Thomas, the little locomotive

Television series
German title	Thomas & his friends (Thomas, the little locomotive & his friends)
Original title	Thomas & Friends (Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends)
Country of production	Great Britain
original language	English
Year (s)	1984 -
Production ; company	Clearwater Features Ltd. (1984–1986) ; The Britt Allcroft Company (1989–2000) ; Gullane Entertainment (2000–2003) ; HiT Entertainment (2003–2012) ; Mattel (2012–)
length	5 minutes (seasons 1–7) ; 8 minutes (seasons 8–21) ; 7 minutes (seasons 22-) ; 22 minutes (special episodes seasons 23/24) minutes
Episodes	583 in 24 seasons ( List )
genre	Children's series
idea	Britt Allcroft
production	Britt Allcroft (Seasons 1–5) ; David Mitton (Seasons 1–5) ; Robert D. Cardona ( Seasons 1–2) ; Phil Fehrle ( Seasons 6–7) ; Simon Spencer ( ; Seasons 8–12) Nicole Stinn ( Seasons 13–16) ; Ian McCue (season 16–20 / season 23–) ; Robert Anderson (season 17–20) ; Halim Jabbour (season 17) ; Brian Lynch (season 18) ; Jennifer Hill (season 19) ; Tracy Blagdon (season 20–) ; Micaela Winter (season 21 -Season 22)
music	Mike O'Donnell (1984–2003) ; Junior Campbell (1984–2003) ; Robert Hartshorne (2003–2015) ; Peter Hartshorne (2011–2015) ; Chris Renshaw (2016-)
First broadcast	October 9, 1984
German-language ; first broadcast	January 5, 1998 on RTL II

Thomas event on a British heritage railway

Thomas the Little Locomotive (Original title: Thomas the Tank Engine ) is the main character in a series of short stories as well as the title character of a television series for children, which are classics in the English-speaking world. The authors of the stories about the small locomotive of the so-called Railway Series were Reverend Wilbert Awdry and later his son Christopher . In 1979 the television adaptation took place under the title Thomas, die kleine Lokomotive & seine Freunde ( Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends ) under the production of the British television producer Britt Allcroft . The title was shortened to Thomas & seine Freunde ( Thomas & Friends ) in 2003 and has been tagged Big World since 2018 ! Great Adventure! ( Big World! Big Adventures! ).

development

1945–1972: Railway Series as a template for the television series

In 1943, Wilbert Awdry wrote the first stories for his ailing two-year-old son Christopher, which he published as the first volume in the Railway Series in 1945 , and wrote new stories almost annually until 1972. In the 1950 years Awdry worked as a volunteer in the summer at the Museum Railway Talyllyn Railway in Wales. He immortalized the locomotives and wagons as the Skarloey Railway , which cope with numerous tasks and experience adventures on the fictional island of Sodor . The Thomas Locomotive first appeared in 1946. The aim was to present the stories as realistically as possible and not too childishly, since he “did not write directly for children, but for the unhappy people [...] who had to read these stories over and over again”. After the twenty-sixth book, Awdry's son Christopher continued the series that he completed in 2011 with the forty-second book Thomas and his Friends .

1953/1977: First attempts at a television adaptation

In 1953, the British Broadcasting Corporation planned to televise two stories from The Three Railway Engines to air during the BBC Children's Hour on June 14th and 28th, 1953. Hornby OO gauge models were used to depict the locomotives and wagons, and model maker PR Wickham reworked them to look like C. Reginald Dalby's Railway Series illustrations. Julia Lang was the narrator.

The adaptation was broadcast live from Lime Grove Studios . During the broadcast of The Sad Story Of Henry, however, one of the locomotives derailed (it is assumed that it was Henry) because the switch was incorrectly set and a hand could be seen which it was reopened. Awdry watched the broadcast and complained about the rough operation of the models. In addition, he described the derailment as an "elementary mistake". Because of this and other complaints, the second story was canceled and the live broadcast was never recorded.

In 1973, composer Andrew Lloyd Webber planned a 2D animated musical series based on the books he read as a child. Lloyd Webber had frequent meetings with Awdry and the editors of the books and after complications he completed a pilot episode in 1976, but by then he had lost interest in the plan as there was no demand in America and Llody Webber at the time has already had enough success with his musical Evita . Nonetheless, he founded his company in 1977, which he called the Really Useful Group , which is an allusion to the phrase "Really Useful Engine" used in the books. He also picked up the plans for the planned musical series and made the musical Starlight Express out of it by 1984 .

1979: Live-action animation as a format for television series

In a 1979 interview with Awdry on the Bluebell Railway , television producer Britt Allcroft , who had previously read his books, suggested again that the stories about Thomas and friends be turned into a television series . Several formats, such as stop motion , cartoons, and computer animation , were tested for two years, of which a live-action animation with moving models prevailed. The production staff consisted, among others, of the director David Mitton , the producer Robert D. Cardona, the composer Mike O'Donnell and Junior Campbell , as well as Ringo Starr , who acted as narrator in the first two seasons. Among the model makers were Tim Staffell , David Payne and John Lee.

As a test pilot , the story Down the Mine from the book Gordon the Big Engine was filmed and presented to ITV in April 1983 . This was a success and then the first season could be produced. Few scenes from the never-released pilot were reused in the first season, but the episode was completely remade.

The first season finally aired on ITV in October 1984 and adapted the first eight Railway Series books quite faithfully and in almost the same order. However, every now and then two short stories were adapted in one episode and stories like Henry and the Elephant from Troublesome Engines were skipped for the time being, others like Mrs. Kyndley's Christmas on Toby the Tram Engine were never adapted. Only the season finale The Christmas party was written by Britt Allcroft and David Mitton themselves.

For the second season in 1986, stories by Christopher Awdry were also used. The contracts did not allow own stories, which is why Allcroft asked Christopher Awdry for certain stories in the next Railway Series book. More About Thomas The Tank Engine was written especially for the TV series and the stories were about Harold the helicopter, Bertie the bus and Terence the caterpillar tractor, as Allcroft wanted these characters in more episodes. Christopher was very unhappy with the book and the first story, Drip Tank , wasn't even made into a movie.

With the second season, the Railway Series stories were no longer filmed in the original order. Instead, the focus was on new characters and dark stories. So some episodes negotiated that machines should be scrapped ( not scrapped, please , and help for the twins ) or simply creepy should be through music and visual perception ( The Ghost ). The many new characters included Duck, Donald, Douglas, Bill, Ben, Diesel, BoCo, Daisy and Trevor.

One problem with the other order was causing a greater continuity error: In the episode Percy takes a bath ( Percy Takes A Plunge ) mentions Percy the events of history Percy's Promise of Percy the Small Engine , but this story was filmed only in the third season .

1989: Thomas in the USA

In 1989, Allcroft and Rick Siggelkow developed the Shining Time Station offshoot to bring Thomas to the United States. This series was about the staff from the fictional train station of Shining Time Station , including the Mr. Conductor (Herr Schaffner), a 20 cm tall person who can teleport himself using gold dust (magic glitter). Mr. Conductor taught the children lessons on the series, showing them episodes of Thomas the Little Locomotive . Mr. Conductor was only played by Ringo Starr, from the third season onwards by George Carlin .

The Thomas episode scripts have been rewritten because of American terminology (so the freight cars were called Foolish Freight Cars instead of Troublesome Trucks, and the conductor is a conductor instead of a guard ) and many of the episode titles have been changed. Ringo Starr retold 25 episodes from the first season and 17 from the second season. George Carlin later retold the entire seasons and remained the narrator for the American versions of seasons 3 and 4.

TUGS: The planned sister series

Also around 1989 was a television series developed by David Mitton and Robert D. Cardona called TUGS ( Schlepper ), which was very similar in concept and production to the series around Thomas. The focus here is on tug boats from the fictional American port of Bigg City Port. The models of the boats were pulled over the water because the engines were too heavy, the "heads" and the eyes could be turned or moved. In contrast to Thomas, the TUGS episodes were about 20 minutes long, the characters had individual voice actors (who were never officially named) and the overall tone of the content was much darker and more adult. After 13 episodes within three months, the series was discontinued. However, some models were used later in the original series, some of them later in the animated series. The crane Big Mickey has even had a face since season 21, speaking roles and is addressed by his name from TUGS .

Mitton was very proud of his work and said that TUGS had his soul. After TUGS was discontinued, Mitton returned to the Britt Allcroft Company to work on Thomas again.

1992: The lasting success of Thomas

The third season of Thomas didn't appear until 1992, six years after the second. Starting this season, Allcroft and Mitton also wrote their own stories and also consulted stories from the author Andrew Brenner from magazines without his being informed. Brenner later established himself as the lead screenwriter.

The previous production company Clearwater Features Ltd. was disbanded in 1990 and producer Robert D. Cardona moved to Canada after the failure of TUGS to later work on a similar series, Theodore Tugboat . Allcroft has now taken on the producer role, giving her husband, Angus Wright, the role of executive producer.

The Thomas creator Awdry himself was very satisfied with the implementation of his stories, but criticized in part the lack of realism, as in the following Henry's forest , in which trees would be too close to the tracks. In addition, a train driver does not simply let his locomotive drive around on the route without informing the signalman. Later, the episode Rusty Helps (fourth season) was not like the original story, which was based on the story of the real Stepney.

After the first two seasons, Ringo Starr was replaced as the narrator by Michael Angelis , who remained in his role until the 16th season of the series. George Carlin continued to speak for the American version.

Season 3 was also the first season in which Mike O'Donnell and Junior Campbell composed a song in addition to the music: Thomas, We Love You (also known as Thomas' Anthem ). It was sung by a children's choir and the melody is based on Thomas' theme, which played in the episodes.

Although Thomas is the show's title character, it wasn't until season three that more episodes were produced with him as the main character. This was also criticized by Awdry, as Thomas was supposed to work on his branch line, but in some stories he also drives on the main line just to be able to appear. Also because many stories were adapted very freely, Awdry no longer saw the TV series as his work from season 3 onwards.

1995: Narrow gauge locomotives and logic problems

The fourth season of 1995 introduced more new characters than any other season before or after it. Among other things, she discussed the narrow-gauge locomotives of the Skarloey Railway, which claimed the first 15 episodes for themselves. In return, almost all the books about the narrow-gauge locomotives were filmed at the same time. In contrast to the literary model, the locomotives are painted differently for better differentiation and not all in red with blue stripes. This caused a little problem in the episode No Desire for Work ( Trucks! ), In which the Peter Sam locomotive was mistaken for Sir Handel by the freight cars , although they have different colors in the adaptation and are therefore easy to distinguish.

