• Imagination Station—the Heritage Park’s carshop was turned into a children’s play place with Thomas train tables, and various arts and crafts. Imagination Station also featured a centre stage where live music and other entertainment was presented. Imagination Station, Entertainment & Sir Topham Hatt were supervised by Sherry Elchuk and her crew.
• Sir Topham Hatt—direct from the Island of Sodor came Sir Topham Hatt, who visited with children in a special meeting area at scheduled times
• Letters to Thomas—the Canada Post Heritage Club participated by staffing the Railway Post Office car, and helping guests mail letters to Thomas. Each letter or card was received a reply—coordinators were Fred Dannells and Rene Brisette.
• Thomas & Friends Temporary Tattoos—these were applied by volunteers at a couple of locations throughout the event. They were a must for all the young Thomas fans in attendance
• Thomas Merchandise Tent—Here there was a vast array of merchandise, much of it not normally available in our area, for sale. Lise Watson led the merchandising team for the event, and they kept the large tent filled and bustling with purchasers.
• Thomas & Friends Storytelling and Videos—located in the Rotary Club of Vancouver / Royal Bank meeting room in the Mac Norris Station, there was alternating live storytelling and video presentations from Thomas & Friends books and cartoons all day each day of the event, under the supervision of Donna Fourchalk.
• Train Ride with Thomas—The highlight of the event for many, guests boarded the train from the platform of the Mac Norris Station for a 25 minute ride around the rail yard with Thomas. Bernie Tully and Darcy Nelson were in charge of on board service, and Dave Thethi was in charge of actual train operations. Train consist was Thomas the Tank Engine #1, RDC-1 BC 21, coaches Porteau / Chasm / Paul D. Roy, and PGE RSC-3 #561 (although BCR CRS-20 #612 assisted some days the first weekend). The train headed out to the end of the tail track along the dyke, then swished along the RIP track past Sweet Apple station, out the WCRA/BCR spur, and back to the station.
• Photos with Thomas—While Thomas was at the station resting up between runs, photos with Thomas were offered—with a choice of take your own photo or use the provided professional photographer
• Roving Entertainment strolled the site in the form of clowns, magicians, and musical acts

• Food vendors—several vendors set up n the Heritage Park’s parking area (there were no vehicles on site during the event) and offered guests food from lemonade to pizza to ice cream and, of course, hamburgers and hot dogs. Food Services Coordinator was Rod Grant. The Beanery was also open throughout the event operated by Olga Junkin.
• First Aid tent—staffed by intrepid volunteer Dr. Ernie Ledgerwood—thanks Ernie!
• BC Museum of Mining exhibit—coordinated by Kirsten Clausen and staffed by Laurie Solis.
• West Coast Mini Rail trains—the mini rail was a real hit with the crowds, and coordinator Paul Roy managed to bring together an incredible crew to operate WCRA’s own and several guest trains. The BC Society of Model Engineers must be recognized here for their support and participation—see full report later in this article. The Mini Rail was extra charge to avoid dissatisfaction because it would not be possible to handle all 17,000 guests on the little trains.
• West Coast Railway Heritage Park gift shop—open throughout the event in the Mac Norris Station, selling our regular merchandise lines (but no Thomas merchandise)

• Financially—ticket sales grossed $332,000, merchandise sales $141,000, food vendor sales $50,000, mini rail sales $23,000. Do remember, however, that the expenses to prepare the site, the train, and operate the event are huge—we do not yet know our net position, although we do expect it to be profitable to us as a fundraiser. There were definitely some significant first time costs that would not be incurred if the event were to run again.
• Food sales—the most popular product was the lemonade, they sold $14,000 worth, followed by hamburgers, pizza and then kettle corn. Our volunteers were hungry too—they consumed $5,000 in food plus the donations from Tim Hortons! WCRA contracted with the food vendors who handled all aspects of the food, we took a small % of gross sales as their contribution for being there.
• Letters to Thomas—4,300 letters & cards were mailed to Thomas in the Railway Post Office car, and all are responded to. Thanks to Fred Dannells who organized this attraction with the Canada Post Heritage Club.
• West Coast Mini Rail—handled almost 12,000 passengers with five or six trains operating each day of the event, grossed $23,000
• A huge volunteer organizing task that saw several people involved, led by Donna Fourchalk and Matt Christianson, who scheduled almost 200 volunteers to more than 50+ work shifts each day, most of them 12 hours long.
• A massive event management task, ably handled by Event Managers Bill & Lise Watson

