Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends

I don't think my geographical region would be fair to judge; NW Indiana is still a mess of 1:1 railroads trying to get from point A to point B. Kids still see these, so I think the Thomas videos would just add to their RR experience, not replace it.

QUOTE: We are big Thomas fans - not big enough to get Lionel's finicky Thomas set- anything I couldn't run on ordinary O27 track is out

I heard this rumor myself, and while I haven't tried running my current issue Thomas set on all the O27 pieces available, it does work flawlessly on my O27 layout. However, I don't currently have any crossings (45 or 90 degree), or any operating tracks. He (et al) seems to run fine through K-Line O27 switches, as well as PW Lionel 1122s (I think that's the number for the O27 manual switch I have on the layout).

If that's all that is keeping you from buying the set, have one run at your LHS. I'm sure almost any shop will have a test layout with O27.

Barring that , if you like, I'll set up a track with a 90 and 45 degree crossing and run them through their paces. I can even add an assortment of MPC era switches to the mix, but I think I still had a few on my layout when I first ran the set on it.

Looking at the engine, I can't honestly see any reason why it won't run on anything O27 that I have not tried already. The pickup rollers seem far enough apart to transverse a crossing, and there doesn't seem to be anything that would get in the way of an operating track section. The 4 wheel coaches go around O27 curves without issue. I don't see anything on them that would prevent them from going down any other tracks.

I'll add this. If you do go to your local hobby shop to investigate, don't bring the kids. I had them run mine before I bought him, and within seconds, every kid in the store (roughly 6, from 4 families, near as I can tell) were Oohing and Aahing at the set. Hardly what you want if they're your own kids and you're trying to figure out if this set will work with your pike.

Another plus to this set is Thomas is geared low enough that he won't jump the track with the two coaches (haven't tried just Thomas alone). The whistle has a nice Thomas sound to it as well, though not quite "prototype".

I apologize for getting off thread with this post,

J White