Furthermore, Allcroft wanted to make Rusty, the male diesel locomotive in the books, gender-neutral, which is why the dialogues were changed so that Rusty is never addressed with gender-specific pronouns. However, this was soon discarded.

Another big difference to the original is Smudger's character . In the story Granpuff from Duke the Lost Engine , a careless American locomotive named Stanley (only referred to as No. 2 in the book) is converted into a generator at the end . In the adaptation, Stanley was replaced by Smudger , who used the model of Rheneas , which is painted green. That technically made Smudger the first character on the TV series that wasn't straight out of the books.

The last narrow-track episode of the season is Rusty hilft ( Rusty to the Rescue ), for which no book is available. The consequence is problematic in several points. On the one hand, Rusty , the narrow-gauge locomotive, drives to the goods depot in Vicarstown , even though such a rail connection from narrow-gauge tracks is not available on any map of Sodor. Rusty saves in this episode Stepney , the bluebells locomotive. Stepney is a real locomotive and his appearance in the book Stepney the "Bluebell" Engine is based on the story of this real locomotive. But in the story, Stepney ends up being sent to the bluebell branch line and working there. This branch line seems to be on Sodor, since Rusty also works there, but the following Stepney stories then claim that he only visited the fat inspector's railroad and in the end he left it again. Stepney's appearances in later seasons also clearly claim that he works for series on Sodor.

After the narrow gauge and Stepney episodes of the rest of the season consists of three stories by Christopher Awdry, the hundredth episode of the series A very special letter ( Thomas and the Special Letter ) and other four Wilbert Awdry-stories, which, however, completely out of Continuity have been torn.

So playing Henry and the Elephant ( Henry and the Elephant ), for example, in the original before the strike of the great locomotives in trouble in the depot (first season). Since the story was skipped at the time, Henry lacks a specific reason to strike, but the story for the fourth season has been rewritten so that it does not take place during the first season.

1997: After Awdry's death

After Awdry's death after the fourth season was broadcast in 1997, the production team decided to write their own episodes without a template. Allcroft and Mitton now owned full copyright and for the fifth season had the option to write only their own stories and insert new characters that did not come from the books. To keep these episodes realistic, David Maidment , former manager of the London Midland Region of British Railways , was brought in as an advisor. Maidment founded the organization Railway Children and wrote to Allcroft in 1997 to ask for a donation because of the connection with the railway. Allcroft was hesitant at first, as their company was often asked for donations, but a dinner did happen where Maidment shared some anecdotes about his work. Eventually a contract was signed under which Maidment received £ 10,000 for his organization after sending some anecdotes to David Mitton and making sure the scripts and video footage were realistic. Similar to Awdry itself, many of the episodes of the fifth season are based on events that Maidment experienced herself or on real notorious railroad events.

In terms of content, the much darker tone and action is striking in season 5: In many episodes there are devastating accidents , explosions , but also dark and mysterious acts. The episode Rusty and the Boulder ( Rusty and the Boulder ) is a perfect example of the mystery factor and explosions. Also striking are the many freight cars that were destroyed this season (in episodes such as Duncan Sees Ghosts , Henry and the Haunted and Always on Percy ), even if it is not directly emphasized that they are dying. Also Stepney was in Stepney strayed ( Stepney Gets Lost ) almost scrapped.

The narrow-gauge locomotives featured in the previous season also appeared in the new stories. However, new models were built: The crew had difficulties with the small O-gauge models in the fourth season , so new models were built in 1-gauge . These models were now as big as the standard gauge locomotives. Therefore, the old small-gauge models were only used in scenes in which the narrow-gauge locomotives had to interact with the standard-gauge locomotives. However, the budget was not enough for the replica of all the narrow-gauge locomotives, which is why Duke and Sir Handel did not appear this season. A new narrow-gauge locomotive, Bertram , was also to be presented and it was planned as a tender locomotive, but parts had to be recycled, which is why Bertram Duke's small-gauge model was repainted and the face of Smudger was used.

While Michael Angelis remained the narrator for the British version, George Carlin was replaced by Alec Baldwin for the American version .

2000: Flop from a movie

Another reason to distance itself from the Railway Series was the fact that Allcroft was planning a real movie with Thomas. Allcroft focused on working with the actors while David Mitton continued to take care of the models and sets. The fifth season served as a showcase for their own work. The filming of season 5 and the feature film also took longer than the previous seasons.

In 2000, directed by Allcrofts, the real-life movie Thomas, the fantastic locomotive followed . In addition to Peter Fonda and Mara Wilson , Alec Baldwin , who already acted as narrator for the American versions of the fifth and sixth seasons, starred in the lead roles .

The film developed from the British original and the American offshoot Shining Time Station . The film about the search for the missing locomotive Lady , with which Thomas, his friends and his conductor Mr. Schaffner want to defeat the power-hungry diesel locomotive Diesel 10 , however, was a failure. The lack of realism emanating from Shining Time Station (it is standard that the conductor is tiny and can teleport himself with magic glitter) compared to its more realistic counterpart from Great Britain are blamed for this . In addition, understanding problems arose due to the lack of awareness of Shining Time Station in other countries. In addition, the script was completely changed at short notice. Among other things, the original villain PT Boomer , who was to be taken over by Doug Lennox , was seen as too creepy and replaced with Diesel 10 , who was supposed to take on a minor role.

Acquisition by Gullane Entertainment

After the movie, Allcroft resigned as chairman of her company and the company was renamed Gullane Entertainment . At the beginning of the sixth season, several teams of authors were active in developing the episodes, supported by David Mitton with ideas for concepts. It is noticeable that some of the authors made their stories more moral.

During this season, producer Phil Fehrle also planned a spin-off . Two of the sixth season episodes, Jack Jumps In and A Friend In Need , were designed to introduce the new characters Miss Jenny Packard and her construction machinery. Stephen Asquith directed these episodes which used larger-scale models and sets. Half of Jack & the Pack was filmed when it was acquired by HiT Entertainment.

2002: Takeover by HiT Entertainment

HiT Entertainment first showed interest in Thomas during the post-production of the feature film in February 2000 and initially offered approximately £ 220million, later £ 356million, but Allcroft declined with thanks. After the failure of the film, HiT was able to convince Gullane that they could bring Thomas success again through further expansion to American and European broadcasters and sales of merchandise . On July 8, 2002, it was announced that HiT had bought the brand in full for £ 139million.

This happened during the production of the seventh season and although most of it was produced by Gullane, HiT still had an impact on the production. The authors had even more freedom and David Mitton only wrote one story concept (for the episode Toby's Windmill ). In the United States, the season came out much later than in the United Kingdom, and the US version was very different from the British in some ways: Alec Baldwin dropped out as narrator and for the first DVDs, British narrator Michael Angelis narrated it until later Michael Brandon stepped in. Brandon's episodes weren't released until the eighth season and already contained new music by composer Robert Hartshorne, replacing composers Mike O'Donnell and Junior Campbell, and songwriter Ed Welch . The British versions continued to have the original music by O'Donnell and Campbell, the US versions new music by Hartshorne and Welch (with the exception of the early episodes with narration by Angelis).

Season 7 was the last season to be filmed with 35mm film, the last with five-minute episodes, and the last season, which was produced by Britt Allcroft, David Mitton, Mike O'Donnell and Junior Campbell, among others.

The new series

HiT Entertainment ultimately turned the television series about Thomas and his friends into an educational children's series.

Changes to the production staff from the eighth season onwards included Stephen Asquith as director (he was already director of the Jack & the Pack episodes) and Simon Spencer as producer. Furthermore Hartshorne and Welch stayed as composers and gave the characters new themes, among other things. Welch also composed the locomotive roll call , the new theme song, which was used up to season 21.

The episodes were extended from five to eight minutes in the course of the takeover, many classic characters such as Duck , Oliver , Terence , the narrow-gauge locomotives or Donald and Douglas were deleted (although the latter two were mentioned and could also be seen in a deleted scene) . Instead, the steam team ( Steam Team ) has now been established, consisting of the locomotives number 1 to 7 (Thomas, Edward, Henry, Gordon, James, Percy and Toby) as well as Emily, which was presented in the previous season. Originally number 8, Duck, was intended, but was replaced by Emily to also have a female lead.

The eighth season was also broadcast into German for the first time since the fifth season, the narrator was Sky du Mont , who stayed there until the 20th season.

For the 60th anniversary of the franchise, the one-hour special All locomotives in action was published in Great Britain in 2005 ! (English title: Calling all Engines! ), which was also published in Germany in 2007. All locomotives in action! told a simple story of the construction of the Sodor Airport and the cooperation between steam and diesel locomotives, which was interrupted in some places by songs and interactive learning segments. Furthermore, Diesel 10 and Lady from Thomas reappeared the fantastic locomotive. Lady only appeared in a dream while Diesel 10 existed in reality which wasn't really explained.

In 2005 season 9 also appeared, which continued to focus on the steam team, but about the narrow-gauge locomotives were back and Bill and Ben also had cameo appearances. There were also many new characters, some of which only appeared in one episode. Sharon Miller also joined the screenwriters and became a script editor . Typical of her writing style was a constant repetition of the story elements and also rather inconsistent representations of the characters. There was also a lot of rhyming in their episodes and a lot of alliterations were used in the narrative, especially in the English scripts.

Character representations in the new series

Some characters behaved differently in the so-called New Series ( New Series ; Seasons 8-12) than in the classic series ( Classic Series ; Seasons 1-7). This can be seen particularly well in the narrow-gauge locomotives: Skarloey and Rheneas are among the oldest locomotives from Sodor and had a correspondingly serious and wise personality in the books and in the fourth season. In the new series, however, they behave much more childlike and are even referred to as young locomotives in The Fearless Freddy . It is different with Sir Handel, who was very cheeky in the fourth season and played sick in No desire for work so that Peter Sam had to do his job, but has been the oldest and wisest locomotive on the narrow-gauge railway since the tenth season.

In general, it can be seen from the New Series that the characters act more like children and jump to conclusions (in episodes like Percy's big mistake , Ripe for the scrap yard or Thomas and the new locomotive ) or come up with rather questionable ideas ( The bravest locomotive the world , Emily knows everything better or The Costume Party ).

