Any Other Secret Thomas the Tank Engine Fans?

I have to admit that I'm watching this show regularly, at age 42. Don't know about you, but any rail image halts my flipping through the channels, so the first time it was a reflex. However, I was so impressed with the scenery and the quality of the setting, I got hooked. There are some very skilled modelers building the sets.

Does anyone know what scale is used for the TV show? I've been trying to puzzle it out from the details of the scenery, but haven't figured it out.

So yes, I'm a secret Thomas watcher. Plus, it helps me remember to always tell the truth, be kind to my friends, and be really useful by not causing confusion and delay in my workplace. Ahem.

Is it just me?

Chris Kansas City

Reply to
cschultz
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The scales used vary! AFAIK the reasonably close views of locos and rolling stock are I gauge, largely based on the Maerklin I gauge models. If you look at the wheels, crank-pins etc you can see the circlips Ma uses to hold the rods on with. Broader views are often with proprietry HO models. I watched an episode this morning which featured a windmill and a large tree. In one shot the tree was being carried on a flat wagon with side stanchions which I recognised as an HO Jouef/Playcraft French TP wagon (WWI US built prototype) and in the next shot it became a fairly roughly hand-built I gauge model. I would guess that the shot of Thomas and the two coaches on the brick viaduct are propriety N Gauge models.

Whatever - I just like the trains!!! =8^D

Regards, Greg.P.

Reply to
Greg Procter

Greg, I have to admit I'm not familiar with "I" Gauge. I'm assuming it's larger than G, but do you happen to know the scale? 1:16 or 1:15 perhaps?

Chris KC

Reply to
cschultz

While we haven't seen Thomas on TV lately I admit that I often sit and watch Thomas video tapes and DVDs with my son who is five. I think I enjoy them as much as he does. Sometimes we get up real early on a Saturday and watch Thomas, The Three Stooges or Roadrunner Cartoons before anyone else in the house is awake. This way we can eat our breakfast in front of the big TV in the living room where no one is supposed to have food, drinks or other potential mess making items. My daughter got up early a short time ago and busted us having breakfast while watching our shows. She gave us the "look" just like her mother then gave us a short lecture on something about ruining the carpet and drinking sodas for breakfast that went in one ear and out the other. Poor Nicholas is still like a deer in a spot light when they give him the "look" that can freeze a grown man and innocent bystanders at the same time. Chris you are not alone in that you enjoy Thomas and worse some of us are still getting into trouble for the same kind of things we did when we were four or five. Bruce

Reply to
Bruce Favinger

Hell no man... I know TO Mike likes that show too!!! There is even a

12" to the foot Thomas running around. It was made from this engine:

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By Strasburg Railroad into this:

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And...

The Real Lives of Thomas the Tank Engine is a very comprehensive web site with details about the origins of Thomas, the history of the Island of Sodor, and an explanation of the original engines

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So like Martin Yan would say, "You'll never Wok alone"

Reply to
Big Rich Soprano

Great sites! Thanks for the links. I model Western US in HO, but have always also loved British rail history and operations. I've accumulated a small pile of Hornby OO engines and rolling stock, and break it out to run every so often. So, one more reason to watch Thomas is to learn about how our cousins across the big pond ride the high iron.

Chris KC

Reply to
cschultz

You're very welcome...

Reply to
Big Rich Soprano

1/32 scale is also called Gauge 1 or #1 Gauge. It is the scale in which the Marklin track gauge is equivalent to 56-1/2" or 1435 mm. The Marklin trains are larger than 1/32 scale such that the track is a narrow gauge one in the larger scale. 1/32 scale standard gauge trains will operate on Marklin track. More or less.

And no, now that my children are adults I no longer watch Thomas, but I do appreciate the model work. I have seen the shows and think the ones with Ringo Starr are the best ones.

Does anyone reading this remember "Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories"? Thomas is very much the same genera, only in video rather than print.

