IRM's Thomas train

rock island lines · **Joined:** Mon Feb 17, 2014 4:20 pm **Posts:** 487

I enjoyed this video of the recent Thomas train at IRM. That's a whole lotta kids!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nFZ8qxuchc

Jim Vaitkunas · **Posted:** Sat Aug 23, 2014 10:34 am

The Thomas event takes a lot of planning, time and personnel to make it work. But, when you do it right the sweet sound of "ka-ching, ka-ching" at the cash registers makes the hard work and planning worth it. I would have to say that the land acquisitions and buildings IRM has built to preserve their rolling stock was funded mostly from the DOWT income.

Thanks!

rock island lines · **Joined:** Mon Feb 17, 2014 4:20 pm **Posts:** 487

I froze the movie frame to examine the first coach. Looks like some lettering to celebrate the centennial of the Cedar Rapids & Iowa City ten years ago.

The CR&IC logo is preserved at Western Rail Museum of all places, on interurban #111.

Attachment:

crandic_henrietta1.jpg

Attachment:

wrm_crandicherald.jpg

http://www.cable-car-guy.com/ptrain/htm ... n_wrm.html

solar1953 · **Joined:** Mon Oct 03, 2011 9:30 pm **Posts:** 56

Kudos to all those responsible for making this happen!! Without these kids, there would be NO future for interest in railroads, in general!!

filmteknik · **Posted:** Sat Aug 23, 2014 8:17 pm

Do the Thomas trains always run on the streetcar loop? I don't ever remember seeing full size steam road equipment on it.

onequiknova · **Posted:** Sat Aug 23, 2014 10:33 pm

filmteknik wrote:

Do the Thomas trains always run on the streetcar loop? I don't ever remember seeing full size steam road equipment on it.

We took our 19 month old son today. He loves Thomas. The place was packed, even with the forecast of storms. What a cash cow.

The train only uses a portion of the street car loop. The train loads and unloads on the yard track next to barn 9. It then heads out to the main, heads west across Olson Rd, then returns to pick up the next mob of kids.

Bulby · **Joined:** Tue Nov 12, 2013 6:45 pm **Posts:** 258

The Thomas trains run from the so called "steam leads" out the western portion of the streetcar loop, over the west leg of the wye, and out to Jefferson Street and return. Almost all of the collection can take the curves on that part of the streetcar loop.

If anyone wants any idea of how much effort was expended for this (and then only a small part of the whole event), I encourage people to take a look on the IRM blog at Roger Kramer's posts about work on CRI&P 2602 and 2612 (seen in the video as CRANDIC "Henrietta"). They did a heck of a lot of work in the weeks and days leading up to the event to get 2602 and 2612 operable.

wilkinsd · **Posted:** Sat Aug 23, 2014 11:01 pm

The western end of the streetcar loop, the section that parallels Barn 9 can take steam road equipment. It is also the tail track of the wye.