Also, less attention was paid to railway realism and continuity, which is particularly evident in Henry's character: In the first season Henry had to burn special coal for a while because his fire box was too small, but after his accident in The Flying Kipper he got a larger fire box and has been able to burn normal coal since then. Even so, episodes like It's Fun To Be Gordon were again about Henry's Special Coal. Furthermore, Henry was originally one of the express train locomotives, but in Henry and the Wish Tree he had no experience in dealing with passenger cars.

The last model productions

The tenth season came out in 2006 and had 28 episodes, two more than usual.

The eleventh season followed a year later and was the first to be filmed in high definition . Also, some characters returned after a long absence, including Elizabeth, the Steam Truck, Donald and Douglas, the Scottish twins, and Neville, Molly and Murdoch, who got small cameos. Originally only 20 episodes appeared, until the last six initially appeared as a DVD exclusive on the Die Abenteuer der Loks -DVD ( Engines and Escapades ).

After the eleventh season, the second hour-long special The Great Discovery , written by Sharon Miller and narrated in English by Pierce Brosnan, was released . Many old models were put back in front of the camera and appeared one last time in the series. At the time, The Big Discovery was HiT Entertainment's best-selling DVD, and this was the last production to be filmed entirely with models.

2008: animation as a new format

For the twelfth season, the Canadian animation studio Nitrogen Studios (now Cinesite Studios Vancouver ) animated people, animals and the faces of the locomotives (the classic clay faces were only used in background scenes). While the characters in English were still spoken by the narrator, Christian Stark provided his voice for all characters for the German version. At just twenty episodes, season 12 was the series’s shortest season at the time, and production costs were £ 8,120.79 an hour with around five days of filming per episode. As with previous productions, some old models were again put on camera for the first time in a long time, including Duck, Oliver, Toad and Stepney, all of whom had been absent since season seven. Another noticeable feature of the season 12 cast was the fact that all three new characters (Flora, the tram, Hank, the American tender locomotive, and Colin, the little shipyard crane) only reappeared in their introductory episodes and never reappeared later (although Colin did Storyboards from 2012).

Season 12 was Sharon Miller's first season as head writer. She kept this position until the sixteenth season, which is why this era is known as the Miller era ( Miller era ), but also as the Nitrogen era ( Nitrogen era , after Nitrogen Studios).

With the new technology, the special variant should the hero of the rails (English title: Hero of the Rails ) are implemented. However, during the planning phase, it was decided to use a full CGI animation. Nitrogen Studios took over the animation under the direction of Greg Tiernan and a fixed cast was introduced in both the German and the two English versions. Thomas himself was still spoken by Christian Stark in German, while Ben Small took over the role in British , who also spoke Toby. The American spokesman for Thomas and Percy was Martin T. Sherman , who had actually auditioned for Henry.

The hero of the rails is about Thomas losing control in a race against Spencer and getting lost in an abandoned forest, where he meets Hiro, supposedly the first locomotive from Sodor. Since the locomotives assume that Sir Topham Hatt would scrap Hiro, they want to secretly repair him with the help of Victor from the new locomotive workshop ( Sodor Steamworks ).

In the English version, Hiro claims to have been one of the first locomotives on Sodor ("I was one of the first steam engines to arrive on Sodor"). In the German version he thinks he was the very first ("If I remember correctly, I was the very first steam locomotive on Sodor"), but in all versions throughout the film, all characters are assumed to be actually the first Lok was. Historically, this doesn't make much sense, as Hiro's series, the JNR D51 class , was only built since around 1936, while locomotives like Thomas and Edward have been working on Sodor since 1915, at least according to the railway series continuity. Furthermore, claiming to be the very first locomotive for a British railroad to import a locomotive from Japan would be at least questionable.

The Hero of the Rails was the first film to tell a continuous storyline that wasn't interrupted by songs, and DVD sales were so successful that it even surpassed The Great Discovery . This was followed by season 13, the first fully animated season of the series.

Season 13 was published in 2010 and tied in part to the events of Hero of the Rails in particular the consequences that revolve around Hiro. Similar to season 8, very few characters appeared in the season because the models were not yet created as CGI models. What was particularly striking, however, was the fact that Thomas had a speaking role for the first time in every episode of the season and played the leading role in 13 of 20 episodes. The other seven episodes were about the other members of the steam team (except Edward) and one about Hiro.

Greg Tiernan continued to direct, his wife Nicole Stinn was the producer and Robert Hartshorne took over from Ed Welch and now composed the new songs in addition to the music in the episodes.

What was striking about the new writing style of Head Writer Sharon Miller was the much more frequent use of rhymes and repetitive plot elements. Most of the episodes about Thomas are about Thomas not listening or not doing what he should be doing. Continuity was apart from the hero of the rails -elements not really observed: So the result is The Early Bird ( The Early Bird ) that Thomas does not know how to pull the mail train, although he already this job about in the mail train ( Thomas, Percy and the Post Train ) from season 3, but Percy also sees a spaceship ( Thomas and the Spaceship ) from season 11. Furthermore, the episode The Double ( Double Trouble ago) Sir Topham Hatt's twin brother Sir Lowham hat that was ever discussed again either before or after the episode.

The mist island

Shortly after Season 13 second animated special appeared rescue Misty Island ( Misty Iceland Rescue ). This special presents the fog island, which is located near Sodor and is inhabited by the three American logging locomotives Bash, Dash and Ferdinand. At least among the fans, the film has a particularly bad reputation, because it lacks realism, is rhymed repeatedly and the logging locomotives were not very popular. That said, the film first had a post-credit scene in which Diesel 10 looks down on the steam locomotives and announces his return in the next film.

Apart from the fog island topic, the film also deals with the construction of the Sodor rescue center, which was dealt with in the following seasons. The film was also released on Blu-ray in the United States and Australia, making Thomas & Friends the first preschool program to be available on Blu-ray.

From the beginning of the animated era it was confirmed that 80 episodes would appear and in season 14 it is noticeable that only four episodes (depending on the order in which you orientate yourself) used the new elements Fog Island and Rescue Center, while the remaining sixteen Episodes are either based on characters and locations that already existed in season 13, or introduced new characters or brought back old ones regardless of the Fog Island rescue operation .

The further course of the Miller era

2011 appeared steam locomotives against diesel locomotives ( Day of the Diesels ). It is noticeable here that the locomotive Percy is in the foreground instead of Thomas. Here too, Diesel 10 again serves as an antagonist. In contrast to Thomas, the fantastic locomotive , he is not portrayed too badly. Since the diesel locomotives and their diesel workshop play a big role in the film, it was planned to introduce Dennis from the ninth season as well as Splatter and Dodge from Thomas, the fantastic locomotive, previously only seen in a few model episodes. However, with Norman, Sidney and Paxton, new characters emerged instead, based on the same locomotives as the originally planned characters.

Season 15 followed the events of steam versus diesel , but was released earlier for reasons unknown. In fact, it came out just six months after the previous season was released, much earlier than any other season in the series. Since the squadron used steam locomotives versus diesel locomotives at the new locations and characters , they did not introduce any new characters themselves, for the first time since the eighth season. While Belle, Flynn, Den or Dart play major roles in the episodes, Norman and Paxton only appear in the background, while Sidney and Diesel 10 do not appear at all. Sharon Miller was responsible for the scripts again with fifteen out of twenty episodes. In doing so, she still relied on rhymes, clichés, and repetitive elements.

2012: The transition to the new era

Season 16 came out in the spring of 2012 and although it was still very similar to the previous seasons, there was not a single rhyming time during the season. Other elements that put the season in a better light than its predecessors are the episode Percy and the Dampforgel ( Percy and the Calliope ), in which said organ played the theme music of the first seven seasons, and the return of the narrow-gauge locomotives. Similar to relay 15 and steam engines to diesel engines, the squadron was re-released before the film, although it plays afterwards, but in September 2012 then appeared The secret to the Blue Mountain ( Blue Mountain Mystery ).

The secret of the Blue Mountain was the official return of the narrow-gauge locomotives of the Skarloey Railway. The animation team at Nitrogen Studios visited the Talyllyn Railway to precisely examine and measure the bases of the narrow-gauge locomotives, which is why the CGI models of the narrow-gauge locomotives were much more detailed and accurate. However, locomotive No. 6, Douglas, was being repaired at the time. Therefore, Duncan, based on him, was only mentioned in season 16 and didn't return until two seasons later.

The film was still written by Miller, but Andrew Brenner was the script editor . A milestone in the film was the scene in which Thomas asked the other locomotives what was the worst thing a locomotive could do. Because in this scene the locomotives mention the events from the classic episodes A Scarf for Percy , The Sad Story of Henry and In the Mine and the scenes were recreated in CGI. This trend continued into the following seasons. Director Greg Tiernan also hid the scrapped model of a German DR series 80 , also known as the Märklin locomotive, in the diesel workshop, as the Märklin model of such a locomotive was used in the background in the first season, which this Easter egg is supposed to allude to.

The German version of the film also had a few guest speakers, including Henning Nöhren as Luke, Konstantin Graudus as Owen and Martin Brücker as Paxton.

The Blue Mountain Secret was the last production written by Sharon Miller as Andrew Brenner became the new head writer. Miller remained the dubbing director, however. This was also the last production to be animated by Nitrogen Studios and also the last to be told in the English versions by Michael Angelis and Michael Brandon.

Purchase through Mattel and Brenner Era

In 2012, HiT Entertainment was bought by Mattel for $ 680 million and the television series changed again. Andrew Brenner was now head writer, Ian McCue the producer, Mark Moraghan the new narrator for both English versions and Arc Productions (now Jam Filled Toronto ) took over the animation.

The first published production under Mattel's leadership was the 2013er Special king of the rails ( King of the Railway ), written by Brenner. What was noticeable about the new writing style was that the characters' personalities were now in focus again and the rhymes, alliterations and repetitive elements were completely removed. Also, some of the plot elements of King of the Rails related to the fictional story of Sodor established by Awdry and the film begins with the story of King Godred and later the Duke of Sodor plays an important role. But real history also played a role: The character Stephen is based on the real Stephenson's Rocket and tells the story of this real locomotive. In addition, the first model-exclusive character returned with Jack, the excavator, and Thomas, James and Percy were established as common main characters.

