The Everything Thomas Topic

[TrainFan97]

So the 2026 catalog will be up next Friday the 23rd, as it's typically up on Fridays.

Already less than a week before we see what exciting new products will be announced, once the PDF file is available.

[Chaz]

So the 2026 catalog will be up next Friday the 23rd, as it's typically up on Fridays.

Already less than a week before we see what exciting new products will be announced, once the PDF file is available.

As I mentioned in my last post, it's going to be posted Saturday the 24th, not Friday.  Bachmann's mentioned this in their recent livestreams and Yard Master also confirmed it in another thread this morning:

https://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/board/index.php/topic,40182.msg289147.html#msg289147

Hi Jim,

The digital version of the catalog will be posted to our website this Saturday, January 24th. Print copies will be available for purchase in February.

Won't be too much longer either way.

[TrainFan97]

I didn't know that meant it was being uploaded on Saturday instead of Friday, since we're more used to it being uploaded on a Friday. That one year, it was so late, it was uploaded on a Monday at the end of February.

So it's four more days we have to wait then. Won't be until the very end of this week when it's up. THEN we'll see what exciting products we have to look forward to.

As of this year, product announcements will now happen four times a year, but it's not guaranteed a Thomas product will appear in all of them. I'm guessing the next announcement after this one will be in May. Other Thomas products are possible for the other quarterly announcements, but no promise for all of them.

On a side note, Bachmann's Facebook has shown higher quality images of Bulgy and the N Scale Express Coaches, which are currently in the unpainted stage, and will have painted samples in the coming months. Might see their painted samples within the next few streams. In a few weeks, we might see an upcoming N Scale engine or two in the February stream that's also in the unpainted stage.

[TrainFan97]

This is it. Tomorrow is the day the yearly catalog goes up. Once the PDF file is available, we'll get to see what new products we can look forward to.

Regarding currently announced products, those with painted samples awaiting release are the HO Scale Open Carriage, CGI Milk Tanker, reintroduced Tar Tanker, and the Narrow Gauge Gunpowder Wagons. Products currently shown in the unpainted stage are Bulgy and the N Scale Express Coaches. Products that haven't had samples shown yet include HO Scale Flying Scotsman, Sidney, Mainland Diesel, China Clay Wagon, Diesel Fuel Drum Flatbed, N Scale Diesel, Paxton, Henry, LBSC Thomas, Origin James, Red Open Wagon and Sodor Scrap Wagon. Like I said, we may see unpainted samples of one or two of those upcoming N Scale engines in the February stream, as teased by Matt Stern. Images of N Scale LBSC Thomas and Origin James might be shown in the catalog.

As for the reintroduction of HO Scale Salty, this year should really be it.

[Chaz]

Not terribly exciting announcements, to be totally honest, but with everything going on right now, it's understandable.

The highlight for me, easily, is the NW brake van for HO. That was probably the one thing I was especially excited for in the 80th anniversary set, and I'm so glad that at least is making it out as its own release. The Ffarquhar company wagon is also fun; definitely getting both of these. I don't have too much of an opinion on the CGI fuel tank, other than that it was a pretty obvious choice after the milk tank announcement.

Shockingly, the announcements I'm least excited for are in N scale. I don't mind the stock itself, and I had a feeling they'd be repaints. The blue open wagon is fine, and I'm glad to see Mr. Jolly's van in N scale as well, the latter I'll be picking up for sure. Still no BR brake van, but it is what it is, I guess. Hopefully that gets announced this summer along with the coal wagon with load.

Large scale getting some form of love is always welcome. The milk tank reintroduction and the fun fair vans will, I'm sure, make people who model in G scale happy to at least get something.

I love the blue Talyllyn announcement, as well as the gunpowder van repaints. I am a little disappointed that the Thomas narrow gauge line didn't get anything new this year, considering all we're waiting on are the gunpowder vans, and those are already finished. Hopefully that changes at the NMRA this summer, which generally seems to be when the more exciting announcements happen. So here's hoping we get some new engine announcements then.

Apart from the lack of narrow gauge announcements on the Thomas side, I'd say this is a pretty solid lineup rolling-stock-wise. Gordon's coaches look gorgeous in the picture I saw from Christian this morning, and I like how the N scale LBSC Thomas and Origin James models look too. They skipped the tail lamp decal on James and only added the red lining, which I'm really glad they did. I'll be passing on both of these, since I am only collecting model era characters only in N but maybe I'll pick up Origin James at a much later point since the tail lamp decal is not included.  But the N scale express coaches I am buying day 1 and I'm even tempted to get the flat car with diesel fuel loads too.

Either way, can't wait to see and hear more updates on these announcements and more later this year.

[DustyMarie53!]

I'm in a weird spot with the announcements especially in HO.

