Thomas T.T.E. Again

[Triplex]

A

tank engine means that it is a tenderless loco (the water tanks are on the side and - normally- coal "bunker" behind the cab). The wheel arrangment has a "T" prefix afterwards.

You get different tanks- Thomas is a normal tank engine. Thomas is known in proper railway terms as a 0-6-0T.

A pannier tank has it's tanks on the side too but not connected to the running board- like Duck?? Duck?? is known in railway terms as a 0-6-0PT.

A saddle tank (like Percy) has it's tank over the boiler. In railway terms 0-4-0ST.

There's also the well tank configuration, with water carried between the frames. This is indicated by the suffix WT. I don't know if any engines in Thomas the Tank Engine are well tanks.

In the US and Canada, we just use the T suffix for all of them.

There are also tender tanks (suffix TT). This means that the water is carried on the engine but the coal or other fuel in the tender. These are not common.

 

[60103]

To go to extremes, the Beyer-Garratt locos were classed as Tank engines; you sometimes see them described as 2-6-0+0-6-2T.
One of my school chums used to be able to pronounce 040ST as "awforost".

 

[MadHatter]

There are also tender tanks (suffix TT). This means that the water is carried on the engine but the coal or other fuel in the tender. These are not common.

Yip, forgot about that one, S. Africa had one known as the Class 13. Here is a drawing of one, as with the diesels and electrics I will post all our steam locos- slowly but surely though!!

 

[Myowngod]

Then they see the HO scale Thomas The Train stuff that's displayed right next to the wooden Thomas! Dad had better have an HO layout so that Mom can buy the Two Kids HO Thomas and Friends! Or else, Dad is going to use this as an excuse to get back into the hobby - but with the kids.

Bob M.

This is a great excuse to have a layout built. I only had a 18"x72" timesaver type switching layout to my name. Lack of space in a condo, with 2 young kids. Well, my daughter(4.5yrs) is really into Thomas... so Dad(me) seized the opportunity to get another layout out of this. Christmas was on it's way and we need a train for under the tree. I convinced my wife to have a 48"x48" HO layout under the tree. We syarted out with one of the Bachmann Percy sets and then I went nuts from there. Now the layout has passing siding, an engine service facility,a mine, an interchange, mountains, river, bridges, etc. Of course it's still a work in progress, long after chridtmas . I'm surprised how much I fit into a 4x4 space.

2 layers of 2" foam, glued together in a criss-cross pattern.
View attachment 36110

The double layer allowed me to make the river deep.
View attachment 36111

I bought another sheet of 3/4" foam to build up the hills and mountain.
View attachment 36112

below red is approximately where the tree stand fits.
View attachment 36113

Still more scenery to do.
Remember... this is for Thomas and friends. Dad rarely runs his trains on it, hehe. Yeh, right!

 

[MadHatter]

myowngod, love it.

Are you planning on purchasing the star of the show- Thomas? Are you gonna keep a train in one of the siding while one runs around or will all the trains run @ once?

 

[rogerw]

nolatron tracks ahead comes on here in 30 minutes. But before it comes on I get to watch red green show on pbs. saturdays are great.
I wish netflix had the tracks ahead disk in there invintory

 

[jkristia]

Ron, that is a great small layout for running Thomas and his friends on.
I just the other weekend decided to buy the Thomas set for my 3 year old nephew (yes I know he is too youg, but boy did he enjoy it), and since I know it will be several years before my layout is in a state where I can actually run trains, I'm thinking of building a simple 4x8 layout just for Thomas so he has that to play with for the next 3-4 years until he is old enough to play with my layout which hopefully is 3 or 4 years is in a 'running train' state.
And yes, his parents did tell me that I'm trying to brainwash him , and it is wll worth it when you see that little excited face.

 

[Myowngod]

Are you planning on purchasing the star of the show- Thomas?

I already have him. These pix were taken before he arrived from Santa Clause. I need to taken more pix because the scenery looks better now and river bottom is painted. Behind my house is a field full of weeds and bbushes that make great trees. Ah, free. I love that.