Season 17 also came out in 2013 and the episodes now had a similar writing style as the Awdry stories. Realism (especially with regard to railway processes) played an important role again, there were a lot of allusions to classic episodes or the production history that only big fans understand, old characters like Duck, Harvey, Bill and Ben returned while unpopular characters and concepts how the fog island and the lumberjack locomotives were removed from the series and even some fans were involved in the production: Sam Wilkinson became the rail consultant and Sodor Island Forum user Sean O'Connor designed the flat car in the episode The Thomas Method and the new signals and switches in front of the large station in Knapford together with Simon Martin. In addition, season 17 was the first season since the eleventh with 26 episodes instead of just 20.

The 2014 released film The story of the brave locomotives ( Tale of the Brave ) continued the trend, especially in relation to the return of old characters and places. The Wellsworth junkyard and the kaolin factory (incorrectly translated here as clay pit ) appeared for the first time in the animated series. Furthermore, Oliver could be seen in the trailer of the film , who had not appeared in the series since the twelfth season. He only made a minor cameo in the movie, but fans were excited and in season eighteenth Oliver was back with his Toad brake truck.

Another trend that The Story of Courageous Locomotives started was hiring celebrity guest speakers for the English versions. In the story of the courageous locomotives, Olivia Colman and Clive Mantle spoke the roles of Marion and Gator, followed by Eddie Redmayne , John Hurt , Tina Desai , Hugh Bonneville and Peter Andre for later films .

In season 18, the order of play of the episodes is still noticeable: In previous seasons, the episodes were rather independent of each other and the order of the episodes was only important when new characters were introduced, for example. Season 18, however, takes place directly after the events of The Story of the Courageous Locomotives and so many episodes focus on the new elements of the film. The episode Toad's Bright Idea even plays during the events of the film and the last four episodes of the season, which revolve around the Samson tender locomotive , also play in sequence.

What is also clearly present in the entire era, but especially in this season, is fan service . As in the previous season, there were many references to classic episodes and old characters and locations returned. But not every fan service has been well received: In particular, Duck was used very frequently in the relay and mentioned in any of his appearances either the Great Western Railway or his real name Montague and he and Oliver were in episodes like Spencer's VIP and Last Train for Christmas scenes dedicated, which actually did not influence the plot.

2015: series anniversary

2015 was the 70th anniversary of the franchise and to celebrate it, the special The Adventure Begins appeared , in which the stories of the first two Railway Series books and the first seven episodes of the first season of the television series were retold. The adaptation was more based on the Railway Series than Season 1, so James was painted black at the beginning of the film as in the Railway Series, while he was red in the TV series from the beginning. Thomas himself was still green at the beginning of the film and had the number LB & SCR 70 before he was painted blue with the number 1. Peter Hartshorne composed the music for the film on his own, using much of the original music by Mike O'Donnel and Junior Campbell, who were named in the credits. Robert Hartshone sang the classic songs Really Useful Engine and Troublesome Trucks with a children's choir .

One controversial change to the film was the portrayal of Henry. Initially, its appearance for the film was not changed, although the events of the film actually take place before his accident with the Flying Kipper and thus before his new building. Furthermore, his personality was changed in The Sad Story of Henry : In the original story, Henry refused quite aggressively to drive out of the tunnel and even hissed at his team and the fat controller. In this version it is shown that he (probably) has aquaphobia and therefore does not dare to leave the tunnel.

Despite this and other disagreements such as the appearance of places that haven't actually been built, The Adventure Begins has been received largely positively. Another extra of the film was the theming of the Coffee Pot locomotives, which so far only played a role in the Railway Series. This was an idea from rail advisor Sam Wilkinson.

Before the production of The Adventure Begins , Thomas' American spokesman Martin Sherman said goodbye to the series because of the poor pay. He was replaced by Joseph May . In order to give British Thomas a new, fresh voice, Ben Small was replaced by John Hasler .

As in many other countries, The Adventure Begins was not marketed in Germany.

The second special anniversary, sodors Legend of the Lost Treasure (English title: Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure) , not based on a Railway Series history, but includes many allusions to this. So the Arlesdale Railway , which was previously only found in the books, was introduced in the series. In addition, many old characters such as Donald , Douglas , Oliver , Daisy , Alfie , Max or Monty were reintroduced. Even a CGI model by Wilbert Awdry himself has been rendered and hidden in some scenes. In addition, the Hartshornes were given the opportunity to record the music from the film with a live orechester. The film grossed approximately £ 677,381 at the UK box office.

The Thomas Creator Collective , a fan series used by Mattel to promote merchandise, also started on the official YouTube channel in 2015 . In addition to Eric De Cordova from Mattel, many of those involved were very familiar faces in the community, primarily on YouTube, Twitter or on the Thomas Wiki. The TCC released a total of 71 episodes by 2019 and 19 music videos by the time it was discontinued.

Production and play order

From The Adventure Begins onwards , a new animation style was used where the colors were lighter and the shadows were more realistic. Season 19, which came out later in 2015, kept this new animation. However, this film was inserted into the schedule of Arc Productions relatively spontaneously, which resulted in production difficulties for the next films and seasons: From season 19, the playing order of the specials and seasons was no longer clear, because although season 19 according to Sodor's legend of the lost Schatz was released, she plays before. The fact that episodes like The Slow Stephen or No Help At All reuse music from the film also suggests that the season was produced after the film. Apart from that, the new elements of the film neither appear in the season nor are those of the season thematized in the film.

What made season 19 special again was the episode Diesel's Ghostly Christmas . This is a double-length episode that tells Charles Dickens' Christmas story with Thomas characters. In addition, the episodes Salty All at Sea , Den and Dart , The Best Locomotive in the World and No Help At All all play at the same time or overlap.

Season 19 also took a long time to be fully released. It first appeared in September 2015, but the final episodes did not air in the UK until early 2017. Many episodes also built more comedy into their stories and the fan service became more subtle compared to the previous season. A new intro was also used: Seasons 17 and 18 still used the intro that Nitrogen Studios had animated. Season 19 had a new intro that cut scenes from productions animated by Arc. The theme music, the locomotive roll call, got a remix and was re-sung. And a great many characters in the English language versions received new voices.

Henry Spots Trouble from this season was also the very first episode of the series to be banned from television: The episode was no longer shown in Australia because it played down chickenpox and allegedly conveyed opposition to vaccinations .

By 2016, the Special was published The Great Race ( The Great Race ), again before Season 20, although it does it. The Great Race was about the Great Rail Competition ( Great Railway Show ), compete in the locomotives from around the world in competition against each other. The concept was based on the Olympics and the special was also released in the year that said Rio Games took place. After the song Kleine Loks are not to be underestimated ( Never Overlook A Little Engine ) from the previous film was sung by the Lokomotiven instead of an off-singer and also in the previous seasons songs like I Do Like to Be Beside the Seaside or Down by the Docks (from the sixth season) were sung, The Big Race was the first full musical . The film introduced thirteen new international characters, including Ashima from India who served as the main character, Flying Scotsman , a famous real locomotive and Gordon's brother (since they are of the same class) but also a German locomotive with Frieda.

There was a huge marketing campaign associated with The Great Race. In addition to trailers, the official YouTube channel uploaded new videos every week in which the individual participants in the competition were introduced, and there was a lot of media coverage about multiculturalism and the many female characters. A controversial point of marketing was the notorious “bridging gap”. A trailer ended with a scene in which Thomas jumps over the Vicarstown drawbridge while it is being pulled up. From the beginning, this scene was criticized for lack of realism and in the final film the scene is not used for the plot, but only to market a toy set.

The German translation of the film was also heavily criticized by fans. Thomas and Gordon are referred to as diesel locomotives and the term tank engine ( tank locomotive) is translated as steam locomotive, which is technically not wrong, but makes no sense in the context, since Thomas' size as a tank locomotive is criticized and not his mode of transport.

Even if the big race was positively received by families, most fans were rather disappointed.

2016: Delayed anniversary celebration

Season 20 came out in September 2016, making fans forget their concerns about the series' future. Like season 10, season 20 had 28 episodes instead of 26, and those episodes were, in large part, about the new and returned characters from the 2015 films. About the breakdown train Judy and Jerome , the coffee pot locomotive Glynn , the Scottish twins Donald and Douglas , the Daisy railcar , the Ryan tank locomotive or the Skiff rail boat . But most of all, the episodes about the miniature locomotives Rex , Mike and Bert were a milestone because those stories were adaptations of their Railway Series stories. Tit for Tat , Mike's Whistle and Useful Railway are based on the stories of the same name from the book Small Railway Engines, making them the first Railway Series adaptations since the fourth season.

The big new character in the season was Hugo, the rail zeppelin . It appeared in two episodes and is based on the real German machine. His train driver was also given the name Franz , which is an allusion to the designer of the rail zeppelin , Franz Kruckenberg .

Fan service was much more available this season, but it was built in in such a way that it does not distract from the action and simply makes the fans happy, while children watching, for example, ignore it. This is particularly noticeable with Daisy, the diesel railcar: this season she had more leading roles than appearances in the entire series before and each of these leading roles is based on a small scene from her earlier stories. So there was a moment in the season 2 episode Daisy when Daisy insulted Annie and Clarabel. The episode The Railcar and the Coaches is based on these few sentences and works out the relationship between the characters. In Love Me Tender , Donald and Douglas clear the snow in exactly the same way they did in the Railway Series, and it uses a lot of dialogue from other episodes in which they starred.

Season 20 is seen by many fans as the climax of the animated series and episodes such as Henry Gets the Express , Small Railway Engines or the Glynn episodes are considered to be of the same quality as the stories of the classic series.

2017: On a big journey and "bouncing"

In October 2016, the 2017er-Special was Great journeys ( Journey Beyond Sodor announced) for the first time. The first trailer was published on the official YouTube channels on May 11, 2017 and sparked controversy: The trailer shows that the locomotives are now able to move their bodies back and forth, just like the vehicles from Bob the Builder or Chuggington . This swaying is commonly referred to as "bouncing".

The film finally came out in August and had a lot more controversial content: some of the sets in the scenes that played in England were unfinished, due to the animation studio going bankrupt in August 2016 and only being bought out by Jam Filled Entertainment had to, which lost production time.

There are some scenes in the film that are more like a cartoon in terms of animation than a supposedly realistic environment. Including a scene in which Thomas is lifted and thrown around by a roller gantry crane named Beresford , and another in which Thomas and the test locomotives hide behind a bush and emerge from behind it.

The test locomotive Theo was also presented in the film , which shows the symptoms of autism , which was discussed in the media.

