Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends

[tintrax]

I am wondering if the popularity of Thomas, Percy, etc. means that USA children are now as familiar with Engli***rains as they are with American?
Or at least have some awareness which would not have been the case if the Thomas series had never been shown on US televison.
Colin Duthie (NZ)

[cnw1995]

Interestingly, in the episodes that are currently running on American PBS (Public Broadcasting System) stations, the video setups appear to be more generic than in the older videos. In the episodes I've seen, they do use Engli***erms like Driver, Guard, Switchman instead of Engineer, Conductor, etc. We are big Thomas fans - not big enough to get Lionel's finicky Thomas set- anything I couldn't run on ordinary O27 track is out - with copies of all the orginal stories, Thomas wooden trains, Tomy's plastic set - my original N scale layout was British prototype but running Thomas, James, Gordon and Henry - from Tomix.

Thinking about this a bit more, Colin, I would also presume most American children - even train enthusiasts - in general have a lower awareness of railroads than their fathers had in their youth - they're more invisible ... as a personal example, freights around here run at night - the only railroad awareness is the commuter lines...

[jwse30]

I don't think my geographical region would be fair to judge; NW Indiana is still a mess of 1:1 railroads trying to get from point A to point B. Kids still see these, so I think the Thomas videos would just add to their RR experience, not replace it.

QUOTE: We are big Thomas fans - not big enough to get Lionel's finicky Thomas set- anything I couldn't run on ordinary O27 track is out

I heard this rumor myself, and while I haven't tried running my current issue Thomas set on all the O27 pieces available, it does work flawlessly on my O27 layout. However, I don't currently have any crossings (45 or 90 degree), or any operating tracks. He (et al) seems to run fine through K-Line O27 switches, as well as PW Lionel 1122s (I think that's the number for the O27 manual switch I have on the layout).

If that's all that is keeping you from buying the set, have one run at your LHS. I'm sure almost any shop will have a test layout with O27.

Barring that , if you like, I'll set up a track with a 90 and 45 degree crossing and run them through their paces. I can even add an assortment of MPC era switches to the mix, but I think I still had a few on my layout when I first ran the set on it.

Looking at the engine, I can't honestly see any reason why it won't run on anything O27 that I have not tried already. The pickup rollers seem far enough apart to transverse a crossing, and there doesn't seem to be anything that would get in the way of an operating track section. The 4 wheel coaches go around O27 curves without issue. I don't see anything on them that would prevent them from going down any other tracks.

I'll add this. If you do go to your local hobby shop to investigate, don't bring the kids. I had them run mine before I bought him, and within seconds, every kid in the store (roughly 6, from 4 families, near as I can tell) were Oohing and Aahing at the set. Hardly what you want if they're your own kids and you're trying to figure out if this set will work with your pike.

Another plus to this set is Thomas is geared low enough that he won't jump the track with the two coaches (haven't tried just Thomas alone). The whistle has a nice Thomas sound to it as well, though not quite "prototype".

I apologize for getting off thread with this post,

J White

[Anonymous]

To your original question on familiarizing US kids to Brit rail. My neighbor had a Hornby Flying Scotsman OO set that I coveted when I was a kid in the 80's. I still really like Hornby products they seem to have a similar appeal to Lionel. I pick up a catalog whenever I can.

IN US museums are even some full sized British engines. In a New Jersey museum is a narrow gauge Irish engine, a Mallard (Spencers class to the Thomas fans) is in St Louis, and in the 70's the Flying Scotsman even visited the states.

[Anonymous]

My guess is that most youngsters don't associate the Thomas trains with any particular nationality. They see them more as characters (with individual personalities), and not as railroad items. Moreover, they don't really have much of a basis for comparing or differentiating between older U.S., British, or European locomotives and rolling stock since they have had virtually no exposure to the prototypes.

