Thomas

[pjf]

Hello Mr Bach-man, here is a crazy idea. How about a couple of Thomas and friends locos like Emily in O size running on HO track. My grand children will love you, it would fit in my On30 world and Bachmann would have a new market potential in the UK and with children all over the world who's grandpas play with On30.

[Hamish K]

As On30 is narrow gauge, if Thomas characters were to be done the obvious choice would be the narrow gauge characters ,e.g.  Skarloey, Rheneas, Peter Sam, Sir Handel, Mighty Mac etc. As these characters were based on real life British narrow gauge locos (and many are preserved) there would be scope to offer both prototype and Thomas versions of the same locos. Any prototype offerings would presumably be through Branchline, Bachmann's British range. So far they have shown no interest in such models.

Another issue could be the rights - Hornby, not Bachmann has the Thomas rights in the UK, at least for OO scale. I don't know whether Bachmann would be able able to market On30 Thomas characters in the UK.

I would love to see Bachmann make a British O scale narrow gauge range for HO track, and making both Thomas and prototype versions of the same locos would seem to be a way of increasing sales, provided Bachmann can get the Thomas rights.

Hamish