On the long journey remained controversial. It was around this time that rumors were circulating about a spin-off called Big World! Big Adventures! and that Edward and Henry would be kicked off the Steam team to be replaced with female characters. Those rumors eventually came true, but Big World! Big Adventures! be a reboot of the main series instead of a spin-off.

Previously, the twenty-first season appeared in September as the final season of the TV series before the reboot. However, there were some predictions of the changes: The "bouncing" was present in some episodes, all new characters were female and the plot of the episodes The Fastest Red Engine On Sodor and A Shed For Edward ended with Edward getting out of the engine shed Tidmouth moved out. In addition, the way in which comedy was built into the series developed: the jokes were less subtle, sometimes very slapstick-esk, and some jokes were repeated as well. In several episodes, music was played that is reminiscent of Eye of the Tiger , in order to depict less dramatic situations in an exaggerated manner. In general, the pacing was a bit faster. Eight of the planned 26th episodes were also canceled to straighten out the schedule messed up by The Adventure Begins . One of these canceled episodes was supposed to explain Rosie's new livery and Cautious Connor was brought forward to season twentieth. Nothing is known about the other canceled episodes. This makes season 21 with 18 episodes the shortest season of the TV series.

2018: Big world! Great Adventure!

After A great journey became a great world! Great Adventure! published what was henceforth the name of the series from the 22nd season. The producers Ian McCue and Micaela Winter and then Mattel chairman Kate Schlomann were responsible for this reboot in order to keep the Thomas & Friends brand relevant on the market. One suggestion was a child who was of the opinion that "Thomas is a train, but never really goes anywhere" ("Thomas is a train but he never really goes anywhere."). In later statements, the producers argued, among other things, that in the first few stories, before he got his branch line, Thomas talked about wanting to see the world. Overall, the aim was to make Thomas more similar to other preschool series.

Big world! Great Adventure! The film ( Big World! Big Adventures! The Movie ) was released in British cinemas in July 2018 (in German cinemas after several delays in January 2020, after the first broadcast of season 23). In the film, an Australian racing car named Ace motivates Thomas to become the first locomotive to travel the world, whereupon Thomas outsmarts the fat controller and crane Carly and is loaded onto a ship to Dakar in West Africa . During his Resie the continent he met in Kenya on Nia , who wants to help him and accompanied him on his further journey. From Tanzania , Thomas drives to Rio , through the rainforest to San Francisco , from there to China and then drives back to Sodor in Europe with Nia , while the fat inspector continues to look for him.

During this trip Thomas again meets Carlos and Yong Bao , who were already seen in The Great Race .

Season 22 takes place after the film keeps the concept that Thomas travels the world and interacts with the audience (he is now the narrator himself and tells the stories from his point of view). Half of the episodes are set on Sodor and the other half in India , China and Australia. The episodes kept their total length of eleven minutes, but only seven minutes were invested in the story, while the rest was used for songs and learning segments. The animation is now much lighter, the shadows less complex, in general it is designed more like a cartoon and every single episode contains a fantasy sequence.

Edward and Henry were replaced in the steam team by Nia and Rebecca , so that the genders of the main characters are relatively evenly divided, as there was previously only one female locomotive with the locomotive Emily . Toby was also removed from the steam team, although he is still being called in the new locomotive roll call. In this roll call, Rebecca and Nia were accepted and took Edward and Henry's positions and because of their paintwork it is now called “ yellow, green, red, orange and blue ” instead of “ red and green and brown and blue ”.

The United Nations were also involved in the development of the new series and many of the episodes dealt with gender equality, the right to education or environmental protection.

2019: Season 23 and its new designs

Another season with the new concept followed in September 2019. A big noticeable feature was that there were no longer any one-hour specials. Instead, Season 23 had 20 regular episodes and three double-length episodes.

As you could already see in some advertising videos and promo pictures, the designs of the main characters have been changed for this season: Thomas, Gordon, James, Percy and Emily, but also the buses Bertie and Bulgy have been overhauled for this season: So the steam locomotives are everywhere Rivets, railings and other details fitted. This was done because all the new characters introduced, including Nia and Rebecca, were very detailed from the start and the steam team was now out of line with the fact that these locomotives were designed very simply. Some of these changes were well thought out, such as additional railings in the driver's cab, Gordon's second lamp with which he now carries the express headcode or Emily's railing above the smoke chamber, which was present on both the real locomotive and planned concept art from Season 7. However, the rivets in particular are very large and randomly placed and some additional components such as the steps on Thomas' water tanks were not even available on the real locomotives. In addition, the animation now has a similar problem to the 2015 reboot of Bob the Builder: The machines themselves now look very realistic, but the bouncing does not move them accordingly.

Season 23 played again half on Sodor and the other half in other countries. In addition to India, Australia and China, Thomas also visits Brazil and Italy here .

Andrew Brenner was still the author of Big World! Great Adventure! The film involved two episodes from season 22 as well. For the majority of season 23 he was named as head writer, in August 2018 he left the production and since the double episode Steam Team to the Rescue the former director David Stoten has taken over his post.

2020: The next anniversary celebration with Prince Harry

All of the twenty-fourth season episodes have been shown on either Netflix or Australian television, although they have not yet been premiered in the UK.

To celebrate the 75th anniversary, the double episode Thomas and the Royal Engine , written by Michael White, was released. White joined the team in season 22 and is a lifelong Thomas fan himself, which is why he likes to make references to classic episodes in his episodes, similar to Andrew Brenner. At Thomas and the Royal Engine , Sir Topham Hatt and Thomas were invited by the Queen to receive a special award. Prince Harry , who himself was a fan of Thomas as a child, was involved in the marketing of the film . The episode started with a little introduction from Harry who briefly recaps the history of the Railway Series and then talks about the anniversary before telling the beginning of the story. In the episode itself there are again obscure allusions such as the interrupted and therefore Railway Series-exclusive story Gordon Goes Foreign , the place names Crewe and Doncaster are mentioned in connection with Henry's new building and Gordon's production and Thomas says the sentence “ Little Engines Can Do Big Things ”from Thomas, the fantastic locomotive, which was the first time in the series that this film was alluded to.

The rest of season 24 went in two directions: One direction moved away from the world travel concept and only five episodes were played in other countries, one in each country shown so far. There were also some episodes that did not have a fantasy sequence. The other direction, however, dealt with the other double episodes of Marvelous Machinery . These episodes were about very futuristic machines like flying cars, large robots and a walking bridge.

At the moment, the future of the series is uncertain, as it was announced that Jam Filled Toronto would no longer work on the series and production of a twenty-fifth season has not yet been confirmed at the moment (August 2020). It is only known that there will be three exclusive mini-series on the official YouTube channels, but they have nothing to do with the series.

production

Seasons 2 to 12 were produced at Shepperton Studios on the outskirts of London. The models of the locomotives were manufactured in 1:32 scale and are based on the housings of the known Marklin - model trains of track 1 . In 1993 the studio was the size of an aircraft hangar.

Under the housings was a mechanism that made the eyes of the masks movable by remote control, as well as a pump that emitted steam when needed. For each of the figures, faces were made from modeling clay, which were later reproduced on a silicone basis and with various emotional expressions. Thomas had more than 40 facial expressions ready, while other locomotives could only put on five or six character traits. At that time, three full-time and two part-time model builders were working under the leadership of an art director . The surroundings of Sodor and various locomotives in extras came from the Märklin standard equipment.

The first models were made of plastic, from the third season brass was increasingly used. At the latest in the course of the new series , the old plastic models were also replaced by those made of brass, with the plastic models being used for accidents or temporary new paintings.

The first seven seasons were filmed with special 35mm cameras. This so-called Clearwater Periscope lens system was specially designed by David Mitton and Terence Permane. With these one created relatively real environments, and realistic depth effects could be imitated. In addition, you could film the small models at eye level. The first seasons from 1984 on were created exclusively with this method. In the mid-2000s, computer technology was introduced. In the beginning, steam elements, flying leaves or various types of precipitation were integrated. Since HiT Entertainment took over the series in 2003, the use of digital technology in the form of high-resolution digital cameras and CGI elements has been steadily expanded. The rigid kneading masks with the googly eyes gave way to computer-generated faces in the twelfth season. Since 2009 the series consists entirely of computer animation, which was animated from the thirteenth to the sixteenth season by the Canadian animation studio Nitrogen Studios. The CGI models were hand sculpted in the Maya software. In 2013, Nitrogen Studios was replaced for the seventeenth season by Arc Productions, which continued to animate the series until the twentieth season. Arc Productions went bankrupt on August 1, 2016, Jam Filled Entertainment took over the company and its assets on August 10 and renamed Arc Productions to Jam Filled Toronto on August 22. Up to the twenty-fourth season they took over the animation. It's not clear yet whether there will be a twenty-fifth season, but if so, another studio will take over the animation.

characters

main characters

The main characters are mostly steam locomotives . These all have different characters:

Thomas, the tank locomotive

Thomas (locomotive number NWR 1; previously LB & SCR 70) is the main actor and namesake of the series, a small, helpful and compassionate hero. He does not have a Tender , but its water and fuel supplies are built into boxes at the side of the boiler: So Thomas is a tank locomotive . It bears the yellow number 1 on its water boxes. It is mainly light blue, its circumference is white and red on the sides, the smoke chamber and chimney are black. It is initially used as a shunting locomotive . Only after he has proven himself several times, including rescuing James after an accident, is Thomas allowed to drive his own small branch line. For this he is assigned the old Annie and Clarabel cars . Since the seventeenth season he has also been pulling regional trains on the main line. Its three equally large drive wheels are connected by a common coupling rod ( axis arrangement C). For winter operations he has a blue snow plow that he does n't like to put on. Sometimes Thomas likes to rhyme. He is not stingy with loose sayings of amazement such as “Tinder and ash!” (In the classic series “Slag and ash!”) Or “Oh you puffing chimney!”. It is based on the E2 class of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway , but has extended side tanks and is a bit more compact overall.

Edward, the blue engine

Edward (locomotive number NWR 2) is an older, medium-sized locomotive that is always in a good mood. He was the very first character invented by Awdry. Edward is always very helpful towards the small locomotives, but makes sure that the others do their job properly. It is mainly light blue, its circumference is white with red sides and the smoke chamber and chimney are black. He has a three-axle tender in the locomotive color with the yellow number 2 on it. At the front it has a two-axle bogie with small wheels , at the rear two large drive wheels that are connected by a common coupling rod (axle sequence 2'B). He moved in the 21st season from the engine shed in Tidmouth and thus from the steam team and to Wellsworth on its branch line. Edward is a modified K2 of the Furness Railway .

