Large Scale Thomas

[thomasgleek444]

since the announcements this year were so useless and depressing, I'm so close to getting another set of Annie and Clarabel and shaving off the noses and spray painting them red just for James

[Large Scale Champion]

We will press on with our customs... however now worried that diesel has been cancelled.... so may have to review all thoughts of more purchases, a really concerning move by bachmann

[thomasgleek444]

I was thinking that the sound decoder has the sounds for other engines that don't exist in large scale, i was thinking one day i could just mod James to look like Edward, and then just have to build Henry and Gordan from scratch (even though Henry and Gordon would never be released due to the size they would be)
I still am hoping they at least make Edward, but for now I have Thomas and Percy with DCC and I am working on getting the other three and then expanding my rolling stock

[JLK2707]

Thomasgleek444, If you were to build Henry in large scale, would you want him with his old shape or his new shape?

[thomasgleek444]

Thomasgleek444, If you were to build Henry in large scale, would you want him with his old shape or his new shape?

That all depends if I can happen to find an already built loco that looks enough like Henry (or Gordon) I might just mod the already existing engine.
however, I think I would like to have the old shaped Henry if I can, it looks like it would be easier to make from scratch (since there would be a dome missing compared to the new one, and the new firebox would be a nightmare), and I like the look a bit better.

[Large Scale Champion]

Well it was true to say that here at Ruby's Railway we were more than disappointed with the announcements this year, whilst in dodgy economic times we accept recolours are a cost effective solution, we'd have preferred box vans and coaches.
In desperate need for a new loco the loss of Diesel was massive, we thought that it may not have been at the top of lists before but offered lots of hopes for recolours and customisation which is what this is all about. Duck would have been a great bet on the back of this and if accompanied by red coaches or Toad, would be a non-compromising offer that would sell out. (Willing to bet on it £$ Bachmann).

Anyway to the more positive, the lighter days here have led to work starting on the railway for this season and the cave under the waterfall today's mission with rain forecast it's a battle of will!

Please Bachmann reward our faith! We're hanging on in here.

[Chaz]

While I would be all for a large scale Duck personally, seeing as how Diesel got canceled, I'm not sure if the large scale range is going to get an engine anytime soon since the large scale market in the US is really not all that strong to warrant sales for new products.  I'm willing to bet we will see James, Toby, and Emily with DCC and sound already installed before we get a new engine again.

I'm still surprised Bachmann hasn't announced the red coaches in large scale yet since those would be recolors of Annie and Clarabel with new roofs and added compartments on the brake coach.  It would have been a much smarter move if Bachmann announced those instead of the tankers that got announced this year. 

Toad would be nice too, but it's a little hard to see him happening without Oliver.  I would imagine Henrietta or a mail car would happen before we get a large scale Toad.

[Large Scale Champion]

Chaz,

I agree with your logic if you're looking at Thomas in isolation, however the huge appeal of a pannier tank for customising and with stock to pull i'm sure it would sell out which would be a welcome result for Bachmann.

In other news we're thrilled to have got a 4th tar wagon for £25 including postage from eBay @ buy it now! the cheapest we've got any thing before was a second Annie & Clarabel for £45 this wagon is a fantastic late night find. 

[Chaz]

I have no doubt that a large scale Duck would be a popular seller in large scale too for the reasons you mentioned earlier, plus his given strong sales that would likely follow him.  His HO model is still a popular seller nearly five years since it was released.  It's just like I said the recent production choices from Bachmann are what make me feel unsure if Bachmann will make a new engine.  He would easily be a better seller than Diesel would have too.

Not a bad find you found either.  Would love to see photos of your club's layout and collection as well as an upcoming progress.

[Large Scale Champion]

Thanks Chaz,

Since posting had a major score in the fact the seller posted another up for bidding, I persuaded him to switch to buy it now and he subsequently had a third! So that's 3 for £75 including postage best deal ever!

Ruby's Railway is exactly as it sounds, not a club layout but a doting fathers build for his daughter. It is entirely my work and currently consists of two loops, one smaller inner loop one outer all around a pond, once winter servicing and the new tunnel construction are finished, I'll post pics. I'm hoping her interest doesn't fall off too much, too soon!

We have the entire Bachmann range to date, with two sets of Annie & Clarabel and Emily's Coaches, 5x Coal Wagon and now 5x Tar (maybe 6) we have 3 Thomas loco's but am on the lookout for a second Percy to recreate the Ghost Train...

So as you can see we are very big supporters of Large Scale Thomas and would love to see it flourish, it disappoints me that branding decisions via Mattel may hurt choices that could keep Bachmann successful in this Scale, and only wish there were more Ruby Railways of our size to keep investment going 😢. Fingers crossed for a brighter future 🤞🏻.

Many thanks for interest and will get those pics up soon....

[thomasgleek444]

this is all the best stuff in the world

Another thing we're keen to see is other members custom builds in large scale. we have a secret project on at the moment and will debut in pics. Has anyone else done a custom? the best we've seen is the red brake coach.

