STRASBURG, Pa. – Percy, the small green engine, has joined Thomas the Tank Engine on North America’s rails.
The pint-sized 0-4-0 debuted over the weekend and has been “great,” says Hope Banner Graby of Sheffey Integrated Marketing, which handles marketing of Day Out With Thomas events for Strasburg and HIT Entertainment. “Percy is proving to be a great enhancement to the events.”
Strasburg Vice President Kelly Anderson says he saw long lines waiting to board Percy trains on Sunday, when he was on hand to help manage crowds of youngsters and their parents. “The train seats 250, and there were always a few left waiting for the next train,” he says.
He expects the unpowered Percy to be a popular adjunct to Thomas at other locations as well. “Percy weighs 12 tons and can be hauled on a standard low-boy trailer without permits,” Anderson notes. The steam Thomas weighs 55 tons and is costly to truck to other locations.
Anderson says Strasburg’s design team and shop personnel completed Percy in four-and-a-half months. “We were still making blueprints as they were assembling the locomotive,” he says. A local fabrication shop formed 3/16-inch plate to the design, and Strasburg personnel assembled the locomotive. Percy is equipped with roller bearings and a standard emergency brake valve like those used in cabooses, and has aluminum rods to reduce its weight.
There have been some minor teething problems with its crossheads, Andersen says, but otherwise Percy is nearly foolproof. “It’s so simple not much can go wrong.”
At Strasburg, the railroad’s ex-New York Central SW-8 No. 8613 powers Percy’s train from the other end.