Wellsworth Station, where Edward's branch line begins, is also known as Edwards Station .

Henry, the green locomotive

Henry (NWR 3) has a pointy nose and likes trees and the forest. When Gordon is absent or has other assignments, Henry occasionally takes over the express passenger trains. This makes it one of the stronger and faster locomotives on Sodor. It is mainly light green, but was temporarily blue in the Railway Series. It was painted green again after being mistaken for Gordon too often. It has a three-axle tender in the locomotive color with the yellow number 3 on it, the tender axles are partly disguised. In the front, Henry has a two-axle bogie with small wheels. The three large driving wheels are connected to each other by coupling rods (axle order 2'C). When he started out on Sodor, he was very proud of his color and didn't want the rain to endanger it. So he stopped in a train tunnel and could not be moved by anything to get out of there. Some versions of the story make him conceited, in others he is afraid of the rain. In all versions it was ultimately walled up in the tunnel. Only when he came to his senses was he allowed to pull another train . Since then he seems to have been purified. Likewise, this tunnel is now called Henry's Tunnel by the locomotives . Despite his size, Henry had a fire box that was too small (mistranslated as "firebox"). Bad quality coal therefore made him limp and depressed. More expensive special coal from Wales let the good-natured Henry run at full speed again at the time. During an overhaul due to an accident, he was fitted with a larger fire box and his mood has improved significantly since then. Before this overhaul, Henry's series was a fictional hybrid of the LNER class A1 and the GNR class C1 , but was then changed to that of an LMS Stanier 5MT so that it was based on a real locomotive. It was originally stationed in Tidmouth, but has been in Vicarstown since season 22 and thus much closer to the mainland, as it often brings heavy loads there.

Gordon, the big engine

Gordon (NWR 4) is an express locomotive and has a tendency to brag. It is the fastest locomotive in Sodor and the only one that pulls the express train with priority. He is very proud, sometimes on the verge of arrogance , but nonetheless helpful. He also has a narrow nose. It is mainly held in light blue. It has a three-axle tender in the locomotive color with the yellow number 4 on it. He is very careful about his reputation. If he has to take on a job that is below his level, it puts him ashamed. “Is that degrading!” He says. In the front, Gordon has a two-axle bogie with small wheels. The three large drive wheels are connected to each other by coupling rods. Under the driver's cab it has a small trailing axle (wheel arrangement 2'C'1). After both Gordon and Thomas were involved in shameful accidents because they overestimated themselves, both Loks made an alliance to always help each other in such situations. It was built as a GNR A0 prototype, but later became a GNR A1 Pacific . This makes him the last surviving brother of the Flying Scotsman . In the Railway Series the brothers are very proud of each other, in the TV series Gordon is jealous of his brother's status and is constantly teased by him.

A mountain that Gordon was once unable to climb with a freight train is therefore called Gordon's Mountain .

James, the red locomotive

James (NWR 5) is a little cocky and vain, u. a. because of its distinctive paintwork. He often asserts his own mind and tries to do things that he is unable to do. This not infrequently leads to a lot of trouble. James is painted in deep red, the smoke chamber and chimney are black, and his steam dome is golden. It has a three-axle tender in the locomotive color. On this is the yellow number 5. When he arrived on Sodor, however, it was painted completely black and only got this new paintwork after an accident. James has a small running axle at the front. Its three drive wheels of the same size are connected to one another with a coupling rod (axis arrangement 1'C). From the fat inspector who hired him as a freight and shunting locomotive, he received - after he had screwed up some initial orders by derailing - the threat that he would be painted blue if he would not behave better in the future. Nevertheless, he still receives house arrest now and then if he misbehaves. Since then, James has tried to stick to the rules and is sometimes even allowed to pull Gordon's express train. James is an experimental locomotive, a class 28 of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway with an extended circuit and additional front wheels.

Percy when Thomas Day of the Llangollen Railway

Percy, the little engine

Percy (NWR 6) is mentally the youngest locomotive on the steam team. He came to the fat inspector when the big locomotives went on strike because they had to assemble and shunt their own trains. Thomas had just got its own branch line and no one was doing this job instead. The fat controller ultimately chose Percy to reinforce the shunting company, who is always happy when he can be useful. He happily pulls the wagons across the island, preferably the mail wagons. Percy is Thomas' best friend. Percy is a small, plump tank locomotive and is colored green. Its circumference is red on the outside, the smoke chamber and chimney are black. Its steam dome shines in shining gold. The yellow number 6 is on his driver's cab. Its two drive wheels of the same size are connected to one another by a coupling rod (axle sequence B). It is based on the Great Western Railway's Trojan saddle tank tank locomotive .

Toby, the tram

Toby at the Avon Valley Railway Thomas Day event

Toby (NWR 7; previously BR 68221, LNER 8221, LNER 7127 and GER 127) is the fairly rectangular locomotive of a steam tram that works with its Henrietta wagon. After his branch line at Arlesdale in the west of Sodor ( East Anglia in England in the Railway Series) should be shut down, Toby was threatened with scrapping. But the fat inspector, who is on vacation there, is enthusiastic about the tram and takes it over to his railway company after Thomas was banned by the police from using the quarry route because he has neither rail clearers nor side protection. Toby works particularly hard out of gratitude. Its wheels are protected on the sides by gray plates, and it also has gray impact protection ("rail clearer") at the front. Its medium brown wooden structure covers an old steam engine. In the middle of each side it bears the yellow number 7 with a red border. On the light roof, the small black chimney can be seen, from which there is heavy smoke, as well as a black condenser. Its chassis is kept in red, but due to the cladding you can only see something of it at the front of the buffers. It has three driving axles (wheel arrangement C). Its two entrances on each side (front and back) are open and have handles that run from top to bottom. Toby is based on the GER C53 steam tram, classified as J70 by the LNER. In the German version, it has been incorrectly referred to as a railcar since the fourth season.

Emily

Emily (NWR 12) is a female, helpful, old-style locomotive with an elegant appearance thanks to the brass fittings . It is characterized by its middle wheel, which is oversized. At the front it has a two-axle bogie, and after the drive wheel there is a single running axle (axle sequence 2-A-1). She got her three-axle passenger car from the fat inspector Sir Topham because she once saved Oliver and Thomas from an accident. It is dark green, its chassis is brown on the sides, only the front of the buffers is red. Your smoke chamber including the slender chimney is black. Their nose is particularly small and delicate. In season 24 it became the official safety engine and was given the number 12. It is based on the Stirling single of the Great Northern Railway.

Nia

Nia (EAR / NWR 18) is an orange-colored tank locomotive from Kenya that Thomas got to know during his world tour and accompanied him back to Sodor because her old shed was torn down. She has since taken Edward's place in the engine shed and on the steam team. It has the number 18 (after the year of its introduction) and is based on the KUR ED1 class, but has been reclassified to standard gauge.

Rebecca

Rebecca (NWR 22) is a large yellow tender that has been helping Gordon with the express train since season 22. She also took Henry's place in the engine shed and steam team. It bears the number 22 (after its introductory season) and is based on the Southern Railway West Country "Battle of Britain" class.

Sir Topham Hatt

The director of the railway is almost always called the fat controller by both the locomotives and the speaker . He is the manager of all locomotives on the island of Sodor. He has a plump, stocky figure. When he speaks to his locomotives, he either does so from the platform or climbs on a stool or other object. He drives a blue car that has no personality of its own and wears a black tailcoat, a top hat, medium blue trousers, a white shirt, yellow vest, black shoes and a black tie. He never takes part in physical activities. His highest praise, which all locomotives emulate, is when he calls them “really useful”.

In his private life, too, he is always elegantly dressed: He wears a blue jacket, green-gray pants, green-gray vest, white shirt, a diagonally striped tie in yellow and red, a pocket square in the same color combination and a light-colored hat. Sir Topham Hatt is married to Jane Lady Hatt , but she rarely appears. She has brown, short hair and wears a blue skirt, a white blouse and a light blue jacket over it. They both have two grandchildren: a boy, Stephen, and a slightly younger girl, Bridget. You can also afford a butler (translated as "servant").

There were three Sir Topham Hatts in the course of the Railway Series: Sir Topham Hatt I (1880-1956), director from 1894-1954; Sir Charles Topham Hatt II (1914-1997), director from 1954 to 1984 and Sir Stephen Topham Hatt III (* 1941), director since 1984. Since the TV series is less detailed in terms of history, there was only ever there a fat controller: Sir Bertram Topham Hatt.

Mr. Percival

Mr. Peregrine Percival is the manager of the narrow gauge railways in Sodor's mountains. He was put on the TV series by The Fat Controller when the lines expanded. He is also referred to as a “thin controller”, his authority is undisputed. He lives with his wife and five children near the railway depot in the mountains.

Mr. Duncan

Mr. Fergus Duncan is called the Little Controller because he is the director of the Arlesdale Miniature Railway. In fact, it's pretty big. Unlike the other railway directors, he doesn't wear a suit, just a brown jacket over a yellow vest and a white shirt.

Minor characters

Occasionally the engine drivers , stokers , station masters , signal controllers, inspectors and porters appear on almost all main locomotives . They usually have a moderating character when the locomotives, some of which embody somewhat more childlike characters, threaten to go overboard again. But if the locomotives want to get their way, neither the driver nor the stoker can do anything about it. Although they are recurring characters, train drivers and stokers rarely have their own names. The main human roles are rarer and are not always named by name. The engine drivers played roles in the first eight seasons, albeit less in the course of the year, and were actually absent between seasons 9 and 15. Only since season 16 have they been used now and then and even speak at times. Only a few train drivers are named, including Bob (Thomas' train driver), Charlie (Edward's train driver) or Franz (Hugo's train driver). There are still people like the farmers McColl, Trotter and Finney or the pastor Charles Laxey. Passengers or other railway workers such as station masters and shunters are rarely named when the episode is about this person.

In addition to the main roles listed, there are numerous other actors who, like the locomotives, have a name but do not appear regularly in the stories.

Steam locomotives

Duck (color: green, axes: 3, locomotive number: 8 in the TV series, GWR / BR 5741 in the Railway Series) is a shunting locomotive with the inscription G. W. R. (Great Western Railway). His real name is Montague, but he prefers Duck. When Thomas is absent, Duck is used for him and, thanks to his gentleness, gets a lot of concession from wagons and locomotives. Thomas' jealousy about it only lasts for a short time. Duck is very proud of his origins and can talk about it endlessly. It was also the first Sodor steam locomotive to have negative experiences with diesel locomotives. Duck is a GWR 54xx pannier tank tank locomotive.

