Thomas The Tank Engine Diagram

so I had a thought the other day, Thomas the Tank enging had to be filmed on a layout somewere, dose anyone know where they lay out is/was and what scale everything is in?
Just curious.
Gats Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter
intresting
thats intresting. I thought it was in ho/oo scale
yah i thought it was ho scale
In my model railway world 1:32 is known as "1" scale
Intresting, wonder if any pictures exsist of the layouts outside of the show.
watash Passed away March 7, 2010 TrainBoard Supporter In Memoriam

I wonder if the same people make the shows that have the little tug boats that are radio controlled?
MRL TrainBoard Member

I always thought they did, it seems to be the same concept. The boat show wasn't as good.
I have always loved thomas and :embarassed:always will:embarassed:!!! There's something magic about about that show that is always drawing one to sit down and watch. Maybe it's the trains
I even have a thomas n scale collection.
Do you ever set up a diorama to show off trains specifically for the camera?
I think that Thomas the Tank Engine is NOT filmed on what model railroaders would normally consider a layout. Film makers are not concerned with train going round and round, but with train performing actions of script shot-by-shot. Layout "chunks" designed for the camera with long straightaways, single or double track as the particular story demands, probably places details can be changed so it doesn't look like it is going by the same place time after time (although it actually IS going down the same stretch of track over and over)
A couple of nice curves, with track leading in and out. Some station setups.

The Thomas "setup" is probably like a model railroad layout, in the same way that a false-front movie set is like a real town.
Ken is correct. There is no Island of Sodor "layout" on which Thomas is filmed. The show is filmed using a series of large modules constructed as need and then (except in certain cases) recycled.
Somewhere on the Net is a nice description of precisely how the shows are put together, with the number of module/scenery craftmens regularly employed by the show and some rough dimensions of the various sets. Sorry, but I don't have that particular URL anymore.

However, be advised that there are one or more public/private actual Island of Sodor HO/OO scale layouts in the UK, also to be found through a thorough search of the Net re this subject.

NYW&B
some time back MR had an article on how Thomas is filmed. IIRC the "layout" is done in a studio where the cameras can be placed over or in front of the "actors". Computers & animation tricks do the rest.
Did you really think there was a band stuck inside the jukebox?
MRL TrainBoard Member

There's always a possibility
The first, of course, being the one built by Awdry himself.
Aside: I'd always wondered why Duck had such an odd name compared to the other locomotives. Awdry had a model Great Western pannier tank with its drivers out of quarter, so it "waddled" down the track.
intresting, there is always a story behine odd names!
watash Passed away March 7, 2010 TrainBoard Supporter In Memoriam

It would be a fun job to work for that studio!
You all are so silly, Everyone knows Thomas is filmed on the Island of Sodor!
The next thing you know someone will be telling you the Easter Bunny does not exist.
watash Passed away March 7, 2010 TrainBoard Supporter In Memoriam

Well something ate my cabbage plants and left a bunch of colored eggs on my lawn!