Narrow gauge engines

[thomaskid86]

Does anyone know if the narrow gauge engines are available in HO scale? I would LOVE to include a narrow gauge branchline on the layout that I am designing at the moment (hubby has dedicated a room in the new house as my train room!! ), and would be over the moon to see more Thomas and Friends trains in my collection

[DinoNTrains]

Sorry, but as of now, Bachmann does not produce the narrow gauge engines. But who knows? There's always the possibility

[jward]

doubtful on the narrow guage.  ho using n scale track is uncommon. if they did do narrow guage it would probably be on30.

[DoggySporty]

It's a little early for this, but what do you guys think will be next if Bachmann continues their new narrow gauge line?  There's no guarantee anything will happen so this is just for fun

I'm not sure what engine will be next, it could be any of them.  Rusty and Duncan were always my favorites in NG ever since season 4 first aired.

I hope like other people that we will get some coaches, but I'd also like to see a brake van.  I remember loving the NG brake down train of sorts in season 4 but I'm doubtful on that, at least for a while.

[Anthony P2]

Skarloey and the rolling stock will be available either by the end of 2015 or sometime in 2016. They will be to scale with the HO/00 line but will run on N scale track. Think of them as being what On30 (Narrow Gauge) is to O scale (Standard Gauge).

[thomasj219]

I'm a bit unclear on what that means. Will the skarloey models be smaller than the HO models? As they should be.

[Anthony P2]

There isn't a really clear way of briefly putting this so bear with me... 
Say you had a HO/00 driver figure at the footplate of your Bachmann Thomas. You then took him out and put him at the footplate of Bachmann Skarloey. He would fit in to scale with him because they are perfectly compatible. HO/00 scale track would be to scale with regular SG and the N scale track would be to scale with NG in the real world
here's a link to better understand gauges. it explains it pretty well, too! (starts at 3:22 if you want to skip ahead) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Zj0zuoeRhM
Shame we never had Model World in the US... but anyway in the video he puts a narrow gauge engine next to the O gauge loco. for comparison sake just think Thomas is the O scale loco and Skarloey is the NG loco next to it.
pictures would make this easier but I'm not good with putting pictures on here. I feel like I just made it more confusing. 

[jleight]

Sounds like a new wishlist is starting. Personally I think Victor should be one of the next Narrow Gauge models. Not that I wouldn't like to see the others in the narrow gauge railways but Victor is such a key figure in Thomas. I didn't know Victor was narrow gauge until a couple of years ago. That, in my opinion should be the next.

[JLK2707]

What about Rheneas or Sir Handel or Peter Sam? Or even just Rusty or Duncan?

[jleight]

All good suggestions but I still think Victor should be next. Just keep them coming! There are lots to chose from.

[thomasj219]

Victor can wait, I see what you mean but he rarely leaves the Steamworks and for them to start with Skarloey I'm pretty confident we'll get Reheneas or Sir Handle next.

[jleight]

You brought up an earlier question about size. They should be scale at 1:87 for the body but have reduced wheel gauge. I'm a little surprised that they are using N gauge as that may or may not be scale for narrow gauge but is probably close enough and the track is available so I can see why they chose it. I'm wondering how stable it will be. There are companies that make true narrow gauge track built with HO scale track. I think this is technically HOn30. I'll be anxious to see what they really do with this.

I don't know if anyone has addressed this yet but I think the reason they are $149 for the engine is the engine body is metal instead of plastic. More costly to make but perhaps will be better for this type of engine. Many HO engines are several hundreds of dollars, some are brass, some are cast metal, and some are plastic. The price also can include DCC and sound equipment which drives up the cost about another $100. Plus this is 2015 and costs keep creeping up especially with the Chinese manufacturing getting more costly. I can only wish that they will bring all these things back to the US to manufacture. There would be better control on delivery dates.

Gotta love the fact that we are seeing things like Skarloey. Hope they keep it up and bring more out in years to come.

[Br 98.75]

THe new bachmann Catalog has Skarloey and some rolling stock on page 4, Its Hon30, Hon&1/2, Hoe, 009, compatible, to bad i got out of narrow gauge

[jleight]

I'm not familiar with Hon&1/2, Hoe, 009 but from their description I would think this is HOn30.

[shining time]

I'm not familiar with Hon&1/2, Hoe, 009 but from their description I would think this is HOn30.

Hoe and 009 is other variations and 009 is the  European counterpart to HOn30