Bachmann's 2019 Official Thomas and Friends Announcements

Dear Thomas & Friends™ fans,
Below is a list of the new items we are announcing for 2019. This is the COMPLETE list and the ONLY new items that will be announced in 2019. Happy rails!

HO SCALE THOMAS & FRIENDS™
Item No. 58819 ROSIE - RED (with moving eyes)
Item No. 77001 MINING WAGON WITH LOAD – BLUE
Item No. 77002 SODOR COAL CO. WAGON with LOAD
Item No. 77003 SODOR SCRAP CO. WAGON
Item No. 77004 SODOR LOGGING COMPANY FLAT WAGON with LOGS
Item No. 00755   THOMAS’ CHRISTMAS DELIVERY (new Christmas set)

N SCALE THOMAS & FRIENDS™ 
Yes, we are introducing a completely NEW N scale line of Thomas & Friends™!

Item No. 58791 THOMAS the TANK ENGINE™
Item No. 58792 PERCY the SMALL ENGINE
Item No. 76094 ANNIE
Item No. 76095 CLARABEL
Item No. 77096 TROUBLESOME TRUCK #1
Item No. 77097 TROUBLESOME TRUCK #2

Please watch Bachmann’s website, www.bachmanntrains.com, for the official announcements of new Thomas & Friends™ product arrivals.

This was posted by InsideTrack on the Bachmann forum earlier today. I am not sure how I feel about the announcements. I think the N scale range would be cool, but it entirely depends on if they are going to be scaled like standard British models or if they are going to be the same scale as the Tomix line. It also depends on what the prices for them are like. I suppose this is better than the dream I had last night though, where literally everything was Percy (I have no idea how that happened). The new Christmas set seems like it will be cool, too, but I am going to reserve my judgements for all of this until the Catalog is posted to the website. So, I guess, in short, this year could either be really cool or completely fall flat.

Nice, I was hoping that Bachmann or someone who also exports to the UK would pick up the licence now that Hornby had dropped it. Something I think they will regret in the long term...

I’m guessing that the N scale line will be in US/European 1/160 scale rather than UK 1/148 or Japanese 1/150.

@Nigels: Didn’t Bachmann take over the Thomas license in the UK? I thought that was the reason Hornby no longer had it but I might have imagined that entirely.

Some people are hoping that they release them to the same size as Tomix. I personally hope they don't. The Tomix Thomas range isn't even correctly scaled to Japanese 1:150. They are a lot larger than British N scale trains, which, in reality, they would be slightly smaller, following the numbers. In fact, using sunhuntin's measurements, the small engines (Thomas and Percy) are the same size as my HOn30 scale trains, which would have a noticeable size difference to correctly scaled n scale trains. I am really hoping that they produce them to be either 1:160 or 1:148 scale because those two scales at least look good with each other. I think that they might do 1:148 scale, because, for the HO ranges (1:87), they used the toolings from the Bachmann Mainline and Branchline ranges (both 1:76.1) for everything that did not need to be custom molded for the Thomas theme (Even then, everything else was scaled to 1:76.1 for consistency). An example of where they needed to compromise with this was with the Bachmann Duck. In the Model Series, Duck and Thomas both had the same size of wheels. The Bachmann Duck's wheels are smaller so that he wouldn't have clearance issues based on the NMRA standards. They could easily use the Graham Farish toolings for the 2 Troublesome Trucks, then scale everything else to follow that. I really hope they do this option.

On a completely unrelated note, I believe the Bachmann N Scale Thomas range is my answer to curing the 'Might-As-Well Syndrome.' If the tooling for these models is 1:160 or 1:148, I will do everything I can to support this range. As I will collect these models, I no longer will have need to buy the HO (really OO) scale range, because I won't want to buy all of the characters twice. This also eliminates many of my 'wants' of the regular OO scale stuff. The only one it wouldn't really affect would be the Narrow Gauge models, although, I'm not sure if Bachmann will make more of them. Apparently, Mattel had a lot of issues with the way Bachmann had designed Skarloey and Rheneas by making them accurate to real life and not the show (which is also apparently why Rusty is taking so long to be released). This also will make it easier when I leave for 2 years when Summer 2020 hits. When Bachmann made the Large and Narrow Gauge ranges, they released the initial products in the year they were announced. If the N scale range follows this, I will be able to buy them, leave, and come back when they have only released a couple more models. The nice thing about these is that there is a finite amount of models that I will be able to buy over the coming months: Rusty, Blue Carriage, Red Carriage, and the N Range listed above. Another nice thing is that N scale track isn't completely expensive, so if I do decide to replace the EZ track I currently have, I won't need to spend a lot on track. I really hope this N Scale range turns out to be a good thing.

i am also keen to see the N scale stuff, and how it stacks up against the tomix. i likely wont buy any, as my layout really cant fit any more items without major changes, as it was designed to hold the tomix range, and only that range. even when they did last years re-release i was concerned about them adding new characters and not being able to fit them on the sidings.

my friend blair is keen on the log wagons and will likely buy 6 or 7 just of those. lol. hopefully he will also get rosie, but i dont know his opinion on her red color scheme, and he has the lavender already. be keen to see what the new christmas set hold, too.

Nice, I was hoping that Bachmann or someone who also exports to the UK would pick up the licence now that Hornby had dropped it.  Something I think they will regret in the long term...

I really don't know to be honest, all I know was the Hornby announcement that they were discontinuing the line, Bachmann models had been available in the UK - possibly as imports - long before that happened.

Hey Nigels, this is something I wanted to point out in particular. As you know, the Bachmann HO scale models weren't available in the UK due to Hornby holding the rights to Thomas in OO scale. This did not affect the Bachmann Large Scale Thomas models at all, which are available in the UK, because no one had made Large Scale Thomas models in the UK before Bachmann got the license. Similarly, no one has held the rights to make N Scale Thomas models in the UK, which will hopefully make the same thing true for the upcoming range.