I am thinking about building a Sodor Island layout in HO for the Thomas the Tank Train trains. Is anyone aware of a sample layout that I could use as a starting place to get ideas for a layout? Thanks.
This seems to be a good place to start for ideas: http://www.pegnsean.net/~railwayseries/mapsection.htm
This seems to apply to the wooden train sets commonly associated with Thomas, but has some ideas you could probably use: http://www.legacystation.com/ThomastheTankLayouts.htm
Gidday Joe, Some years ago some of us at the local club built a portable “Thomas” layout. It was on three levels, two ovals on the bottom which is joined by a 4% grade to an oval on the second. The third was ¾ of a loop on which Toby ran, controlled by a “To and Fro” unit where he disappeared into a tunnel at one end and had the washed out bridge which featured in one of the stories at the other. The 2nd level oval with its 18 inch radius curves was Thomas’s domain, and the bottom two loops were for the mainline engines. The three levels created their own scenery divider and we had a station on both levels. Mini scenes were also made depicting most of the Thomas characters, (I qualify this by saying these were from the Reverend Awdrys books). The aim of the layout was to let youngsters at shows to actually run a train and their turn usually consisted of a couple of circuits which included stopping at the station to pickup or drop off passengers.
For our own few junior club members we had also incorporated several turnouts which could turn the bottom two ovals into one “long” run, and we also built a yard for switching. We were surprised that the yard was never used as such and that they were just happy in running the trains round in circles.
So what I guess I’m really saying is that it really depends on what you are trying to achieve and for whom? And that a simple loop could be a good start.
Joe,
This is a great site and I don’t know if this is allowed but I don’t think it will hurt.
The Bachmann forum has a thread just for Thomas and friends. Here is the link to the Layout thread…
http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/board/index.php/topic,19871.0.html
Lots of pics if you have the time.
Jerry
My son’s layout began life as a Thomas layout. It’s a 7’ oval with a passing track and two sidings. We used structure kits from Heljan, Kibri, and Faller, as well as cardboard kits from an English company (I can find out which one with a little effort; send me a message if interested) and some home-made decals to create various Sodor locations – Farmer McCoel’s farm, Tidmouth docks, etc. These European kits gave it an English flavor, so it didn’t matter to my son that they weren’t identical to the places in the videos.
If this is for your children, a similar approach will probably work for you.
Ah! An interest in Thomas! My freelanced HO basement layout (16x23’) needed town names, and because my son son is totally hooked on to Thomas I made all town names and the general arrangement based on the maps Mike shared on his link #1. Here’s my route graphic:
The “West” and “East” points will be connected to each other for a continuous run with a swing bridge.
At first, I’d wouldn’t worry too much about recreating Sodor per se, but learn as much as possible about British railways, since Thomas, his friends, the towns, rail lines, etc. are all based in large part on real British railway lines.
The Bachmann Thomas line is 4mm to the foot “OO” (“Double-Oh”) scale, the most common scale in the U.K. OO and HO use HO track, so the track gauge in OO is a bit narrow. Even if you only use Thomas, James, Gordon and the other engines, you can get freight wagons, passenger coaches, buildings, bridges etc. designed for OO scale railways. Bachmann makes an extensive line of OO equipment…which unfortunately it doesn’t offer in North America, but you can find places online in the U.K. that you can get them from.
Hi
Step one purge your mind of all imigary and other garbage with any association with the TV shows
These often bare no resembalance to the orriginal Thomas stories.
Be aware that the stories where writen in the 1930’s or there abouts to a different moral compass to todays life styles.
You will have to research 1930’s british railway practices thoroughly as these will apply to your railway I also recomend reading the orriginal stories.
Bachmann Thomas loco"s are a must these are better runners than the more correct appearance Hornby Thomas range
They are now hard to find but the Hornby Thomas resin plonk and play buildings are very good I know I have some in a town setting on a model and they are never picked from the rest of the town buildings.
