Not so good news, Thomas Days cancelled.

http://www.irm.org/cam/

Joshua

[scouts NWS and USWX.com weather maps and loops]..........

Holy $#!*............

And IRM is likely not the only one affected, either...........

it was a hectic day. The decision to close today came about 7am after the water began to rise to the rails in the Thomas loading area. The decision was also caused by the knowledge that a Thomas event brings lots and lots of kids to the museum, and their safety was a major factor. As expected, water kept rising for several hours, from a creek overflowing its banks, making for a long day of equipment and supply salvage, since all of the Thomas store tents were under water to some degree. We had encountered a significant flood only a couple of weeks ago, and therefore the ground was already saturated, and unable to absorb any more. The museum will offer an extra day of Thomas next friday if the water recedes in time. It appears, at least for now, that the railroad will not receive any significant damege, just aggravation for the volunteers that had just restored everything from last week, and for the guests that were turned away.

I see Union is getting more rain tonight. How are preparations for the weekend going?

It has rained something in every 24 hr period for over a week. Plans change almost daily.

Currently, we hope to run Thomas a make up day, Friday, and as scheduled Sat and Sun. The 'traditional' boarding area is still way to soft and muddy to use, so we plan on the Thomas train to leave from paved platform on Station Track 1, with additional cars added to accomodate those with Aug 19 tickets.

Diesel passenger service will likely be canceled to accomodate the revised routing. Interurbans and other main line trains will also be somewhat revised in routing.

Some of our parking lot still had standing water yesterday, so many visitors will be asked to use off site alternate parking locations and use a shuttle bus.

Stay tuned. Nothing is final yet.

Bob Kutella

Bob -

Great report, as usual!

Les