Well, I have 2 projects I did that were from a couple years ago.  The first one is Emily's snowplow which I built back in 2015.  The plow I made for her was built from tin and I used aluminum and styrene for the mounting bracket.  I then painted the front of the plow silver and the sides dark green.  Mounting the plow is simple as it just goes right down over Emily's buffers.  Unlike the Thomas model, I'm able to run Emily's plow on her without having to remove the knuckle coupler on the pony truck.

I modeled Emily's plow after the one she had in Season 8, and I know some will argue that its inaccurate that I'm using a model series plow on a CGI series Emily, but I could honestly care less.  Realistically plows tend to get shined up after excessive use, so having Emily's plow fully painted green doesn't make any sense.  One thing I would like to also add is that although I have tried it and the plow does indeed plow snow, I don't recommend it.  While the plow and it's mounting bracket could more than likely take the abuse, I fear Emily's plastic buffers wouldn't.

The next project I attempted was a custom Season 1 truck made back in 2016.  I started with the open wagon that you would get if you bought the large scale Thomas' Christmas Delivery set.  Now before you ask why I chose to use this wagon over one of the others, it's because of the price.  An online retailer I buy from frequently had the wagon (separate from the set) for only $24 which was cheaper than going out and buying one of the other wagons for about $50-$60+.  I also ended up with the 2 presents in the truck, but threw those in with the Christmas decorations.

It was pretty simple to just sand down the old decals on the wagon, repaint it flat black, add some weathering, and then the custom face.  Overall I thought the model turned out pretty good, and a friend of mine actually thought I used the Tenmile Gauge 1 kit to build it.  The photo shows the truck with a chain link coupler, but I actually run knuckle couplers on my railroad.  The photo was taken prior to me adding knuckle couplers to the model.

Lastly is a current work in progress I started back in October of this year.  I'm currently making a large scale model of Victoria from The Railway Series.  Obviously I've used a Bachmann Annie/Clarabel for the basis, but Victoria isn't a LB&SCR Stroudley coach so quite a few alterations have to be made.  I've seen many of the HO Boys just simply repaint an Annie/Clarabel coach, but that's not going to cut it for this project.  I'm mainly trying to base my build off the Clive Spong illustrations, but have referred to Victoria's actual basis (Furness Railway Passenger Coach) for details as well.  Regardless what I do, this model could very well be a hybrid.

As she sits now, Victoria is mainly in primer gray until I finish adding details to the model and find the proper color blue to paint her.  The coach's frame also needs a few alterations as well, but I'm yet to start on that.  Incase anyone is curious, I don't have plans to build Helena, mainly just because of the fact (considering the fait Victoria suffered) it seems likely she's probably been scrapped.  I've still got quite a bit of work to do, but Victoria is perhaps a build I should revisit on here once she's finished.

Questions and comments welcome.

-Rusty

[thomasgleek444]

and speaking of customs, i know just above i was talking about a custom Henry and Gordon
while right now im trying to see if the base of a aristocraft pacific would be the right size for the drive wheels.
after that i would replace the other trailing wheels with some spare james trailing wheels, and then build a body on top. and scratch build the tender completely

[Rodimus Supreme]

and speaking of customs, i know just above i was talking about a custom Henry and Gordon
while right now im trying to see if the base of a aristocraft pacific would be the right size for the drive wheels.
after that i would replace the other trailing wheels with some spare james trailing wheels, and then build a body on top. and scratch build the tender completely

It might not work with it being a slightly different gauge, but I happen to know that Marklin makes a Gauge 1 BR 78, the locomotive that, from what I've heard, is the type of Locomotive used to make Gordon and Henry in the show, specifically, their chassis. Gauge 1 is close to G Scale, but I don't know if it's close enough to be compatible, like HO Scale and OO Scale are.

[Plow_Bender]

It might not work with it being a slightly different gauge, but I happen to know that Marklin makes a Gauge 1 BR 78, the locomotive that, from what I've heard, is the type of Locomotive used to make Gordon and Henry in the show, specifically, their chassis. Gauge 1 is close to G Scale, but I don't know if it's close enough to be compatible, like HO Scale and OO Scale are.

G scale would be 1:24 scale and Gauge 1 (or #1 scale) is 1:32 scale which would be smaller than G.  The Bachmann Thomas & Friends models themselves are actually 1:22.5 scale which is in between both scales.  As I don't own too many Gauge 1 models, I can't really give you the best comparison out there, but I can hopefully show you somewhat of the difference between the two scales.  First up, here's Percy next to my Bachmann Gauge 1 speeder.  Winston would probably have been better to compare if I had him, but I choose not to waste my hard earned money on something so mediocre.



Next is James next to an Aristo-Craft Gauge 1 hopper car.  Keep in mind that a James should be pretty much in scale with the hopper if the model (James) were in fact Gauge 1.



As I said before, I can't really give you a picture perfect comparison as I don't have many Gauge 1 models.  I myself am looking to make 1 or 2 additional Thomas & Friends characters for my large scale collection in the future.  I did at first plan on building them in Gauge 1, but later decided to build them in 1:22.5 scale so they would be in scale with my other Thomas & Friends models.

By the way, anyone out there interested in a Bachmann Large Scale Thomas and/or Percy?



-Rusty

[Large Scale Champion]

Where are you from, we are always looking for spares...