Donald and Douglas (color: black, axles: 6 (including three on the tender), locomotive numbers: NWR 9 and 10, previously BR 57646 and 57647 and LMS 17646 and 17647) are twin brothers from Scotland. Originally only one of the two locomotives was supposed to go into service on Sodor. Soon after, a severe winter arrived and the locomotives became indispensable for clearing tracks and clearing snowdrifts. They even saved the buried Thomas. At other times of the year they work as useful shunters. You have larger tenders than average. Donald can be seen with Duck every now and then and the two of them like to tease each other. Douglas is good friends with Oliver, whom he saved from being scrapped and brought to Sodor. The two are Caledonian Railway Class 812.

Oliver (color: green, axles: 3, locomotive number: NWR 11 in the TV series, GWR / BR 1436 in the Railway Series) is a green, small Great Western steam locomotive of the 14xx Auto Tank class and works with Duck on it Branch line. His brake truck is called Toad. Oliver is a GWR 14xx auto tank and his number was carried by a real locomotive.

Bill and Ben (color: orange-yellow, axes: 2, locomotive numbers SCC 1 and SCC 2) are two cheeky twin brothers and belong (in the Railway Series) to another railway company . You work in the kaolin factory (incorrectly referred to as the clay pit in the animated series). "SCC" (Sodor China Clay Company) stands on its sides and "Brendam Bay" on the front of the kettle. In the Railway Series they also wear their numbers over their faces, which was only planned for the TV series. They are based on Alfred and Judy from the Bodmin and Wenford Railway.

Charlie (color: purple, number NWR 14) is the mainland inspector's favorite locomotive. He and Thomas are vying for the title of the funniest and most fun locomotive. On the side of the cab is a square white 14. Like Billy, it is based on the Manning Wardle L series 0-6-0ST.

Harvey (NWR 27), a shy red swivel arm work locomotive. Used when light clearance work or accidents occur. It is based on the Scottish Dübs Crane Tank No. 4101 locomotive.

Rosie (NWR 37) is a small female steam locomotive that was previously painted in pink and purple colors. It has been cherry red since season 21 and has the number 37 and the letters NWR (North Western Railway) on its sides. She adores the titular hero and sometimes pisses him off. Like Daisy, she too has freckles on her face. As an SR USA Class, it was the first locomotive in the TV series to be based on an American design.

Murdoch is one of the largest and most powerful locomotives on Sodor. The imposing beige-colored giant is a little introverted at first, but is getting closer and closer to his new friends on Sodor. It is a BR Standard 9F.

Arthur is a red-brown locomotive and transports wagons with sea fish at the harbor. It's a London, Midland and Scottish Railway Ivatt Class 2MT tank and also has the initials LMS on its water tank.

Spencer , a silver, aerodynamically disguised express steam locomotive that is not at home on Sodor but belongs to a duke, is faster than Gordon. The Sodorloks don't particularly like him because he's arrogant and self-absorbed. As a special feature, his face is sloping wind-repellent on the boiler, chin first. It has a four-axle tender in the color of the locomotive. At the front, Spencer has a bogie with small wheels, followed by three drive wheels and a trailing axle (axle arrangement 2-C-1). Its design is based on the LNER-Class A4 , officially the fastest series of steam locomotives in the world, which was introduced in England in 1938.

Molly is another female minor character and is dazzling yellow. The big steam locomotive is good-natured and very powerful. Their distinguishing feature are two particularly large drive wheels on each side. It has a small tender in the color of the locomotive.

Model of Neville in the National Railway Museum in York

Neville is a character modeled after the Q1 class on the Southern Railway . The locomotive has a somewhat peculiar but modern appearance due to the lack of running plates.

Billy , an orange steam locomotive, is new and at first finds it difficult to follow the instructions from other locomotives. Only when he breaks down and Thomas rescues him does he understand and do his job satisfactorily. His name is written on his kettle. Its teeth are further apart than on other faces. It is based on the Manning Wardle L series 0-6-0ST. He has a tender in light and dark blue.

Mief (NWR 66), a rusty, somewhat dirty dark green steam locomotive with large glasses and a peculiar whistling sound, is used as a shunting locomotive, especially for transporting rubbish and smelly substances. Still, Mief is a capable and reliable locomotive. The fat controller describes them as "clever and resourceful". The original name, which is also printed on merchandising products, is Whiff .

Stanley , a white shunter, was brought to Sodor to replace Thomas, who had temporarily taken on new duties in Great Waterton. He is taller and stronger than Thomas and is liked by all steam engines.

Hiro (color: black, number 51) is originally from Japan. It was brought to Sodor by ship a long time ago and is considered (depending on the canon) to be the island's first steam locomotive. He carried and bears the title "Hero of the Rails" (later translated as "Lord of the Rails" and "Master of the Railway"; English: Master of the Railway ).

Bash and Dash are little logging engines from Fog Island. They are still heated with wood instead of coal and use a lot of lubricating oil. Originally based on the mainland, they were expelled from the railroad for not doing serious enough work. Bash has a brownish-orange cauldron and his cab is bluish. Dash's colors are reversed; its boiler is bluish, its driver's cab is orange-brown. He and his brother are very heavily modified Bear Harbor Lumber Company's locomotives.

Ferdinand is a large forest train locomotive from Fog Island, like Bash and Dash, still runs on wood instead of coal and uses a lot of lubricating oil. Originally based on Sodor, he was expelled from the island before the time of the fat controller because he did not work seriously enough. The front part of its cauldron is black, the rear part dark blue. The cab is light blue. The prototype is an Climax locomotive with the typical for this type inclined arrangement of the steam cylinders on a dummy shaft work.

Porter , an American and very self-confident harbor locomotive that was to represent Salty in the port of Brendam. Salty initially thought Porter should replace him, but they now work together in the port.

Samson (number 15), a very proud tank locomotive from the mainland. It's green, number 15, and has an open cab. He is very ashamed when he does something wrong.

Ryan (number GNR 1014), a purple tank locomotive from GNR. Because his construction class is bigger and newer than Thomas, he made him jealous, but now gets on well with him. He takes care of the freight traffic on the branch line to Harwick.

Lexi , a test locomotive from the mainland. She has her cab in the front and experiments a lot with her voice.

Theo , a shy little locomotive with a lot of gears that don't mesh properly. He lislepts easily and shows symptoms of autism.

Merlin (number 783), a silver King Arthur class steam locomotive. He is convinced that he can make himself invisible because he was built so that his three chimneys should distribute his steam in such a way that it can no longer be seen.

Hurricane (number 20), a large experimental tank locomotive with ten drive wheels that works with Frankie in the steel mill. After Thomas threatened to melt because of spilled liquid metal on his last escape attempt, Hurricane pushed him out of harm's way. As a result, however, his own wheels melted, whereupon the test locomotives voluntarily helped out in the steelworks.

Sonny (number 1842), a mining locomotive that previously belonged to the thieves Baz and Bernie . He was accepted by the fat controller, but because of his past some locomotives were still skeptical and called him a thief before Sonny could prove himself by saving Diesel.

Diesel locomotives

Diesel (color: black, axles: 3), an unfriendly diesel locomotive, which claims that the diesel locomotives will soon replace the steam locomotives and which often intrigues against the steam locomotives. He was repeatedly sent away by Sodor, but has been part of the TV series since the eighth season of the NWR. Its three equally large drive wheels are connected to one another by a coupling rod (axis arrangement C). It is completely black, only its chassis at the front of the buffers is red. It is based on the successful British Railway Class 08 shunting diesel engines.
BoCo (in the Railway Series number NWR D2, previously BR D5702) is a large and friendly diesel locomotive. Because of his strength, he even deserves the deep respect of Gordon, who secretly hopes he is no stronger. It is based on the British Railways class 28.
Daisy (in the Railway Series number D1) is a medium sized diesel railcars for the transport of persons with strong eye shadow, pout and freckles. She was brought in for Toby's discharge. At first the lady did not behave very well, only bitched and complained. An animal mishap, which she actually warned Toby about, brought her to reason. Since then she has been working reliably.
Mavis (color: black, axles: 3, in the Railway Series number FQC 1), is a young female diesel locomotive with side plates that protect her wheels. It belongs to a mining company. On the side is “THE FFARQUHAR QUARRY CO. LTD "printed on it. Mavis is one of the diesel locomotives that are friendly to the steam locomotives. Similar to Salty, her face is framed by diagonal yellow-black warning stripes.
'Arry and Bert , two unfriendly green and yellow diesel locomotives , have “Sodor Ironworks” on their sides. They think diesel locomotives can do anything better than steam locomotives and are based on British Railways' successful 08 series.
Diesel 10 , (color: beige, axes: 4 (D)) can be seen as the most cunning character. This diabolical looking brown diesel locomotive openly sabotages the work of the steam locomotives. It also has a gripper arm with threatening spikes on its roof. An instigated revolt can be stopped after Thomas and Lady Diesel defeat 10.
Salty (color: red-yellow, axles: 3, number 2991) is a friendly diesel locomotive with ocher-colored impact protection, which is in service in the port of Brendam. He likes to tell the other locomotives about one or the other robber pistol, such as about pirate treasure or about Fog Island. Salty's face is framed by diagonal warning stripes in yellow and black.
Dennis , a lazy diesel locomotive who likes to let others do the work for you. However, he learned his lesson after getting himself and Thomas into trouble.
Den , a large hydraulic diesel locomotive that manages the diesel workshop, similar to Victor in the locomotive workshop for steam locomotives.
Dart , a little shunter who assists Den and gives him a hand when he doesn't know what to say.
Norman , Dennis' twin in orange. He was one of the locomotives that stormed the locomotive workshop.
Paxton, a younger and somewhat naive, but very friendly green diesel locomotive, who gets on well with steam locomotives and Diesel is not angry for long when he is mean to him.
Sidney , a very forgetful blue diesel locomotive. He hung in the diesel workshop for about two years, waiting for new bikes until one day Percy gave him some for Christmas. To help remember things, Sidney sometimes sings songs.
Phillip (number 68), a compact American diesel locomotive that loves racing. He once drove a race against Gordon, which he also won, but only because Gordon didn't start. Nevertheless, he often brags about having defeated the fastest Sodor locomotive.
Hugo , based on the rail zeppelin , visited Sodor once when his train driver wanted to introduce him to the Duke. The other locomotives thought it was the locomotive of the future, but Hugo wasn't that far advanced because he didn't have any couplings and his propeller can be quite dangerous.
Frankie (number MSC 4002), a diesel locomotive that works in the steel mill. Despite her initially friendly impression, she does not shy away from holding locomotives against her will in the steelworks and forcing them to do dangerous work with molten metals and slag.

