Hornby Thomas
 

Hi,

Last week while on holiday we got our son, Alistair a Hornby train set. I also bought additional track to make him a layout in my old aviary. He now has a large oval, approx 12' x 4'6", plus a smaller inside oval so he can run two trains. The basic set had a train called Little Giant, see first photo.

On a day trip to Peterborough we went into a well known train shop and bought Bill and three circus waggons. Ali is mad on Thomas so to make him understand that it is his train set we bought Thomas, Annie and Clarabel. Now that he has Bill and Thomas he doesn't use the original train, or it's waggons, as they are not Thomas stuff.

He has loads of Tomy trains and so this afternoon I have been converting the Little Giant train set to take the slightly larger Tomy Percy engine and waggons. With a little persuasion I managed to get Percy on the engine chassis. The brake van and yellow open waggon were used to base the Happy Birthday and Farmer McColls waggons. The blue waggon is simply going the get repainted grey as a Troublesome Truck.

The waggons are slightly wider than a normal Hornby chassis and the look chunkier, but as far as Ali is concerned they look just great and he has been playing with them for the last couple of hours.

With the Happy Birthbay waggon I was able to retain the sliding doors by using some I beam plastic strip. The photos show the finished item before and after painting.

All in all an enjoyable afternoon. Now Ali has three Thomas trains to play with and he has special one of edition waggons.

Alex

It's great to hear that Ali is enjoying his new layout.
Nice work Dad:)

Hi John,

Yes, Ali really enjoys his new toy. While on holiday we stayed in a converted railway carriage at Wisbech St Mary. The carriage itself was split into a living room and a bedroom. An extension at the back had the kitchen, bathroom and second bedroom.

Alex

What a brilliant holiday home!!
Any plans to build something similar on your layout? :)
I had an old Pullman camping-coach on one of my British N-Gauge layouts.

Hi John,

I hadn't thought of it before, but I do have some space left to put a holiday carriage on. I'll give it a try.

Alex