I picked up a video of this show to watch with my (very) junior VP. Thomas is nothing new to me; I have looked through a few of the books, but it reminded me of a few things I have observed about Rev. Awdry’s little world.
As an American railfan, of course, I have to guard the loyalties a little. After all, Brit railfans are aggressively and notoriously Britcentric and will have you fitting screw couplings, and even using the words “fitting” and “couplings”, if you don’t watch out. Besides that, there are those troublesome faces, though only the crustiest of hardened curmudgeons can say that giving engines faces isn’t cute (and again, these faces are quite undeniably gathered from the British Isles, just as much as the engines are).
Once you get past the faces, though, you realize just how realistic the modeling is. The engines are, of course, grounded in reality. I just realized that what I thought (to my shock) was a non-evil diseasel was actually a Bulleid Leader! The scenes, however, are very lifelike. If this isn’t always in a rivet-for-rivet-duplication sense, it’s definitely there in a timeless-country-railroad sense. Furthermore, the realism is more than in appearance. Many of the stories, if you think about them, are some typical real-world incident placed into the fantasy setting of Sodor. Consider the story where Thomas’ fireman calls in sick, and the railroad has to charter a bus to take the passengers to their connection, which is also, of course, missed…I would say that this is not an unheard-of start to many real-life comedies.
In fact, I think that Thomas’ magic railroad teaches its viewers more about what a railroad is about and how a railroad works than a many “serious” television shows on the topic…though “many” isn’t really the word here…there aren’t many of those.
As an American railfan, of course, I have to guard the loyalties a little. After all, Brit railfans are aggressively and notoriously Britcentric and will have you fitting screw couplings, and even using the words “fitting” and “couplings”, if you don’t watch out.
And American railfans aren’t just as parochial? NOTE: I’m not trying to start anything, just pointing out that our British cousins are in good company.
Consider the story where Thomas’ fireman calls in sick, and the railroad has to charter a bus to take the passengers to their connection, which is also, of course, missed…I would say that this is not an unheard-of start to many real-life comedies.
In a real world setting, a new fireman would be called in. In the US, he’d be called in off the extra board. I’m not sure what the Brits would call it, but I’m sure they had enough qualified firemen to have a few spares around for just such an occasion.
I like Thomas, being a grandpa and all that. Three of my four grandchildren just love Thomas and it’s also showing itself in an interest in real trains. The fourth grandchild is too young yet, but he will also be assimi…er, I mean educated in the finer points of ferroequinology.
It makes a lot of sense to me that the episodes carry more than a little philosophical cargo. That’s what the Good Reverend intended. The stories were written to educate, as well as amuse, his own children - to start with.
In some of the chapters in the book, certain incidents will ring a bell (or several) with anyone familiar with the preservation movement in the British Isles. It’s all written so a child can read and understand it, but there’s good reason for a (now) great-grandfather to enjoy it as well.
On a practical note, at least one Japanese modeler has taken N scale models of Thomas and his four-wheeled friend and kitbashed them into reasonable-looking freelance models of Japanese tram locos for his HOn762 empire. I’m keeping that in mind if I ever get to the point where my 762mm Kashimoto Forest Railway is more than a static display.
Puts on sunglasses and trench coat to hide identity. Yeah I like Thomas.If it brings kids into the hobby then what the heck. I think some of the shows are kinda cool. Its funny to see a locomotive scared of something.
So yes I may grumble and call him Thomas the Skank engine but hey when a little kids looks up at the Heisler and says “Thats just like Thomas!” and he says he wants a train or run a train when he gets older then thats all right by me.
I used to watch Thomas with my nieces years ago and have always liked the show. I think it’s a good idea to run and build a layout using Thomas as the main theme, after all we’re ALL model railroaders. Heck, I run an HO model of BART and MUNI on my Gn15/on30 layout - definitely unprototypical but FUN. When I was a kid I wanted a model of Toodles.
Speaking of railfans, when Thomas visited the Boothbay Railway Village last year, I helped with our HO display layout. It was amazing how much that young crowd knew about railroading, although with a definite British flavor. There was talk about shunting, buffers, dangerous turnback curves and other stuff. We ran an HO Thomas on our raffle layout, much to the delight of our visitors (watch Thomas eyes move). This year we will have to decoder Thomas to get him running on the BIG layout.
I’d like to hear from some of our teenage members on this one. They’re old enough now to have a “history” in Model Railroading, but still young enough that Thomas was part of their childhood. (To me, “Clarabelle” was the clown on Howdy Doody. Yeah, that old.)
Anyway, for those of you who did grow up with Thomas, did it provide that initial draw into MR for you? Or did you immediately toss it off as a “silly toy” and move right to prototype models?
