I would say NO
Playing with a toy is a long way from trying to recreate the real world in miniature.
When he/she puts Thomas away, is he/she ready for scale modeling?
If and when they aquire a serious interest in MR, I doubt it had any thing to do with thomas
In the late 80s my son and I were already deep into building a model railroad when we began watching Shining Time Station. Ringo Starr as Mr. Conductor, and later on George Carlin were a hoot. The Thomas segment of the show was fun and the nicely done animated models helped stoke our imaginations and creativity.
Regards, Peter
For those who say that you don’t want to have the hobby accociated with childish toys, you have a point, but you also have to remember where this hobby really started to gain popularity: with Lionel/American Flyer toy trains! Most hobbyists today, especially the older folks, started with Lionel! Lionel is seen as quite childish and the hobby is seen as childish as a result. Thomas didn’t bring a new ‘bad’ reputation upon the hobby, it just brought back an old one!
But then is there really a major issue with people seeing model railroading as childish? Connotations of playing with toys or watching Thomas are good and fun, and in model railroading the end goal should also be fun! So what if the general public thinks of model railroaders as grown men playing with toy trains? At least they have it partially right, cause when we are operating our layout we are surely having a lot of fun!
There are my [2c]!
I’ve seen layouts that are based off locations from the series, but the engines don’t have faces and it’s run as through it were a model of an actual prototype. E.g. you’d have models of a Gresley A3 meeting with an LBSCR E2 at a junction.
Wilbert Awdry had a layout based on the books he wrote.
It is now on display at the Ffestiniog Railway station at Towyn, Awdry having been an early member of the Ffestiniog Society.
None of Awdry’s models had faces. They were basically scale models painted in the colours of the locomotives in the books. Since this model dated from the 1950s there werer a limited number of prototypes available. Thus Awdry used an LMS 3F tank locomotive to represent Thomas rather than the Southern Railway E2 class the book illustrations were based upon. Conversely, some characters in the books were based on available models, such as the Hornby Dublo model onf the Metropolitan Vickers Type 2 Co-Bo unit.
This rather odd video shows a number of illustrations of Awdry’s layout as preserved.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnYt7AWNnS8
None of Awdry’s models, although painted to match the books, had faces.
So basically it was just a frelance railway built with available rolling stock.
Rather than the TV series, I would recommend using the original books (which had plots based on real railway operation) as a basis for a model railway, and if it is being built with a child in mind, that the youngster be encouraged to read the original Awdry books, possibly in conjunction with books describing prototype railways in a manner suitable for a child’s understanding.
And I still have the three original Awdry books I received over 65 years ago, along with the hardbound collection of all the Wilbert Awdry stories (His son Christopher later wrote a number of books in the series).
Peter
It’s your layout, so YOU make the rules. However, you risk losing your family (and all but your best friends) if you pipe the theme song throughout the house while running trains.
So what if you use Thomas and Friends as the locos, but have them do their jobs as outlined in the stories - prototypical operation. Now what? Prototypical operation just that the locos and rolling stock have faces on them. The industries around Sodor are well documented in the stories, and the jobs of each loco are as well. That’s a whole different thing than just setting up a 4x8 loop and running Thomas locos.
–Randy
Model Railroading will always be associated with children’s toys, whether Lionel, Thomas, or Tyco.
I have never understood why so many Model Railroaders have such a problem with this. Other hobbies embrace their toy influences.
-Kevin
Polite cough Triang trains followed By Hornby for me err what’s Lionel and American Flyer? [swg] [:D]
“The scientific man about town cannot possibly be seen to be playing with toys” [swg]
Our hobby is no more childish than fighting battles with toy soldiers or racing slot cars.
Let us not forget the difference between men and boys is the cost of our toys.
There is nothing vital or important about any hobby but it might just save some ones sanity this one is a bad mis-quote from Iain Rice.
regards John
We are playing with toys! Why argue the fact? Who says toys are only for kids? Model trains are no different than classic cars or motorcycles. They serve one purpose which is to entertain.
When I was with my old club, I bought a Thomas engine and two coaches specifically to run them at shows. It was amazing to watch both the kids’ and the parents’ eyes light up when they saw Thomas chugging around the layout. The locomotive has authentic Thomas sounds so I could toot the whistle or make Thomas talk as I went past where the children were watching. That made it even better. I can honestly say that Thomas got far more recognition than any other train on the layout!
To answer the OP’s question, I don’t think that there is anything wrong with using Thomas as a basis for a layout. When I watched Thomas with my kids 25+ years ago I envied the guys who actually got to run the trains.[:)] Obviously Thomas isn’t for everyone, but I have to politely disagree with those who would suggest that it isn’t real model railroading. It might not be prototypical in the sense of copying a 1:1 railroad, but it is real modeling.
Dave
I couldn´t agree more, Dave! Finally, being a model railroader is a kind of role playing, the role being an engineer, a yard master, a dispatcher, a freight agent - whatver rocks your boat. For some, the “tool” employed in this play needs to be exact, saled down models of the real thing, and for some, a faint resemblence is sufficient. Some ride on standard gauge tracks, some on narrow tracks.
It´s all the same game!
P.S. I even see Lego trains as model trains!
They can be incredibly close to the real thing!
So do I! Some people may be turned off by the fact that everything Lego is made up largely of little square blocks but the creativity of Lego afficionados is undeniable. I remember seeing Lego’s operating trains at Toys ‘R’ Us when they first came out in the early 90s. If I could have afforded them at the time my whole house would have been full of them so my kids and I could build and rebuild all sorts of layouts! What better combination of play value and learning about electric control could there be?
Dave
Unfortunately, Lego is absolutely neglecting this part of the “brick builders” market, leaving it up to a number of kitchen counter business to fill the void.
I’ve seen some amazing Lego train layouts - like the one at the Philly NMRA show. And a group has come out with a Lego version of my favorite Reading T1 4-8-4, although with all the bells and whistles (literally), it’s a bit out of my price range, especially for something that would basically be a shelf queen. Makes the cost of the MUCH larger, MANY more pieces Saturn 5 rocket I have seem cheap - it’s all the custom pieces they had to make to make it look right AND be a working steam locomotive, siderods and all.
–Randy
I have seen some amazing builds - just like this one.
Or this one.
It definitely could. I spent 80 percent of my childhood popping in vhs tapes and DVDs of the original Thomas the tank engine. Eventually things spiraled out of control and I ended up with a room full of ho scale trains… For those of you who are saying that it’s so unrealistic because it doesn’t follow traditional railroad practices, how many kids do you think would have been interested in watching that vs watching Thomas go on adventures? How many trains can you say you have seen that are alive with faces? The bottom line is that it is a great show to spark interest in the young ones.[2c]
As a teacher, parent and grandparent, I have spent quite a lot of time looking in the toy sections of Kmarts, Toy Worlds, Toys R Us and other shops looking at different products and I have yet to see or find ANYTHING that has the play value using imagination of either a railway layout or Lego in its original format rather than the specialised one off kits.
The Thomas characters add a bit of life to the actions of a railway. It is an unrealistic slice of life admittedly and I do get annoyed at how many times the Fat Controller gets “very cross” and the number of accidents. However our own slices of “real life” might be compressed to a distance between station yards of 3 or 400 scale feet apart so we are not much different as adults.
And there are adults who are Thomas models and layouts inc one here in Australia who has built a replica of the Ffarqharr layout of Rev Awdry. I seem to remember reading in a British magazine that Awdry ma!de the story lines for his ill son based on the layout he had to “personalise” it but Wikipedia offers a different account !
Cheers
Trevor