TrainMan2001

Alright, I am back with a little more progress. I began building the new smokebox and splasher tops. The cuts in the side of the smokebox are to fit the coverings for the wheels, and will be hidden by the splashers when it's put together. I also figured out that I'll still be able to use the original motor even with the space between the splashers and tanks modelled, which makes this project a lot easier (and cheaper). I'm hoping to be able to add more detail to the cab soon as well. -TM2001

That shed scene looks really good, even if the other areas around it aren't finished yet.

Thanks, but I've found some buffers now.

Alright, I didn't have much time this weekend for modelling, so I didn't get much done. I started making things to fill the gap between the tanks and splashers, and I also decided it would be nice to accurately recreate Thomas Goes Fishing. Why not?... The little hole in the tank was already there, and I'll be enlarging it. Thanks to dud spud, I was able to look into Parkside kits, and I ordered the LMS CCT van (which has the same style of buffers), because I figured it'd be more likely to end up in the North Western region than a Southern one would. I also ordered the Hornby small coupling (screw-link) accessory pack. Unfortunately, I won't have time to model next weekend, but maybe during the week I'll be able to do a little bit. -TM2001

I have a question for anyone who can help. I am looking for buffers like the ones pictured on Thomas below. I know that OO scale buffers like that exist, as their currently seen on Tony Wright's topic where he is building the Isinglass pigeon van (Pg. 1685, a little more than halfway), however, I have been completely unsuccessful at finding them. Thanks.

Hi Tony, Who makes that style of buffers? I've been looking for some in that style, but so far, I have been unsuccessful.

Here in America, we still have Woodworking classes. My teacher has spent the last few days telling us of all sorts of accidents that have happened, but a lot of people still love the class, myself included. On another note, it may not be a scratch-build, here's a project I've been working on: It has a lot more work to go before I feel it's realistic enough. It'll also need a remotor due to the work I'm doing. My next project, however, probably will be a scratchbuild. Somehow I've already accumulated the necessary components for the chassis as well.

Thanks! You wouldn't happen to have any experience with adding brake gear, would you? Any advice would be wonderful.

Alright, now that everything's working, I wasn't pleased with how the smokebox saddle had turned out, so I decided to make a new one that's actually to scale (not done yet). The good thing is that this will also allow me to open up the area between the splashers and tanks. I also solved my problem with sourcing 6mm eyes by rolling some out of milliput, and I began work on the cab detail. I would have done more, but I found out the hard way that I don't have suitable wire cutters, so I will need to get some. I also began work on the way the face will be held to the smokebox. I made a mock-up of the cab to show what the detail looks like through the window, and posed the majority of the project so far together to see what it looked like. Painting the eyes is going to be a priority for my next work session. And here's a picture of the actual model's cab interior. Over reading the past few days, Compound2632 coined the phrase "fine-scale Thomas." I am hoping that my project is getting close to working with that sort of title. I know that a few people on the internet have done similar things to what I've done so far, but I am trying to go further, in hopes that it at least comes a little close to the efforts of chuffinghell and Nile, since they're my main inspiration for this project. I am planning on adding brake and sanding gear, since I don't feel that they are particularly obtrusive and would more subtly add to the model. Anyway, what are your thoughts? My goal is to make it look fine next to a standard-RTR OO model. Do you guys think I'm on track for that? Anyone have any suggestions on how to add brake gear? -TrainMan2001

Tom, I've read the article you've provided and I have a couple of questions regarding Thomas' services in particular. I know on an average day, Thomas obviously does what was described, but it seems as though he also has extra jobs, because in Percy's Promise, he says he is busy and allows Percy to take them. Is there any indication on what his other jobs would be? Also, I know that there is the stone traffic on the line as well, but what other types of goods are there? Are there any details on what those operations would look like? Thanks for any information you can provide. -TrainMan2001

Having finally read through the entire thread, I can honestly say that your work is among the best I've seen and it's certainly very inspiring.

What's wrong with the first series? That seems to be the only one the Rev. actually approved of, and it stayed really close to the books.