After no more than a couple of minutes of watching a Lifelike F unit and freight cars go round in circles on my kids first trainset, my then 2 year old son and 3 year old daughter were begging for Thomas !
Nearly 2 years further on and they still love Thomas, although now they are just as happy to run “real” steam and diesels. I’ve been teaching my kids how to use an NCE Powercab and they have picked it up really well and enjoy operating anything with sound.
But just as often as they want to run my “toys”, they still want Thomas and Percy on the track, and if Thomas is on TV they still sit quietly and watch the show. ( and so do I ! )
And as someone else said, if it get’s them into the hobby, it can only be a good thing !
They’re 2, they’re 4, they’re 6, they’re 8, shunting trucks and hauling freight, red and green and brown and blue…
Well I am 46 and I grew up with the Thomas books. I can’t say that they had much influence on me getting into MRR, that was more down to my Dad getting me a Hornby train-set for Christmas one year.
Skip forward a generation and my boys were avid wooden track Thomas fans. At 8 and 10 they have essentially grown out of Thomas. The wooden track still gets played with on occasion but it now runs the Whittle Short line trains http://www.woodentrain.com/
I really don’t think that the wooden trains translate into lifelong MRR fans. Perhaps those kids that get a Bachmann electric Thomas set will graduate to the wider hobby?
I wonder what # turnouts are used in the above picture.
Personally I had no exposure to Thomas and I don’t enjoy watching it. I will chime in with the above posts saying that if it gets kids interested…then it’s ok wtih me. I just don’t want to get asked to MU a Thomas-style engine to Atlas/Athearn/etc…LOL!
Yes I had Brio (I think that’s what they called them) and Thomas wooden trains. Although now I wouldn’t buy one of the Bachman one unless it was for a little kids running trains at my house, which won;t happen soon since I am still building my layout. Although there is a talk of a school MRR club!
If Bachmann continues on their current kick of adding DCC to everything in their line, I’m going to find it very hard to resist a DCC equipped Thomas when it comes out.
Well my son may be an exception, but he’s only 5. He has a huge wooden set in his room that gets used daily. I have the “big trains” as he calls them in the basement. I have incorporated his dc Thomas set into my larger dcc layout. That way he can run his trains and Dad can run his. It’s a blast. We have the tracks crossing over and under, so it really does look cool, and he loves it, so who cares? Prototypical, no. But we have so much fun!!! Someday he’ll grow out of Thomas, but not out of MRR. So it will be a very easy rewiring job to get his loop on the dcc system.
How old do you think a child should be before they get thier own Wooden (Brio) Trains set?
I also am planning on investing in a Thomas and Hogwarts model train, I belong to a club and I think is we do happen to get more public involvement (It a long shot though) We will then have Thomas for the little kids, Hogwarts for the older kids, and real trains for the big kids(a.k.a adults)…
And I also grew up with Thomas. Well, back when it was still Shining Time Station… It was pretty cool until Goerge Carlin took over the Mr. Conductor role after Ringo Starr. The other day I was off work and channel surfing before dragging myself out of bed. I can across the new Thomas show… Sure, its educational. But why can’t they have a show like they did back in my day, something that was taught a life lesson and was entertainment as well. I just think that there are too many kid’s shows on now that try to teach things taught is schools (not saying that is a bad thing), rather than help reinforce things in real life… Just my 2 cents though…
I have Thomas and my children to thank for getting me involved in (3 rail) model railroading. I bought the kids a Lionel Thomas set for Christmas a few years back. We all liked it so much, we built a layout together. Before purchasing that set, I had zero interest in model railroading of real trains. Now my kids and I share a wonderful hobby together.
Love Thomas! I was disappointed I couldn’t find Thomas on the “telly” this Sunday morning. And they were suppose to be new episodes too!![:(]
I’ve mentioned I got Thomas stuff for my girlfriend’s boys, including the Bachmann stuff to run on “the big” layout. They have wooden stuff and the plastic Come Along stuff which is battery operated and the die-cast stuff with it’s own track. It all gets them interested in trains and railroading, which is a good thing. The Thomas stories are all little morality plays and teach a lesson, as intended. They boys play well with Thomas and his friends and really do start learning about the “real” railroads and how they work.
We(I) also have the Bachmann trains for “the big layout” Emily came in about a week ago and is waiting for a sound decoder (once the little ones get sound you’re stuck, and yes the decoder is more than the engine). Last Sunday the boys were down. The big one was stuck on the computer games but the little one was running Henry with a passion. He is diligent in stoping Henery to pick up passengers and to get water and coal. No bad for a six year old!
So, the more Thomas the better. Beats video games.
Guys,A interesting side note…A lot of the railroad museums that has a “Day Out With Thomas” calls Thomas “Thomas the bank engine” because of the great turnout of people that come to these "Thomas Day " displays.