The FQC trucks are cool to see, but knowing wagon yard has already made them and in two colors I feel less excited for it than I should probably be. If it was a more unique color like the goldish yellow from the books I might be more on board, although if this does well maybe that'll come later. (and who knows, if it gets into N it could boost Mavis's chances as well.)

The brakevan is neat, but a little weird it is just RWS spiteful, number and all. It's still neat but I almost would have rather a more generic one to army build better.

I don't really have any thoughts on CGI fuel wagon, it makes sense especially with the new chassis but I don't particularly love this design.

The diesel fuel wagon annoys me, as the stamps aren't made to fully wrap the text so there is some letter cutoff, and the barrels are inaccurate. Expected but not particularly thrilled with that unfortunately. Hope that can be tweaked between sample and final.

The painted express coaches look amazing, and the additional wagon recolors are nice to see. Although a tiny nitpick is the van being in the middle of the sequence of open wagons, not sure why these are segmented like that, maybe the van wasn't the original plan? The two engines look nice, hoping for updates on the new molds soon

G scale getting love is nice, 2 new wagons and a reintroduction is really appreciated. Although the tanker is labelled as Tidmouth, wonder what design we'll get in the final.

Blue Talyllyn very happy about, rode behind her and she's a beautiful loco, will be picking up for sure. Matt alluded to potentially doing Hayden's current livery on stream as well and that is something I'd love to see. The gunpowder wagons are really neat as well.


Overall, I'm not disappointed but some of these announcements aren't as cool as they probably are for other people. Although it makes sense to keep things light while they continue to catch up, look forward to the next announcements.

[[email protected]]

I see that the digital version of the catalog is up, but I can't access it. Can somebody post images of the new products they announced please?

[DustyMarie53!]

Just checked the catalog.

Discontinuations this round seem to be Raspberry syrup tanker, the sodor coal co. wagon, G scale tar tanker, slate truck #178, and the old peco open wagon (no real surprise.)

Interestingly, Knapford isn't in the catalog. I hope this is an oversight and it wasn't cancelled.

[TrainFan97]

Definitely one of the weaker catalog announcements, especially with nothing new for Narrow Gauge, even though the Gunpowder Wagons are the only products for that range we're currently waiting on. Guess we'll have to wait until summer before they announce any new Narrow Gauge engine. Disappointing...

No new engines were announced. Rolling stock only.

HO Scale is getting a new 20-Ton Brake Van, CGI Fuel Tanker and the Ffarquhar Quarry Wagon, N Scale is getting the Blue Open Wagon and Mr. Jolly Van, and Large Scale is getting the Funfair Vans, along with the reintroduced Milk Tanker. Regarding engines, HO Scale at least has Sidney, Mainland Diesel and Flying Scotsman to look forward to. N Scale has Diesel, Paxton, Henry, LBSC Thomas and Origin James. The latter two still have their HO models illustrated in the catalog, but those who went to the event must have seen the actual samples, which haven't been shown online yet. Guess those are the products that Matt teased in the stream earlier this month... The tail lamp on Origin James being a decal ruins it. Could've been molded and separately fitted like on HO Red Rosie. There could still be hope that unpainted samples of N Scale Diesel/Paxton or Henry get shown soon... Still hope for the February stream, or March.

Not Thomas products, but Blue Talyllyn was announced with Ffestiniog Railway Gunpowder Wagons.

At least HO and N Scale still have engines coming, but the lack of anything new for Narrow Gauge is what really made it disappointing when there's almost not a backlog for it at all, with the only new Narrow Gauge announcements being for the Talyllyn line. May not be until summer before we get more exciting announcements. Wasn't there supposed to be a product celebrating 80 years of Thomas as a character, or was it the Ffarquhar Quarry Wagon?

[[email protected]]

I finally saw the images of the catalog. I will definitely get some Ffarquhar Quarry Wagons 'cause they'll look great with my Mavis model. I wish they included a rock load. But then again, if they're empty, I can have them carry other stuff besides rocks since rocks aren't the only things mined at the quarry.

[TRAINSROCK!]

Well today bachmann has released the catalog for 2026.

I checked it out and there's some products I'm hyped up for.

the first is the new Ffarquhar Quarry wagons. (I've been hoping they would do rolling stock for mavis since we're still waiting for the china clay wagons for bill and ben. so I'm definitely going to pick up a few of these upcoming wagons).

than there's also the 20 ton breakvan. (it's just so nice that a piece of the rolling stock from the 80th anniversary set is having a release and it's also refreshing they added another break van into the line since toad and the spiteful breakvan were the only ones available and not any other's so it's great to have a third breakvan). also with the 20 ton breakvan added to the line I got a feeling they might do bradford. (I'm really hoping for that and I'm still crossing the fingers that they'll do samson cause we need samson to go along with bradford).