I'm sorry, that was a bit rude to call you that. I understand your points a little better now, but I do hope you understand mine too. I'm certain there will always be a market for high fidelity models. Take it from a guy who's currently trying to put full cab detail in the current Bachmann Thomas model just in hopes that it'll look better next to real OO scale engines.

I feel as though that's a horribly melancholic view on the matter. It seems pretty obvious to me that there are indeed a lot of high fidelity models in backlog. Besides, the Thomas range is pretty much just being carried over from the US line with DCC sockets installed. It never really affected too much what the Bachmann US branch was able to put out, it only supplemented it. Talking to the reps at shows, they've said that the range helps fund new tooling items in the other scales as well. I don't think releasing a bunch of already-tooled models in the UK are going to take too much away from their standard line.

I think it looks really nice. Also, stupid question, but could someone post pictures showing the difference between the curved jib and swan-necked jib? I think I know the difference between them, but I'm not quite sure.

I now present to you, interchangeable faces... just, not painted yet. These were made by Sudrian Junction on ShapeWays, along with two other packs, which I didn't buy. The two piece thing on the left is the eye plate, which means I should be able to pose the eyes in any way I want. I am pretty excited about this, especially since they all represent faces from the 1st Series, something you'll see better once they are painted. I have an idea on how to easily attach the faces to the smokebox, which hopefully will work. I removed the moulded coal from the bunker and shortened the front of the smokebox saddle. Then I put some plasticard over each spot. The bunker will eventually be filled with more realistic coal. I also made the scale cab footsteps. I need to file them a little bit, but they are mostly done. The original is on the right and the new one is on the left. The markings by them are for a quarter inch (or several eighth inches). These were kind of fun to do. I eventually had to swap my pliers for tweezers just so I could get more control over each little piece. I am pretty sure that now you guys will think of me as insane because of this. It was necessary. Here's one more photo showing the shortened smokebox: I also got started on the new cab sides and bought wire for the cab interior. I looked at the original close-up model's cab, and thought it was unnecessarily complex, until I looked at real cab interiors on the internet... so this'll be quite the ride. I also wasn't sure about the wheel size again, and thought I would need larger ones, but I found out that by taking measurements of the real model (through the production photos) at 10mm/ft rather than 9.5mm/ft and scaling it down to OO, it is spot on to the Bachmann model and the smaller wheels that I have, so it's fine. -TrainMan2001

Does anyone know if these would have ended up anywhere near Barrow? They certainly are very nice looking wagons.

I think an LMS van would be very nice, especially a 12 ton steel van, like 179162.

