Article by Dan Peters, Photos provided by Northwest Railway Museum

There is still time for you to get your name on the list of volunteers for the “Day Out With Thomas” event at the Northwest Railway Museum in Snoqualmie.

If you are young enough, or young-at-heart, or if you have young kids, you are certainly familiar with the “Thomas The Tank Engine” and “Thomas And Friends” series of TV shows which originated on BBC, and which show in the United States on PBS public television. At any of our public model railroad shows, you’ll see the kids streaming toward any layout that has a model of Thomas running. They all recognize Thomas, and enjoy watching him in action.

Well, there is a full-size ( prototype ) of Thomas, which tours the United States. It spends two ( 3-day ) weekends every summer riding the rails, hauling passenger trains on former Northern Pacific rails in Snoqualmie. This year, the dates are July 9-11, and 16-18, 2021. I’m told this has been happening for close to 20 years. And now, you can be part of the action.

  • Day Out With Thomas, photo courtesy of Northwest Railway Museum
  • Day Out With Thomas, photo courtesy of Northwest Railway Museum

The Museum not only has Thomas running. It also has a full prototype museum of full-size trains, as well as a display of model layouts in both O and N scales. During the high-turnout weekends of the Thomas trains, they need extra volunteers to run those model layouts, and help in the prototype museum.

Click on the Volunteers Needed For Day Out With Thomas posting for details. Emily Boersma tells me there are still time slots open for volunteers. And although there is not “official” food service, the Museum is negotiating for Food Trucks there, and coupons will be available for volunteers. With the right amount of negotiating, you might even be able to get tickets for your kids to ride the Thomas train. Annie and Clarabel will thank you.

Day Out With Thomas Press Release

Dan