%Thomas The Tank Engine

[nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org]

Now hold on a second. Hasn't "The Little Engine That Could" and Disney  not 
done the same thing for years? Thomas is a great way to get kids interested 
in Trains to start with. Incase you haven't noticed the younger generations 
of railfans and history buffs are getting smaller, I am 22 and know very few 
guys my age. I think John Marbury is on this list and he can vouch that the 
Thomas stuff has really gotten kids into trains. Just come down to the 
Southeastern Railway Museum in Duluth any Thursday Friday or Saturday and 
see for yourself. And ask any one who has hosted a Thomas event what it does 
for your budget.I wish we could host just for that, it really can help a 
shop.

Just my two pennies worth,
Jason Greene
Cumming, GA
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
To: <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
Sent: Thursday, July 07, 2005 9:37 PM
Subject: %Thomas The Tank Engine



> So, it has come down to this, has it?  "This" meaning Thomas The Tank 

> Engine.

> It's not enough that today's government schools are filling kids heads 

> with

> politically correct liberal garbage instead of the truth.  We have to

> demean the

> railroad industry by putting a stupid face on the front of a steam 

> locomotive

> to bring the subject down to the level of a child.   That is utter

> nonsense!  I

> started railfanning during the depression 30's around an all steam 

> original

> Norfolk Southern Railroad, and Atlantic Coast Line Railroad.  I was to 

> begin

> the job of locomotive fireman in 1941 with the Atlantic Coast Line 

> Railroad

> out of Rocky Mount, N.C. on the south end of the Richmond District between

> Rocky Mount and Florence, S.C., with rights also on the Wilmington 

> District.

> When I was a kid, nobody tried to bring the railroad down to my simple

> level.   The very thing that had appeal was the fact that a railroad was a 

> no

> nonsense "grown-up" mechanical marvel that moved freight and passengers

> with the skill of special craftsmen who seemed  born to work at their jobs 

> as

> they appeared to me to be having a good time and actually getting paid for 

> it!

> For one of them to take time to look down and talk to me made the likes of

> Babe Ruth look like a nobody.  I gained respect for the railroads, not 

> because

> they looked down at me, but because I looked up to them as a mechanical

> marvel of sights, sounds, smells, and the ability to tingle my spine by 

> just

> doing their job, rain or shine, hot or cold.  I was drawn to trackside 

> just as

> a moth is attracted to an open light.  True, steam has gone, but to watch 

> a

> local freight come into town and pick up and set out a few cars, has the 

> same

> facination today that it had 50 years ago, and  as a bonus  today you have 

> the

> added convenience of listening to the engineer and brakeman talking to 

> each

> other on a scanner.  No, we don't need funny faces on locomotives.  You

> only need an appreciation for a flanged wheel on a steel rail, and the 

> sounds

> associated with them, even down to a flat wheel or a flange squealing in a

> tight curve.  If those sounds have no appeal to you, then you are in the 

> wrong

> hobby.  Bill Sellers, Norfolk Southern Railway ( Ret.) Gainesville, Ga.

>

> ________________________________________

> NW-Mailing-List at nwhs.org

> To change your subscription go to

> http://list.nwhs.org/mailman/options/nw-mailing-list

>