Judging by the reference photos from the announcement page, I'd imagine they'll use the Large Scale models, face and all. For Percy, I'm sure they'll have to retain the chassis since it looks great on his old model. Thomas, however I'd imagine they'll use Stanley's wheels with the side rods to make him as accurate as possible.

So it's confirmed by Matt on the live-stream earlier today that both Thomas and Percy will reuse the chassis present on their old models to keep the costs down, unless if there's some modifications to be made, like maybe reusing Stanley's side-rods since it's more closer to the CGI Thomas model we know of...

After tonight's stream, it sounds like Thomas and Percy's chassis' will be mostly reuse. If it keeps costs down, I guess that's fine by me. The new bodies being designed around these ancient chassis' does bring up a few questions:

-Will Percy's shell remain a split design to fit around the current gearbox?

-Will the weight be improved? The plastic gearboxes make them much too lightweight.

-Will the siderods be retooled for Percy? I think Thomas should reuse the rods from Stanley as they're a perfect match. Hoping Bachmann keeps this in mind.

I think the siderods are a main concern at the moment. I really hope the old ones aren't carried over to the new models.

Besides that, Matt did allude to rear lining for Thomas and possible DCC capability for both so that's pretty neat.

Will Percy still have counterweights is the question I wanna know?

Quote from: RailsByRick on August 13, 2026, 08:16:00 PMBesides that, Matt did allude to rear lining for Thomas and possible DCC capability for both so that's pretty neat.

That was easily the highlight of today's stream for me—the possibility that the new Thomas and Percy might be DCC ready. This is something I've discussed before, and I really hope they go this route, as DCC is the usual go-to over analog at almost every club I've been to.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: if/when they get to James, I really hope they go this route and, more importantly, introduce James with DCC and sound on board like they did with Thomas and Percy. They already have James's sounds in the DCC module, so I think it would be well worth the investment to make these newly revised models DCC ready and kill two birds with one stone by introducing James as DCC-ready while also giving people another version of James with DCC and sound installed and ready to go.