Thomas The Tank Engine? What Scale Are They?

[Anonymous]

What's the history on this? What scale are these trains.

[Tulyar15]

I think the ones used in the TV series must be G scale or bigger. I believe they were made by Bassett Lowke, an old established British firm who still make trains in O scale and in large scales to order.

Many years ago the Rev. W. Awdry used to have a model layout in OO scale (the British version of HO which is at a scale of 4mm to 1ft or 1:76) which he used to display at the annual model railway exhibition in Bristol, England. It had both Thomas's branch line and the narrow gauge Skarloey Railway in OO-9 (that's using N gauge track to represent narrow gauge lines of 2' 3" or thereabouts. Since the Tal-y-llyn Railway. which the Skarloey is based on, is in fact 2' 3" it's perfect for that gauge as thus is a very popular scale/gauge combination in Britain). Some of the models used on this layout are now on display at the Narrow Gauge Railway Museum at Tywyn, Wales - HQ of the Tal-y-llyn Railway (http://www.talyllyn.co.uk/ngrm/)

[wjstix]

I believe I read in MR or RMC that the ones on the TV show were modified from Marklin No.1 gauge equipment (1/32nd scale, the same size track as LGB only No.1 are standard gauge models, LGB are 1:22.5 narrow gauge models.) The "layout" is built on the floor for the most part, filmed by cameras on long booms.

<> In model form, electric Thomas trains are (or were) made in recent years in OO (1:76 scale but running on HO track), O Lionel, and G gauges.