Froggy,

Reply to
Froggy

I or One Number 1 scale is 1:32 and runs on 45mm track, which happens to be the gauge used for G scale (which is 1:20.3, in case you're wondering.)

Reply to
Wolf Kirchmeir

Greg Procter spake thus:

Well, you'd guess wrong then.

_Model Railroader_ had an article about the making of Thomas the Tank Engine (April 1993) which I have here before me. The models are all Märklin as you suggest, but they're O gauge. But hey, thanks for playing.

Actually, it's a pretty fascinating operation: the article covers such things as the two servos that operate the locomotives' eyes, the amazing sets and scenery (70 sets of an average size of 16'x20'), and the custom-made 35mm camera used to film it all.

Reply to
David Nebenzahl

I don't watch it regularely but I have the Tomix N Scale set and it is a great attention grabber when I run it on our N-Trak layout displays at Train Shows!

Kids love it! They follow it around the layout.

Peteski

Reply to
Peter W.

It is the Roman nr1. 45mm gauge, 1:32 scale.

Reply to
Greg Procter

Maerklin #1 gauge trains are 1:32 scale. They also have a range of tinplate trains called Maxi which are to the same scale and use the same track.

Reply to
Greg Procter

Pedantically, there is no "G Scale" - the scale used on the trains often called "G Scale" vary between 1:20.3 and 1:29. LGB which started the "Gartenbahn" (G) uses 1:22.5 scale.

Reply to
Greg Procter

Sorry, but you and your article are wrong. Maerklin stopped marketing O Gauge in 1955. Those trains were pure tinplate toys with simple clockwork mechanisims and were characterized by very undersized drivers with broad tyres, huge flanges and small numbers of spokes. Further, the crankpins are readily recognised by standing on a boss extending almost as far again as the width of the tyre. The electrically driven versions had large brush holders extending out through the side of the boilers almost to the width of the loading gauge, and a large gear between the closely spaced axles driving large spur gears on the back of the driving wheels. If you can spot any loco on "Thomas the Tank Engine" which matches that description I'll eat my VCR tape!

Reply to
Greg Procter

Do you know how annoying it is to build a highly accurate model railway layout, populate it with era perfect rolling stock, devise timetables which replicate that prototype (with carefully devised compressed time to keep some action going) and then have all the viewers migrate to the Thomas the Tank Engine layout because Harold the Helicopter just rose into the air, on an aluminium rod, with his rotor spinning???? Grrrrrrr!

Regards, Greg.P.

"Peter W." wrote:

Reply to
Greg Procter

Also note that Gauge 1 also uses 10mm:ft scale (1:30.5) in the UK - probably another hangover from the Greenly era many years ago when the scales of superstructures were increased whilst the gauge stayed the same. As far as I remember, 10mm scale is the most popular scale in the UK. I remember being in a small minority using 3/8" scale when I was a member of the Gauge 1 Association some years ago.

Jim.

Reply to
Jim Guthrie

And your point?

Reply to
Big Rich Soprano

45mm track is actually 0.1562mm too wide for 1:32 scale. :-)
Reply to
Wolf Kirchmeir

c> I have to admit that I'm watching this show regularly, at age 42. c> Don't know about you, but any rail image halts my flipping through the c> channels, so the first time it was a reflex. However, I was so c> impressed with the scenery and the quality of the setting, I got c> hooked. There are some very skilled modelers building the sets. c> c> Does anyone know what scale is used for the TV show? I've been trying c> to puzzle it out from the details of the scenery, but haven't figured c> it out.

I suspect they use several *different* scales, which is 'typical' for TV/Movie production.

c> c> So yes, I'm a secret Thomas watcher. Plus, it helps me remember to c> always tell the truth, be kind to my friends, and be really useful by c> not causing confusion and delay in my workplace. Ahem. c> c> Is it just me? c> c> Chris c> Kansas City c> c>

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Reply to
Robert Heller

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