TandH's thomas customs

Hi, my name is T&H, I'm gonna be posting about the tomy/trackmaster thomas customs I've made. To start, I'll post about some of my favourites:
Edward:

My Edward is very much inspired by aduckproductions RWS Edward, with the taller funnel and visible boiler. Not much to say except I might replace his tender at some point with a Gordon one so his tender can have a centered wheel base.

Henry:

My favourite character, Henry's biggest mod is that I removed his splashers as I really don't like them on henry. I also had to replace his coal load with a custom one made from wood and the tape used on wooden outdoor things so you can grip onto them. (I don't know what that tape is called) also, I changed his and Gordon's rods so they have an extra bit on top so it's more representative of the valve gear they have in the show.

Spencer:

Spencer has been given the type rods that Gordon and Henry have. I believe I was inspired by someone else on here who did something similar so thank you to that person! (I should probably try and find that post) not much else to say except he has the same rod mod and has a new tender to engine coupling.

Rosie:

Rosie has several mods, I based her more so on her irl basis rather than the prop. I changed her wheels to black ones as I thought it looked nicer, I removed part of the running board and did the same rod mod like Henry and Spencer. I'll probably go into my rule of thumb for which locos I do this rod mod to at some point.

Rebecca:

Still a wip, Rebecca is a plarail one I got on ebay without the face, hence why it isn't here. I replaced the wheels and tender with ones from a neville (the tender I got separately and the neville wheels I got like 7 months later.) Not finished but I do want to get a face for her, any recommendations?

Sixteen:

My best custom (so far) sixteen was made out of a tomy percy with bufferbeams from a tm2 percy, middle wheels from a thomas, a scratch built saddle tank as I have no spare bills or Bens, and a Rosie face modified using miliput. The front wheels are also from a tm2 engine as they are smaller and removes the need for a splasher or having a gap in the running board.

Geoffrey:

Made on the fly, Geoffrey is based on the "character" thomas made up in "who's Geoffrey" (I think that's what the episode was called) I made him out of a red c-12 as it was a big red engine and fit the bill as Geoffrey. I gave it bufferbeams and 2 middle wheels from an adventures percy to make him an 0-8-0, just to be different to my other c-12 and to make him look more powerful.

Henry in blue:

Basically old shape Henry, I made him out of a 2012 trackmaster henry with the standard mods, taper the firebox, remove the steam pipes etc. I decided to go with the blue livery so he could be different to my normal Henry. I do want to go back and redo him at some point though.

98462:

One of the engines in the shed from "Edwards day out" I made him out of a Gordon with a back running board piece from a Henry. I gave him a tm2 james funnel and made the tender look more like a Henry tender. He's mid redo at the moment and is being worked on with another engine. I also based his design on max the modelling dudes TVS 98462, so credit goes to him for that.

87546:

The other blue engine from "Edwards day out" he's made from a Gordon, with a Henry boiler and James cab. I based him on an LNER B4. Not much else to say as he's still being worked on. 

W&S No.4:

An engine from the lore books, I'm making him out of a stepney as it's widely agreed upon that W&S No.4 is a terrier. I've opted for an Isle of Wight bunker which isn't accurate to the time period but I think it looks cool so I'm fine with it. Again, not much to say as he's still being worked on.

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Nice work T&H 👍

Some more customs + an update on 87546:

Gordon:

Like Henry and Spencer, my tomy Gordon has the rod mod. But he also got a new bodyshell from an 09 Gordon. So its the best of both worlds in terms of running and looking nice.

Stepney:

A few small mods done, I repainted the yellow on the stickers as they were faded (will probably print new ones at some point), painted his face and removed his lamps and replaced them with very tall lamp irons like he has in the show.

Billy:

I always found it strange that, despite being the same class of engine, Billy's trackmaster model was longer than Charlie's. So I cut him down and made him shorter. He's actually a tiny bit shorter than Charlie now. His buffers were also cut down. I think it was to make him look more consistent with the other engines. Final things I did was paint his face a bit and give him some weight in at the front so he could run better.

1020:

An engine from the books who only appeared once, 1020 was made out of a 3rd party trackmaster Donald or Douglas and the cab, smokebox of a tomy james and the tender of a 2015 plarail Gordon. I want to go back and redo him at some point as he doesn't have the smoothest finish.

