Toy Trains Converted to HO/OO Guage

by rollingstock

5.2K1013

Intro: Toy Trains Converted to HO/OO Guage

This video explains in full detail my method of converting toy trains into HO / OO runners. All the important facts are covered when considering what wheel set best suites a toy train.

The example here is a Take Along Diesel 10 from the Thomas & Friends toy series.

I made this video has it is the most common question I am asked in relation to my model work.

12 Comments

lemonie 14 years ago

This is very good, but to be picky about it ("right bogie for the right train"), you've used the wrong bogies on diesel 10. They look like US/AUS wagon bogies rather than powered UK/German hydraulic locomotive bogies. L

rollingstock 14 years ago

Thanks for your comment, and you are totally correct. This shows to me the completely different audience this website attracts versus say youtube. I am in no way a model train person, all I did was made some very strange fan type videos using Thomas toy trains. My main aim was to show people this process is very simple at times to pull off, and considering most of my youtube audience are kids hopefully I have showed them the way I solve a problem.

lemonie 14 years ago

I might have missed this somewhere, but could you point me to the videos you made? I was in a way not being too serious about the bogies, but wanted to comment as I like the technique and the way you've shown it. L

rollingstock 14 years ago

Hello. If you type into google "mad bomber" you will find it, look at the newer widescreen version of the video. The old version which has pulled over 3 million views is really low quality and is not widescreen. A weird thing about youtube is it seems quality (visual quality) does not count, it's the content which is king.

jpiersn 10 years ago

"mad bomber thomas" works better

lemonie 14 years ago

Thanks, quality stuff! L

Oroka 14 years ago

I wouldn't worry about rivet counters (that is what people who are anal about detail in modeling are called). My only suggestion would maybe to paint some of your wheel sets to match more accurately. Thomas kinda looks strange without his big blue wheels. Still, great job! Next is to mash a Thomas body onto a smaller HO body and let him drive cable free!

rollingstock 14 years ago

Hi. I don't mind rivert counters, and funny I have never heard this term before, maybe I work with a bunch of these sorts, to be honest I am the not one of them. On the painted wheels this has been brought up by many tubers who watch my videos, and the big issue here is the bogie would stop much of the wheels being visible. I was silly enough to male a video with little toy trains, to keep the budget down I steered away from real HO scale trains, this presented me with all sorts of headaches, 9 years ago I made a video using the trains and never applied the HO wheels, instead I added little sleds under the model trains which ran between the rails, slipping on the sleepers...what a nightmare it became. to power them what I do is have in the train set a powered spud drive wagon, or sometime I use a small HO diesel which is left just off the screen. What I have found, and i need accurate train positions when stopping doing it puppet style is by far the most accurate and least time consuming method, I certainly learned the very hard way here..It's the good old KISS concept. Keep It Simple Stupid, and boy can I be stupid.

tinker234 12 years ago

is there a way to remove the face off a diesel ten

seabananers 13 years ago

i've loved thomas the tank engine since i was 2 ironically my name is also thomas

mikeasaurus 14 years ago

though I know nothing about model trains I thought your video was fun and informative. You did a great job of covering the bases and explaining everything, your editing also rocks. Great job!

rollingstock 14 years ago

Thanks for this great comment, like I said earlier I find the comments on this site much more mature than say youtube where I feel they have lost the plot when it comes to policing wild tube commenter's. I wish the tube would bring in a be nice policy there, sometimes I actually do little things in my videos to cause comment, that's one of my networking tricks.. I have a saying, A little ham acting will always bring home the bacon, it works every time and it must be remembered every comment on a video within the tube environment raises the profile of the video, that's what many people do not understand. I keep all the comments , the good, the bad and the ugly.