A good way to gain income is throwing special events. We all know about how a certain blue engine brings in income but also has huge licensing fees and no real educational value. If anyone here watches televisions especially the stock market and business channels you might have seen another group of blue engines being advertised by General Electric. Has anyone ever approached GE about bring a locomotive to their organization as a special event?

Why would this "other blue engine" bring in visitors?

Thomas the Tank Engine has books, movies and his own TV show.

A blue GE locomotive has been shown in a TV commercial (I guess...)

Just how many people would come and visit to see what's essentially a rolling billboard? What makes it different from any other locomotive they can see at the local Class 1 other than having a GE logo on it?

Your guests need to have a compelling reason to come and see this locomotive. If there is one, I've overlooked it...

For as much as I may not like it (I don't have kids yet and that will most likely change my outlook on it.), the "blue engine" serves valuable purposes. It's entertainment first and foremost and is indeed educational. The target audience is different and with it, its message (form of education). If you don't find an appropriate balance between education and entertainment, your operation stands the chance of appealing to a substantially smaller audience. Such an audience will not sustain your operation. Take Mystic Seaport for instance. It is one of the best, and possibly the premier maritime museum in America. I am an employee, thus possibly a bit biased, but Mystic Seaport's success speaks for itself. Thousands visit annually and many are return guests. The place is hugely educational, yet entertaining at the same time and it's not by accident either.

It depends on what you are attempting to accomplish.

Thomas brings a certain selection of children and their parents. The entire enterprise, just like Disney World or a renaissance "faire," is designed to get people to spend money. If you're lucky, some of them figure out there's a museum/excursion line as well.

Now, getting GE to send in a new Evolution loco and its PR staff? You don't do that just by itself. You make it part of Railfan Weekend, or Modern Traction Week, or whatever. There exists a bunch of fans that grew up only knowing Norfolk Southern or CSX or BNSF, who never saw UP 3985 or N&W 611 or 1218 in action, and the opportunities for the young fan to climb up and see a loco close up at the invite of a friendly local crew have all but vanished. The "gearheads," the engine tinkerers, the future mechanical and electrical engineers, are all still out there--the target audience of Popular Mechanics and the like. And GE gets presumably positive PR out of the exercise, provided it brings/sends brochures, "walking tour" sheets, etc.

Yeah. Could work. Planning for National Train Day, are we?

What makes it different is that you will be able to go inside the cab and get a tour of how the locomotive works (try that on a class 1). The draw is "Come see a state of the art locomotive and learn how it works" people will be able to learn how the same people who make there toaster build locomotives, that railroads are relevant, that locomotives have bathrooms in them...

Illinois and Orange Empire both have first and second generation diesels, so if a 21st Century GE unit came to visit, the mechanically minded could see "how times have changed".

That's all fine, but that is an older audience than Thomas. Kids interested in Thomas are not going to be educated on how a locomotive works, nor do they care. All that would interested them in the cab of a locomotive would be to push as many buttons as they could. As soon as they figure out which one is the horn, push that one as much as possible.
Thomas has it's place and so does your suggestion.

Never mind kids they sounds like something most full grown men would do.