• Getting the train ready to operate—this proved to be a huge task, and we were compromised in its achievement due the challenges happening at the same time with our North Coast Explorer train equipment problems. Dave Thethi, Tomo’o Oshikawa and their crew of volunteers did an awesome job and fielded a very presentable train. In addition to getting the equipment together, they had to provide generator power for Thomas and audio through the entire train for the safety announcements and story / music that accompanied the train ride.
• Motive power—PGE RSC-3 #561 had some problems the first weekend, and BC Rail came to the rescue with CRS-20 #612 (thanks BC Rail). #561 was repaired and performed flawlessly all trips of the second weekend.
• The train ride itself—after some complaints on the first weekend about the length of the ride being shorter than advertised, the ride was adjusted for the second weekend. A third leg was added (out the WCRA / BCR spur) and a handout explaining the ride as a shunting ride around the yard with Thomas made things considerably better from a guest comment point of view. The ride then took 25—27 minutes. We would do some things differently here should we do the event again.
• A windstorm the night before opening—Thursday, June 10 saw a windstorm sweep through the Squamish Valley causing all kinds of havoc. It took off sides of the merchandise tent, blew over fences and tore all the flagpoles out of the ground. Friday AM June 11 saw it all put back together in a massive recovery effort!
• The June 12 derailment—something we didn’t need. But were very lucky with on all counts. A rail rolled over north of Sweet Apple on the access spur on the 1545 run, Saturday, June 12, putting BCR #612 and one coach wheelset on the ground. There were no injuries as the train was at very low speed. Passengers were disembarked and escorted on foot back to the front of the grounds, and customer service got to work doing a great job in handling the situation. Refunds were offered at the site or by mail after to these and the two subsequent departures, which had to be cancelled. Once again, BC Rail came to the rescue and, working with our crew, had the train re-railed and track repaired that evening. Although inspected, this was a weak area of our track, having been installed in 1993-1994 with a combination of both new and used ties. The used ties were the problem. A tie change out for this track with new ties will be undertaken shortly. We were very lucky on several counts—no injuries, no equipment damage, and only three runs impacted. Our procedures and our staff & volunteers were tested—and passed with flying colours.
• The weather—the first weekend was somewhat gloomy, and there was some rain as well, but it was nothing compared to the second weekend when hot temperature records were set! The train coaches got very warm by the afternoon runs; thankfully the carshop stayed nice and cool as an area of respite, and the large covered food table area was more than welcome. We had to put Sir Topham Hatt’s hat (top) into the freezer between appearances to help him keep his cool.

And, that’s just the event itself. As you have read in the past several issues of WCRA News, the preparation for the event was massive. Much had to be done to the site to prepare it—removal of fences, preparing the area to load and unload Thomas, gravel and grading the carshop floor, removing 25 cars to BC Rail for temporary storage, clearing the shop space for Imagination Station, new fencing, brushing etc. etc. And all through this, the Heritage Park was kept open for daily operations. Many, many people worked long hours far in excess of normal expectations to get us ready.

And, now to pay some tributes to volunteers, staff, and sponsors. It is a huge list, as you might imagine, and with the list comes the possibility that we may have missed someone out. We hope not, but if we did—please help us by letting us know. We expect when the final tallying is done, that there will be in the order of 6,000 to 8,000 volunteer hours recorded—and that’s just for the event itself. We will also need to tally hours that went on in preparation.

