I like consistency  I am a Lionel Thomas & Friends collector. I find the range so bizarre and unique, and since more than half of it is discontinued now, I find it fun to try and snag these items. There are other model companies out there such as Bachmann, Hornby, Dapol, etc... but none of them have this strange collectability like the Lionel brand. Lionel just... inherently draws in a collector's crowd. Sometimes it's not about how accurate or detailed the model is. It's simply about if it is a "genuine Lionel product." If it still has it's original box or instructional manual, now you're talking! It is aesthetically pleasing to own the three main engines, Thomas, James, and Percy all in their original early 2000's packaging with their manuals. Some boxes are in better condition than others, but it makes the collection feel a bit more "rounded out." Lionel has re-released these models many times, each time in a different style of p...

  "Why is he looking at me like that?!" Let's make one thing clear: As of 2025, the Thomas on the left is what the character currently looks like and has since 2021. Do you hate it? Probably. Is it stupid? Yeah. BUT - you can't deny that Lionel has done a near excellent job making a model that looks like the current incarnation of Thomas. You literally can't refute me on that because it is the truth. To the basement dwelling incel who made a review of this product on Amazon but didn't actually review the item at all and just bashed me for a few paragraphs because I stated facts - kindly go outside and touch some grass.  😂 Anyways - onto the review! In late 2024, Lionel randomly announced a new addition to their O gauge Thomas line, as well as the first model in an entirely new line they created called "Battery-O." This line is designed to be the same size as O gauge trains, just made of plastic and running on batteries. I don't know, man. Make...

  "Heeerree'sss James!" James is my favorite character from the Thomas series so I was always a little disappointed in how his O gauge model looked from Lionel. In a post from some time ago, I showcased how I made my custom O Gauge James specifically adhering to Lionel's design principals. It was never designed to be a 1:1 replica of what viewers would see on their TV screens, but rather a fun challenge for myself to make something truly unique.  There are no new updates on this model, but it still remains one of my favorites that I have ever made. If you are interested in learning about how this model came to be, by all means please read the blog post all about it! For now, enjoy James in his splendor! https://sodorinoscale.blogspot.com/2020/09/lionel-o-gauge-james-red-engine.html This picture of James was taken while he was still being worked on, hence why he is not smoothed out yet and why his paint is unfinished.

  Here he is! An O scale model of Duck! Making an O gauge Duck was always something I have wanted to do from the minute I began modeling in O scale. But, what I wanted to avoid was getting a super detailed O gauge pannier tank model and just painting it green. I wanted to make a Duck that still looked fanciful. And so comes my inspiration: Hornby's OO scale model of Duck, released all the way back in the 80's. I have always liked this model over Bachmann's HO version. Bachmann's is absolutely fine, but I liked Hornby's nice mix of "realistic" but still looking like an engine from Thomas. A happy medium.  I found an old O gauge shell of a pannier on eBay and it looked just great! I had to find a green paint that matched Hornby's version of Duck which proved very difficult. But once found, I got to spraying the body (after letting it soak in a liquid that dissolved any glue or rust from the shell). The chassis is a lima 0-6-0.  And here are the two model...

  Right before Bachmann released their HO model! I don't care what anyone says, I liked Beau when he appeared in the Thomas show, even if his inclusion was only a mere few minutes. I thought he had a quirky, kooky personality. And as a fan of American locomotives, Beau ticked all the boxes for what I believed would be a great character. This model was very easy to make as it was simply a repaint of a larger scale "RTP" Lionel 4-4-0. Ignore the tender sticker peeling, I had taken this photo just a few moments after applying it to the tender!  The face was the hardest part to make for this model. There were never any toys made of Beau so i had to get creative. It was 3D printed! I finished this model just in time for the summer so I am looking forward to running this loco all summer long. This is a model not many people asked for, but if you make models for others and not yourself are you even enjoying the hobby? Beau is cool.

  And here he is: The Sodor Troublemaker.  Diesel is a model that was released in 2007/2008 and was discontinued sometime around the 2010's. Diesel was then reintroduced in 2014 with Lionchief controls and stayed in Lionel's catalogue for a few years before being silently discontinued again in 2016-2017. Luckily, in 2019, Diesel along with Thomas, Percy, and James were re-released (again) with Bluetooth Lionchief controls! What a wild ride! So why don't we get started? Diesel is perhaps one of the best models in Lionel’s “Thomas & Friends” range. This may not be saying much, but there is more to Diesel then meets the eye. Much like the other models, do not go on Google and look up a picture of this model, photo-shops and poor quality photos do not do these models any justice. When you physically see the Diesel model you notice a lot of unique details. For one, unlike many of the models in this range, Diesel cosmetically is near perfect. Proportionally, he looks great...

