Playtrains/Clockwork Thomas Track - When Did The Colour Change?

[Mr. Morris]

Hello All, so this all starts with a young me, having a dream about the battery powered thomas being able to be powered like a tomica world engine instead of annie, and the switch was the same as that of the through the cab clockwork thomas, now i always assumed this was a discrepency of the dream as whenever i rationalised it the lever came out the side of the window as my first clockwork thomas set had the red twist together track, but after getting a thomas and percy set where the thomas has the through cab roof lever, and it looking identicle to the afformentioned dream its making me wonder when the red playtrains track was introduced, that and when the lever position changed from through thte roof to out the side window.

if anyone can help on this matter i'd greatly appreciate it as i have a fascination with the playtrains era clockwork thomas stuff, pre toby bill and ben's introduction with the weird track type

cheers

~Mr. Morris

[new lad on block]

Hi Mr.Morris, The trougth the cab lever variation was only made in England.

The side window lever was introduced when production moved to China.

Production of the clockwork locos finished in 2003.

The English version was available with two different faces.

The clockwork thomas body is thinner than the electric 4 wheel version.

Track, two types of red, see photos, orange version produced in England but changed to red when production moved to China.Unsure of date when changed but would be around 1997.

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Note larger electric 4 wheel version.

[Mr. Morris]

orange version produced in England but changed to red when production moved to China.Unsure of date when changed but would be around 1997.

 

ahh cheers, the quote block above is pretty much all i wanted to know :P as i know of the later track (the wider type you have in the photos supplied) being produced around the early 2000s as i saw it a lot in toysrus :P and ive got my head around the variations of the models of thomas produced in roughly the right order, brain just decided to send me on a spiral the other day becauseof the roof lever and that dream i had :P from what i'm gathering is my first clockwork set, despite having china track could well have been old thomas model stock? as i know when they produce models and toys and such they do tend to overproduce by a certain margin should replacements need sending out and what have you, so i could have had one of the held back ones, as i rebought the exact same set i remember having a few years ago and its the out the window lever, and even though i was happy to have the set again i always thought something was off yaknow?anyhoo, i'll leave the rambling here as i need sleep :P but i know one thing, i'm sorely tempted to have a go at 3D printing the rarest clockwork piece of all (purely for the challenge and usefulness of it) the playtrains diamond crossing, as i bought an ebay listing of a thomas and percy set (the beginning of this madness) because of said track piece :P never even knew it existed.CheersMr. Morris