While working on 494 in White River Junction, VT today, 7/19, a couple with a small boy came to see what we were doing. It turns out they had come up from Connecticut to see Thomas who was to be making an appearance at the Green Mountain Railway in Bellows Falls this weekend. Thomas didn't show on Friday and hadn't shown up thus far on Saturday. The family seemed good natured enough about it and were going to try again later in the day, but reported some testiness in the general population over Thomas' thoughtlessness.
It occurs to me to ask, given the high cost of putting on a Thomas event, what the fallout is when Thomas has the hiccups? Who pays whom?

wrj494@aol.com

I'm not sure what you are trying to say. Was this weekend supposed to be an event weekend and Thomas didn't arrive? If so, there should be thousands of upset people, not just one couple w/ child.

Or are you saying that Thomas was expected early and someone leaked that information to the couple & they were trying to get an early glimpse? If this is the case, it is probably a violation of your contract to let people see Thomas outside of the event dates.

I don't have an answer to your question but I'm sure the fat controller isn't too pleased.

Joshua

What Mr. Woodbury is so nicely trying to say is that someone screwed up. Yes, they have an event scheduled and yes it is hard to have a DOWT without Thomas!

This is probably my worst Thomas nightmare. We at the Whitewater Valley had Thomas show up 17 and 20 hours before "his" first train because of poor performance by his handlers and at some point we felt that we needed to start calling ticketholders to cancel the first day. He showed up just in time, but... To have it happen a second time this year was not funny at all.

The contract is clear that Thomas is to be on site 48 hours prior to his first day of operation. This gives you time to clean him up, etc. The museums and companies that have the option for the replicas need to wake up and get serious about this. They are making very good money on their initial investment and need to realize how serious this is to the "renting" organization. The contract is pretty one-sided on this, no specific remedies are in it. So other than it being a breach of contract, it would have to settled in a less than easy way.

It is no exaggeration to say that a tremendous investment is (or should be) invested into every Thomas weekend. Not only money, but volunteer time and coordination (or paid employees on the tourist railroads). I hope they have a very good reason, a truck breakdown is not good enough. There are many reason why Thomas should be moved to the event prior to the two day deadline!

I feel very sorry for all the grief the people at the Green Mountain are having to deal with. Can you imagine all the hassle this is creating for their staff? I wish you all of them the best of luck in dealing with this!

David Farlow
Whitewater Valley RR

http://www.rails-vt.com/thomas/index.html
hudson.industries@att.net

Is there going to be a discussion meeting at either TRAIN or ARM this year to discuss Thomas? I think it would be a valuable service to the tourist railroad/railroad museum industry for us to be able to compare notes. I know that such a discussion has been a part of previous ARM/TRAIN meetings. I think it would be valuable.

david.wilkins@inisightbb.com

> Is there going to be a discussion meeting at
> either TRAIN or ARM this year to discuss
> Thomas? I think it would be a valuable
> service to the tourist railroad/railroad
> museum industry for us to be able to compare
> notes. I know that such a discussion has
> been a part of previous ARM/TRAIN meetings.
> I think it would be valuable.

You are right on with the need for the discussion between railroad museums on Thomas. I don't know if my organization will have representation directly at the meetings, but we will definitely be interested in sharing our thoughts and experiences with Thomas. Our DOWT event is to begin mid-August.

http://www.rmne.org
cechlin@earthlink.net