The Fake Thomas

[ianmacmillan]

The real Thomas WAS electric.

He was a Wills 00 guage E2 bodykit on a triang chassis.

Rev Audry played out his storys to his kids on his model railway long before the books.

[tripman]

Thanks Ian. Spot on mate.

[tripman]

Here is a REAL Fake Thomas.

[davidaward]

Hmm I wonder if they'd paid rights to HIT for that one.......... The Yanks may be sending a swat team as we speak

That replica at teh zoo looks horrible, cheap and nasty, advertising it as 'steam' is false and shoudl be seen to by trading standards especially as preserved railways have to go through so many loopholes to run a thomas.

[arabiandisco]

All thomas' (apart from the ones in the books) should be scrapped. Horrible mobile scrapheaps with the world's most annoying whistle.

Actually, I'll come back from that a bit and say the NVR can keep theirs. Because HIT make precisely nothing out of that one...

Is it an urban myth that HIT (or Britt Allcroft, or whoever was milking it for all it was worth at the time) very graciously allowed the bluebell railway to run 'Stepney' without paying a license fee?

[Garthion]

All thomas' (apart from the ones in the books) should be scrapped. Horrible mobile scrapheaps with the world's most annoying whistle.

Actually, I'll come back from that a bit and say the NVR can keep theirs. Because HIT make precisely nothing out of that one...

Is it an urban myth that HIT (or Britt Allcroft, or whoever was milking it for all it was worth at the time) very graciously allowed the bluebell railway to run 'Stepney' without paying a license fee?

As the Thomas version of Stepney was based on the REAL Stepney, what do you think? If they tried to get the Bluebelle to pay for the use of Stepney I rather think they'd be told where to get off

[spartacus]

Think they had a big arguement with the Middleton Railway, which owns the real Percy, but not sure who won.

[MuzTrem]

It's horrible. The way the wheels overhang the rails just dosn't look right at all. It's simply no subsitute for a real steam engine at a real preserved railway.
As for which engine came first - it was Edward. The story goes something like this...
Christopher Awdry is two years old, and in bed with measales. His father had been entertaining him with nurserey rhymes. Christopher's favourite was "Down at the Station Early in the Morning", so Wilbert drew some pictures to illustrate it, and, just to make them more amusing, added faces on the front of the engines. The engines had various expressions, happy, sad, cross etc; and perhaps because Christopher was feeling ill, it was the engine with the sad face that appealed to him the most.
"What's that engine's name, Daddy?"
"Edward." (This was the first name that popped into Wilbert's head.)
"Why is he sad, Daddy?"
"Because he's old, and he hasn't been out for a long time."
"Why hasn't he been out for a long time?"
"Because the other engines are bigger and stronger than him, and the drivers choose them first."

And that little dialouge eventually evolved into Edward's Day Out, the first story of The Three Railway Engines, the first Thomas book.

I know, I know, I know far too much about these things...

[arabiandisco]

All thomas' (apart from the ones in the books) should be scrapped. Horrible mobile scrapheaps with the world's most annoying whistle.

Actually, I'll come back from that a bit and say the NVR can keep theirs. Because HIT make precisely nothing out of that one...

Is it an urban myth that HIT (or Britt Allcroft, or whoever was milking it for all it was worth at the time) very graciously allowed the bluebell railway to run 'Stepney' without paying a license fee?

As the Thomas version of Stepney was based on the REAL Stepney, what do you think? If they tried to get the Bluebelle to pay for the use of Stepney I rather think they'd be told where to get off

That's basically the story I heard - HIT (or whoever it was) approach the bluebell complaining about their use of Stepney, and retract it in a hurry when they are informed that HIT's (or whoever) Stepney is actually a copy of the bluebell's, not the other way round.

It's basically the same as the NVR's "Thomas" (which has to be the least convincing Thomas in the history of time!) - they can get away without paying any royalties because it was named "Thomas" by a certain Rev. W. Awdrey.

Long live Ivor the Engine

[TrueScotsman]

Edit: Errrr..... look at the pointwork folks......

Poor James is stuck lol

I think Mid Hants Railway has a Thomas and Douglas which are both built from Hunslet engines and douglas has a tender made for it.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Thomastrain.jpg) and SR N class as James (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:3187 ... m_TTTE.jpg)

[117305]

I think a certain man of the cloth, woudl be turning in his grave if he saw that "thing" that claims to be thomas

[arabiandisco]

Edit: Errrr..... look at the pointwork folks......

Poor James is stuck lol

I think Mid Hants Railway has a Thomas and Douglas which are both built from Hunslet engines and douglas has a tender made for it.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Thomastrain.jpg) and SR N class as James (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:3187 ... m_TTTE.jpg)

Actually both 31874 and 31625 are painted red with a '5' on the tender. (An N and a U - one of them is the only survivor of their class, I think it's the 31874, but I'm not sure on kettle matters).

The Thomas J94 conversion is actually quite convincing.

[prairie4566]

Actually both 31874 and 31625 are painted red with a '5' on the tender. (An N and a U - one of them is the only survivor of their class, I think it's the 31874, but I'm not sure on kettle matters).

The Thomas J94 conversion is actually quite convincing.

James - quite appropriately - is currently 31625.

The MHR Thomas is the best IMO.

[arabiandisco]

Actually both 31874 and 31625 are painted red with a '5' on the tender. (An N and a U - one of them is the only survivor of their class, I think it's the 31874, but I'm not sure on kettle matters).

The Thomas J94 conversion is actually quite convincing.

James - quite appropriately - is currently 31625.

The MHR Thomas is the best IMO.

That might be the one that's currently in front of the main shed (next to Thomas), but there's another one at the back of the boiler shed, hidden behind the sleeping coach.

The MHR Thomas is the one that looks most like the TV series Thomas, but the "best" one is the NVR's unconvincing version, for the reasons I explained earlier - Awdrey named it 'Thomas', so there ain't a damn thing HIT can do to get money from them for using it.

[MuzTrem]

That might be the one that's currently in front of the main shed (next to Thomas), but there's another one at the back of the boiler shed, hidden behind the sleeping coach.

I've got a picture of both of them, taken from the overbridge outside Ropley during the End of Southern Steam Gala:


Click the image to zoom in


The one in the background is the N, which is indeed a unique survivor.

The MHR Thomas is quite good, but my big gripe with it is that the wheels aren't actually big enough to fill those prominent splashers at the front! I'm sure Joe Public dosn't notice, but to my enthusiast's eye it just dosn't look right.