u/Fact_world121

Hi everyone, I’m looking for a specific children’s picture book I read around 2009. I was born in 2001, so it was likely published in the late 90s or mid-2000s.
Here are the details I remember:
• The Protagonist: The main character is a very small locomotive (literally about the size of a small box).
• The Plot: The little train travels through various surreal and imaginative landscapes.
• Key Detail: The most vivid memory I have is the train traveling through Salvador Dalí’s painting, "The Persistence of Memory." I distinctly remember the tiny train passing by the iconic melting clocks.
• Visual Style: The train was depicted as a sentient character, and the book had a very artistic, perhaps slightly surreal atmosphere. It wasn't just a simple "Thomas the Tank Engine" style book; it felt like an homage to art and imagination.
• Era: I read this in South Korea around 2009, but it could be a translated version of a Western book (US, UK, or European).
I’ve been searching for years because that imagery of the train in the Dalí painting stuck with me so strongly. Does anyone recognize this?
Thank you in advance!