Interesting that it uses the HO Thomas chassis in its entirety... I suppose the eye mechanism is excised in favor of one fitting Stanley, though. Still, quite an economy. I remember somebody suggested this exact setup for Stanley before, and at the time I thought it wouldn't happen due to the wheel sizing and placement of HO Thomas not aligning with 'CGI' Stanley in the kind of picture-perfect way Bachmann tends to prefer nowadays... This is the same company that opted to make a new tooling for N Scale Toad despite a perfectly acceptable Graham Farish 'Toad' already existing in their tooling library, after all... I'm not sure if I am glad to be proven wrong in this case since its not clear yet just how far this chassis strays from the show model, but I assume for most the exact wheel sizing and spacing will not detract from the Stanley Experience, ha ha.

It does make me wonder if Bachmann will use this strategy for other product suggestions yet to be announced... I struggle to think of any instances that hue as close as Stanley to Thomas, but then again I would have said the same about Stanley to Thomas before this reveal... Spencer's chassis recycled for a Flying Scotsman or Merlin, perhaps?

Either way, this model sample looks excellent and I am happy for fans of Stanley.

A construction workers pack should be an essential addition, what with Ms. Jenny being one of the most high-profile human characters... Some generic passenger packs would be good as well, for the sake of bringing a station platform to life...

I also think it would be worthwhile adapting these figures to N Scale, what with the difficulty of procuring appropriate stand-ins for Sir Topham Hatt and the like... though I do think I will pick up The Hatt Family in HO for my purposes regardless, to recreate the comedy of the old oversized HO figures towering over the engines, ha ha!

Just saw on Facebook that Henrietta's painted sample came in... She looks exquisite! Her detailing is excellent and the Fall ETA is good to hear...

Now, with the exception of the Diesel 0-6-0s and Express Coaches, all of the currently undelivered project for N Scale 'Thomas' have a decorated sample and are seemingly expected to come out within the year... You love to see it...

Needless to say, the annual catalog's offerings for N Scale 'Thomas' are very disappointing... I don't entirely understand why we couldn't have gotten some Open Wagon or Tank Car recolors for N Scale instead of the Narrow Gauge Slate Wagon recolors in HO... The HO Narrow Gauge line is already plagued with a backlog of wagons in the development pipeline, meanwhile the N Scale line is fully up-to-date in terms of wagon releases.

It feels like Bachmann have misplaced their priorities... That said I think it is a good idea for them to not bother with any new tooling in the catalog this year... And, I don't doubt NMRA will yield better developments, given track record of the past few years... But the lack of updates in this catalog seems to me like a major hit to the forward momentum built up by the last two years of announcements.

Someone in my modelling circle showed this to me. It seems Emily's painted sample has made its way to this year's Amherst show...
https://twitter.com/DCCSodor/status/1751267015933751374?s=20

She looks excellent. With all the excitement surrounding Gordon I can understand why there hasn't been as much 'hype' over Emily's development. But I think she is the greatest achievement in the whole N Scale 'Thomas' line. A ready-to-run Stirling Single in N Scale, with the entire motorized mechanism contained within the locomotive is no joke. The N Scale 'Thomas' line is definitely pushing the envelope in terms of locomotive design, and I think Emily should be lauded for it.

I very much hope it sends a message to the rest of the industry, given how the UK outline N Scale market is nearly entirely plagued by tender locos that are either driveshaft-driven or tender-driven. (The only exceptions that spring to mind are Bachmann's own more recent offerings, such as the 8F, 4MTs, Duchesses, and Merchant Navies...) I understand some of those tools are products of their time, but given how many very small tank engines like the Terriers and 14XXs (or indeed, Thomas, Percy, and Toby!) have been achieved in N Scale, one would think a loco with more internal real estate like the Black 5s or Gresley Pacifics would be trivial to make in loco-driven form... (Case in point, hello Gordon!)

Since we're a week away from the 2024 Catalog, I don't have any 'predictions' for anything other than N Scale. I'd still very much like to see Henry announced, as well as some faceless open wagons, and the introduction of vehicle characters such as Bertie and Harold. Given the past year's release patterns I wouldn't be surprised if some of these are being saved for an NMRA announcement. But I do think it would be a bit silly to put off Henry any longer given how easy it would be for them to make him, especially now that Gordon is supposedly hitting the market in Q2 this year.

