About twenty years ago, I happened to go to a Board meeting with a friend of mine, and a proposal was submitted that IRM should try hosting a Day Out With Thomas© event. And there were the details on how much of the profits we would have to pay to the promoters, and all the services we would have to provide, and all the hoops we'd have to jump through, and so on, and my friend and I are looking at each other and whispering: This is stupid! We can't possibly make a profit under these conditions! What a dumb idea! For once, I decided to keep my big mouth shut, but my friend got up and objected loudly to this idiotic proposal.
Fortunately, of course, hotter heads prevailed, and Thomas© has been very good to us ever since. Among other things, he provided the money to rebuild two traction motors and return the 309 to revenue service. Thomas© is an annual reminder of just how wrong I can be, so I owe him a lot of gratitude.
Which I usually try to repay by helping out with all the many tasks that are essential to making this yearly festival a success. Today I was the conductor on the 4391, with Paul Sprenger as the motorman most of the time, and everything went very well. We had a great crowd, the trains seemed to run like clockwork, and everybody appeared to be having a great time.
I can't begin to name all the people who devote a lot more time and effort to this event than I do. Thanks!!! I saw Al Reinschmidt from a distance but didn't get a chance to talk to him. He was at the central tent, as a back-up announcer to Harold Krewer, and had to listen to the recorded music over and over and over again. I'd go nuts. Thanks to Harold and Al, among all the rest, for putting up with it. What a blast!
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