Quote from: Coco462 on November 18, 2024, 10:20:36 PMThank you so much!! I think I'll just start with the complete Thomas set and see how it goes. Cause I can tell it's a whole other type and I don't know if he has the comprehension level to run it.

You would be very surprised!  I've worked in special education for almost 10 years and I'm in touch with a former student and his dad, who are now very active in the hobby. The student, a nonverbal autistic middle schooler like your son, quickly adapted to N Scale after starting with a Thomas model, some track, and Annie and Clarabel. Their collection (and layout) has steadily grown, and they're still expanding. Just today, his dad texted me that he's already preordered Gordon and Emily and some rolling stock for as a Christmas gift for his son.  When he first got Thomas he caught on right away that this wasn't like the average Thomas toy/merchandise.  He treats the models with great care and understands that they're a lot more delicate than the wooden or battery-powered trains that he also owns.  Hopefully your son sees it the same way too.

Good luck with starting your son into the hobby and odds are you may find yourself joining in on the fun as well.

Gordon and Henry have shared the exact same motor and chassis on the show since the series' beginning, and this carried over from both the model seasons over to the CGI series.  Bachmann took this exact same approach while making the HO Gordon and Henry models, as evident by the listings in Bachmann's part store.

I don't think "my friend who went to this show back x months ago" shows any real confirmation/de-confirmation or any real proof. Especially when based on the current track record, there's more evidence showing it'll most likely be the same chassis.

How about a more positive subject to talk about:


I wanted to do an N scale post later in the year, or at least after the catalog announcements but after seeing the recent UK announcements I felt inspired to do a new N scale post.  And just for fun in honor of the 40th anniversary of the television series, I'll be using model era photos.  For the record I know they will use CGI references for these, but again these are just for fun.


For engines, I'd say Edward is just about a "given".  Whether that happens next winter during the catalog release or next summer at the NMRA, there is so much going for Edward next year.  He feels like a very natural addition to the N scale range after Henry and completing the original Steam team.  He's been a top seller in HO for a long time now and has no signs of slowing down despite not being a main character.  He's the one character everyone mutually agrees should be next as the next newly tooled engine in N scale.  Many will jump on this one like Gordon, Henry and Emily, myself included.


Duck meanwhile is a very natural addition I would throw in after Edward.  Once Bachmann gets the rest the rest of the tender engines announced, including Edward, I think taking a break from tender engines and even diesel engines would be a good call.  Duck has a very simple design to work with, has a very wide appeal with both older and younger audiences and he continues to be a popular seller in HO over a decade later.  His addition to the UK lineup feels warranted and like Edward, I think Duck makes the most sense to be picked after Edward.


And finally, since her recent introduction in the Bachmann Europe range, I think Daisy is a pretty safe bet to happen at some point too.  I don't think she shares the same level of odds as Edward, Duck and some of the other characters others have mentioned.  But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that Daisy would actually make perfect sense to join the range at some point in the future.  Despite her being released a few years ago, Bachmann UK doesn't add engine additions often and are very careful when making additions to their lineup.  The fact that Daisy has been added alongside Duck and even before Diesel and Emily is really saying something about her popularity.

For rolling stock, my thoughts haven't changed so I'll just go over them briefly without pics:

BR 20 ton brake van/spiteful brake van: Popular in HO and large scale, still shocked it hasn't happened in N yet but will keep advocating for it until they happen.  I also don't mind if they use the Farish tooling or if they go for a new tooling like in large scale.

Coal wagon w/ load, China Clay wagon and cocoa powder wagon: I'm genuinely amazed we haven't gotten more wagon repaints.  As I've said before the original coal wagon with load is a fan favorite with many here and people have been wanting the red and blue wagons as well, and giving them loads I think would be a good way to introduce them.  Please do not do wagons with decals like the Sodor Coal Co. car or mining wagon in N scale first.  Many fans prefer the liveries used on the show and frankly have a much wider appeal all around.

Milk and tar tanker: I'm not wild about the Farish tanker tooling, but if we get any repaints of those I think introducing milk and tar makes the most sense when it comes down to it.

Red coaches:  I think these are the most likely addition to be next, but despite that I'm placing these pretty low since we've had plenty of coach announcements recently and I would rather they focus more on BR brake vans and freight stock.

Honorable mentions go to Bertie, Harold and Terence for accessories to join the line at some point.  They have yet to add non-rail characters in N, but I suspect they'll start with Bertie and Harold first before moving onto Terence.  Cranky also seems like a likely choice along with the inevitable N scale Tidmouth sheds announcement.

Quote from: JacobSK on November 06, 2024, 11:17:01 AMDaisy is awesome, too. Didn't see her coming and it's a bit left field, but glad all the same. Since the UK range is DCC Ready, I'm willing to bet they chose Daisy because her model is easy to take apart and put a decoder into.

Now THAT would make perfect sense. I could see that being the case for why Daisy was picked over Emily and Diesel.  I also agree on the potential updates on Duck and S.C. Ruffey too.  That would be a really nice bonus!

Well this was a nice surprise, I guess it pretty much confirms Bachmann UK will add new additions to their range biyearly since Edward and Henry were added in winter of 2022.

Anyway, I'm genuinely really happy to see Duck available in the UK lineup, and I'm glad to see his inclusion in the range.  If I ever upgrade the layout to DCC I will definitely be upgrading the collection to the UK models.  It's really nice seeing 1-8 being present in the UK lineup and I'm excited to see what happens from there.

