the Henry Ford just posted -

"Due to unforeseen mechanical complications with the Steam Powered Thomas the Tank Engine, The Henry Ford is no longer able to host Day Out With Thomas.

While Day Out With Thomas does also operate under a different powered model at events across the country, that model is incompatible with the historic train operations in Greenfield Village.

The Henry Ford has been a proud host of this program for 25 years and we thank Mattel, Inc. for their incredible partnership. We also thank the thousands of members and guests who have experienced this event and joined us for a memorable Day Out With Thomas."

- I had always wanted to get up there for that event to get photos - the henry ford has that cool round house and lots of neat photo ops.

It appears there is more to this story.

"Responding to follow-up questions, The Henry Ford made clear that this is a permanent cancelation, as opposed to a temporary hiatus.

"The decision to end Day Out With Thomas at Greenfield Village was not an easy decision, and every alternative was explored. Unfortunately, none of the alternatives were viable and there are no plans to bring Day Out With Thomas to Greenfield Village in the future," the Henry Ford said."

https://www.audacy.com/wwjnewsradio/new ... henry-ford

I have no info on what's wrong with the Steam Thomas, but whatever it is, Strasburg has the capability to fix it. I'm also unsure why the other options (Presumbly what we affectionately called "A 55 gallon drum on a skateboard" due to the sounds it makes) weren't compatible with Dearborn.

HF/GFV has an ex-Naval Ammunitions 50 Tonner they could use to push around a non-operable unit, so this is likely a convenient way to end the DOWT event.

Further explanation from The Henry Ford in their Facebook comments:



Link: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1CdfC1cJbK/

So they're uncomfortable doing a shove move, which is safely conducted at every other railroad that gets the dummy Thomas units and hundreds of times every day in other applications?

...okay, I guess that's a choice.

I was personally more curious about the locomotive itself, what type of mechanical issues does Thomas have?

But regarding the Henry Ford I would say...

the shove move issue does make some sense - there are some interesting curves and grades on that railroad that would make it a bit tricky.

I'll also mention that the Henry Ford hosts many special event weekends year round in the village and Thomas is the only licensed event. If the railroad workers weren't keen on pushing around a decoy there probably wasn't much of an incentive to keep doing a licensed event like this.

I recall reading somewhere that what the Thomas peeps charge for events has gone up considerably, can't help but wonder if that had any influence in concert with their apparently thwarted desire to have a proper steam loco experience.

Yes, that's what I was thinking as well - the licensing fees have gone up very high, and the railroad staff probably doesn't think pushing around a decoy is fun (where getting to operate a visiting 0-6-0 each year is).

Take a look at Google maps and you'll see the difference. The Henry Ford Railroad has more in common with an amusement park line than a typical tourist railroad. it's a large circle with some fairly sharp curves. A bit of noodling on Google seems to show one that's roughly 14 degrees. (Give or take, the potential margin of error here is huge). Being from a logging railroad, that's not a big deal to me, we have one that's 18 degrees, but they know their railroad and their equipment better than anyone else and if they aren't comfortable with it, that's all that matters.

As for the pricing, they don't mention that as a factor, but it comes up often in these sort of discussions. I've also heard from many operations that they feel the massive crowds that come during Thomas end up being people that don't come back any other time of the year. They feel that "distributing the load" over a longer time is more efficient than huge crowds for a couple of weeks. Obviously each operation is different and nothing I've seen from this railroad mentions any of that at all. They may well have loved the Thomas operation and did well with it. "Thomas the Bank Engine" has done well for many a struggling railroad.

Yes, indeed. I was the "engineer" (rear brakeman) on Thomas for a local tourist railroad that I had worked with because none of their regular crew wanted to do the job. The dummy loco had two controls, a dump valve and a whistle valve that blew the annoying shrill whistle.

I knew the line and had been on crew their before. When they said it was a paid gig, I said "I'm in!" and the only downside was the earworm music was a lot like riding "It's a small world". Radio Thomas' "helper" that we're clear to move, chuck a smoke bomb in the tube for special effects, and we shoved for -exactly- 10 minutes (a 20 minute ride is all that mattered), stopped wherever that got us to, reversed directions and off we go. I didn't even have to swap the air as all Thomas has is a dump valve, head end always had control. Pretty easy gig.

I was always in the ticket booth waving to the decoy - never did the shove move job. But thankfully I did get to take a cab ride in the steam thomas when we first had him visit before the decoys got made.

You didn't miss much. The interior of the Dummy Thomas is very plain. The hollow "boiler" reminds me of a ship's hull, and it resonates every bang and rumble as you travel down the line. It's fun waving to the kids, though not exactly glamorous. While doing it, nobody could tell me the name of Thomas' driver. It's not mentioned in the videos, only Sir Tophamm Hat.

Further research indicated that on rare occasions, a few names were mentioned. Bob, Mr. Perkins, Joe Bloggs and Mr. Arkwright. So apparently, being named Bob, I was historically accurate. :)

Haven't heard any updates on the steam thomas himself but....

the Henry Ford has announced a "Railroad Days" events on one of the weekends they would usually host Thomas. Geared towards kids vs. railfans - lots of the same festival style activities plus extra demonstrations.

sounds like they will be running 2 trains - and train rides are free for the weekend (they are usually an upcharge).

While I have no idea what kinds of mechanical issues might exist with the Strasburg steam-powered Thomas locomotive (BEDT #15), I can say that the visibility issues cited by the folks at the Greenfield Village Railroad are indeed a thing. I've been there several times and had some conversations with the crew there, and there are indeed some locations on the line where the crews have difficulty seeing upcoming crossings until the train is very close. Because average tourists are not particularly careful around railroad crossings in general, the crews are extremely cautious at some of the affected locations. I can certainly imagine how a shove operation with a diesel could be significantly more risky than the railroad's normal ops, and it makes perfect sense that they might draw the line because that risk is not justifiable.

/Kevin Madore