fall inside a hole

Thomas the Tank Engine

From a series of children's books that saw success in Britain to a beautiful live-action animation television show, by the time I was a kid in the early 2000s Thomas the Tank Engine was a worldwide juggernaut of children's entertainment with movies, books, and toys of all sorts. Although it has waned in popularity since transitioning to computer-generated animation in the 2010s, I spent a lot of my childhood watching the show and playing with a variety of Thomas toys which formed many of the thoughts I have about train toys to this day.

Covered here (will be) the plotlines and characters involved in the Thomas stories that I consider to be "true" to Thomas the Tank Engine as I see it - namely, I do not generally care that much about things not included in the Railway Series books and the first five or so seasons of the earlier model-based television show that followed its stories and style.

The Railway Series

The Railway Series is made up of 26 books written by the Reverend Wilbert Awdry between 1945 and 1972 and 16 written by his son Christopher Awdry between 1983 and 2011. The series chronicles the goings-on and interactions between the trains on Sodor's railways, including the primary North Western Railroad and the narrow-gauge Skarloey Railroad. The trains in the books are a mix of real and modified classes of locomotives, with some real-world trains appearing in the books either as characters on Sodor or as faceless engines off the island, and some of the railways on Sodor are based on real-world railways. Many stories feature the same characters as other books with books often having a few stories that are connected or directly related to one another.

The books are written as if they are works of fiction from a world where the Island of Sodor is a real place (located between the Isle of Man and Great Britain) and the series references and parallels real-world events including the nationalization and dieselization of British railroads. Many of the stories are based on things that the Reverend would hear and experience riding and volunteering at railways in Britain or other real-world railway incidents or the operations of his own model railroads, and the engine's personalities in the stories are really an exaggeration of stories that the crew of Sodor's engines might tell about incidents they have gotten into or times that trains act up. In this reading, the trains on Sodor in the world the books are written from do not really have faces and they are an aspect of the author's adaptation of Sudrian railway stories.

Below is a table of Railway Series books with a brief explanation of the stories included and if it was adapted for the television series. If there is a picture of the cover of the book it is one that I own - my collection of books and some notes about them can be found here.

Release date	Title	Stories	Cover
May 12 1945	Three Railway Engines	Edward's Day Out: The bigger engines tease Edward for being small, but the driver decides to take him out when he seems Edward is upset. Edward pulls a nice train of coaches Edward and Gordon: Gordon brags about pulling the express, but has to pull freight up a large hill and Edward comes in to help as a "backer" The Sad Story of Henry: Henry stops in a tunnel on a rainy day, saying it will spoil his point. His crew and passengers try to get him to come out, but he won't budge, and they brick him inside Edward, Gordon and Henry: Gordon breaks down outside Henry's Tunnel and Henry is let out to pull the train with Edward
September 14 1946	Thomas the Tank Engine	Thomas and Gordon: Thomas, the station pilot, annoys Gordon, who pays him back by dragging him behind the express train Adapted as: Thomas and Gordon Thomas' Train: Henry is sick and only Thomas is available to take his train, but he leaves the coaches at the station and has to go back for it Thomas and the Trucks: Thomas wants to go out of the yard and Edward offers to let him take his train the next day. The trucks push him down Gordon's Hill and the director of the railway tells him to learn how to shunt Thomas and the Breakdown Train: While shunting trucks, a new engine on the island is pushed by the trucks until his brakes catch fire and he crashes. Thomas rescues him with the breakdown train and is rewarded with two coaches and a branch line of his own
September 14 1948	James the Red Engine	James and the Top-Hat: James and Edward pull a passenger train and James gets the Controller's new hat wet James and the Boot-lace: James bumps and pulls a passenger train roughly and tears a hole in the brake pipes that has to be mended with a passenger's boot laces Troublesome Trucks: James pulls a misbehaving freight train up the hill, but the tail breaks away James and the Express: After Gordon is accidentally switched down the wrong line, James gets to pull the express service
December 31 1949	Tank Engine Thomas Again	Thomas and the Guard: Thomas is impatient and leaves before the guard can board his train Thomas Goes Fishing: Thomas takes on water from a nearby river and ends up with fish in his water tank Thomas, Terence and the Snow: Thomas teases a tractor that works in a nearby field but is thankful when Terence can pull him free of snow Thomas and Bertie: Thomas and a bus that runs along his branch line have a race
September 1950	Troublesome Engines	Henry and the Elephant: After the circus leaves town, Henry is tasked with clearing out a tunnel that turns out to have an elephant hiding inside Tenders and Turntables: Gordon and James have embarrassing incidents on the turntable Trouble in the Shed: The big engines go on strike and the Controller brings in Percy to pilot the station Percy Runs Away: Percy is shunting and ends up on the main line when Gordon rushes in with the express
July 10 1951	Henry the Green Engine	Coal: Henry needs special Welsh coal to be able to build up a good fire The Flying Kipper: Henry is pulling a night freight train when a frozen set of points diverts him into the back of another parked train Gordon's Whistle: Gordon complains about Henry whistling but ends up with his whistle stuck on the next day Percy and the Trousers: Percy sneaks into the station and surprises some porters and crashes into their luggage, ending up with the Fat Controller's trousers around his funnel Henry's Sneeze: Some boys throw stones at Henry and he blows ash and soot at them to get back at them

Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends

In the 1980s Britt Allcroft adapted the Railway Series stories using gauge one model trains with modified Marklin chassis and custom bodies, radio control movement and eye mechanisms, and interchangeable facial expression plates to produce the live-action animation Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends television series. The series consisted of four and a half minute shorts that were initially fairly closely based on the Railway Series stories, with the series getting new print runs as the show increased the popularity of the books in turn. The first season, aired starting in 1984 in the U.K., was popular enough to get a continuation with early merchandise like the ERTL die-cast range appearing in the mid 1980s, with several seasons airing in Britian before the series was reformatted and translated during the international boom in the 1990s.