Henrietta sample looks excellent. It definitely looks like a new tool based on the "CGI" version of the character, face and all. The give-away is very minute. I didn't notice until someone else in my modelling circle pointed it out to me. When they updated Henrietta to include the face, they added some extra support beams to the end of the carriage body with the face. You can see the outer-most support beams on the side facing Toby.

I assume they're keeping the face in that direction because they're somewhat wishy-washy on whether or not its okay for them to show the incomplete faces, ha ha. But it is nice to see Henrietta will have her face after all. Her "upgrades" in the "CGI" show were very gratifying to me. They allowed her to actually participate in stories instead of just being a glorified prop. It felt very natural alongside the expanded usage of other rolling stock characters around that same time. Annie and Clarabel, Toad, etc...

(Making this version of Henrietta also means they can re-use the same tool to make Hannah. I think she's relatively low on the list of "priority rolling stock" as it were, but I wouldn't mind having her in the fleet...)

Quote from: Chaz on December 01, 2023, 09:29:49 AMHello all, a quick question for all N scale Thomas modelers:

A former student of mine and his dad are building an N scale Thomas layout.  They'd really like to add Cranky onto their layout, but obviously Bachmann has no plans to do Cranky in N anytime soon. So I'd like help finding alternatives for them in the meantime.  What would you guys recommend? And if possible, I'd love to see a side by side comparison of Cranky next to the Bachmann N scale Thomas (not Tomix, please).  This could be either the ERTL, capsule plarail or any other brand that has made Cranky that could work with N scale.

Thanks in advance!

Sadly not able to provide a photo due to my layout being in boxes at the moment, but I find the Capsule Plarail toy to be a decent stand-in. I think it might be slightly small compared to his appearance in the show, but it looks fine on its own merits. Unfortunately in N Scale, there's not a lot of viable 'stand-in' options for Cranky or any other tower crane-type character at this size outside of Capsule Plarail toys, since most of their toys in the other toy ranges are far too big to fit well in an N Scale setting.

After a long wait, I finally have gotten my hands on the new N Scale 'Thomas' Box Vans. I pre-ordered these wagons months before they made their way state-side, and yet my retailer of choice (who shall go un-named) took nearly two full months after their arrival to actually get my order into my hands... They were also quite slow with my Toby order, so I think I'm going to switch to someone else's service for the sake of my own sanity...

Anyway, the wagons are excellent aesthetically. All three liveries are colorful and look good in a goods train, and I think the three varieties currently available pair well with each other in a consist. I think my favorite of the liveries is the "Fruit and Vegetable" version, though the "Great Western" version is nice as well (even if it is odd to have an LNER van with GWR markings, ha ha). The white "Ice Cream" version is probably the weakest of the three, if only because its a somewhat more niche and silly wagon. But 'Thomas' rolling stock is nothing if not occasionally niche and silly, so I am glad to have it all the same. All three roll along smoothly and freely when pushed or pulled.

My only complaint about the Box Vans is that they are all very light, lighter than the 7-Plank wagons, even. It makes them feel somewhat cheap, which isn't a great impression to get from something with a suggested price of $36 a pop. Upon inspection, they use the same metal weight piece as the 7-Plank wagons, so I suppose the culprit is the van body being lighter than the open body...? Seems counter-intuitive for the bigger body to be lighter, ha ha. It's simple enough to add extra weight inside the Box Vans, but it would be nice if future releases of the vans could have a more substantial metal weight included to begin with.

That said, my overall impressions are positive. They look nice and run well, and that's what I wanted out of these.

I don't think they can fully recycle the HO/OO 'Thomas' chassis for Stanley. That chassis is far from correct to Thomas' appearance in the 'CGI' series, and Stanley has different enough wheel spacing that he would need a whole new chassis. Depending on how correctly sized they are, I could see Oliver's drivers used for Stanley like they were with Ryan, but given they lack the correct counterweights it would probably be best for Bachmann to just make a new wheel pattern.

I believe CGI Thomas and Stanley share the same wheel pattern, so perhaps Large Scale and N Scale can reuse the Thomas wheels if he were to ever migrate to those scales. But a new chassis would definitely be required in either scale. I'm sure he would be much appreciated as a newcomer to either scale, though.

(Tangentially on the subject of 'shared chassis'; Having further inspected the N Scale Toby model, it's only the wheels that are borrowed from Thomas. the chassis block is fully new and I believe the side rods are new in order to accommodate Toby's shorter wheelbase. Incidentally the die-cast block seems a bit too tall and wide in certain places to perfectly accommodate a future Mavis, but the only thing I think would need changing is that block's shape, the general sizing and wheelbase are otherwise good.)