[riverrailfan]

My son at his age really doesn't realize the difference between USA or Briti***rains. My son can identify all the characters based onn size, shape, color and drive wheels. I don't think he understands that there are other contries. If he sees an engine that is USA in a picture or at a museum, he will refer that it looks like one of the chracters especially if the color is the same.
I own a older thomas from 97 and a new thomas. Other than the whistle and moving eyes, the trains are identical. The thomas from 97 came with O27 track in the set so it will run on O27. I've only run the older thomas on O27 with no problems. The newer one I've used on fast track with switches and a 90 with no problems Their both good running engines. They just can't pull a lot of cars. 5 at the most. The 97 thomas pulles annie, clarabel, dicast harold the helicopter on a depressed flat and I made up a flat car with a pull back james and percy on it.

[lyle_styles]

My son and I have two books on the history of railroading and both books have many pages on the history of European trains. It is amazing on how many if not all of the engines in the Thomas series actually resemble a real or prototype engine from years past until when I'm not sure due to I am not that familiarized with what is running today in Europe other than the bullet type trains.

Granted we have been doing Thomas since Bryant was a little over two(six now)(Birthday today Whoo Whoo) so he has some years at learning a little about the real trains but he would be able to tell the difference between the two areas with a few of the engines. Not alot though.

I believe a new Thomas set for our "O" gauge layout will be on Santas list this year and any information about this set is greatly appreciated.

I am running all 031 switches and curves (10'x10' layout) with one 90' crossing. I do however have a 4% incline, one to get up and another to get back down (LOL) incorporated into the layout. If this may pose a problem, it would great to hear about it.

Thanks for listening and any suggestions would be super,
Lyle R Ehlers

[cnw1995]

J White, It would be grand if you could run your Thomas as you suggested for me. Maybe what I have read about is just a Fasttrack issue. I have to search the archives - something about having a light wired in to get Thomas to work...

There are some wonderful books - many, many of them - on the British railroading experience - just down the street from me is a used bookstore with an entire wall of 'em - including British model railroading. My favorite book reviews the 'country railways' of the days before nationalization...

[jimhaleyscomet]

The Thomas engine has a very minor problem when used with the CW-80 transformer. Thomas needs to have ALL VOLTAGE removed from track before his reversing unit will cycle. The CW-80 leaves a tad of voltage so sometimes Thomas will not reverse. It is very easy to correct by connecting a lamp across the track or having a lighted car (like a caboose or passenger car) anywhere on the track.

Jim H

[Jumijo]

Doug,

The Thomas issue is with the CW-80 transformer, not the type of track it runs on. Lionel sells a lighted terminal section to increase impedance, just for this reason.

Jim

[cnw1995]

Thank you both v. much for clarifying this!

[Anonymous]

I have a 031 layout based on CTT's "High-Speed in 6x12". My Thomas works great on that. One of my smoothest and most reliable small engines. Lionel KW power with many 022 switches, a 90 deg. x-over, reverse loops, ect., no problem. I have no grades to speak of, but since Thomas has a traction tire and can haul many, many freight cars on the flat, he should handle a 4% grade with Annie and Claribel with no problem.
Thomas also worked fine on my holiday fastrack setup with the CW-80. Mine came with the terminal section with the light. If you got a set without one I would think adding a small light across the track output of the CW-80 would be a simple matter. I would bet that troubles with the Thomas set would more likely be related to the CW-80 (or dirty fastrack), which by my own observations, really is problematical. Three out of three CW-80s between my father-in-law and myself have had problems. Fastrack has great conductivity the first few times it is assembled, but it drops off rapidly after that.
Anyway, because of Thomas, my six -year-old son is definitly as, or more, familiar with Engli***rains than American. Enough so that he realizes that in the new Lionel Thomas add-on pack, the Tidmouth Milk Tanker and the Sodor Mining Company hopper are not proper British outline cars. This bothers him more than the faces on the 4 wheel wagons in the set. (To him, the faces are "prototypical"!)
This winter, we expect Percy to arrive to help out with the work load. We also expect Thomas to acquire TMCC! (I believe we finally found a conversion small enough.) If someone made a reasonbly priced "O" Flying Scottsman my son would just about have a heart attack on Christmas morning!

