District 5330

The city of Perris is getting ready for the arrival of the Thomas the Tank Engine for the Day Out with Thomas festival.

The event will be held Nov. 8, 9, 11 and Nov. 15 and 16 at the Orange Empire Railway Museum, 2201 S. A St., in Perris.

To prepare, about 40 volunteers took on a massive cleanup along the route that Thomas the Tank Engine will travel in Perris in November.

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Special to The Press-Enterprise

Aileen Sanchez, helped by Valerie Seldura, displays a plastic bottle picked up during a cleanup in preparation for the annual Thomas the Tank Engine festival in Perris.

The cleanup was organized by the city of Perris and the Perris Rotary.

Volunteers included students from Perris High School and Heritage High School.

A four-mile stretch was cleaned along the railroad tracks from the Orange Empire Railway Museum to the Perris Train Depot.

The cleanup crew came across scrap metal, mattresses, scrap wood and even an animal skull.

A bulldozer was used to clear tumbleweeds from alongside the tracks. CR&R refuse company provided trash containers for the cleanup.

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"It's hard work, but it's nice to help clean up our community and make it look nice," said 14-year-old Aileen Sanchez.

The Thomas the Tank Engine festival is the largest fundraiser of the year for the Orange Empire Railway Museum.

Mark Howison, from the Perris Rotary, said the event attracts more than 30,000 railroad lovers. The museum earns half its revenue from the event.

Wilbert Awdry, a British minister, created Thomas to entertain his son who was confined to bed with measles in the 1940s. The first book was published in 1946 and the story came to American TV in 1984. The books were created for 2- to 6-year-olds.

For more information and times: 866-468-7630 or visit www.oerm.org.

Reach Hope Pierson at 951-375-3732 or hpierson@PE.com