But anyway, glad to see Stanley finally brought into the fold. At last, that old Hornby "Stanley's Shed" resin building will finally have a function, ha ha!

Gordon looks amazing, very excited for his eventual release. Toad's imminent shipment is great news as well, I think he looks very nice albeit I am disappointed by the adherence to the lettering only being on one side of his body. It is accurate to the "CGI" and "Model" versions of the character, but it would have been nice to deviate slightly for the sake of fixing the show's mistakes and add text to both sides, considering the UK version of the HO Toad apparently does feature lettering on both sides...

I do very much hope we get a confirmation for Henry in the upcoming NMRA show. Frankly I expect N Scale to get the lion's share of content from this year's show, considering every other line is quite occupied right now. Most I'd expect from the others is some rolling stock recolors. (Though out of solidarity I do hope the Large Scale modelers can get a new locomotive soon...) I don't know if we'd get a rolling stock announcement alongside a Henry announcement, but personally I would like to see some faceless open wagons of the older varieties, Red Open/Blue Open/Green Coal Wagon. Express Coaches would be nice as well but may be better suited to a catalog announcement.

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.

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.

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.

I don't think explicit duo characters are something that Bachmann would necessarily be in the market to create right now. This is not an indictment of duos as a concept, moreso Bachmann's constantly rising prices for model trains. For example the price of purchasing both Bill and Ben is higher than buying a big engine like Spencer on its own. And for such small engines as Bill and Ben, even if they are excellent models, it is a poor value for money even compared to an ugly model like Spencer. This is likely one of the many reasons the Iron Twins got discontinued as well, seeing as they were more expensive than Bill and Ben.

The currently available twins (the Scots and the SCC saddle-tanks) in the range are likely only still here thanks to their classic notoriety, and with Donald and Douglas specifically they are not only bigger engines that better justify their price as a duo but also are not a 'mandatory pair' in the same way Bill and Ben or 'Arry and Bert are. Many stories feature one Scottish twin on his own, so having only one of them on a layout is less 'out of place' compared to just Ben or just 'Arry. Likewise, the 'Harwick Duo' are much the same way. While Daisy and Ryan do work together on that branch, Daisy has historically been a Ffarquhar Branch loco in the old stories, and Ryan is a pretty adaptable engine that can go just about anywhere if the modeller so desires. They are more flexible in use cases and will be more successful individually as a result.

I think out of all the characters mentioned in this thread Whiff is the most likely to be made. As far as I'm aware he's been a fairly consistent tertiary character in merchandising and whatnot. In terms of what is most likely to be the next new tool for HO, I'd say he's a solid 3rd place, right behind Nia (who would make sense as a follow-up to Rebecca) and Stanley (consistent request and also modestly popular). That said, I don't think Bachmann "needs" to make Scruff to go alongside Whiff if they do decide to make him. Unless he's significantly cheap, which he likely would not be given Bachmann's recent absurd prices for new train-set-quality tools, I think Scruff would be a pretty poor performer sales-wise. These two are also a bit of a 'one-way pair', since Whiff used to operate as a lone engine (and currently does operate alone in the 2D reboot). So, Whiff does not need to rely on Scruff to sell, but Scruff will rely on Whiff. This means that if Whiff bombs, Scruff will too.

Den and Dart would be nice additions to the range, but are fairly married to each other appearance-wise. So unless they can fix the pricing problem with duos, they might not be especially viable. Which I find a shame to be honest, as they're the ones I like the most out of the characters discussed so far. As for other options suggested such as Porter with Salty or Timothy with Bill and Ben, it's more or less the same case with Scruff. They are also 'one-way pairs', and Porter specifically is hinging his fate on a character who has already been discontinued once. And as illustrated earlier with Bill and Ben vs. Spencer alone pricing, adding a third loco to the Bill and Ben package would not make that value comparison any more favorable, ha ha.

I have a lot of UK outline N Gauge stock and want to convert the lot to knuckle couplers for a switching layout, and figured these could also pull double duty for a hybrid UK/US running session to entertain folks. One problem; the NEM knuckle couplers that are on the market (specifically from Dapol, who as far as I can tell are the only ones making anything like these) are much larger than the typical Kadee-style coupler and won't marry with them at all.

Anybody know any alternatives? Is there hope for Bachmann to provide their own like they have in HO/OO with their NEM E-Z Mates?