My wife got some of these DVD’s for my 1-1/2 year old son. Of course Daddy is enjoying them also [:)]
What scale is that show created in? I’m guessing it’s G scale-ish (I know, G isn’t really a scale, but you know what I mean…)
OO?
There was an article in MR some years ago on the making of the TV show, it said the models were a fairly large scale. I don’t remember if it was a commercial scale such as G, but they were big. The eyes on the faces were moved by radio control.
Perhaps a Google search on “making Thomas the Tank Engine” or something like that might turn up an online item.
Try this link
http://www.pegnsean.net/~railwayseries/ffarquhar.htm
This tells about all there is about building the original thomas layout!! The Thomas models available now through Bachmann are “HO”, but they seem to be more “OO”. I doubt your son will care either way!! Start him off with the wood set - my grandkids played with them for a couple of years after mastering the HO ones, & they’re almost impossible to break![:D]
I believe they are OO/HO, OO scale running on HO track, the largest scale/gauge combo in Britain. OO being 4mm to the scale foot to HO’s 3.5 mm.
The difference doesn’t seem like much, .5mm, but it is quite a difference in actual size.
An OO scale man and an HO scale woman
Not that scale has anything to do with Thomas
Harold
As far as Thomas on TV, IIRC an article on these when they first started making the programs (back in Ringo time) said they started with German No.1 gauge (1:32 scale standard gauge, using the same track as LGB does for narrow gauge) engines and kitbashed them into UK engines. BTW the ‘layout’ is on the floor, to make it easier to work on or photograph, and except for a few commonly used scenes (like Tidmouth Sheds) the scenes are just whipped up temporarily and then taken down after filming the scene.
As for model Thomas engines, he’s been available from Bachmann in OO (1:76th scale running on HO (1:87th scale) track), Lionel three-rail O gauge, and I think N (or British OOO) too.
Stix is correct. The models used in the TV show were I believe Marklin mechanisms with custom made bodies. The faces were interchangeable to get the expressions and the eyes were remote controlled. There were also some scene shot with much smaller models, so the scale was not actually the same for all the filming. There was not ever and actual complete formal layout as such. That really is not needed for filming purposes, they simply built the scenes they needed.
Good information regarding the show in general, also has info regarding some of the models used.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_the_Tank_Engine_and_Friends