Children that develop detective skills early often excel at deductive reasoning and getting knocked unconscious at suspenseful points in a math problem. Give little sleuths a clue with this deal to a Day Out With Thomas: Mystery on the Rails Tour at the Newport Dinner Train Station. For $16, you get one ticket package for Thursday, August 30, and Friday, August 31 (up to a $31.65 total value). Choose from 18 departure times listed here. Gates open at 8:30 a.m. The ticket package includes:

• One ticket for general admission (up to a $21.65 value, including fees)
• One souvenir lanyard (a $10 value)<p>

Passengers 2 and older require a ticket to board. The melodic clickety-clack of the rails lulling the senses. The slivers of towns passing by. People passing with suspicious glances. Mysteries seem to feed on trains, climbing aboard their cars to occupy passengers as they zip along, lost in their own world. With such a notion in mind, the 15-ton replica of Thomas the Tank Engine rolls into Newport Station to ignite child-size imaginations as part of his Mystery on the Rails Tour 2012, a 45-city mission to turn children into choo-chooing mini sleuths. At the station, Thomas-themed stamps, temporary tattoos, a live musician, a stilt walker, and arts and crafts entertain wee ones as they dust off their conductor caps and mind their boarding passes. Sir Topham Hatt, the railway controller, poses for photos before passengers climb aboard for a 25-minute ride with Thomas, where games and activities tease young minds with an element of mystery. While the event runs from August 30–September 2, this deal is only valid for August 30–31.

Newport Dinner Train

Now in its 16th season riding the rails, the Newport Dinner Train whisks up to 200 passengers through the lush lands and rich history of Aquidneck Island. A 44-ton diesel engine powers the locomotive, which pulls vintage 1940s dining cars, similar to the ones grandparents had to haul barefoot through the snow on their way to school each morning.