Daisy really took me by surprise, I'm a lot more surprised she came before Diesel and Emily.  I wonder if they're going by season order since Duck and Daisy are the first engines outside of the first seven to be included. Maybe Diesel and Donald and Douglas are next?  Who knows. Only reason I would think they would ever do her before Emily.

Terence is a nice surprise, didn't expect to see him either.  SC Ruffey doesn't surprise me since he has always had a huge presence in model ranges.  The Fruits and Vegetables van though.. yeah I got nothing for that one.  I guess because there's so much GW stock Bachmann UK they probably didn't want to pay the licensing fee for it, hence why they went that route.

Quote from: DustyMarie53! on November 02, 2024, 09:15:09 PM

Quote from: RailsByRick on November 02, 2024, 06:39:44 PMAre preorders actually going well for Rebecca? The last I knew she wasn't in the the top three according TrainWorld's preorders. That doesn't mean that she might not be fourth or fifth, but I just don't see huge demand for Rebecca.

The simple answer is we don't know for sure. Trainworld let's you search by wishlisted items. She is currently in 13th place for preorders, out of 7923 current preorders. This does not inherently equal sales. DCC Thomas and N scale Gordon are higher wishlisted and we know they are top preorders. However we won't know for sure until it's confirmed from an official source how good her preorders are. She is currently in 37th place for wishlisted items in the Thomas line out of 194. These are good signs but again, no way of knowing for sure right now. She releases on their on the 16th so maybe reviews will boost her up come release of the full batch. We will just have to wait and see.

If you're curious the currently lowest wishlisted Thomas preorder is the dark grey gondola for the narrow gauge line, above only the G scale Farmer Mccoll which is now discontinued. However what is at the bottom consistently fluctuates. DCC Thomas, Salty, N Gordon, Rebecca, and DCC Percy have remained consistently in the top 15 wishlisted for preorders on Trainworld, in that order.

The wishlists at Trainworld are meant to be placeholders for people who are interested in possibly pre-ordering an item or plan on purchasing the item in question while given an option to share this wishlist for friends and family (which would be ideal for Christmas or birthday lists for friends and family). 

The things that actually matter for Bachmann and shops like Trainworld are the preorder numbers and the sales of the upcoming products.  The wishlists need to be taken with a grain of salt and not as justification for what sales or preorder numbers of an upcoming product are actually going to be.

I have to admit I'm really impressed with how Stanley looks.  Kind of tempted to get him but still not totally sure yet.  Either way, I could see him being doing fairly well in sales like Ryan did.

Great seeing pictures of each of the figure packs as well!  Anyone have a favorite pack that's coming out soon?

The Peco ones are the ones I've used in the past.  Either/or should work for what you're looking for.

On a side note, Bill (grandpuff) passed away about three years ago and his thread confirming his passing was deleted once the forum server was down and was one of many threads lost during the shutdown.

N scale Emily has been posted on Bachmann's webstore!



Really excited for her and Gordon coming soon.

Peco couplers can be ordered here.

https://store.katousa.com/product/009-peco-couplers-009-narrow-gauge/

In addition, couplers for Skarloey, Rheneas, and Rusty are in Bachmann's parts store.  You'll need to buy both the couplers and coupler mounts which are sold separately.

Happy to! Please feel free to post pictures of progress in the narrow gauge modeling thread! Any other questions don't hesitate to ask.

I used code 80 for my OO9 layout.  I recommend picking up this starter track set from Peco for starting your own narrow gauge layout, it's what I used and I was really happy with the result.

https://railsofsheffield.com/products/peco-st-400-oo-9hoe-starter-track-set

It should be worth noting the large scale Diesel was at one point canceled a year after his original introduction.  Two years went by and Bachmann was able to bring him back in production, likely due to fan requests and Bachmann being able to navigate a better price for the model.  Paxton's introduction I'm sure was another big factor into this as he was announced a year after Diesel, being released around the same time.

I could see the same happen with Duncan, purely because he's the last remaining classic narrow gauge engine the response to the cancellation has been much, much stronger than the large scale Diesel was.  At this point, it's really going to be a matter of Bachmann figuring out a better price for Duncan and a design that would be more widely appealing for all modelers.  It's not impossible, but it will probably take a couple of years like how LS Diesel did before this happens.  As Doug said, it's not totally "dead", the plug just needs to be pulled for the time being, so there's still hope.

It might be better in the long run for Bachmann to take their time with this one anyways so they can focus more on getting Sir Handel and all the previous narrow gauge stock done first.  Once more progress has made on these, and Bachmann has a more solid plan with Mattel in terms of the design and pricing, I can see them looking into Duncan again.  If not, then there's other characters out there for Bachmann to choose like Victor, Luke and/or Millie and saving Duncan for a much later time.

I think Mavis would be the perfect choice for the next new large scale engine mold. She would only require a new body shell since the motor and chassis can be reused from Toby so it would be a real money saver on Bachmann's end as well. Frankly, I would've rather seen her over Diesel and Paxton but I understand why they opted to go that route.  Heck if Bachmann announced Mavis with Henrietta and Hannah and stuck to recolors for a good couple of years afterward with large scale, like they are now, then I don't think anyone would complain.

As for N scale, although I think Duck and Oliver are lot more likely than Mavis based on sales from their HO models and Toad's inclusion in the range, I would still fully support an N scale model of Mavis as well.  In terms of personal preference, I would rather see her over Oliver solely because I really like Mavis' CGI design a lot more than Oliver's.  She is a very close third for me in terms of my personal wishlist, right behind Edward and Duck.