After looking at this image, I think that making the new Bachmann line in scale with the standard 1:148 British N Scale (smaller than Tomix) would be the smarter move as there is currently much more that is offered through that than there is in the Tomix range. Moreover, this would make sense since Bachmann is now offering their entire Thomas range in the UK, so UK modelers will want to have Thomas models that are in scale with their other British products. What are your thoughts? And for those who have already stated their preference, does this image change it?
My two cents on the scaling:
Personally, I don’t think that Bachmann Trains will have the new N scale models be the same size as US and UK standard N scale. I don’t even think that they will be matching Tomix either. If anything, I expect Bachmann to go down the same road as they did with large scale and create a generic “Thomas and friends scale” like they did with large scale. They did this with large scale because most of their large scale equipment (non-Thomas) that Bachmann Trains offers are mostly narrow gauge and they wanted to go with something that would not only be larger and more kid-friendly but they wanted to make it stand out more compared to their American large scale offerings.
With N scale, I think the reason that they will likely go with a different scale is, again, size. They want to introduce people into the hobby of model trains, and the Thomas ranges have done an amazing job at being a stepping stone for getting people in the hobby, including the Skarloey range. Because Thomas has proven to be great at doing this, (especially for children), they want to offer models that are sturdy as well as something that will be larger than standard N scale products to allow smaller hands to handle them, all while giving them a more toy like feel like the HO and large scale models do. Tomix clearly did the same thing hence their larger size. I can’t imagine Bachmann will match Tomix size perfectly, but I imagine it would roughly come fairly close to the large size that those models are.
I agree that it may be a turn off for some, but at the same time Tomix took the exact same gamble and that clearly paid off in its own way without matching UK or even Japanese N scale products. I’m thinking this will be no different in the case of Bachmann’s new range. Sadly we won’t have an actual answer for a year from now once the models are released but as long as these models are basically the large scale models scaled down to N like I have been hoping, then I don’t see why the sales for these wouldn’t take off.