I'm looking over the Bachmann UK Buffet coaches on eBay. Is any of them close to the type of coach that the Bachmann Thomas Express Coaches are based on? I'm asking cause I may want to order one or two and repaint them the colors of the green and red express coaches.

The latest Thomas Tuesday stream didn't reveal anything. All we know is that the 2024 catalog is coming soon. Probably not until mid-February.

Looks like Rebecca's painted sample will be seen very soon!

After almost a decade since the launch of the Narrow Gauge range, I decided to finally start collecting Narrow Gauge, starting with Old Faithful himself, Skarloey, with two Red Carriages and a Red Brake Van. Some other time, I could get two Blue Carriages, Blue Brake Van, and Rheneas, then Rusty, then Peter Sam. Hope it won't be too much longer before they finally have the unpainted sample of Sir Handel ready. Once they do, they can also make steady progress on Duncan.

There's nothing holding them back from making brown or gray Narrow Gauge brake vans because the tooling is already there, but they do have three new rolling stock toolings that desperately need to be caught up.

It was nice getting a sneak peek of Sir Topham Hatt's car, in addition to hearing that progress has been made on several other projects that have been announced earlier.  I've said it earlier, but I appreciate how this is the catchup year for Bachmann since it allows them to give us more updates on highly anticipated products that were announced previously. 

Either way, while I'm just as excited for Sir Handel like everyone else, I'm a little more excited for the human figure packs since those offer so many fun modeling opportunities for fans.  It'll be really nice seeing how the new Sir Topham Hatt figure will look next to his car soon too.

I was pleasantly surprised to hear Doug say that the 3D design work on Stanley was finished. That's relatively very quick in comparison to other newly tooled locomotives. Hope to see an unpainted sample before too long.

Doug also mentioned they have a sample of Beau in packaging. He said it had already been shown in package, but I don't think it has yet. Hopefully they realize they haven't shown it off yet and do so soon.

It's good to know that progress HAS been made on Sir Handel, the High-Side Wagons and Gondolas, and that they already have the 3D design ready for Stanley, so within the next few months or so, we should see unpainted samples of them. Stanley probably the soonest, and we will see him unpainted very soon. The painted sample of Rebecca still isn't fully ready yet, but that's well underway.

Unfortunately, they haven't even started the development of N Scale Diesel, or the Narrow Gauge Gunpowder Wagons, but they did make progress on the N Scale Express Coaches. So, it's going to be a while before we see N Scale Diesel. It shouldn't take too long to get the design ready though, since they really just have to scale down his HO Scale tooling to work in N Scale.

The big reveal was Sir Topham Hatt's Car, albeit without a chassis or wheels, but it won't be too much longer before we see it fully painted. The Sir Topham Hatt figure will look great standing next to it. Another great use for the Sir Topham Hatt figure would be if they ever do make HO Scale Winston, which should be possible because the Bachmann UK line makes Wickham Trollies, and Winston is one himself. He would be the first "maintenance of way" for the Thomas range in HO Scale. Winston would be something great for the Sir Topham Hatt figure to ride in.

The next stream should hopefully show N Scale Gordon in the package; showing he is very soon to arrive in stock. N Scale Emily's painted sample wasn't final, but if nothing goes wrong, she and her coaches, as well as her set, should be available by the end of this year.

Pardon this double-post, but the unpainted sample of the HO Scale 12-Ton Van tooling has just been teased.

Once painted, we're starting off with at least four varieties: Gray, Funfair Red and Blue, and Christmas Wreath. Troublesome Truck #7 is bound to be made in this tooling.

The 12 Ton Van teaser was very revealing... The door shown does not match the door on the Large Scale/N Scale "Box Van" tooling, and in fact does not match either of the previous HO Scale covered vans... Upon further investigation, it seems these new Box Vans are in fact, yet another re-use of Bachmann UK tooling... The door is a perfect match with the LNER 12 Ton Van sold in the 'Bachmann Branchline' range of OO Scale products...
This strikes me as a very odd thing to do... I'm certain these will be very handsome vans given the quality of the tooling, but I don't quite understand why they aren't using the Large Scale/N Scale "Box Van" body shell, since they had just brought that tooling to N Scale...

I suppose this also means the van in the teaser isn't a tooling sample, but a decorated sample of the Gray van... Perhaps I may be off in that assertion since it seems a bit shinier than the usual finish of a decorated sample, but the blueish-gray body and black roof do match the reference picture seen in the catalog...

They said it was supposed to be a new tooling. If it is exactly the same as the existing Bachmann UK one, then they lied...

Fine with me as they seem to be giving some love to the model series. These are right out of the early seasons. Even more excited for them now. lol.

Quote from: TrainFan97 on March 13, 2024, 04:29:18 PMThey said it was supposed to be a new tooling. If it is exactly the same as the existing Bachmann UK one, then they lied...

Sorry to get on my soap box, but I really feel words like "liar" and other antagonistic phrasing should be avoided. I just feel there are more constructive ways to criticize and get your point across. I love collecting these, but it's just a freight car. It's not worth getting that upset over.

Quote from: MontagueGWR08 on March 16, 2024, 08:52:52 PM

Quote from: TrainFan97 on March 13, 2024, 04:29:18 PMThey said it was supposed to be a new tooling. If it is exactly the same as the existing Bachmann UK one, then they lied...

Sorry to get on my soap box, but I really feel words like "liar" and other antagonistic phrasing should be avoided. I just feel there are more constructive ways to criticize and get your point across. I love collecting these, but it's just a freight car. It's not worth getting that upset over.

Okay, I may have been a bit harsh. I apologize if I caused any harm. It's just that I remember Doug Blaine saying it would be a new tooling. Maybe he didn't know all the details. It was just a bit of confusion. Like you said, it's only a freight car, not an engine.

Hey everyone, while doing a bit of research on the Skarloey Railway stations and rolling stock, I found something kind of cool.

When Bachmann announced their slate wagon recolors, I figured that they were probably based on slate wagons from the toy lines (like how most HO stock is nowadays), but it turns out they do actually exist in the show! Here are a couple of pictures showing the Tan Slate Wagon and the Brown Slate Wagon:




Though I couldn't find a red one, there are red slate wagons seen in the Blue Mountain Quarry, although they are based on Dinorwic slate wagons, rather than Talyllyn ones.



One thing I am hoping is that they'll be able to make the Brown Slate Wagon a little bit lighter. In the picture of the Brown one from the show, the brown is dark compared to other wagons, but is still light enough for the ironwork to be seen. However, the Brown Slate Wagon in the catalog is so dark it almost appears to be a single color. It should be a mid-brown rather than dark brown. The slate wagons in the catalog appear to be photoshopped, so they should be able to fix it for the official release.

Anyways, I just thought I'd share, because I think it's cool that these recolors were indeed seen in the show!

The slate wagon samples shown on today's Thomas Tuesday look much nicer than they do on the catalog... That is nice...

Also, the ex-Bachmann UK van shown off was an unpainted sample after all... My mistake looking at the promo, but I do wonder why they needed an unpainted sample of a wagon that's already been finished by their sister branch...