Watch Jane's video tour of Thomas Land

The Fat Controller was perfect. He could have stepped straight out of the pages of the Rev W.Awdry's popular books about that cheeky little tank engine, Thomas.

My cheeky little two-year-old's eyes sparkled as he took in the spats, yellow waistcoat and top hat, before holding his hand out to return a very formal handshake. Not bad for someone who normally manages only a “hi”, maybe stretching to a high five.

Sir Topham Hatt, to give him his formal name, was giving Christian and me a sneak preview of Thomas Land, which opens today. It's the second of its kind, but as the first is in Japan, we had never been and probably never will. Staffordshire, home of Drayton Manor Theme Park, and just an hour and a half up the train tracks from London, is much more convenient.

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Background

• A bewildering theme park in Norfolk

• A four theme park weekend

• Kids are in heaven at Diggerland

• Sleep with the fishes

• Out of Africa in Wiltshire

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Sir Topham was most proud, of course, of the signature ride - Thomas himself, the Very Useful Engine with his own branch line. Christian, already mesmerised by the hypnotic movement of Thomas's eyes, couldn't wait to clamber aboard the “choo choo” for a ride to the zoo.

Though the train, with the catchy Thomas theme tune played in carriages Annie and Clarabelle, was pretty much the same as the popular Thomas ride introduced at Drusillas Park in Sussex last year, it was just the start of a fun-packed day. It is one of a dozen themed rides in Thomas Land (compared with Japan's eight). Many of the engine's chugging and whirring friends are featured, from Harold the Helicopter's carousel, to a rocking tug themed on the dockyard's Bulstrode the Barge, a small version of the classic pirate ship ride.

“I decided we needed a children's character when I came back from a family holiday in Florida,” said managing director Colin Bryan. “When HIT Entertainment offered us Thomas I knew it was right.”

He isn't wrong: the result of 18 months of planning, six of building and £5.5 million in finance is an awful lot of imagination and content crammed into three acres.

Instead of a series of bland roundabouts, several of the attractions are miniature versions of an adult theme park made for toddlers to ride alongside their parents, including a vertical drop ride and a rollercoaster.

For two year olds? Gulp. Luckily, the Cranky the Crane ride, with its 8m (25ft) fall, was out of bounds because Christian wasn't tall enough. He didn't care, nor did he want to go on the Troublesome Trucks rollercoaster, so I hopped aboard next to Grace Gouldin who is five and three quarters, and was one of a few privileged friends and family of the park also test-driving the rides. I'm ashamed to say that I screamed more than she did.

“This is good, but it's not the highest rollercoaster I've been on,” said Grace, from Derby. She admitted later though that she liked sharing it with her younger sister Ellie, who at two, had been on several times.

These tasters of the real thing seemed pretty apt to me considering that Drayton Manor is proud of its credentials as having some of the biggest, scariest, wettest theme park rides, including Europe's only stand-up rollercoaster and the world's first stand-up tower drop.

In Thomas Land, there's the added benefit of the characters themselves, ranging from the Harbour Master to Mrs Kindley. Luckily, she wasn't there when we drove through her kitchen in one of Sodor's Classic Cars.

In an attempt to improve our skills, we moved on to Terence the Tractor's driving school, where I was amazed to find that toddlers were allowed to sit alone on their mini-tractors, which, with the aid of an accelerator and steering wheel, they jerked and crashed around a track without so much as a seatbelt in sight.

Christian loved it so much that I had to forcibly remove him from the tractor seat when it was time to go home.

We waved goodbye to Thomas, who will be joined later in the spring by his pal, Percy, on the same line, and shook the Fat Controller's hand again.

“So, young Christian,” the Fat Controller said. “Was riding on Thomas the favourite bit of your day?” No, Christian shook his head. What was it? “Car,” came the reply. Which goes to show that taking the train may be good, but just occasionally, driving can be better.

Need to know

Thomas Land opens at Drayton Manor Theme Park (0844 4721960, www.draytonmanor.co.uk) in Staffordshire on Saturday March 15. Entrance to the park costs £19 for children 4-11 and £23 for adults.

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