Monday, August 28, 2006

Saturday, August 26th 2006. Thomas the tank engine visits the Illinois Railway Museum. Union Illinois USA.

I took this photograph at the Illinois Railway Museum located in Union Illinois, while on an outing this past Saturday with My Wife's family.
Thomas the tank engine, the star of PBS Televisions "Shining Time Station" TV Show, has a cult following amongst the little railfans. The popularity of this Brittish Railway Phenominon, has grown to the point of "Replica Thomas" locomotives being built. This thomas is an "Unpowered" version that is pulled or pushed by a locomotive at the other end of the train. It is equipped with Air Brakes -a headlight -Knuckle Couplers -Moving Eyes -and an Air Compressor to toot the twin high pitched whistles. The crew in the Thomas cab communicate through Radio to the other locomotives crew. This unpowered locomotive is basically a big "Push Toy", and is about as large as a small American caboose. This train was at least 10 cars long and propelled by Southern Pacific Railroad EMD SD-9 #1518.

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