In the United States Thomas began airing on PBS in 1989 as part of the half-hour Shining Time Station block that included live-action skits and storylines at the fictional Shining Time Station where a range of human and puppet characters worked as well as the small magical Mister Conductor played by the then-current narrator of the Thomas shorts in the United States - Ringo Starr and later George Carlin. Mister Conductor would introduce the Thomas shorts partway through the show, relating the message of the episode to the task at hand in the station. Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends was released on VHS in the States beginning in 1990 and alongside the new Thomas Wooden Railway and expanding ERTL die-cast ranges became popular in North America.

The series was broadcast in Japan beginning in later 1990 and was released on video beginning in 1991, becoming a big success thanks in part to the prevalence of trains in everyday life in many parts of Japan increasing their appeal to children. The episodes aired as part of the Ponkickies kids television show in Japan, and a few specific crossover specials were released in Japan. Funding from Fuji Television Network helped to pay for the production of the second part of the third season.

The success of the television series and the toy lines it spawned in the 1990s brought about ambitions for the big screen, and beginning with the fifth series of Thomas the television show began to move in a more dynamic direction with new stories with no Railway Series counterpart leading up to Thomas and the Magic Railroad, a box office bomb that saw many props damaged in transportation after production wrapped. After the movie and beginning with the sixth season of the show, the visual style was a lot less grimy and the whole show began to look a lot more toy-like, and episodes were expanded in length and over time became somewhat dumbed down. The series continued to use primarily gauge one props until introducing first computer-generated faces in 2008 and then entirely computer-animating the show in 2009. After Mattel acquired HiT Entertainment and the rights to Thomas and Friends the show went through a few more shifts in direction and goals before eventually being replaced with a pretty bad reboot aimed solely at babies with no real connection to the original books or television show beyond a handful of characters. I do not really care for or about any of these later incarnations beyond some of the toys produced alongside them and will not particularly cover any parts of the series after season five.

Here are the first few series of the television show and what stories from the Railway Series they are adapting.

Episode	Name	Description	Still
S01E01	Thomas and Gordon Thomas Gets Tricked	Thomas, a cheeky tank engine, teases Gordon the big engine. Gordon decides to get back at Thomas by leaving with his express train before Thomas has been uncoupled from the rear, dragging him along the main line Adapted from Thomas and Gordon
S01E02	Edward and Gordon Edward Helps Out	Edward is upset that he has not been taken out to pull a train in some time. The crew take him out on a train and the coaches are impressed with him. The next day, Gordon brags to Edward about pulling the express, but gets stuck on a hill with a long freight train instead, and Edward is called to help. Gordon pulls away and leaves Edward behind, who is promised a new coat of paint Adapted from Edward's Day Out and Edward and Gordon

Following Thomas' success on television was if anything even more success on home video, with dozens of tapes released in the United Kingdom, different regions of Europe, the Americas, and Japan throughout the 1990s alone.

In the United States episodes were packaged together in roughly their intended airing order, preserving many of the through-lines adapted from the Railway Series. Here is a table of some of my American home video releases - click through to see full scans and notes about release variations...

Release date	Title	Episodes	Cover
1990	Thomas Gets Tricked & Other Stories	Thomas Gets Tricked Edward Helps Out Come Out, Henry! Henry to the Rescue A Big Day for Thomas Trouble for Thomas Thomas Saves the Day
1990	James Learns A Lesson & Other Stories	James Learns a Lesson Foolish Freight Cars A Proud Day for James Thomas and the Conductor Thomas Goes Fishing Terence the Tractor Thomas and Bertie's Great Race

Japan also released the series on home video in order in a series of shorter volumes. Some more scans and information about the first two series of Thomas on home video in Japan can be seen here.

Release date	Title	Episodes	Cover
March 21 1991	Thomas the Tank Engine Volume 1	Thomas and Gordon Edward and Gordon The Sad Story of Henry Edward, Gordon, and Henry
March 21 1991	Thomas the Tank Engine Volume 2	Thomas' Train Thomas and the Trucks Thomas and the Breakdown Train James and the Coaches
March 21 1991	Thomas the Tank Engine Volume 3
May 21 1991	Thomas the Tank Engine Volume 4
May 21 1991	Thomas the Tank Engine Volume 5
July 21 1991	Thomas the Tank Engine Volume 6
July 21 1991	Thomas the Tank Engine Volume 7
August 21 1991	Thomas the Tank Engine Volume 8
August 21 1991	Thomas the Tank Engine Volume 9
September 4 1991	Thomas the Tank Engine Volume 10
September 4 1991	Thomas the Tank Engine Volume 11