diff --git a/extra/svn/reposman.rb b/extra/svn/reposman.rb
index c9b9b0f5..4bfd10bd 100755
--- a/extra/svn/reposman.rb
+++ b/extra/svn/reposman.rb
@@ -66,6 +66,10 @@ require 'rdoc/usage'
 require 'find'
 require 'etc'
 
+# working around deprecation in RubyGems 1.6
+# needed for rails <2.3.9 only, don't merge to unstable!
+require 'thread'
+
 Version = "1.3"
 SUPPORTED_SCM = %w( Subversion Darcs Mercurial Bazaar Git Filesystem )