A Guide to the Rolling Stock

Another hugely important aspect of the Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends model series we have yet to discuss is the rolling stock. The rolling stock in our opinion, is really what grounded the series and combined with the sets, gave our colorful train characters a more grimy and realistic foil. One could argue the frequent use and presentation of mostly realistic looking rolling stock is what separated Thomas from any other generic train related children's show, where the people behind it barely had any clue how a railway actually works. Most fans can agree it the rolling stock was a big part of charm the model series had, particularly in the first 5 seasons.

Various rolling stock as seen in the season 4 episode "Toad Stands By". 

Here in this blog we will several (but not all) types of rolling stock seen throughout the model era. We may do a part 2 in the future discussing types we did not cover, but everything would just be too large to fit into a single blog post.

7 Plank Open Wagon

Probably the most iconic and recognizable wagon in all of Thomas is the 7 plank open wagon. They were easily seen the most out of anything and are the first thing the come to mind when the term "troublesome truck" is mentioned. There were several versions of this staple wagon seen throughout the show. 

The original version as seen here was simply a Tenmille seven plank vaccuformed kit painted grey/brown and weathered. The kit was built as per the instructions. It's easy to tell these wagons apart from others because they have the railing at the very front above where face goes. Every 7 plank built for season 1 has this feature. 

Here are 3 kit built vaccuformed tenmille 7 planks. As you can see they look exactly like the season 1 version besides the color, and have the railing at the front. 

The 7 planks built from seasons 2 to 5 were nearly identical and were made from the same tenmille kits. However, they lacked the railing over the face as seen on the season 1 version. Some (but not all) were painted a washed out green. No season 1 7 planks receive this color. 

One the season 2-5 version (left) the front end it flush with the sides whereas on the season 1 version (right) the front end is lower then the sides and a railing sits on top. 

The next and final variation is the resin 7 plank. These were introduced in the 7th season and were engineered so parts from older tenmille wagons could be used on them and vice versa. They looked nearly identical to the season 2-5 tenmille 7 planks. The giveaway is that the detail, especially the rivets, is much more pronounced. The first wagon in the photo above is resin while the one directly behind it is tenmille. It's easy to see the difference in detail.

The resin 7 planks were originally only painted in dark green, but in seasons 8 and 9 they started appearing in much more colorful/toylike colors.

We actually have 2 different 7 planks in our collection. the first is a tenmille season 1 7 plank as seen here. You can see it has the railing above the face. We have actually identified this exact truck in the show a few times as seen on our Twitter page. It's impressive to think this wagon survived the entire model era from start to finish. Most of the season 1tenmille 7 planks were painted flat back around season 6 like ours however a few were painted green with black bracing. 

The second in our collection is a resin 7 plank made for season 7. This is one of the original dark green ones and had been weathered. 

7 plank wagon kits as seen in the 1983 Tenmille catalog

Tankers 

Tankers were another staple of the Thomas model era and were seen in variety of liveries throughout the years.

The standard tankers seen from seasons 1 to 9 were standard tenmille tanker kits. However a few specialty tankers were made for seasons 8 and 9 from resin. 

The only time the tankers were ever seen with faces was the season 4 episode "Toad Stands by". The faces are the same ones used on the season 4 narrow gauge slate wagons. 

The cream and raspberry syrup tankers were made new from resin for the 8th season, but were not copies of the tenmille design.  

Resin copies of the standard tenmille tankers were made for season 10 as seen here in the episode "Toby's Afternoon Off".

Many of the resin tankers were/currently are on display at Drayton Manor. 

Only one of the iconic "Sodor Fuel" tanker was ever made, as seen here on display at Nitrogen Studios back in 2013. 

Here's a photo of our Tenmille tanker. Note the wheels are smaller then the ones seen on the show. The tenmille tanker kits were supplied with these smaller wheels. On the show, the same wheels used on the 7 planks were used on the tanker. 

Tenmille tankers as seen in the 1983 catalog. 

CCT/Utility Vans

The CCT vans have always been fan favorites and appeared as both regular utility vans as well as the
mail coaches, of which several versions exist.

The first version of the CCT we see is a stock tenmille kit save for the fact that bogies replace the single axle wheelsets. 

The bogies used on the CCT and mail coaches as seen in the 1983 Tenmille catalog.

A CCT built as per the kit instructions was also made for season 1 as seen here in the season 5 episode "Something in the Air". 

The mail vans built for season 3 were made to the design of the bogie CCT van as seen in season 1. 

The CCT as seen in the 1983 Tenmille catalog. 

A kit Built Tenmille CCT painted to match it's season 1 appearance. Photo courtesy of Diesel10TV. 

New mail coaches were made from resin for TATMRR and were used for the rest of the model era. They are easy to spot because the larger roof with more overhang and different chassis. 

The Tenmille CCTs last appeared in season 6 in both "The World's Strongest Engine" and "Elizabeth the Vintage Lorry". A scene from "World's Strongest Engine" is shown here. 

A Tenmille mail coach reused for scrap is also seen in the episode "Twin Trouble". 

Salt Vans 

Introduced in season 2, the salt vans were seen up to season 7 and then again in season 12.