Once my son found the "Real Lives of Thomas the Tank Engine" website
http://www.pegnsean.net/~railwayseries/engines.htm he was off and running on Briti***rains.

Have fun!

Old 2037

[Jumijo]

Bending the connecting pins inward with a set of pliers makes the FasTrack sections conduct like new. The constant pulling apart of the sections with a bend at the joint motion (you're bending the pins away from each other) rather than a straight pull motion causes the track to lose conductivity. I have nothing but great things to say about FasTrack.

Jim

[Anonymous]

A very interesting question, Colin. I grew up watching Thomas on Shining Time Station as a kid and still have the large collection of Ertl diecast Thomas series trains I accumulated back then. In my own case, when I was quite young, Thomas and his friends were just "trains", but by the time I was five, I knew that they were "English" and that in Europe they have buffers and different styles of trains, etc. Mind you, I was obsessed with trains as a kid in a way that many other Thomas fans wouldn't be and so was in general quite knowledgeable about trains at a young age. I'm sure that most other kids wouldn't be the same unless they had an especially strong interest in trains like I did. I suppose that technically North American children who watch Thomas are just as familiar with Briti***rains and their own, but just don't realise it.

I do think that Thomas has helped kids learn more about trains and railways in general, though. I'm sure that Thomas helped me in learning about trains when I was little. I think that Thomas influenced me in other ways, too. I'm sure the series is partially responsible for my preference of steam to diesel, what with the majority of the characters being steam and the first diesel character (Diesel) being a bad guy. The pro-steam sentiment runs high in the show. My very strong attitude in support of preservation and against scrapping locomotives was also surely influenced by the show. There are the stories of Trever the Traction Engine and Oliver and Toad being rescued from scrap and the dreaded S-word being the greatest fear of all the characters. How could I not be for preservation watching it? I hope that the series will influence others in the same way, so that there will be a new generation of steam enthusiasts and preservationists to carry on after the old ones eventually pass away.

[cnw1995]

Old 237, my son noticed the exact same thing in the Lionel catalog - he also tries to use the correct British words. "Dad, that milk wagon and those troublesome trucks are all wrong"

[cnw1995]

BTW, does anyone recommend a source for a Thomas set-breakup - to get the engine and coaches without everything else?

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Old 2037

If someone made a reasonbly priced "O" Flying Scottsman my son would just about have a heart attack on Christmas morning!

Actually, there is a model of an A3 locomotive currently produced that runs on O gauge track and is very affordable. How affordable? About $10.

The Chinese toy company Goldlok makes a battery operated train set that is pulled by a model of an A3 locomotive that is sold under the name of the "Green Line Express." It runs on O gauge track, but scale-wise it is slightly smaller than S scale. The engine has a 2-6-0 wheel arrangement. The body is painted in prototypical colours, but the wheels are bright red. It comes with a tender, two passenger cars, a gondola car and a tank car in matching green that are European rather than British in style. There's also a station and plastic track and switches. The gondola and tank car seem a bit big for the rest of the train (this is because they are also used with Goldlok's other train sets, which are scaled larger than this one). These sets can be found at places like Toys R Us and other department stores and cost around $10. I know it's not what you're after, but it is O gauge and at that price there's not much to lose. Could make for an interesting repaint/kitbash project. Just remembered it now and thought I'd mention it.

[Benjamin Maggi]

That sounds interesting to me, but they were not at my Toys R Us and a google search turned up nothing. Can anyone post a picture or a link to Goldlok trains?

[Anonymous]

scoobster,

Goldlok produces a variety of train sets in both O and G scale. All are battery operated. They are cheaply made, but are, in my opinion, very attractive sets. Many are rather unique, such as their military and work trains. I like their trains a lot and own many of their sets. They are quite common and sold in many places, especially around Christmas time. Once Halloween is over and the stores all start getting ready for Christmas, you ought to find some Goldlok sets somewhere. The larger O gauge sets (like the A3 set) run around $10, while smaller sets with fewer cars and less track are even less. The G scale sets aren't as easy to find and obviously cost more.

