is fun and will amuse as well as challenge first PC users, as they learn mouse control and hand-to-eye coordination, as well as other basic PC skills (clicking, moving, cause-and-effect of onscreen activities). There are plenty of rewards to keep little ones interested, and lots of fun to be had along the way. (Ages 3 to 5)--Susan Naylor

Amazon.com Product Description
The Island of Sodor is busier than ever and it's up to kids ages 3 to 5 to lay down new tracks to help Thomas and the other engines keep things running smoothly. Customize five different track layouts, choose your engine--Thomas, James, Edward, or Percy--and click into play mode to see your creation come to life. Be ready, though--you never know what surprises you may encounter. Building the New Line brings track building onto the computer screen in a brilliant 3-D-like environment and is designed with one objective--Thomas & Friends fun!

With 4 engines using 3 locations and 5 possible tracks, giving you 60 different layouts there is always soemthing different. I think if they release another version they should add more engines like Henry, Gordon, Toby and Duck.

You'll find fun right around every turn including having George rip up the track and you have to replace it. You can help Cranky the Crane move boulders off the track and help the engines back on the track when they fall off.

Also there is haybales, crates and oil drums you can spill to only have to clean up after. The only thing I didn't see is Thumper, but I sure he'll show up at some time. Ther are 2 levels a junior and senior engineer, giving you different things to do at each location.

Overall this is a great experience for the kids to look and learn as well as build computer and mouse skills.


A disappointment. Try one of the other Thomas games first.   November 28, 2002
Louis Rios (Kansas City, MO USA)
10 out of 10 found this review helpful

Our kids have enjoyed all three of the previous Thomas software titles ("The Great Festival Adventure", "Trouble on the Tracks", and the "Railway Adventures Playset"), and we purchased this latest title a few weeks ago. This one seems very unimpressive in comparison. It might be an ok option if your child is 2-3, and/or if they like the idea of completing a game within 15 minutes; otherwise, you should probably choose one of the other Thomas titles.

The game designers had a good idea -- design and build your own rail line -- but their execution of this idea is pretty dull and disappointing. You don't get much control over the design of the line, you just select one of 5 pre-designed layouts. All 5 layouts are small (one screen) in size, and they're all pretty similar to each other. You do some inconsequential decorating of the layout by placing a few trees and rocks here and there. After that, you run an engine around the line for as long as you like (it takes just a few seconds to drive a complete lap). Along the way you can complete a couple of dull and extremely simple activities, like load a stack of boxes from one spot and unload them another. It seems silly because you only carry the load for a few seconds before it requires you to unload it all! After that, you can clean and repair the engine (something that's part of every Thomas game), and lastly you "decorate" the engine, which means you get to choose from a few pre-selected decorations. It usually takes 15 minutes or less to complete the whole game.

The game offers two different skill levels, but the ONLY difference between them occurs during the placing of tracks onto the track layout, and it's a really minor difference in difficulty -- my 2 1/2 year old can do the higher level.

It's a disappoinment from Infogrames, the company that recently acquired both Hasbro Interactive (which made the previous Thomas titles) and Humongous Software (which produced a LONG list of great kids titles). I've seen a few of their other recent efforts (including "Dora's Backpack Adventure" and "Blues Clues Preschool"), and I have yet to see them produce anything that's on par with their predecessors.


Not impressed   January 31, 2003
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

My son is 3 1/2 and a Thomas crazed child. He seems to like this game and has been playing with it consistantly for the last few weeks. However, the game is not very impressive, as other reviewers have already stated. It's very limited and does not do nearly as much as the game that comes with the Thomas attachment for the keyboard. (He has that one too) If you are debating between spending the $40 on the other game or getting off cheaper with this one, get the one with the attachment. That has at least 5 times more content to it and will last alot longer. Plus my son loves getting to actually drive Thomas. This game is a short lived Thomas fix for those children who love Thomas. It's not a bad game, there just isn't very much to it. My son had completed the three locations and the 5 track layouts in less than an hour (on both levels) I know I was bored to tears with it after 10 minutes.
It will help a child learn mouse skills (since it's a mouse driven game, the one with the attachment does not use the mouse at all).


skip this one   October 19, 2003
Sharlyn Burton (USAF Germany)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful

My son is also an avid Thomas Fan and we bought this since he had played the Great Festival Game several times. We run Windows XP and couldn't get the game to load properly. When we finally got into the game there wasn't much to do. The Great Festival Game is a much better deal.


does it stay working?   January 13, 2003
1 out of 4 found this review helpful

i havn't bought this game for my 5 year old but i really don't want to try. he is so upset that the gsmes always freeze that he has stopped asking for them. after all that money spent another try is not worth the saddness.