RightTurnClyde
Member
Confirmed. Drove by today and no Walter. Thomas has arrived though.
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News Walter E. Disney overhaul
- Thread starter Captain Barbossa
- Start date
Confirmed. Drove by today and no Walter. Thomas has arrived though.
ImperfectPixie
Well-Known Member
Do you happen to know from where? We live semi-near Edaville Railroad in MA, and they recently built an entire section dedicated to Thomas.
TrainsOfDisney
Well-Known Member
The Thomas at Strasburg lives at Strasburg. It’s a “real” coal burning steam Thomas. He used to travel quite a bit but in recent years he only appears at Strasburg and the Henry Ford Greenfield Village.
ImperfectPixie
Well-Known Member
NICE! I'm pretty sure the one at Edaville doesn't run under his own power and is pushed by a different engine that actually pulls the train. My boys are 9 and 14, but they still love Thomas.
trainplane3
Well-Known Member
If I'm correct, Strasburg has the only steam Thomas in the US. The other ones are all dummys and need an engine to push him (which does mess with the illusion).
ImperfectPixie
Well-Known Member
It does...they have the kids stand on the tracks in front of him for pictures, so he hides most of the actual engine and looks more like the real deal.
TrainsOfDisney
Well-Known Member
I think that’s right. I used to work for a tourist railroad that got the steam Thomas from Strasburg and now gets one of the decoys. I think there are 3 standard gauge and 1 36” gauge decoy, plus the steam Thomas.
ImperfectPixie
Well-Known Member
I'm honestly just thankful that Edaville still exists...I adored my field trip there when I was in early grade-school and my boys love it even more than I did. It was sold not too long ago, but before a buyer swooped in to rescue the park and invest in it, it was almost portioned off into chunks of land and sold that way. It would have been a huge loss.
Disneyrailfan1996
Active Member
Thomas also ran at the Bel-Del for a couple years (as early as 2014). Then one year they used the dummy, and I don’t think they’ve had a thomas event since. I know the Illinois Railway museum (former home of N&W 475) used the steam Thomas until the replicas were built. Then I know there’s footage of the steam Thomas at GSMR and TVRM. Not sure if he ever went to the National railroad museum in Green Bay or if they used their tiny diesel Thomas until the dummys were built.
Andrew M
Well-Known Member
I took the shop tour at Strasburg today (along with throttle time on #90, highly highly recommend it!).
Walter left, looks like I missed it by a few days.
Roger is down to the frame. They said there are some cracks in it which will have to be repaired, and the front end and pistons will most likely be completely replaced. The only thing left of the boiler is the smoke box. The tender is up on jacks with the trucks disassembled and the tender wheels in the process of being run through the wheel lathe. Unfortunately they don’t allow pictures on the tour, I was tempted to sneak one of the tender, but there wasn’t a chance to.
And as far as Thomas, the ‘real’ one was in the locomotive shop and one of the dummy ones was in the back shop. Glad I didn’t bring my kids, that might have ruined the illusion haha.
Walter left, looks like I missed it by a few days.
Roger is down to the frame. They said there are some cracks in it which will have to be repaired, and the front end and pistons will most likely be completely replaced. The only thing left of the boiler is the smoke box. The tender is up on jacks with the trucks disassembled and the tender wheels in the process of being run through the wheel lathe. Unfortunately they don’t allow pictures on the tour, I was tempted to sneak one of the tender, but there wasn’t a chance to.
And as far as Thomas, the ‘real’ one was in the locomotive shop and one of the dummy ones was in the back shop. Glad I didn’t bring my kids, that might have ruined the illusion haha.
twilight mitsuk
Well-Known Member
Day out with thomas season has been cancelled, they brought back the entire thomas fleet to strasburg
EricsBiscuit
Well-Known Member
Since it’s steam related I’ll put it here: the Liberty Belle is coming back from a week long repair tomorrow.
Awesome! Hope you had a great experience.
Thank you for the confirmation! My second pair of eyes up there informed me the other day about a lowboy outside the shop, and I assumed that it was for Walter, but I didn’t want to make an announcement until I had confirmation.
They actually mentioned something pertaining to a WDWRR locomotive?!
Is he in the same spot in the open, or has he been moved to the “secret” stall? Also, do you care if I share this update/info in the Roger thread? (You will be credited)I really do wonder what the key motivation was for the rule change.
MonorailCoral
Active Member
They suspect ol' Slugworth has been nosing around again for the alloy recipe.
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Andrew M
Well-Known Member
It was amazing! The 30 minutes absolutely flew by, but it was worth every penny!Awesome! Hope you had a great experience.
Thank you for the confirmation! My second pair of eyes up there informed me the other day about a lowboy outside the shop, and I assumed that it was for Walter, but I didn’t want to make an announcement until I had confirmation.
They actually mentioned something pertaining to a WDWRR locomotive?!
I really do wonder what the key motivation was for the rule change.
And yes of course, share away! He was talking about the locomotive but couldn’t say who it’s for. Of course it being the only narrow gauge 4-6-0 frame in the shop with ‘WDW’ markings make it somewhat obvious to the trained eye. The frame is in that same small ‘secret’ stall that Walter was in, and the tender is behind it, a lot more visible from the main shop, next to the #37 tank engine they’re working on whose wheel configuration escapes me at the moment.
They said the rule change was based on ‘clients not liking pictures of their locomotives taken outside of their property’ so I’d blame Disney lawyers.
Attachments
If it wasn’t for the 9hr drive, and school, I would’ve snagged an engineer’s ticket for 90 next Sunday. There were still a handful left a couple weeks ago. Too bad the VRF cam at Paradise/Leaman’s is turned away during the in-cab experiences. Would’ve been able to see you if it wasn't.
Thanks! And yes, I know they can’t mention Disney, I was just surprised that they somewhat went into detail about Roger’s issues. Ok, I assumed that they were going to move him in there if they hadn’t already.
Lol, yeah I figured so. I was just curious if it was solely Disney or if any other clients/factors were behind it.
As far as I know, yes. Electric igniter, computerized safety system, batteries replacing the dynamos, etc. Same treatment as Lilly.
Thanks, what about the cross head pump? I know Lilly’s was disconnected because her dynamo was replaced by batteries, so there was no place for the first heat exchange as that use to be at the dynamo. But Roy’s dynamo was replaced by batteries in house, and they were able to connect his cross head pump to another pipe to keep it functional.
That I am not 100% sure about. My guess would be that it is no longer functional, but I could be wrong.