CORDELE, Ga. (AP) – Former President Carter joined a group of young children Tuesday in welcoming Thomas the Tank Engine – the smiling, chubby-cheeked storybook locomotive – to south Georgia.

Carter said 10 trains a day passed his rural boyhood home and he often stood along the tracks and waved at the engineers “who were my heroes.”

“I grew up surrounded by the sound of trains,” he said, praising “the enormous benefits railroads brought to this country.”

The Thomas replica pulled a nine-car train from a station at the Georgia Veterans State Park west of Cordele. It crossed nearby Lake Blackshear before returning to the park.

After the 25-minute ride, Carter read a train story to about 50 children, ages 4 to 6, from area schools. Later, few of the children could remember Carter’s name, although they knew he was a former president. One child said the most memorable event for him was using the train’s restroom.

Thomas the Tank Engine was first popularized in books and later on television.

The event marked the fifth anniversary of the SAM Shortline Excursion Train, which carries about 27,000 tourists a year to Carter’s hometown of Plains and his boyhood home in Archery.

It also highlighted a “Day Out With Thomas,” which will feature 25-minute rides on the train, plus storytelling and other children’s activities, over the next two weekends.