Almost 200 volunteered for at least one shift, and here they are: Lori Aasebo, Eric Anderson,Karl Anderson, Keith Anderson, Vera Anderson, Doug Bach, Christina Baldini, Diana Baskatawang, Michael Batten, Howard Biehl, Nina Biln, Gerry Black, Jo Black, George Blakely, Daniel Boutin, Eleanor Bowcock, Bob Brant, Chris Brant, Megan Brant, Lisa Brickell, Adele Brown, Barb Brown, Jim Brown, Tom Bruvall, Lorelei Burns, Terri Cardoni, Amanda Carr, Jean Carr, Olivia Carr, Shane Carr, Joe Carroll, Marg Carroll, Hal Coleman, Shannon Confortin, Terri Cordoni, Judy Crowston, Roy Crowston, Ryan Cruickshank, Jim Crutchley, Joyce Cumming, Jill Daniel, Fred Dannells, Colin Dathan, Jeremy Davy, John Day, Elaine Devink, Rita Doak, Terry Dougan, Vivian Downing, Jan Durocher, Dave Durward, Nini Durward, Irena Erdos, Percy Fairhurst, Doug Fenton, Frankie Ferguson, Fern Finn, Ron Finn, Beth Fitzpatrick, John Fitzpatrick, Anne Forsythe, Rand French, Greg Gardner, Ellen Grant, Bill Green, Lynn Green, Molly Gruenheid, Bill Hales, Gordon Hall, Michelle Hall, Trevor Heath, Franzika Heydrich, Doug Hicks, Barry Hinkleton, Marg Hope, Danniella Iace, Jock Irvin, John Jellis, Bill Johnston, Sylvia Johnston, Joe Kerr, Lynne Kinnell, Shelley Kion, Tyler Kion, Don Knudsen, Sherry Knudsen, Angela Lawley, Lee Lawley, Ernie Ledgerwood, Lynn Ledgerwood, Dorothee Leyshon, Roy Liden, Fay Lighthall, John Lighthall, Eric Lonne, Eivind Luffe, Bruce Mackay, Wendy Magee, Dave Manzer, Bill Marchant, Pat Marchant, Larry Martin, George Massey, Doug May, Janet Mayberry, Don McAllister, Robert McBeth, Ron McCormick, Denise McCracken, Catherine McDonnell, Lindsay McDonnell, Criag McDowall, Nora McDowall, Bill McEnery, Jean McEnery, Pauline McNeney, Dick McQuaid, Bill Mellors, Allan Milligan, Chris Moodie,, Karen Moodie, John Moore, Amanda Morrell, Darcy Nelson, Megan Nelson, Kelly Noakes, Sue Norris, Paul Ohannesian, Rob Otto, Roy Pachowski, Carmen Peterson, Renee Pigeau, Rhonda Pommell, Andrew Preddy, Louise Preddy, Elaine Pruden, Ione Pruden, Kevin Pruden, Tom Pruden, Walter Pruden, Henry Reimer, Audrey Rhodes, David Rittberg, Denise Rittberg, Jennifer Roberts, Mike Roberts, Greg Robertshaw, Michael Roblin, Denis Roy, Kirsten Roy, Mary Roy, Paul Roy, Sukh Sangha, Deb Sankey, Jim Saunders, Johnathon Schmidt, Ray Seredin, Earl Shaw, Lavina Shaw, Lea Shepperd, Randy Shimell, Wayne Sidsworth, Ailsa Siemens, Donna Simon, Kayla Simon, Dave Simpson, Tanya Sinnes, Kevin Smith, Roy Smith, Andrew Stoner. Barb Stover, Dan Strand, Laura Strand, Dick Sutcliffe, Sylvia Swindell, Adrian Telizyn, Rashpal Thethi, Art Tichauer, Marshall Tichauer, Harriet Tuey, Bernie Tully, Gary Turner, Loleeta Turner, Kurtis Tylor, Carl Vanderspek, Darren Watson, Bruce Williamson, Bruce Wilson, Colleen Winterburn, Nelson Winterburn, Gerry Wolf, Hillary Woods and Donna Woolward. A huge thank you to you all. We also need to recognize our staff who worked extra hard and contributed above and beyond the call of duty during the event—thanks to Angela Baker, Matt Christianson, Sherry Elchuk, Donna Fourchalk, Olga Junkin, Wendy Junkin, Tomo’o Oshikawa, Dave Thethi, Brian Tichaeur, and to event managers Bill & Lise Watson.

Sponsors played a large role too in helping make the event a success—thanks to our official sponsors CTV, IGA Marketplace Squamish, Mountain FM, Pepsi, The Province, The Squamish Chief (which published a special supplement), Tim Hortons Squamish, and The Vancouver Sun. Thanks also to our Squamish Chief Supplement advertisers CRB Logging, Douglas B. Chiasson, Greg Gardner Motors, Imagen Communications, BC Museum of Mining, RBC Royal Bank, MCM Custom Video and Squamish Terminals.

Not last by any measure of contribution—were the many businesses and people that supported us with goods and services to help make the event a success. We offer our sincere thanks to the BC Museum of Mining, BC Rail, Carney’s Waste Systems, Citizens on Patrol Squamish, Coast Food Distributors, Continental Power, Harvey Cheema, Home Hardware, Howe Sound Janitorial Services, Jinder Bir, Keith Halvorson, Mountain Retreat Hotel & Suites, RCMP Squamish and Auxiliary, the Rental Network, Rick Hunter, Ron McLeod, Shaw Cable, Shoppers Drug Mart, Transit Museum Society, TicketMaster, Ueli Leichti and 99 Transport.

The photos will tell the story in another way—in the faces that appear and the pictures of the Heritage Park rearranged for the event. Please enjoy them, and take a moment to reflect on what we all accomplished in a superb effort of community participation, volunteers, staff, sponsors & supporters, businesses and the event provider HIT Entertainment.