Hello everyone! I joined RMweb back in July, but until now I haven't actually shared anything about my own modelling. I got into trains through the first 3 series of Thomas & Friends, which subsequently got me into model railways... the average story of people getting into trains through their childhoods, pretty much. I am still fairly young, so up until this last June all of my products were pretty much "off the shelf" models on a ping-pong table. I decided that for my first project I would try to make my Bachmann Thomas a little more screen accurate, in a similar vein to most other people's modifications. I was just going to replace the face and paint a few details the proper color, when for some reason (I can't actually remember why) I was looking through early TV series pictures and I noticed that the standard Bachmann wheels were too large. The wheels (of all things ) ended up turning this into a much larger and ongoing project, though it's still very enjoyable. For background, the original TV Thomas model had wheels from a Marklin BR 55, which, using production references, measured to a scale four feet or slightly under. Thomas retained these wheels through the first 5 series, but, when a new Thomas model was constructed for Thomas & the Magic Railroad, he gained larger wheels, which were later replaced with the original ones in the 7th series (for some reason). The wheels I used came from a dead Bachmann Duck model, and they measure to around 15.75mm, which is really close to the original model's wheel diameter. I did have to repaint the wheels from their original color (black) to blue. I found Vallejo's Deep Sky Blue to be a fairly close match to the blue of the model. This also fixed another issue with Bachmann's model of Thomas: the overall height of the model. Thomas's cab in the show is supposed to be close to the height of the vans used in the show. The Bachmann model's bunker goes to the top of the vans (I forgot to take a before picture), but it is now closer to the correct height. While it's not perfect it's something I can live with. Moving on with height issues, the Bachmann model's running board was also higher than it was on the show when compared to Annie and Clarabel and the trucks. This is also now corrected, however highlights a few other problems with the Bachmann model (will get to that later). Now onto the issues brought with the change. This exaggerates how far down the front bufferbeam extends, which makes the buffers and coupling sit too low. It needs to have a couple of millimeters removed from the bottom and the buffers moved to the centerline of the modified bufferbeam. I may use one of Duck's coupling hooks instead of the oversized one currently on Thomas's bufferbeam or I will get scale ones to use once that is done. Moving on to the rear bufferbeam, it shows that the buffers are sitting too high. In the first seasons of the show, wagon (and Annie's front) bufferbeams were lowered to Thomas's buffer height. Later on, Thomas's buffers were raised instead so that wagons didn't need to be modified to be used with him. This modification also introduced a couple of operational issues. The knuckle coupling that I put on the model is now too low to be used, so I will need to cut it out to correct it, although he won't have a rear dummy coupling anymore (I will trade operation for some accuracy). The pickups are also now in the wrong place. Although they still work, I fear that they will break with extended use. One good thing about that though, is that it will force me to use a soldering iron to fix them, which in turn will allow me to carry on with the modifications. Most of them deal with the running board, which I would prefer to remove from the model before I start cutting it up too much (the wires for the pickups fun through small holes in the board, keeping anyone without a soldering iron from easily making modifications.) Other modifications to be made include: -Changing the front lamp's shape -Moving the rear lamp down -Rear lining -A new face -Guard irons on the rear Windows -Possibly opening the cab -Adding other various painted details The next thing I did was an early face sculpting test, which was based on this face: At that point, I still needed to do some things, such as drill eye holes (and give it less of a creepy color). I also filled in the holes on Thomas' bufferbeam and rear (the lamp was too high) and began work on the tapers on Thomas' funnel and dome, though most of the refining will be the sanding process. I needed to make the face less creepy as well... It was probably the strangest part of the entire project (so far). After being really busy for a few months, I finally started making progress. I put more milliput on the rest of the places that needed it and I began to sand everything down. I was also able to put the model in it's first coat of primer so that it would be easier to see if there are any other areas that needed to be sanded more. The top of the boiler still needs some, from where the raised stripes used to be, and there are a couple of places that need actual filler before I finish painting the model. At this point, I decided that I would rather finish Thomas off as he appeared in Season 1 rather than 3, because I really liked all of the care and effort that was put into making the Series as close to The Railway Series as possible. I also decided that I would get real UK cosmetic couplings as well as brakepipes and that I would build more "fine-scale" stepladders. I hoped to do a better face as well, because the first one I tried ended up with a few problems along the way. I was really excited at this point at how well the model was turning out (for a first project), so I didn't mind the extra work that I was creating for myself. After the first coat of primer, I ended up being really busy again and didn't have much time for modelling, which catches us up to the current part of the project: The opening/rebuilding of the cab. I have found something that eliminates the need for the eye mechanism, which should be here by the end of the month. I removed the unnecessary gears and cut out the empty part of the gearbox, which allowed me to put the remaining part of the gearbox in backwards, freeing up the space for an open cab. I have taken measurements of the original TV model's cab using the production references, and hope to begin building an open cab soon. I hope you enjoy reading about this project, even if it is a little unconventional. All TV series images came from the Thomas & Friends Wikia page. -TrainMan2001

Thanks for letting me know, everyone. This should work for what I'm planning on using them for.

I have heard that the buffers on the Oxford Rail Wagons are removable, and I have a couple of ideas in mind with the buffers if that's true, but I do have a few questions. Are the buffer heads the only parts that are removable or do the buffer housings come off as well? How hard is it to remove the buffers? Are they removable on all wagon types or only a couple of them? Thanks in advance for answering. -TrainMan2001

Wow, that looks really nice. What method do you use to paint your wagons?

The other items in the range are made to 4mm scale, so they'll likely be made to the same scale.

STL, the blue in the promo pic is actually closer to what it looks like in person than it does in my picture from the show. There was something larger above the coaches that was blocking some of the light, which is why it looks so much darker.