than they announced the cgi fuel tanker. (probably was expected since they're doing the cgi milk tanker). I think i may pass on the cgi fuel tanker. (I got the classic sodor fuel tanker that one is just better looking to me i thought of buying three more of the classic sodor fuel tanker as a consist for diesel. but I'm going to think real hard about that).

than there's some disappointment I've seen they discontinued the sodor coal co. wagon with the coal load. (I was going to buy a bunch of these as a coal train consist maybe I may just buy one). I mean they might of been the same as the original wagon with the coal load. i thought the green on the sodor coal co. one had a nicer shade of green. (at least the sodor scrap co. wagon is still available i may buy a few of those. though I'm not going to get the mining wagon i thought I would maybe for mavis. but no since they're coming out with the Ffarquhar Quarry wagons I'll do those one's instead).

really disappointed there was no announcements for the narrow guage line. though they've discounted the slate wagon no. 178 leaving the 136 as the only one with the numbers still available. along with the three new ones in different colors. they've also discounted the open wagon that was one of the first pieces of rolling stock when bachmann started to do the narrow gauge engines. (I'm not disappointed with that one being discontinued as I feel the other rolling stock that would follow is a lot better. plus I felt like that wagon didn't fit for the narrow gauge engines anyway).

though they at least got images of the upcoming gunpowder wagons. the d. fusit one i think is the best one of the bunch. (the other ones are nice looking it's just the d. fusit one is going to be the big seller).

I was disappointed that I had hoped they would re-anounce duncan but no. I'm hoping he get re-anounced in the mid year announcements or latter on. we'll just see.

and seeing the n scale line I've seen they announced the mr. jollys chocolate factory van that's a nice pick. and the blue open wagon. (that one was in the ho line for a long while until they discontinued it).

so bachmann has announced some nice products. I'm looking forward to the Ffarquhar Quarry wagons the most along with the 20 ton breakvan. still waiting to see the other products they've announced for the last few years will be released down the road. (there's so many items to buy). hope to see what the nmra announcements are latter this year.

[MrNormalDraws]

Saw the new catalog after I came home! The only things they ended in terms of HO/OO are the Raspberry Tanker and the Sodor Coaling Wagon. I bought the 4 CGI ones, and glad I decided to get them just in case. I thought more were off the market due to a lot of items being out of stock. I kinda panic bought a few items that were out of stock on the Bachmann site, but it doesn't matter. Better safe than sorry. Though I need to buy some of the coal wagons. I'm surprised they are being out of stock compared to the original green ones. I guess it shows some people prefer the logoless wagons at times.

Just checked the catalog.

Discontinuations this round seem to be Raspberry syrup tanker, the sodor coal co. wagon, G scale tar tanker, slate truck #178, and the old peco open wagon (no real surprise.)

Interestingly, Knapford isn't in the catalog. I hope this is an oversight and it wasn't cancelled.

I saw that they're bringing back the Milk Tanker for G Scale, but it says Tidmouth yet it uses the CGI logo. Did they ever called that tanker "Tidmouth" when it was in the market years ago?

[Chaz]

I'm surprised they are being out of stock compared to the original green ones. I guess it shows some people prefer the logoless wagons at times.

The original coal wagon with load continues to sell really well. Christian mentioned to me the other day that it continues to sell out at Trainworld, and they're often ordering more stock. I imagine this is because these are based on actual wagons used in the show, unlike the "Sodor Coal Co." wagons. Based on that and other locations I've seen, I'm not at all surprised the Sodor Coal Co. wagon was discontinued. Hopefully Bachmann takes this into consideration when adding coal wagons in N scale, since the original coal wagon has been a pretty popular request for repaints and will inevitably mirror the same sales the HO model has seen for almost two decades.

[MrNormalDraws]

I was kinda worried that the flatbeds with the logs are going to be off market as they haven't been in stock for months (same with Tidmouth Sheds) and with the oil drums coming, I thought they would do that. But thankfully it wasn't, even though I'm not a fan of the logs.

I'm surprised they're doing the CGI Fuel tankers as well, so I wonder if Bachmann plans to keep both the original and CGI ones together?

[travel_is_fun]

I agree with some, that this is shocking. All but one of the new products announced feel underwhelming as they comprise of repaints. But, I'll let it slide due to the complexities of the world. Besides that, the catalog feels exactly what we saw from last year's catalog with few differences. Flying Scotsman's inclusion and the prices of '24-'25 products such as Henry.

On the positive side, it's great to see Gordon's express coaches painted weeks after the reveal of the same products.

I'm sure that the NMRA convention in August will not be HO only like last year. There's a chance that Bachmann will shine later this year with newly tooled items. We may at last witness the release of Salty after what feels like a student about to graduate from high school. (Time flies)

I apologize for sounding negative, but I needed to share my reflection of these announcements. Many in the forum have mentioned about this year being a catch-up year for Bachmann, how many consecutive years has it been?