+- Blue Plastic Tracks (https://www.blueplastictracks.org)
+-- Forum: Toys/Other (https://www.blueplastictracks.org/forum-37.html)
+--- Forum: Brown wooden tracks (https://www.blueplastictracks.org/forum-30.html)
+--- Thread: Wooden Railway B.A.R.T??? (/thread-4621.html)
Wooden Railway B.A.R.T??? - GreatGordonFan - 06-03-2021
I have never collected thomas wooden railway trains but this got me interested.
So today I found a video on youtube by griffin rails about what is quite possibly the rarest thomas wooden railway toy ever: the BART (bay area rapid transport). This was actually the first time I heard of the Bay area rapid transport railway (stupid me, I know).
Apparently, around 2007, the thomas wooden railway had made - or was planning to make - a BART toy. There is pretty much no information about this toy beyond youtube. The only other website that has something about this toy is this website called wikispeedia (link below). The images (sadly in awful resolution) that I have below are the only known ones at the moment.
A possible reason why it's so obscure could be because it was cancelled due to the lead paint crisis? After all, it is apparently from around 2007, so it could be a reason.
When I first saw the videos about the BART, I was quite sceptical as to wether this is real or just a hoax (I honestly still am a bit), although the wikispeedia page supports it. What's more is that the page was also on the wayback machine and even though it only went back to october 24 2017, it shows the website was way before the video about the bart. And sure enough, the bart images were there.
I have not been able to find any more information about this item, so I want to get anyone who's interested to help in finding more info about this mysterious toy. If anyone has any info about this, please tell me as I really want to know more.
![[Image: hqdefault.jpg]](https://i.postimg.cc/Pp6SjVtw/hqdefault.jpg)
Link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdtyzMTLy1o
Link to the page : Bay Area Rapid Transit (mcgill.ca)
RE: Wooden Railway B.A.R.T??? - jessetrains - 06-03-2021
At first I thought it might have been a whittle shortline train, but it does not look like one.
https://woodentrain.com/
RE: Wooden Railway B.A.R.T??? - jamble - 06-04-2021
This reminds me a bit of Munipals? They make wooden railway versions of subway trains, mostly New York MTA and other subways from that general part of the country. I can't find any of products from them that represent the BART system, and I don't even know if they existed as far back as 2007, so... that might just be a dead end. But the resemblance is uncanny.
The most likely case in my eyes is someone made this on their own for fun, or as some sort of project, and it's not an actual TWR product. Actually, I'm like 99% sure it's not TWR since the wheels and packaging are wrong, and the thought of putting an american subway car in the Thomas branding as opposed to one of the copyright-non-infringing non-Thomas Wooden Railways that LC had ever done is... weird to say the least. As for how it ended up on that wiki article... sometimes wikis are just wrong, lol
RE: Wooden Railway B.A.R.T??? - Tharazero1 - 06-04-2021
It’s not made by Thomas Wooden Railway. It’s made by Brio
RE: Wooden Railway B.A.R.T??? - GreatGordonFan - 06-19-2021
@Tharazero1, I know it's made by brio, but this is the same type of box as the twr items were sold in. Also, the BART by brio is vastly different.
RE: Wooden Railway B.A.R.T??? - GriffinrailsOfficial - 08-18-2021
Just joined the forums, (I am the original video uploader) and It's great to see more people chatting about this topic.
It doesn't have a Learning Curve seal or anything on it, supposedly it was sold (maybe) as a bootleg in a flea market possibly. I have no idea why a custom model maker would go to the lengths of making a box (with plastic packaging).
The Wikipedia image description shows some important details too. The image would have been uploaded at 20:48 on the 22nd of December 2005. It confirms that one of these toys are in Quincy, CA. It also confirms that they were limited edition, and that there were several of them sold.
RE: Wooden Railway B.A.R.T??? - Super - 08-18-2021
Hello GriffinrailsOfficial
Welcome to Blue Plastic Tracks.
RE: Wooden Railway B.A.R.T??? - GreatGordonFan - 08-18-2021
On this higher res image, in the place of the learning curve sticker, it says PEP. No idea what this is as I cannot find any info on that either.
![[Image: 300px-PEP-BART.jpg]](https://i.postimg.cc/nMBtfGTx/300px-PEP-BART.jpg)
Also, since it has no hole to go on a peg, could this mean that it was given out at some in event in 2005?
RE: Wooden Railway B.A.R.T??? - GriffinrailsOfficial - 08-19-2021
Searched up PEP, many logos popped up however none matched the logo. I think it either might be an anagram/initialism, or a safety sticker. The Lead Paint Crisis was riding high at the time, so customers would want to see that the toy for their kid would be truly safe.
RE: Wooden Railway B.A.R.T??? - GreatGordonFan - 08-19-2021
Searching around I found this on the wikipedia talk about brio.
![[Image: talk-brio.png]](https://i.postimg.cc/ftMMRdQQ/talk-brio.png)
Link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Brio_(company)
Even though info on this toy is extremely obscure, you do sometimes find these little bits of info acknowleging the existence of this toy.