Thomas again

Al writes...

Sorry for the delay in posting this but I have been having trouble getting the photos into the blog. I'm not sure I have it licked yet

Some of you may be burned out on Thomas posts but time for just one more.

As most of you know I did work in the special needs tent for the five days of the Day Out with Thomas as the back up master of ceremonies. The best relief of all for today was not having to hear the Thomas jingle after those five days. If you're not familiar with it here's an assault on your audio senses.

Seriously the five days were fun and enlightening. It really pointed out that even though some museum members are not fond of the Thomas event it does have some very positive results, not the least of which are financial. But beyond that it brings a lot of joy to many children and does, I believe, help foster a future interest in railroads and railroad museums.

Our role in the MC tent was to make a series of announcements for those that were riding the Thomas train. My dilemma was if I should sound like George Carlin or Ringo Star.

Typically those announcements started about 15 to 20 min. prior to their scheduled departure time. The typical announcements at this point consisted of several items. First to point out that we did not allow open beverage containers or food on any of the trains it IRM. We pointed out that we did not have the time, nor the manpower, to clean up messes during the day and the simple way to ensure that there were no messes was not to bring anything aboard. Secondly we pointed out that strollers were not allowed on the train and even though they may fold up rather neatly they may stick out in the aisle and represent a tripping hazard.  We stressed that IRM has an excellent safety record and asked the participants to help us maintain that by not having anything sticking out into the aisles. We also noted that there were plenty of places to park strollers but to ensure that valuables, and children for that matter, were not left in the strollers during the Thomas ride and upon returning to take measures to ensure that it was their stroller that they were retrieving given the fact that there are only so many designs manufactured.We also needed to point out that there was a seat for every ticket but that also meant that there was a ticket for every seat. We asked the riders to ensure that diaper bags or other items that they might bring on board were not to be placed on seats which other paying passengers would need for their ride. Most of the crowd wanted to board at the first 2 boarding positions so were always urging the crowd to also utilize the 2 positions further south, cleverly hidden behind the turntable, and pointing out that there was a great view of Thomas as the train went around the west wye from the cars toward the rear of the train.

Thomas' helper

As boarding time approached and the previous train returned to the boarding area we made it a point that the 9255 was our very useful shunting engine that was helping Thomas to see to the rear as the train returned to the boarding area. It was nice to be using a locomotive this year that has a beautiful paint job and doesn't look like something that we were perhaps a little less than proud of. (We did have a debate amongst the folks in the tent as to whether we needed to create a face with a pair of moving eyes to put on the cab of the 9255 next year. I suspect if we did that we may be tarred and feathered by some CB&Q  fans.)

Since the 9255 does not really have the horsepower to do a power breaking operation into the boarding area, spotting the train became a tricky proposition for the IRM volunteer that was handling the throttle. Thus Harold and I entered into a discussion  with the audience as the train approached pointing out that our coaches sometimes behaved like Thomas' "Troublesome Trucks" and didn't always cooperate. If we happened to stop short we started asking the audience to yell push Thomas, farther Thoma,s to get the cars spotted at the correct boarding locations.

As the crowd from the previous trip disembarked we would go into a discussion of other things to do. this included pointing out that there were unlimited rides available on the streetcar loop which took approximately 15 to 20 min. and rides on the Main line which were approximately 35 to 40 min. long and several additional forms of entertainment available for the little ones. We also pointed out that they were in the midst of the largest Railway Museum in North America and that a stroll through the barns would provide a glimpse at a  number of pieces of railway history, signs were posted that included explanations of the history of that piece of rolling stock as well as its historical significance.

Jackson from Make-a-Wish

It was really interesting to see the extent to which families enjoyed their time at IRM. Because we worked in the special needs tent we did have the opportunity to help out a number of families that required extra assistance. Here's a photo of Jackson and his family, Jackson was here as a guest of the Make-A-Wish foundation. I also discovered this video of one family's trip to see Thomas at IRM I think it does a good job of illustrating the joy and happiness that this events can create for our customers.

As mentioned last week one of our other duties was to help passengers with what we called missed connections. It was interesting to see how many people had problems telling time or in a couple of cases reading a calendar. Our primary point of contact for helping out these folks was Steve. Harold got to the point where he had a badge made up noting  that he was not the missed connection manager.

Steve helps with a missed connection

Harold's special badge

The umbrellas go up

The weather was close to perfect for four of the five days of the event. The only downside was the rain that continued to fall most of the day on Sunday. However, in spite of the rain we still had fairly good crowds on site.

One thing we tend to forget is the large logistics effort involved in getting all the food and drinks to the proper sales points.  Here's a shot of the commissary that supplies drinks around the campus

Commissary

I know on some occasions Randy does restaurant reviews here at the Hicks car works. We did go to a different restaurant each night of the five days of the event. On a scale of 1 to 5 one of the restaurants barely got a one, another of the restaurants perhaps a 2, a third got a four to 4 1/2 and a fourth I will give a five and one we didn't stress enough to get a good evaluation. I don't wish to embarrass the low rated restaurants, but I will include a photo of the winner, the Red Ox, in Hampshire. The food was good, the service was quick, the bills were accurate all for a group of 20 IRM volunteers that invaded on Saturday night.

I am looking forward to doing this again next year it's been a fun experience and it certainly helps the image and pocketbook of the museum.