The end of Thomas

Frank writes...

Sunday was the end of Thomas - but don't worry, the event will be back next year! The last day of the two-weekend event saw gorgeous weather and a very large crowd, including many walk-up customers surely driven by the sun and pleasant temperatures.

I was conductor on the 4391, among the cushiest jobs at the museum I must admit. Paul Sprenger was the motorman. On the conductor's console pictured above, I really only ever used the left two toggle switches that run the rear doors; the other switches involve the center doors, which are a little finicky on the 4391 so don't see much use, and the heat dump, which was definitely not called for.

Bob Opal was on the 415, Frank Sirinek on the 3142, and motorman Bill Thiel and conductor Randy Allegrezza on the 144 completed the regular streetcar line operators. Here Bill and Randy bring the 144 up to Depot Street over the west Yard 4 switch.

State Street during rush hour or Depot Street during Thomas? Only those who were there know for sure...

This is really neither here nor there, but after a relatively uneventful (if still frenetic) day of operations, I happened upon this rather nice Insull-heavy scene in Barn 6. To be honest I have no idea why this open space at the back of the barn was there, since we weren't running mainline electrics during the Thomas event - but hey, I'm not complaining. What a neat lineup!

At the end of the day, Thomas and Percy were sighted at the throat to Yard 5. We've found that these useful engines are motivated to be even more useful if we keep strategically placed piles of scrap around.

And I helped out a bit with loading Percy; here Bob S, Richard S, one of Nick's helpers and the E.D. himself work on building a ramp to the truck trailer.

And up he goes!

In other news, the Michigan crew - the three pictured in Saturday's post plus Jeff - were working on the 28 while Richard, Joel and Greg were making some improvements to one of our storage containers. And there are plans to do some final operating inspections on the Charles City steeplecab with an eye towards a future test run. Don't touch that dial!