Revernd Awdery (spelling) was a railway enthusiast and railway modeller so followed British railway imagery and practices in his stories
He also built a couple of model railways set on the Isle of Sodor which is between the Isle of Man and the Welsh coast.
For an exedingly large sum of money you can if you can find one get a proper ordinance survey map of the fictional island
I would not look for one it is a highly sought after collectable now
But far more important than my mad rambalings Have fun
Watch it if you get it wrong your childeren, grand childeren or other child reletives will let you have it far worse than any of us ever would.
regards John
I really appreciate all of your comments. I have been collecting all of the Bachmann engines and cars to date so have a good collection so far. I am hoping to build this layout for my grandson who is now 5. He watches the TV versions of Thomas so that is the version that I guess I will try to follow. I probably won’t try to actually duplicate everything but will attempt to get all the important features that show up in the TV shows so that it bears some resemblance to the shows. When I started this Post I was hoping someone might have tried to do the same thing and could send a picture of the layout to get me started. I have all the maps that I could find on-line so I know what the Rev. was doing in the original. I guess a blend of the two will be the ultimate result. I will add that I automated the Tidmouth Shed turntable that Bachmann sells by buying their motor operated one and adding a few extra pieces of track. I didn’t like the fact that they used the steel track for the shed and turntable so now it has the Nickel Silver rails. I was glad to see Bachmann add more buildings to their product line this year. Makes for easier construction. I’m sure I will be building some custom ones from scratch but at least these will be a good start. Thanks for all the suggestions and help. I think I know where I’m going with this. I’ll post when it gets well along the way.
There are several video/computer games on the market that are based upon Thomas and his friends. Many of them have maps of the Island of Sodor that depict the island’s railroad(s).
It might be worth looking in used game stores for a few of these games which should give you some good ideas for your proposed layout, its structures and place names. Most of the games we have were based upon the television series so they should be familiar to your grandson. I know that both of mine enjoyed them.
The games we have were produced by Infogames out of New York.
We have Thomas & Friends: Building the New Line and Trouble on the Tracks. Both of which are computer games and fun for the small fry and contain a lot of scenes that would be fun to model.
Hope this helps. Good luck with your project and keep us posted on your progress.
Hi Engineer Joe
I WANA PLAY WITH THOMAS!![:D]
There have been purely thomas layouts built often much like we would aproach building our models but you don’t see much about them in the model press or on the net.
Please do keep us posted on progress I am sure a lot of us would enjoy seeing it grow and develop.
Have fun
regards John
Close, but no cigar! Sodor’s connection to the mainland is at Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, in the Northwest near the lake district. Walney Island, a banana-shaped island about a mile and a half wide just off the coast, became a location on Sodor. I uses to travel there on business. When I got back from one trip, my then 4 year old, asked me if I went to Sodor. I had to regretfully inform him that it was a made-up place.
[:(]
Hi CT Valley RR
Oops!!
Looks like i am collecting my books and heading back to the bottom of the class[:'(]
regards John
Here’s a link to a UK model railway seller, just to give you an idea what OO buildings are available. Remember Thomas is OO not HO, 4mm=1ft not 3.5mm=1ft., so buildings, people, autos etc. should really be OO / 4mm scale. But a lot is available, but may need to be special ordered from the U.K. If you search the web, there may be some US hobby shops that specialize in UK products. I know there are some that do German model RR
products.http://www.sheffieldtransportmodels.com/category/oo-scale-buildings-structures/
Remember the driver (engineer) is on the left of the footplate (cab), not the right, so signals are on the left side of the track. On double track mainlines, trains run left-handed, not right.
John, you need to go sit in the corner and wear the pointed hat…[D)]
I only care because I’ve been there, and I think it’s pretty cool!
Hi wjstix
Except for the Great Western Railway whose drivers where on the right hand side of the cab
So Duck and if Emily is based on a GWR single should have there driver on the right of the cab
On some things the GWR was very different to the other railways right from the begining and this was true right up to the modern privatization of the railways.
This is a small part of the reason its so popular with the UK modellers those differences make it instantly recognisable and stand out from the rest even in BR days.
regards John