Backdating Bachmann's Thomas the Tank Engine

After some measurements for fun, I realized that there are wheels that exist in the diameter needed for Thomas' drive wheels in HO Scale, and that they're actually quite common, which means finding tires (the outer parts of the wheel with the flange; what I need for that wheel making program) is actually really easy! I hope that made sense. For example, Bachmann Annie and Clarabel have wheels of that diameter. The hard part would be designing (and getting printed) the inner parts of the wheels to fit the tires and actually removing the current wheel centers to replace them. All I know is that it can be done.

So what that means is that I rescaled the Thomas model I made to be HO scale, which meant a few changes had to be made. For example, the block in the cab that was mimicking the TV model (and would have housed the motor) was now too small to fit a motor in, and I wouldn't have been able to change that, so I took that out, and replaced it with some detail from the Close-Up model's cab (wires may be added after printing to represent all of the pipes).

Since that made it so I didn't have room to fit a motor, I split the model's smokebox saddle and lower part of the boiler from the top to fit where the motor will go instead, just like the concept I drew up a while back. I also found a better way to attach the pieces to each other for printing, and it actually cut the model's price down by more than half (some of that was probably the scaling) in the Smoothest Fine Detail Plastic, which is really awesome! I hope these pictures show what I mean (the inconsistent coloring is a glitch on my phone).





And something I did check before scaling down was if I could find wheels that would work for other engines and rolling stock if I make more. The wheels that come standard with the Bachmann Thomas model are actually perfect for Henry and Gordon in HO, and the wagon wheels would work for any coaches I want to make. Additionally, American freight car wheels typically come in either scale 33" or 36" sizes, the latter being perfect for british wagons! This means that, if I do HO Scale, I can have wheels ready for Thomas, Edward, Henry, Gordon, and James, compared to only having wheels good for Henry, Gordon, and Percy in OO scale! And I'd have more room for scenery in HO Scale, because it's smaller!

Thanks for reading!
-TM2001