My daughter and I stopped by to visit Thomas Sunday. Thomas had seven cars and a caboose behind his drawbar. 90 had 10, yes, TEN cars to handle (I counted twice). It was cool to see such a long train of wooden coaches. 475 was fired up sitting near the enginehouse. I am guessing she was protection power. Number 1 was doing caboose hops and the L O & S car car was making short trips through the yard.

It was a very busy rail yard and depot, but it was all being handled well by the Strasburg staff.

Both steamers were working hard and it sounded great! Of course "WE" would all prefer to see Thomas painted black with BEDT lettering, but the general public won't pay $2.89 a gallon and drive hours for that show! In addition it will hopefully produce more future railfans with the blue paint!

-Alan

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Well, technically, you could say there WAS a fire under the bridge...

Kelly,

RATS! Had I known I would have driven to Leanman Place! I was going to ride, but I ride fairly often and it is fun to just watch now and then.

Pretty cool #31 being used for her intended purpose, switching.

Did you have an internal lottery to decide who got to hang in Leaman Place? Actually, for the crew of #31 I guess it was Paradise!

Did #31 need a drink or did she hold enough water for the day?

-Alan

I hope Thomas' eyes were moving.

Thomas seemed to be concentrating. Didn't see his eyes move. He may have blinked when 90 (working hard) blew cinders at him, but I didn't see it!

Kelly, that astute observation reminds me of a (paraphrased) comment that Linn made once about employees taking time off during a Thomas event: "The only valid excuse around here then is a death in the family - your own!".

IMHO the Thomas "thing" is the best thing thats ever happened to tourist railroading by a wide wide margin. It lets lots of otherwise struggling shortlines have a good payday AND produces hoardes of young steam lovers (a few of which will stay addicted) -and do we need new blood!!!
It's all about the power of TV-nothing more-nothing less. The TV show creates a huge following of 2-8 year olds who idolize Thomas&freinds and given any reasonable chance to see "him" up close and personal will badger the folks 'till they can't stand it anymore. When you see the Moms (and lots of Grandmas&Grandpa's) lined up in the souvenir tent with fists full of $50's to get their precious one a "genuine" piece of Thomas junk-you realize how powerful TV is.
To give you a graphic example of how focused this idolization is, the last time we had Thomas on the NH&I we had #40 there with a couple of open window cars offerring short 30 minute out and back rides for a nominal fare (I believe it was $6/adults,$4/kids) vs. the practically sold out Thomas trains with a fake steamer at nearly 4 times the fare. The Thomas trains ran SRO and #40's were nearly empty!!!
That was the final Thomas event on the NH&I as at the end of the day they came to the conclusion that after you paid all the royalties,expenses etc. there wasn't nearly enough left to make all the crazyness worth it. My gut is that they're 100% right!!!
Ross Rowland

his eyes do indeed move.....it's in the firemans job description...........crank that handle back and forth and watch the water glass

I posted some photos of Thomas last weekend. The eyes do move, as I used to my advantage, especially with the first two photos: http://www.railserve.com/strasburg/thomas07/

No lottery. Mr. Rice gave the call and I answered.

It was Paradise indeed! Mr. Boyer and I had the honors. I always wanted a trick where I sat in a siding and worked now and then, wolfing down sandwiches and swilling coffee.

No 31 finished her day with two-thirds of a tank.

folks,

i have seen the "real" Thomas out here at the CA State Railroad Museum events.

The former Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal switch engine made a huge crowd of kids happy for a week or more.

It is too bad that the Diesel version is what so many more see. ButI guess renting the real steam engine costs a lot more too.

I can't say a word against the program when some of my favorite railroad museums get to put huge amounts of dollars in their bank accounts.

Now if somebody would write a book about trolley cars with the same level of kid awareness that the Thomas books have. All of our Trollley and Street car museums would get a shot of dollars too!

Ted Miles

Such a character exists. In the early 1950s Hardie Gramatky, author/illustrator of Little Toot, wrote a children's story about Sparky the trolley car. Here is a link to a copy of the book for sale on Ebay. I have no interest in the sale.

http://cgi.ebay.com/SPARKY-GRAMATKY-TROLLEY-CAR-STORY-HC-VINTAGE-1952-1st_W0QQitemZ290128052275QQcmdZViewItem

Wesley

Now all you've got to do is get someone to write a multiple episode tv show centered around Sparky (and the Sparkettes), get someone(s) to syndicate it and get someone(s) to underwrite its air-time and Thomas will have a competitor!!!
Again, the KEY ingredient that makes Thomas "work" is the power of TV. He just happens (thank goodness) to be a locomotive!!!
Ross Rowland

Before all of that, there was always Fontaine Fox and "The Toonerville Trolley that Met All the Trains". If you want to go the single car route, there's always the Edwards Railcar "doodlebugs". No overhead needed.