87546 update 1:

Begun work on 87546, I cut off the dome and top feed from the henry boiler and made a new firebox out of miliput. I also cut off the buffers and filled in a few gaps on the running board. I also have changed his tender to a james one as it has the right buffers and isn't corroded to the point of being unsalvageable.

These look awesome!

I'd recommend using some light wood to help with the shaping of the milliput so minimal sanding work is needed and it doesn't make the loco super heavy.

Looks great though! Can't wait to see the finished results.

Fast tracked customs + some old ones + arthur:

Arthur:

My arthur is a trackmaster one, with only mod done to him is the rod mod similar to Henry and Gordon. Arthur however does have running issues as when he runs on curves, there's a small clicking noise. I'll have to look into it at some point.

The little blue engine:
Based on the engine from the book "the monster under the shed" they're made from a 2012 Edward, with parts from a tm2 percy and cab from a james. I want to redo them at somepoint using a lady cab and a thomas running board as I'm not really a fan of the prepositions on this one.

Coffee pot no.1:
Basically the railway series equivalent of Glynn, this is scratch-built upon a truck chassis like how the engine is described. I made them with the image the wiki had as reference before we knew they're actual basis so they're in the queue of things I need to redo at some point.

Edwards ghost engine:
Basised on the ghost engine from "scaredy engines" I originally made this around March last year as it was originally a custom Douglas before I got a proper tomy one. The reason why he's red is a long story but to put it shortly: I originally made him the red engine from the rws illustrations in "the sad story of henry" in a tvs alternate universe where the ghost engines were around in season 1. He's mid redo at the moment, hoping to be done by Halloween. 

The ghost train:
This is the one that has been fast tracked onto my custom list. Based on the ghost engine from "ghost train" I've Based him on a GWR 1361. The cab is from a Stanley, the saddle tank from a Peter sam, the smokebox from a thomas and the chassis is from a tomy percy. I ordered a lot with a bunch of Thomas' (both tm2 and 3 tomy ones) so I'm waiting for that to arrive before I can continue. Tm2 thomas' make for great funnel and buffer donors. That's all for now, fingers crossed I can finish these 2 by Halloween!

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Very nice customs T&H, you have a great imagination.
That 'clicking' you hear on Arthur is usually caused by a cracked gear most likely the gear that is directly on the motors shaft although it could also be on one of the other gears..

Some diesels:

Diesel:

My Diesel is a 2009 trackmaster one, with the only mods done to it being a painted mouth, painted handrails and moving siderods. I've done this mod to all my diesels, but would like to either get new axles for the wheels or super glue the cranks onto the wheels as hot glue isn't the strongest.

Arry:

Same mods as Diesel, but with added weathering. But what I think is notable about my Arry is that I got one that was new in box. Arry and Bert rarely show up on ebay, so when getting them, I went with what I could find and got it if I had the money.

Bert:

The same mods were done, but Bert is also interesting as I think he's a earlier release than Arry. A few things I noted were that Arry has triangle head screws while Bert had cross head ones and Arry had the wheels with holes in them for the box, while Bert doesn't.

A ghost and the iron giant:

Timothy:

The only reason he exists is that I had the parts to make him and because its funny. Anyway Timothy (the ghost train, not the oil burning engine) was made out of a thomas with several mods. I decided to fully E2-ify him to make him different to thomas. I also have carved wrinkles into the face to make more accurate to the elderly thomas face, which was a joke face based on David mittons face made by the modelling crew of magic railroad (fun fact for thoses unaware). Not much else to say.

The Iron Giant:


My interpretation of the ghost engine from Halloween, this is my favourite custom I've been making recently, but also the most dangerous (2 injuries is the most I've had while working on it so far, only tied with the first version of the little blue engine) Anyway, it's made out of several Gordon parts, with a tender from a talking james, which I used specifically because its bigger than the standard tomy/trackmaster tender. This is the first time I've used a dremel for a custom and it helped a lot making the holes in the boiler, hollowing out the smokebox and shaping the face. (I'm not showing it here as its scary more so in a gorey sense than a spooky one.) I used cotton buds as boiler tubes and miliput was used heavily in sculpting the firebox. Very happy with this one so far.

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Very imaginative 👍