For pictures of almost all of their sets, check out:
http://www.gpitoys.net/goldlok/train/index.htm
Unfortunately, it doesn't show the Green Line Express. I can't seem to find a picture of it anywhere on the web.

Goldlok's homepage is www.goldlok.com.hk , but they haven't updated it in a long time and many of their sets aren't shown.

[Anonymous]

Sask Tinplater: thanks for the tip on the Green Line Express. Sounds like a good candidate for a "3 rail" transplant! I have a toy plastic Toby on the operating table right now that's getting a K-Line powered truck.

Regards,

[Anonymous]

I too have a soft spot for these cheapy battery sets.

The Toys are Us stores in San Diego have these sets. I have seen one painted for construction and one for the army.

TRU also have a similar battery powered set decorated for Caterpiller. The cars are not so interesting but the engine is a pretty good looking foreshortened GP40. These sets are $35 but the engine seems exactly the thing that everyone on this board is moaning for, a modern starter set diesel. Since it doesn't have the right pedegree it is dismissed out of hand. Too bad some easy surgery would repower this one.

Last year and the year before Target had some battery powered sets for $10 a pop. One had a 0-6-0 that looked like it was in the shop for a new boiler jacket because all of it's rivits were exposed. The other was a nice 1880s era 0-4-0 switcher it looks good with a General. One of the five cars in the sets was a two axle box car painted for BN. Fun stuff.

In a flea market in Mexico I found a nice RC battery powered O-scale set. It seemed the engine and cars were direct Lionel "reimaginings". The RS3, three dome tank, a box car, and the SP type caboose round out the set. A fun part about the set is the wild copy on the cars. The engine is marked "CITY Surmount Train". The box says "TOP Best Train Express New Country Superior Train. The best part about the set bar none is the blue plastic rail oval that has THREE RAILS! Three rails for absolutly no reason as they are plastic and the engine is battery powered.

[Anonymous]

emmaandy, It's great to see someone else who likes these trains! I've lost count of how many battery operated sets I own. I've always been fascinated by them. That set you found in Mexico intrigues me very much. I'd love to have one! Is this the set you're talking about?

I just found this picture yesterday when I was searching for a picture of the Goldlok Green Line Express. It comes from the website of a South African toy store chain. Talk about coincidences! Could you post any better pictures of your set?

Those qoutes from it are awesome! One of the funniest examples I can think of comes from the box of a New Ray G scale set. It reads, "BOO! BOO! THE TRAIN IS COMING! To own an exclusive railway station with a peculiar locomotive that gives sound likes a real train and a private railroad. Placing yourself in this enchanting train set will make you feel marvel."

Old 2037, Be sure to let us know if you get a GLE set and do a conversion on it.

[Anonymous]

Wow. That's amazing. I opened the page and started laughing because that is exactly the set I have. How funny.

Unfortunately my set box is in much worse shape (I have no camera) and it seems the plastic is not entirely stable or it was in the sun for a bit because the trucks are warped a bit as is a spot on the tank car. All of the distortion is on the side that is shown in the front. The cabboose and tank bodies seem like possible direct copies of Lionel and the Box is a copy of a PS-1 with the door closed permananty. The trucks are all new and the axels are all internal the truck frames are a facade. It is this part that is distorted on my set. The Rs3 is interesting it looks from the side like the Lionel one but when you look sriaght on or from above it is a good bit wider and has no end windows so the engineer would have to lean out to see.

Overall these are a fun inexpencive distraction. I recomend the "Train Express Railway Play Set Hot". The # is 3306K.

For more funny copy the Caboose is marked "The Super Train The Western Express of new country new design". The tank claims "Express best surmount train, Classic new country new design". The markings are just stickers. The couplings are just a solid round shape that is clasped by a C. I am debaiting replacing the trucks they work but the damage looks so bad.