The salt vans were first built for the second season from Tenmille kits. The were originally seen 2 colors, cream and brown. A brown version is shown here as seen in the episode "Dirty Work". The colors remained the same until Thomas & The Magic Railroad. 

Magic Railroad on, the salt vans were painted white and a more red brown. Duck is seen here pulling the white version in the season 12 episode "Best Friends". Resin versions of the salt van were never made and the tenmille ones were used right up to the end. 

Here's a photo of our screen used salt van. It looks very much like the ones Duck pulled in "Best Friends" and is no doubt one of the ones seen in that episode. It certainly looks like it's been around since 1986. 

The Salt van as seen in the 1986 Tenmille catalog. 

LBSCR Van 

Much like the salt van, the LBSCR van was first built for the second season and lasted well into the HiT model era.

2 LBSCR vans can be seen in this shot from second season episode "Dirty Work". The vans were painted a weather brown until Thomas & The Magic Railroad. 

To our knowledge, the last time one of these vans was ever seen was the season 10 episode It's Good to be Gordon". It can be seen all the way in the background on the far right. Resin copies were never made and like the salt van, the originals appeared till the end. 

Here's a photo of our LBSCR van painted to try and match the later TV series appearance. 

The LBSCR van as seen in the 1983 Tenmille catalog. 

Lynton & Barnstaple Closed Van

Another fan favorite, this van was built for the second season of the show and seen up until the fifth.

Probably the most iconic image of this van is this one from the season 2 episode "A Close Shave". What's interesting about these vans is that they are meant to be 16mm narrow gauge gauge models that run on O gauge track. The Thomas crew was either not aware of this or chose to ignore this and built them to run on Gauge 1 track with buffers and chain link couplings. This is why it appears so large in contrast to all the other gauge 1 rolling stock. 

These vans gained additional weathering and chalk markings during the fourth season. They were still in this condition for their last appearance in season 5. 

The L&B van as it appear in the 1983 Tenmille catalog Note the brake lever, which was never put on any of the Thomas ones. 

A photo of our Tenmille L&B wagon being worked on. 

Lynton & Barnstaple Open Wagon 

Keeping with the L&B theme, the open wagon was introduced in season two like the van, and was also intended to be a 16mm narrow gauge wagon not gauge 1. It did however blend in better then the clearly giant L&B van. These vans were seen from the second to 6th seasons.

Despite being the wrong scale/gauge, the open wagons blended in quite well with the rest of the gauge 1 rolling stock as seen in this photo from "Pop Goes the Diesel". The wagon at the back is a standard gauge 1 7 plank wile the 2 in front are L&B open wagons. The only real giveaway they're the wrong scale is how low they are to the ground. 

These wagons were last seen in the season 6 episode "Salty's secret" painted in a matte black. 

Here is our Tenmille L&B open wagon. It was built as per the kit instructions and is gauged to O gauge track. Note the chopper coupling and lack of buffers. 

The L&B open wagon as seen in the 1983 Tenmille catalog. 

Freelance 16mm Open Wagon 

This tiny wagon was a narrow gauge design meant to run on 16mm track much like the L&B wagons mentioned above, except it was not based on any particular prototype. It was of Tenmille's own design and meant to compliment the many freelance NG live steam locomotives found in 16mm scale. In Thomas, these wagons were built to gauge 1 for the second series. They were last seen in the 6th season.

 The freelance wagon in the season 2 episode "Percy's Predicament".  

The freelance wagon's last appearance in the season 6 episode "Salty's Secret". 

Our Tenmille freelance open wagon seen next to our screen used season 1 7 plank. These wagons were very evidently supposed to be narrow gauge! 

The freelance wagon as seen in the 1983 Tenmille catalog.

Speaking of narrow gauge wagons which run on O gauge track, we have something special we'd like to share with all of you.

For the first time ever, an image of the larger and smaller scale narrow gauge props sitting on the same track! Both of these items are screen used props. On the left is a season 4 scale narrow gauge red van, while the right is the S5+ narrow gauge scale version of the same item, and yet as we see here both are sitting comfortably on a piece of O gauge track. 

Building upon our previous blog titled "Season 4 Narrow Gauge Explained", we can see there are holes in the floor of the season 4 red van. This was so the receiver for the engine's eye mechanism could be hidden in rolling stock directly behind the locomotive, hence why you see so many shots of engines with a single red van! 

The larger red van on the other hand was most likely built for season 5. Those with  keen eyes will notice the bracing on the sides is actually upside down compared to the original season 4 red van. We are not sure if this is a mistake or intentional, but many appear in the show like this. These vans were last seen in the 12th season. 

The difference in size is quite large for two item that run on the same gauge track. 

We are extremely happy to have these two items in our collection and even more happy to finally be able to directly show smaller and larger narrow gauge items together after all these years. 

That about wraps up this blog entry. There's a ton of wagons and coaches we didn't cover, so a part two will and maybe even three will happen at some point without a doubt, we have lots more to say!
We hope you enjoyed this blog, please follow our twitter page for more model era related stuff!

All photos not taken by us sourced from the Thomas & Friends wiki. http://ttte.wikia.com/wiki/Thomas_the_Tank_Engine_Wiki