You start with a train puzzle which you need to solve. Based on the flavourtext, you know that you need to create a single route that leads the train (marked in yellow) to the station (marked in red) using the track pieces provided. The instructions to this puzzle are not provided, and you will need to figure out that the numbers at the top and at the right refer to the number of track pieces in each column and row respectively. Having done so, you should then be able to logically work through the nine different train puzzles. The solved puzzles are listed below.

Each puzzle you solve gives you a toy train. You may also observe that each of the solved tracks trace out a letter and a number (e.g. the first track traces P2). Using the train theme of this puzzle, and the hint from “childhood” in the flavourtext, you will need to make the intuitive leap that each of the toy trains you receive as reward correspond to a train in “Thomas the Tank Engine”. You can work out each train’s name by observing: (i) the number of wheels, (ii) wheel arrangement, (iii) primary body colour, (iv) number on the body of the train. You can receive further confirmation from the train tracks, as the letter traced out by the track corresponds to the starting letter of the train’s name.

The last piece of unused information in this puzzle is the number traced by the train track. Use this number to extract the corresponding letter from the train’s name. This will then spell out the thematic answer to this puzzle, ENGINATOR

Puzzle	Track alphabet & number	Train Received	“Thomas the Tank Engine” Train Name	Extracted Letter
1	P2		PERCY	E
2	S4		STANLEY	N
3	G1		GORDON	G
4	E3		EMILY	I
5	H3		HENRY	N
6	J2		JAMES	A
7	T1		TOBY	T
8	T3		THOMAS	O
9	H3		HIRO	R