   Thomas the Tank Engine He is an engine who needs no introduction. Meet Lionel's O Scale representation of Thomas the Tank Engine. This model was originally produced back in 1996 and has been around in Lionel's catalogue ever since. Over the course of nearly two decades, Lionel has changed very little with this particular tooling. If anything, they have only ever updated the mechanism inside! But let's take a look at this infamous little engine. When it comes to colors, Thomas looks just as he should. With a bright blue paint job, red lining, and a bright number one on both sides, Thomas looks just as he appears in all official media. Over the course of this model's history, paint application has gone from good, to great, to poor, to simply okay. The images you are looking at here are from the 2017 release. The 2019 (Bluetooth) release is a bit of a brighter blue than seen here with but cosmetically all is the same.  Details are where we begin to start nit picking. On...

  Certainly a vintage face... perhaps even a little scary. But if we just all got off our high horses for a moment, we could actually see just how charming these Thomas' are. "The Railway Series" was a series of children's books released in the 1940's which served as the basis for the eventual "Thomas & Friends" franchise we know today. Thomas, while not a main character in the books, usually appearing periodically, was quite famous so naturally a show was made about him. The rest is history. But take a look at these pieces of Thomas merchandise all from the early 80's. These have been modified in some way, so I hope will enjoy the descriptions. Up first is the first Thomas toy to ever grace the world - a small die cast train by ERTL. Notice his glued on paper face. Back then, the Thomas television show was so new there were not many sculpts that were offered to toy manufacturers. Instead, the ERTL company used "The Railway Series" book...

I think what makes modeling Thomas so fun is the challenge. The challenge of trying to replicate what is seen on television with the very limited resources Lionel have created. Their models are not perfect - not by a long shot. But, when the odds are stacked against you it is only more motivation to push the envelope of what can be created. Modeling truly is so much fun.  

  Let me tell you about one of the most confusing scales in the world. Every time I explain it to someone they just cannot wrap their heads around it! Let me introduce you to a scale called "O-16.5" scale." This scale was designed specifically for narrow gauge track and locos/rolling stock to fit in scale with O gauge locos/track/rolling stock. Take a look at this picture here. If you work in O Gauge and have a Lionel Thomas but wanted to make a custom narrow gauge engine that was in scale with Thomas, you would have to use O-16.5.  What you see here is a custom Skarloey model in O-16.5. Notice how he sits and runs on HO/OO track... yet his is significantly taller and wider than literally any HO/OO model train on the market. O GAUGE NARROW GAUGE MODELING IS NOT HO SCALE. It just so happens the rail width between O-16.5 and HO/OO scale is exactly the same. But if I wanted this picture to look more accurate and realistic, I would have to swap out Bachmann's black EZ Tr...

  When filming model train videos, one must always consider scale. In real life, locomotives are these almost "larger than life" vehicles that carry just as much power as they do weight. When building a set, I usually try and make a physical example of a "picture painted" in my head. Think of trying to bring an illustration to life. In a way, whatever space you are working with is your canvas - so you must fill your canvas with every detail the illustration introduced. There is a difference between making a "set" and making a "layout." A layout is like a miniature world - specifically honing in on a very small part of this world and highlighting all of it's features. A set however, is just placing the details necessary to convey visually what you are trying to get across. Building sets and layouts in O gauge is massive. People think they could never imagine to make a set in G scale, but to be honest, the jump from HO to O feels like G scale. ...

  Here it is. The ultimate challenge. The impossible has been done. Fixing the Lionel James.  This was, without fail, the HARDEST model I have ever customized. The challenge was daunting. Lionel's O gauge model of James is unanimously mocked for how inaccurate it is. Shall we compare?  Let's see... Lionel's James has hilariously undersized and under detailed buffers. Inaccurate yellow lining and dome as opposed to bronze/gold. A short and squat look. An incredibly long face. And the most egregious of all: the super wide boiler. James is depicted on Lionel's model almost like a saddle tank!  First off, I wanted a challenge. I wanted to make a version of James that improves upon the official Lionel model, but still "feels" like a Lionel model (flaws and all). So, I wanted to stick with the chassis he came with. 3 rail.  The only 3D printed part on this entire model is the lamp. That's it. Everything else is actually customized off the original Lionel James! ...

 James the Red Engine James the Red Engine sparked a brand new moment for Lionel in their Thomas range, as it was the first new loco tooling to be created since the late 90's. James released in 2006 as a conventional control unit but was eventually phased out by the 2014 Lionchief offering (being reviewed here). This version then got replaced by a Bluetooth Lionchief release which hit shelves in 2019. Whether it is James' 2014 or 2019 release, James is for some reason a very hard model to find. Perhaps they do not make as many as they do for Thomas or Percy. And perhaps that is for good reason.... I was lucky enough to find that my local model train store had the original 2014 release in the starter set box still for sale in 2017. I promptly purchased it. James was always my favorite character in the show, so it was great to have an O gauge version of him available to run on my layout. The starter set comes included with a loop of track, the Lionchief remote, a specially painte...