My wife and I are wanting to get our grandson a Thomas the Tank HO set. Who makes the best quality? I’ve seen the Bachmann, but it’s not the spectrum series, so I’m kinda skidish.
GDS,
How old is your grandson? If he’s 3 or 4, I’d go with the wooden one. It will provide him hours or ceaseless enjoyment and challenge him to using his imagination and creativity. He’ll be able to tear down and rebuild his layout any which way he wants to. An electric one may still be enjoyable but be a bit more confining, if he’s fairly young.
Just a suggestion…
Tom
I’d say the Hornby version is a better model - I have another of their 0-6-0 locos that shares a chassis with Thomas and it’s a great design. The potential snag here is that Hornby equipment may be hard to come by or expensive over there - Hornby recently released a train pack of Thomas with 2 coaches for around £30 (works out as around $55 - maybe less if you were to mail-order it trans-atlantic as you’d be able to get the 17.5% sales tax that we pay knocked off (buyers from non-EU countries don’t have to pay this). www.ehattons.com have all the currently available Hornby Thomas models with photos, they’re also a very good supplier in my experience. Hope this is of help!
Thanx for the replies, yall. I wasn’t really looking for something for him to play with. We can get that stuff at Wal Mart anytime. They got all kinda Thomas stuff. I was just wanting something to run for him on our layout when it’s finished, so he wouldn’t feel left out.
In N scale there is the Tomix brand and they have a number of sets out
He might need your supervision though. The aforementions are also great suggestions.
Another question. About the Hornby stuff. It seems it’s all OO gauge. Is that right, or is there some available in HO?
OO from the UK runs on HO track in the USA. I have a Hornby THomas that runs on my layout. I’m going to put a decoder in it as well!
The Hornby equipment is all in OO - this uses the same track gauge as HO though so you’ll be able to mix the two. What you will find is that the models will be noticably larger than your HO equipment (OO is 4mm scale, HO is 3.5mm) and you may possibly have some clearance problems (unlikely though - US HO models are usually larger than British OO). OO is a scale/gauge combination that’s been with us since the dawn of time - the original problem was that the early electric motors wouldn’t fit into (smaller) British locos if they were built to HO scale, so they were scaled up to OO but kept the same track gauge. Some people like to regauge their OO models to 18mm for accuracy though this requires you to build a lot of your own track using copper-clad ties and bulk rail. The other thing to be aware of with Hornby is that they use the tension-lock coupler rather than a knuckle-type. These work pretty well and are robust, a few newer models are equipped with the NEM pocket that can handle suitable Kadees so you could easily have one of these with a tension lock on one end and a Kadee on the other if you want to haul anything else with Thomas. Hope this is of help!
Okay, well that clarifies some things a bit better. GDS, I would think that the Bachmann Thomas would be just fine for your grandson. The quality should be okay. Your grandson (AND grandpa) should get much enjoyment out of it and, one day, look forward to “graduating” to a more prototypical locomotive as maturity grows. (For your grandson, too! [:D])
Tom
Yup. I think the Bachmann is the way to go now, too. I’m a real stickler to scale. It would bother the snot outta me to have something on the layout that aint HO scale. Even if it is a Thomas the Tank. Bachmann it is.