Features: Two can style motor, headlight, directional lockout. Limited production run of 480 each Wilson and Brewster, 480 each boxcar and passenger car, and 300 each yellow and blue hopper cars.
Current production road names: Wilson (F3-style) Brewster (Deltic-style)
Chuggington is an animated British television series telling the tales of young locomotives (the “Chuggers”) learning their craft, and “the value of loyal friendship, telling the truth, listening carefully, persisting under adversity, completing tasks, resolving conflict without violence, and similar values,” per a description of the series on Wikipedia.
As it was with children’s programs of our day, Chuggington, Thomas, and others try to educate, socialize, and entertain youngsters. From our perspective, there is the bonus of introducing the young ones to the world of railroading – no matter how whimsical it may be.
Opening the box
Researching the background of the series, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the designers attempted to introduce kiddies to locomotives based on approximations of real locomotives.
Wilson has been described as an Electro-Motive Division F3 hybrid diesel, Brewster is a modified British Deltic diesel, Chattsworth is a Baldwin Sharknose diesel, Koko is a Japanese-style bullet train, and other locomotives are styled after British A4 4-6-2 and the Union Pacific M-10003. Remember, this is a kid’s show, so there is also Action Chugger, a super-hero locomotive that is an emergency response locomotive able to fly (two hatches/wings lift up revealing jet engines). Accordingly, it is probably best not to focus too closely on the lineage of each type of locomotive in the program.
Not really knowing what to expect, I laughed out loud when I saw the O gauge locomotive’s eyes staring at me. This was akin to finding a dog or cat hidden beneath the discarded wrapping paper on Christmas morning.
Yes indeed, I could see the F3 outline in the face and body of little Wilson. The familiar bulldog nose is there with a large headlight on the point. The pilot “sags” a bit, but that is just Wilson’s lower lip!
Up in the cab are two gigantic eyeballs. These actually have three dimensions and are not just painted on a flat window surface.
The detailing is simple, but that is not to say it’s unsophisticated. The sides have two access doors, three portholes, and simulated vent detail. There is seam detailing you can feel.
Topside, you’ll find an oversized horn, cast-in vents just behind the cab, and three raised exhaust fans.
There is a simulated fuel tank and even a silver-painted receptacle for a fuel nozzle on the side of the tank.
What may have impressed me most was removing the shell to see what was under the hood. I expected to see some small truck-mounted motors, but found two fairly standard motors plugged into the reverse board.
The blue-painted truck sideframes are basic representations of actual trucks. They are satisfactory for a model from a children’s show.
Painting and decoration – as simple as they are – are excellent. The side windows and portholes are painted black. The eyes, eyelids, and cast-in grab irons that serve as the eyebrows are wonderfully executed.
Rolling stock
There are four pieces of rolling stock currently available, two hoppers, a boxcar, and a passenger car. Williams also offers a hopper car that I thought was a darned nice freight hauler. The car was sturdy and had smooth-running wheels right out of the box.
No, we aren’t talking ultra-fine levels of detail or easy-to-break add-on pieces. But we are talking something that looks thick enough to spin off the train table a few times, dust itself off, and climb back up on the track.
The car has a universal hopper shape and provides the standard play value of the young operator being able to load and unload cargo thanks to the open top.
While the car has British-style bumpers, it also has a conventional metal knuckle coupler, so it will be compatible with virtually everything on your O gauge railroad, oops, I mean your son/daughter/grandson/granddaughter’s O gauge layout!
Other than paint, there is no decoration. I thought the car was rather attractive in its simplicity and wonder what it might look like with a quick coat of boxcar red and some decals slapped on the side. Some sort of unusual cargo load would finish it nicely.
On the test track
Any locomotive can be cute, but the proof in the pudding is how it operates.
This is a basic, few-frills locomotive. The headlight turns off when you reverse the locomotive, and you can lock the unit in a single direction.
There is no horn, bell, or cute sound effects suite (probably to the relief of some parents). Why not?
The answer is simple: Kids have imaginations, and this locomotive will prime the pump of toy train creativity. After all, dialogue is probably more important to a regular viewer of Chuggington than are train sounds!
Motor operation was very smooth; mechanically, the locomotive was very quiet on our test track.
I hooked up a short train of mixed freight cars, and it did well pulling them around our test track.
Our best conventional low speed was 11.5 scale miles per hour, and the best high speed was 100.8 scale mph. Drawbar pull was 14 ounces.
I do have to say that Wilson is certainly the happiest appearing locomotive I’ve ever tested. Motor operation was smooth, and speeds were good. Wilson is ready for duty today!
