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