After much delay I have finally gotten my hands on the N Scale Toby. It's an excellent model. Perfectly captures the design from the show, and also performs very well as a locomotive. Operates smoothly, can pull lots of cars, and capable of more prototypical slow-speed running as well. Very much recommend picking it up if you're at all interested in N.

All he needs now is Henrietta to keep him 'on track', whom I expect will make it to market in 2024 given the current turn-around time on the upcoming rolling stock projects. I hope that she is a new tool based on the "CGI" iteration with the face. She became a very fun character once that design change took place.

Quote from: N Scale Sudrian on June 24, 2023, 11:21:41 AMAll he needs now is Henrietta to keep him 'on track', whom I expect will make it to market in 2024 given the current turn-around time on the upcoming rolling stock projects. I hope that she is a new tool based on the "CGI" iteration with the face. She became a very fun character once that design change took place.

Honestly I'm surprised Bachmann didn't use the CGI Henrietta promo in the catalog since her face being added was a distinctive change for the character in the show.  Regardless, I'm almost certain she will have a faceplate added to match that of the CGI series since any merch of her that came out since then has included it like Adventures and Capsule Plarail.

I suppose their use of it is consistent with previous announcements using past models as a reference point. I would like it if Bachmann used the promotional and internal renders as illustrations for their upcoming models more often, though. It'd remove ambiguity in expectations with cases like Henrietta, and would undoubtedly look more professional than the fan-wiki screenshots used as illustrations for the recent Narrow Gauge wagons, ha ha.

I think the next Thomas Tuesday is going to be a very exciting one for the N scale fans

N Scale Gordon was confirmed to finally be shown fully painted next Tuesday. Don't know about N Scale Emily, but we'll see for sure. Would be nice if both N Scale Gordon and Emily were shown fully painted together, but Doug might not have Emily's painted sample just yet.

Quote from: TrainFan97 on July 19, 2023, 12:11:49 AMN Scale Gordon was confirmed to finally be shown fully painted next Tuesday. Don't know about N Scale Emily, but we'll see for sure. Would be nice if both N Scale Gordon and Emily were shown fully painted together, but Doug might not have Emily's painted sample just yet.

It's far from "Confrimed"
The post actually says "all will be revealed soon"
You are forgetting that it's Awdry Extravaganza this weekend so it's extremely likely that Christian and all booked guests are extremely busy. Plus the NMRA is out at the back end of next month. Soon could be anytime. There's been no announcements of a stream on Tuesday.

Quote from: Mulfred100 on July 21, 2023, 09:18:07 AM

Quote from: TrainFan97 on July 19, 2023, 12:11:49 AMN Scale Gordon was confirmed to finally be shown fully painted next Tuesday. Don't know about N Scale Emily, but we'll see for sure. Would be nice if both N Scale Gordon and Emily were shown fully painted together, but Doug might not have Emily's painted sample just yet.

It's far from "Confrimed"
The post actually says "all will be revealed soon"
You are forgetting that it's Awdry Extravaganza this weekend so it's extremely likely that Christian and all booked guests are extremely busy. Plus the NMRA is out at the back end of next month. Soon could be anytime. There's been no announcements of a stream on Tuesday.

But if the stream is on Tuesday, prepare to eat your words. Maybe N Scale Emily will also be revealed fully painted with Gordon.

Also, I am entirely aware the NMRA is in a month.

Quote from: TrainFan97 on July 21, 2023, 02:54:29 PM

Quote from: Mulfred100 on July 21, 2023, 09:18:07 AM

Quote from: TrainFan97 on July 19, 2023, 12:11:49 AMN Scale Gordon was confirmed to finally be shown fully painted next Tuesday. Don't know about N Scale Emily, but we'll see for sure. Would be nice if both N Scale Gordon and Emily were shown fully painted together, but Doug might not have Emily's painted sample just yet.

It's far from "Confrimed"
The post actually says "all will be revealed soon"
You are forgetting that it's Awdry Extravaganza this weekend so it's extremely likely that Christian and all booked guests are extremely busy. Plus the NMRA is out at the back end of next month. Soon could be anytime. There's been no announcements of a stream on Tuesday.

But if the stream is on Tuesday, prepare to eat your words. Maybe N Scale Emily will also be revealed fully painted with Gordon.

Also, I am entirely aware the NMRA is in a month.

Well if you want to be like that then if there isn't a stream same goes for you. I'm just saying let's wait for confirmation before you jump to conclusions. Jumping to conclusions is the quickest way to disappointment. 

I'm excited to see the painted Gordon. Not terribly fussed over if it will be next Tuesday or not, honestly I would prefer if the next show were saved for August 1st so the streams can be back on the first Tuesday of the month. (As is right and proper!) But whatever they decide to do is fine by me.

