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!! ;D), and would be over the moon to see more Thomas and Friends trains in my collection
Sorry, but as of now, Bachmann does not produce the narrow gauge engines. :( But who knows? There's always the possibility :)
doubtful on the narrow guage. ho using n scale track is uncommon. if they did do narrow guage it would probably be on30.
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.
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).
I'm a bit unclear on what that means. Will the skarloey models be smaller than the HO models? As they should be.
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. :P
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.
What about Rheneas or Sir Handel or Peter Sam? Or even just Rusty or Duncan?
All good suggestions but I still think Victor should be next. Just keep them coming! There are lots to chose from. :D
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.
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.
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
I'm not familiar with Hon&1/2, Hoe, 009 but from their description I would think this is HOn30.
Quote from: jleight on February 19, 2015, 04:12:52 PM
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
To clear up any confusion, HOe is the European term for HOn30, both are HO scale (1:87),running on 9mm (N) gauge track. OO9 is the British version, however the scale is different. It is British OO scale or 1:76 . ILike HOe and HOn30 OO9 also uses 9mm (N) gauge track.
I suspect the Bachmann Thomas range will in fact be OO9. BacHmann is introducing a prototype OO9 range in Britain.
Bachmans Thomas range is not really scale in any case, being representations of the TV characters, not scale models of the original prototype engines. The scale difference, if there is one, shouldn't matter.
Hamish
Looked up the gauge definitions also. I agree with what you say about being scale. Being fictitious characters there is no real scale. Bottom line is Thomas runs on HO Gauge track and the new Narrow Gauge Skarloey runs on N Gauge track, or 009 or whatever you want to call it. I'm still excited to see them offered. Now the wait! ;D
Well the characters are based off of real life counter parts ( i.e Thomas is an E2, Skarloey is based off of Talyllyn). Maybe Bachmann might take it into consideration to consult Skarloey's basis because he and the rest of the NG engines (excluding Duncan) have been produced in scale for the show. They went and measured the Talyllyn railway engines to make the characters look more accurate to their counter parts.
I have seen this thread for narrow gauge Thomas plenty of times over the years. First bachmann is relishing hon30 WW1 locos and cars. There is a web page that you can find all the equipment. Parkside Dundas has everything you get most are kits and not all the cars had faces in the 4th series. I have been planing to build a welsh narrow gauge with my exciting american hon30 railroad, but as always that will take some time.
You can start purchasing PECO hon30 track and find some cheap N scale locos for scratch building mostly you need the mechanism.
good luck with your hunt
They actually have announced a narrow gauge line for Thomas starting with Slarloey and some wagons. Or is that to what you were referring?
They have released hon30 locos and cars but not the Thomas range. What they are releasing is WW1 locos and cars. you can find it on bachmann eruope.
Quote from: uscgtanker on March 18, 2015, 07:28:40 PM
They have released hon30 locos and cars but not the Thomas range.
Bachmann announced a narrow gauge Thomas range that will be coming out in the future. You can find all of the upcoming items here:
http://shop.bachmanntrains.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=258_259_972
Wow i did not know that at all till you posted the link. price is a little high but will look really good with a string of talyllyn coaches.