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The real life Thomas the Tank Engine is keeping the model railway business alive in the UK. The hobby of model railways is only for 70+ year old retired men wit

The real life Thomas the Tank Engine is keeping the model railway business alive in the UK. The hobby of model railways is only for 70+ year old retired men with money, it isn't of great appeal to anyone younger. Part of the problem is that a model railway now has to be 'photorealistic' and period accurate. It isn't just 'playing trains', it is historical recreation in miniature. A normal loco is going to cost well upwards of £100 and not be affordable to someone on pocket money, particularly if they want a rake of coaches too. Thomas the Tank Engine and his friends make it possible to have a train set that doesn't have to be finely modelled. The track doesn't require any scenery and the railway actually can be for 'playing trains'. Costs don't have to be high and Thomas, on a basic oval with a couple of carriages can be £50 affordable and robust. Model trains are not a global franchise except for when it comes to Thomas the Tank Engine. Nobody outside the UK wants a 'Flying Scotsman' train set as it is a British train that never made it onto the wider European network or further afield. Equally, nobody in the UK wants a Union Pacific 4014 'Big Boy' even if people in the US are going crazy for that recently refurbished 'prototype' right now. Thomas is therefore not stuck to just the UK. Cheap plastic Thomas the Tank Engine models can be sold all around the world. He isn't even particularly gender stereotyped, a parent can buy Thomas the Tank Engine train set for a daughter, although this is unlikely. Although easy to dismiss, Thomas the Tank Engine is a vital gateway drug for keeping model railways as an option in toy shops and their online counterparts. Without him model trains would have gone the way of so many other historical toys. What the world really needs are some scale model accessories borrowed from video game franchises for the train set.

phillc73 7y ago
> Nobody outside the UK wants a 'Flying Scotsman' train set as it is a British train that never made it onto the wider European network or further afield. Your point is broadly correct, but I think you chose the wrong example. The Flying Scotsman extensively toured the US, Canada and Australia.[1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LNER_Class_A3_4472_Flying_Scotsman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LNER_Class_A3_4472_Flying_Scot...
- Theodores 7y ago
  Thanks for that. Seems that The Flying Scotsman locomotive was built for a life of promotional touring. Didn't know the Flying Scotsman went on a post-retirement tour and I find it typical that the PM of the day thought this relic could be good for promoting British exports. Who would have wanted some outmoded, expensive lump of iron? This was a time when Concorde was being built, you would have thought UK Plc would have had better goodies than The Flying Scotsman to send off to America. Different things happen when objects get to be in museum world. If anything there is to learn from the story is the importance of getting stuff into 'museum world', then there are the collaborations, tours and opportunities to shift the merchandise. I wonder how well the marketing and tour would have gone had 4477 'Gay Crusader' been the one to be spared of its fate on Barry Island (where all trains went to die). What is also interesting is that the service was called 'The Flying Scotsman'. Yet most people would be quite insistent that it is the locomotive, not the service that the name refers to. I wonder why this is not something done a bit more extensively today. There is no single loco that is synonymous with the channel tunnel service. They could have one 'poster child' loco and make it sound special, to market channel tunnel trips a bit more 'romantically' than how it is done currently with faceless no-name locos.

phillc73 7y ago

> Nobody outside the UK wants a 'Flying Scotsman' train set as it is a British train that never made it onto the wider European network or further afield. Your point is broadly correct, but I think you chose the wrong example. The Flying Scotsman extensively toured the US, Canada and Australia.[1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LNER_Class_A3_4472_Flying_Scotsman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LNER_Class_A3_4472_Flying_Scot...

Theodores 7y ago
Thanks for that. Seems that The Flying Scotsman locomotive was built for a life of promotional touring. Didn't know the Flying Scotsman went on a post-retirement tour and I find it typical that the PM of the day thought this relic could be good for promoting British exports. Who would have wanted some outmoded, expensive lump of iron? This was a time when Concorde was being built, you would have thought UK Plc would have had better goodies than The Flying Scotsman to send off to America. Different things happen when objects get to be in museum world. If anything there is to learn from the story is the importance of getting stuff into 'museum world', then there are the collaborations, tours and opportunities to shift the merchandise. I wonder how well the marketing and tour would have gone had 4477 'Gay Crusader' been the one to be spared of its fate on Barry Island (where all trains went to die). What is also interesting is that the service was called 'The Flying Scotsman'. Yet most people would be quite insistent that it is the locomotive, not the service that the name refers to. I wonder why this is not something done a bit more extensively today. There is no single loco that is synonymous with the channel tunnel service. They could have one 'poster child' loco and make it sound special, to market channel tunnel trips a bit more 'romantically' than how it is done currently with faceless no-name locos.