Emily's revealed sample seemed like it was a lot less far along than Gordon's, so I'm not surprised her painted sample hasn't been teased yet. She didn't even have a face, ha ha! Perhaps later in the year we'll see her pop up in full color. Seeing Gordon will suffice for now in my opinion.

Honestly; I agree.  The consistency of the Trainworld streams being at the beginning of the month always gives fans a better idea of when to expect updates.  Plus we will have the NMRA later next month, making the early stream in September all the exciting to go over if there are any major announcements. Heres hoping for now anyway.


On that note, my box vans arrived in the mail earlier.  There isn't too much to say about these other than the fact that I love the fact Bachmann went the full mile with these and used a new more show accurate tooling over the Graham Farish toolings.  They look fantastic with the rest of the engines and rolling stock and are built in exceptional quality.  I also appreciate how they used the single vent tooling as per the large scale range instead of just sticking with the double vent like HO.


I also want to talk about the liveries.  The ice cream van is a surprising one they went with since both the HO and large scale models both got discontinued.  I was never a fan of the Hit era but I figured I could repaint this one to a more classic era style van for fun later.


The fruits and vegetables can is one I think is all right overall.  I love the dark green livery and the decal they used for it doesn't look too bad either.  Might keep this one as is.


The best for last though is the great western box van.  This one has always been a favorite, both for its show accurate livery and a homage to the GWR (despite not being in GWR colors, but it's the thought it counts).  Might pick up more of these down the road.  Hopefully one day further down the road we can see some great western engines in N scale like Duck and Oliver!

Normally I'd send pics of engines pulling these around but not today... currently in the middle of an interesting mod on my four N scale engines as of now.  Hopefully they'll be ready by the time Toad is in stock!

Chaz, the new vans look great, and I can't wait to see how you modify your engines!

I suppose I should share a little more about my Thomas model. I've been trying to make him look more accurate to how he did in Series 1, as opposed to the CGI model. Other than the face, the biggest thing that needed addressing was the design of his running plate. The CGI model (and by extension, the Bachmann model) has a very blocky running plate design with very short cab steps, compared to the original design.





To change this, I designed a new running plate in Tinkercad, using Bachmann's version as a guide to make sure it would still fit Thomas' mechanism and bodyshell. After that, I was able to get it printed in resin, along with a few faces from Series 1.











The new running plate uses the buffers, rear coupling hook, lamp and lamp irons from the Bachmann one, but I chose Graham Farish vacuum pipes and coupling hook for the front, since my design didn't have the cut out for the coupling hook.
I also modified a snowplough design by @lbscthomas on twitter to suit the Bachmann N Scale model. This arrived today, and I was a bit worried about if it would fit with the bigger vacuum pipe, but it slots onto the buffers perfectly, which is really nice!



As it stands, this is where my project currently is. I need to do some final painting and repainting (trying to get a smoother finish overall), as well as adding some lining on the back of Thomas' bunker, but I am pretty happy with how he has turned out so far! I'll definitely try to update you guys once he's actually finished, and I'm also really excited to see how Gordon turned out! Hopefully we'll also get some new announcements soon, too.

Quote from: Chaz on July 22, 2023, 08:02:31 PMHonestly; I agree.  The consistency of the Trainworld streams being at the beginning of the month always gives fans a better idea of when to expect updates.  Plus we will have the NMRA later next month, making the early stream in September all the exciting to go over if there are any major announcements. Heres hoping for now anyway.

On that note, my box vans arrived in the mail earlier.  There isn't too much to say about these other than the fact that I love the fact Bachmann went the full mile with these and used a new more show accurate tooling over the Graham Farish toolings.  They look fantastic with the rest of the engines and rolling stock and are built in exceptional quality.  I also appreciate how they used the single vent tooling as per the large scale range instead of just sticking with the double vent like HO.


I also want to talk about the liveries.  The ice cream van is a surprising one they went with since both the HO and large scale models both got discontinued.  I was never a fan of the Hit era but I figured I could repaint this one to a more classic era style van for fun later.

The fruits and vegetables can is one I think is all right overall.  I love the dark green livery and the decal they used for it doesn't look too bad either.  Might keep this one as is.

The best for last though is the great western box van.  This one has always been a favorite, both for its show accurate livery and a homage to the GWR (despite not being in GWR colors, but it's the thought it counts).  Might pick up more of these down the road.  Hopefully one day further down the road we can see some great western engines in N scale like Duck and Oliver!

Normally I'd send pics of engines pulling these around but not today... currently in the middle of an interesting mod on my four N scale engines as of now.  Hopefully they'll be ready by the time Toad is in stock!

Another outstanding review, Chaz! The dedicated single vent van tooling was indeed the way to go, and I wish it could make a comeback appearance in HO/OO.

