Uploaded June 2013 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Hi Guys and Gals! Here we have today the Greatest moments, Steamy Sodor, Coal moustache Spencer! Phew what a mouthful haha! I bought this loco on ebay from the seller Havenso and i did complain it was in the wrong packaging but i didn't deem it a reason worth returning the loco to the seller just for the packaging, it did kind of wreck my video a little. But YOU the viewers please forgive me!
this is a "Greatest moments" engine which is basically portraying an engine from a particular episode, and in this case its the episode "Steamy Sodor" in which Spencer gets a dirty coal face because of helping hook Kevin in the Sodor steamworks where Thomas was in charge for the day. the locomotive is fairly accurate to the show in that his tender did not get dirty as it was not in the building at the time but still it would have been nice if it matched the loco even if that ruins the accuracy (look i'm talking about storyline accuracy in a tv show and merchandise products for children HAHA). Anyway back on topic the loco looks great! As it should being a Gresley A4 pacific :D it came with a random small truck that has a short wheelbase and appears to have a load of scrap or spare parts from the Sodor steamworks, this truck or load do not appear directly in the episode Steamy Sodor.
Out of the box the loco putts along at a reasonable speed you would expect from a Trackmaster train of this type and its speed and staying on track were absolutely fine! The drive unit was also very quiet and smooth which was a nice surprise. The train is powered by a single AA battery located inside the boiler and it is the flat drive unit type of engine (as all regular Spencer's are). This is a type of drive unit I have had allot of success doing motor swaps in as they really shine when modified and have few moving parts making the swap simple. The major flaw with this train (if you could call it that) is that it does NOT work on the turntable because it is too long. So its good looks and length are a problem at the sheds.
The motor swap I performed in the middle of filming (off camera) consisted of taking out the slow original motor and fitting a speedy Tamiya Power dash motor in its place. You can see the speed difference as the new motor appears to hurtle the train down the track at more than double its original speed and hill climbing is now an easy job for this Spencer. This is the best motor to use if you want to stick with the single AA battery (runs great on Alkaline), if you were going to run an external power source like a 2x AAA battery pack then you could go for a stronger, faster, energy hungry motor like the ultra or plasma which consume twice the battery power of this motor.
So a great looking and running engine with amazing motor swap potential, let down by the boring scrap/parts truck and the turntable failure (were they even thinking?) I give this loco a score of 8/10 ... hard to do because Spencer is great!
Thanks for watching!
Hi Guys and Gals! Here we have today the Greatest moments, Steamy Sodor, Coal moustache Spencer! Phew what a mouthful haha! I bought this loco on ebay from the seller Havenso and i did complain it was in the wrong packaging but i didn't deem it a reason worth returning the loco to the seller just for the packaging, it did kind of wreck my video a little. But YOU the viewers please forgive me!
this is a "Greatest moments" engine which is basically portraying an engine from a particular episode, and in this case its the episode "Steamy Sodor" in which Spencer gets a dirty coal face because of helping hook Kevin in the Sodor steamworks where Thomas was in charge for the day. the locomotive is fairly accurate to the show in that his tender did not get dirty as it was not in the building at the time but still it would have been nice if it matched the loco even if that ruins the accuracy (look i'm talking about storyline accuracy in a tv show and merchandise products for children HAHA). Anyway back on topic the loco looks great! As it should being a Gresley A4 pacific :D it came with a random small truck that has a short wheelbase and appears to have a load of scrap or spare parts from the Sodor steamworks, this truck or load do not appear directly in the episode Steamy Sodor.
Out of the box the loco putts along at a reasonable speed you would expect from a Trackmaster train of this type and its speed and staying on track were absolutely fine! The drive unit was also very quiet and smooth which was a nice surprise. The train is powered by a single AA battery located inside the boiler and it is the flat drive unit type of engine (as all regular Spencer's are). This is a type of drive unit I have had allot of success doing motor swaps in as they really shine when modified and have few moving parts making the swap simple. The major flaw with this train (if you could call it that) is that it does NOT work on the turntable because it is too long. So its good looks and length are a problem at the sheds.
The motor swap I performed in the middle of filming (off camera) consisted of taking out the slow original motor and fitting a speedy Tamiya Power dash motor in its place. You can see the speed difference as the new motor appears to hurtle the train down the track at more than double its original speed and hill climbing is now an easy job for this Spencer. This is the best motor to use if you want to stick with the single AA battery (runs great on Alkaline), if you were going to run an external power source like a 2x AAA battery pack then you could go for a stronger, faster, energy hungry motor like the ultra or plasma which consume twice the battery power of this motor.
So a great looking and running engine with amazing motor swap potential, let down by the boring scrap/parts truck and the turntable failure (were they even thinking?) I give this loco a score of 8/10 ... hard to do because Spencer is great!
Thanks for watching!
