On the Valley Railroad for the next 2 weekends,
Nov. 7,8,14,15. He arrived Tuesday.
Lee

Nice pictures, Lee. Thanks for sharing.

Andy

IS this the same one used in Strasburg RR Thomas days?

This is the operating one that was originally
BEDT 15. I don't know which one is used at
Strasburg, but since that is where this one
lives, I'd guess so.

Lee

Does any one know how Thomas is ferried about?

Under own steam from place to place

Towed dead

or, God forbid, trucked.

He always draws a crowd. The grandkids and me have ridden him a couple of times whenever he visits the B&O Museum here in Baltimore.

quote:

Originally posted by CSXJOE:
Does any one know how Thomas is ferried about?

Under own steam from place to place

Towed dead

or, God forbid, trucked.

Trucked....

AHGGGGG!!!!!!!!!1

We can buy Thomas locos now that they aren't toys, and run them on prototypical layouts. That loco looks so good.

quote:

Originally posted by CSXJOE:
AHGGGGG!!!!!!!!!1

But consider that the little guy gets ferried around the country.
Several of its venues do not connect with active railroad lines.
Also, in light that it took 2 weeks for a passenger car to travel
about 150 miles from New Hampshire to our railroad, illustrates
that current rail freight service is just too slow and unreliable
for something like that, where it's busy almost every weekend somewhere.

Lee

I'm not around young children so I'm just guessing this... I bet they flip out when they see how big Thomas really is. To a child, big is REALLY big compared to being an adult.

Dennis

quote:

Originally posted by Lee Carlson:

quote:

Originally posted by CSXJOE:
Does any one know how Thomas is ferried about?

Under own steam from place to place

Towed dead

or, God forbid, trucked.

Trucked....

Cheer up, it's prototypical....look http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...WnJA&feature=related

It could be that because Thomas has friction bearings, not roller bearings, trucking is safer. If Thomas were hauled dead-in-train and his bearings overheated, the train crew would have no way of knowing and serious damage could result.
If a pilot were riding in Thomas' cab and noticed the bearings getting hot, the train would have to stop on the main or set Thomas out.

BTW, there is one BIG difference between Strasburg's Thomas and the "real" Thomas. Anyone notice it?

The steam chests.

when this thomas engine leaves strasburg, he is loaded on a lowboy trailer with rails to sit on. chained down and blocked, then a peterbuilt 379 sleeper hooks up to the trailer, and gets on the highway. before I got laid off, sometimes I would run with this truck from lancaster up rte 222 to allentown. this engine gets more miles on the highway then the rails. last time I ran with thomas truck, he was heading for new haven ct.

The look of Thomas was based on an actual British steam engine. The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR) E2 Class 0-6-0T. Of course it was not blue and had no face.

No E2s survive. Here is a link to a sister engine of the line http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F...troudley_Terrier.jpg

They were running Thomas at the Didcot Railway Centre when I was there a number of years ago. http://www.didcotrailwaycentre...k/events/thomas.html