I agree with you on the Ice Cream Van. Having been discontinued in both HO/OO and G, I'm a little perplexed why they introduced it in N, but there you go. The Fruit and Veg van is starting to grow on me, the dark green looks so slick. I agree with you 100%, the GWR van is my favorite of the three. The chocolate brown is probably the most accurate to what's seen in all eras of the show and it is based on a real-life box van. It ticks all the boxes.

All I can to Bachmann is: Bring on Toad, Mr. Bach-Man!

Now, I'm itching to see the mods you're performing on your N scale engines!

Quote from: Mulfred100 on July 22, 2023, 01:56:59 AM

Quote from: TrainFan97 on July 21, 2023, 02:54:29 PM

Quote from: Mulfred100 on July 21, 2023, 09:18:07 AM

Quote from: TrainFan97 on July 19, 2023, 12:11:49 AMN Scale Gordon was confirmed to finally be shown fully painted next Tuesday. Don't know about N Scale Emily, but we'll see for sure. Would be nice if both N Scale Gordon and Emily were shown fully painted together, but Doug might not have Emily's painted sample just yet.

It's far from "Confrimed"
The post actually says "all will be revealed soon"
You are forgetting that it's Awdry Extravaganza this weekend so it's extremely likely that Christian and all booked guests are extremely busy. Plus the NMRA is out at the back end of next month. Soon could be anytime. There's been no announcements of a stream on Tuesday.

But if the stream is on Tuesday, prepare to eat your words. Maybe N Scale Emily will also be revealed fully painted with Gordon.

Also, I am entirely aware the NMRA is in a month.

Well if you want to be like that then if there isn't a stream same goes for you. I'm just saying let's wait for confirmation before you jump to conclusions. Jumping to conclusions is the quickest way to disappointment. 

Well, I guess you were right. There was no TrainWorld Stream tonight. When I said to "eat your words" I knew that you were naturally going to retort back at me. Turns out it's me.

Oh, the indignity!

Quote from: TrainFan97 on July 25, 2023, 08:20:45 PMWell, I guess you were right. There was no TrainWorld Stream tonight. When I said to "eat your words" I knew that you were naturally going to retort back at me. Turns out it's me.

Oh, the indignity!

The next Trainworld stream will come sooner or later, there's no need to tell other users to "eat your words".  Let's try to keep the discussion civil while we anticipate the full reveal of Gordon's painted sample.

On another note, a huge thank you to everyone else for your responses to the short review on the box vans.  I'm looking forward to talking about Toad next.  I'm looking to get new faces added to my N scale engines that match the model era of the show, I'll show pictures once the faces are done and fully painted. 

Kempton, I never noticed the different running board on the CGI model compared to the original season 1 design.  Your new take on Thomas looks excellent so far and I like how the brake pipe turned out too.  Great work!  I also like the new snowplow, can't wait to see how that will look fully painted.

Quote from: TrainFan97 on July 25, 2023, 08:20:45 PM

Quote from: Mulfred100 on July 22, 2023, 01:56:59 AM

Quote from: TrainFan97 on July 21, 2023, 02:54:29 PM

Quote from: Mulfred100 on July 21, 2023, 09:18:07 AM

Quote from: TrainFan97 on July 19, 2023, 12:11:49 AMN Scale Gordon was confirmed to finally be shown fully painted next Tuesday. Don't know about N Scale Emily, but we'll see for sure. Would be nice if both N Scale Gordon and Emily were shown fully painted together, but Doug might not have Emily's painted sample just yet.

It's far from "Confrimed"
The post actually says "all will be revealed soon"
You are forgetting that it's Awdry Extravaganza this weekend so it's extremely likely that Christian and all booked guests are extremely busy. Plus the NMRA is out at the back end of next month. Soon could be anytime. There's been no announcements of a stream on Tuesday.

But if the stream is on Tuesday, prepare to eat your words. Maybe N Scale Emily will also be revealed fully painted with Gordon.

Also, I am entirely aware the NMRA is in a month.

Well if you want to be like that then if there isn't a stream same goes for you. I'm just saying let's wait for confirmation before you jump to conclusions. Jumping to conclusions is the quickest way to disappointment. 

Well, I guess you were right. There was no TrainWorld Stream tonight. When I said to "eat your words" I knew that you were naturally going to retort back at me. Turns out it's me.

Oh, the indignity!

It'll come soon enough as Chaz said. I was just trying to save you pinning your hopes on something and getting disappointed when it didn't happen that's all I intended by my post. Who knows maybe the next trainworld stream will be a bumper with revivals and announcement with NMRA being a few weeks away. Also when I said about NMRA I was just saying that by then they'll probably have the promotional photos out for Gordon and Beau for the catalogue along with anything else they have painted samples of