Narrow gauge locomotives

Victor (color: red / black) is a steam locomotive and works in the huge repair shop in Crovan's Gate. He has a Spanish accent and is assisted by Kevin, a rolling crane. It is the only narrow-gauge locomotive that belongs to Sir Topham Hatt and therefore the North-West Railway, while the other narrow-gauge locomotives belong to the Skarloey Railway or the Culdee Fell Railway.

Skarloey Railway (SR)

Skarloey (locomotive number SR 1) is a small red narrow-gauge locomotive and one of the oldest locomotives on Sodor. It arrived in 1865 and is based on Talyllyn Railways Talyllyn, which is its twin in the Railway Series.
Rheneas (locomotive number SR 2) is the brother of Skarloey and is based on his twin Dolgoch from the Talyllyn Railway. Rheneas took the name “brave old locomotive” through a heroic deed.
Sir Handel (SR 3), a blue narrow-gauge locomotive with three axles, was formerly called the Falcon and worked with Duke and Peter Sam (then Stuart) on the Mid Sodor Railway. Its model is the Sir Haydn locomotive of the Talyllyn Railway (originally from the Corris Railway), which for advertising reasons sometimes disguised this locomotive as Sir Handel.

Sir Haydn of the Talyllyn Railway disguised as Sir Handel, 2008

Peter Sam (SR 4), a green narrow-gauge locomotive with three axles, used to be called Stuart. Its model is the Edward Thomas locomotive from the Talyllyn Railway.
Rusty (color: orange / red, black in the Railway Series; number: SR 5) is a very small, narrow-gauge diesel locomotive.
Duncan (SR 6) is a cheeky and very cheeky narrow-gauge steam locomotive in the rail network of the "thin inspector". The model is the Douglas locomotive of the Talyllyn Railway . Duncan has a high chassis, a narrow boiler and is a rather smaller locomotive. She doesn't have a tender.
Freddy (English spelling Freddie ; number: SR 7, only in the TV series), a white narrow-gauge locomotive from the mountains, is really brave and that's why it was nicknamed "fearless Freddy".
Duke (color: brown), also known as “Opamotive”, is in a certain way the oldest locomotive (its base was built in 1863, Duke himself not until 1880). Duke is very experienced, but he always wants to tell the younger locomotives how to do something. He used to be installed in higher circles and always used to say, “That would certainly displease his grace” when something displeases him.

No. 6 Douglas , dressed up as Duncan for Children's Day

Bic Mac ( Mac Nic in the German season 9 ), a purple narrow-gauge locomotive, has two chassis (including a boiler with a steam dome and a chimney) with faces in one direction each. So it is actually two locomotives in one, but has only one enlarged cab ( Fairlie design). No tender can be reached from here. So the range is very limited. The English name Mighty Mac can be found in the original English and on merchandising products.
Luke (SR 22), a small narrow-gauge locomotive from Ireland . It was hidden in the Blauen Berg quarry for years because it supposedly pushed another locomotive into the sea. When the misunderstanding cleared up, he was kindly received by the thin controller. It is based on Peter Pan from the Leighton Buzzard Light Railway.

Culdee Fell Railway (CFR)

The Culdee Fell Railway only appeared in a Railway Series book, but is canon in the TV series. It is based on the Snowdon Mountain Railway .

Godred (CFR 1) was named after a famous Sudrian king. He was very cocky and fell off the mountain just a month after the railroad opened and was so badly damaged that it had to be scrapped and its parts were used as spares for the other locomotives. His fate is based on that of LADAS on the Snowdon Mountain Railway.
Ernest (CFR 2), like his colleagues, has his own passenger car and is equipped with two faces; one in the front of the smoke box and one in the back of the driver's cab.

No. 2 Enid of the Snowdon Mountain Railway, prototype for Ernest

Wilfred (CFR 3), who shared with Ernest Culdee the changes on the railroad when he returned from his overhaul.
Culdee (CFR 4), named after a Christian monastery in Ireland, Scotland and England in the Middle Ages, whose members called themselves Culdees. In the fictional old Sudrian language, Culdee means something like "companion of God".
Shane Dooiney (CFR 5), named after a mountain in the Culdee Fell Mountains.
Patrick (CFR 6), formerly Lord Harry , a very new locomotive on the Culdee Fell. He was quite haughty at first, until Culdee told him the story of Godred, after which Patrick now behaves more appropriately.
Alaric (CFR 7), is described by Ernest, Wilfred and Culdee as nice and calm.
Eric (CFR 8), a very cautious locomotive that is aware of the dangers on the mountain route.

Real locomotives

Almost all the machines that appear are based on those that exist in reality, but every now and then certain famous individual locomotives have guest appearances.

City of Truro on the Great Western Railway was the first locomotive to do 100 miles in an hour. He visited Sodor once and the locomotives loved him, with the exception of Gordon, who was not impressed by the record.
Flying Scotsman (in the German animated series The Flying Scotsman ) is a large LNER A3 with two tenders and the brother of Gordon.
Stepney (color: beige, axles: 3 (C)) is usually only called a bellflower locomotive and drives on the same route in the TV series. Like Oliver, Stepney was about to be scrapped and was saved by Rusty. Later, 'Arry and Bert tried again to scrap it. In the TV series, his role is a bit inconsistent, as he seems to be part of the North-West Railway there, but his stories, which are based on the books, say that he only visits them.

Rolling stock

Annie and Clarabel , Thomas' caramel-colored passenger cars , are older and transport workers and employees . They each have gray-silver roofs. Their faces each take up an entire front of the car. Annie can only transport passengers , but Clarabel also has compartments for luggage and the conductor .
Hector (an acronym for H eavily E ngineered C oal T ruck O n R ails ), a black and very large coal wagon. His name is in large letters on the driver's side. His imposing appearance earned him the nickname "the terrible" because he was barely manageable by Bill and Ben. But he was really only afraid and after Thomas had helped him about it, he made friends with him.
Henrietta , a brown passenger car, is pulled by Toby on the branch line and is probably the only actress without a face. A chicken coop was to be made out of it when the Toby branch line was to be closed. But when the fat inspector offered Toby a job, he simply took Henrietta with him.
Freight cars , called the stubborn wagons , are a nuisance to Thomas, James and other locomotives who have not yet learned to use them. They have their own will, a bad memory and are sometimes malicious and gleeful. More than once they derail the locomotives they underestimate, including themselves.
Rocky , a rail crane, consists of several individual wagons.

Road vehicles

Bertie is a red bus that sometimes takes over the passengers of broken-down locomotives or competes with many locomotives. Since the twenty-third season he has had the license plate CRD 54: CRD stands for C. Reginald Dalby, an illustrator of the Railway Series, and 54 for the year 1954, in which the book Edward the Blue Engine appeared, in which the same license plate for the first time was shown.

Bulgy , also known as Pfau (in the German version of Season 3), a red double-decker bus , pretended to be a railway bus and was converted into a chicken coop. It later became a vegetable stand on wheels, but has since returned to the transport business.

Elizabeth is a burgundy red truck with an open bed.

George is an age-old, very grumpy steamroller that grumbles all locomotives. In a race against Sir Handel, the winner could not be determined because the participants jostled each other. The front part is black, the rest including the cab is green. The top of the roof is white.

Madge , a female, light green truck from the mountains of Sodor, is close friends with the narrow-gauge railways and strong enough to transport them. The cab is mounted on three wheels. The prototype is the British Mechanical Horse truck built from 1934 to 1968 .

Terence , an orange caterpillar tractor, works in the forest, plows or helps out in winter.

Tiger moth is a yellow plane.

Trevor , the dark green steam tractor, was about to be scrapped and now belongs to the pastor.

Other machines

Captain is a blue boat with a yellow-orange cabin; below the waterline it is red. When Thomas gets lost at sea, the fat controller drives him on a (futile) search and rescue mission.
Cranky is a top-slewing loading crane at the harbor who initially saw the locomotives as useless Beetles, until Percy and Thomas had to straighten him up after he fell to the ground in an accident. It consists of a two-story steel frame construction.
Carly , a very modern yellow gantry crane that was built in Brendam harbor when the work became too much for Cranky.
Big Mickey , a huge hammerhead crane from the sister series TUGS. His model was used in Thomas and is also in the port of Brendam. In the twenty-first season he got a face and spoke to Cranky for the first time.
Harold the helicopter is white and has three rotor blades. Instead of wheels, it has thick pontoons, thanks to which it can also land on the water.
Jeremy is a jet from the new airport on Sodor. The modern airplane has a white livery and a blue friendly face. Jeremy is also a friend of the locomotives.

People

Mrs. Kitty Kyndley , or Mrs. Kyndley , is an elderly lady who lives in her cabin on Thomas' branch line. She serviced the locomotives before a landslide at Christmas 1951, thus preventing an accident. As a thank you (and as a Christmas present) they visited the crews of the locomotives and the fat controller and gave her a trip to Bournemouth. She has a daughter, Percy was asked to put together a good luck package for her wedding, and she sold refreshments at the big railroad competition.
The Duke and Duchess of Boxford occasionally visit Sodor with their private locomotive Spencer. The Duke wears a navy blue jacket on which his coat of arms is embroidered in gold on the left breast pocket. He also wears a lemon yellow scarf, milk blue trousers and a panama hat , as well as a trimmed boatman's frill with trimmed mustache. The Duchess wears a medium blue dress with large reddish rose petals printed on it, with a large, white collar border and a very large hat. All of this is strongly reminiscent of the English noble houses. Numerous orders that the fat inspector gives the locomotives actually come from the Duke. Since the hero of the rails , the noble family has had a villa as a separate residence on Sodor.
Jane, Lady Hatt is the Fat Controller's wife. She is a gentle, friendly lady who gets along well with the locomotives. She wears a light blue jacket with many buttons, a knee-length pale yellow skirt (or a knee-length pale yellow dress), medium brown shoes and also has medium brown hair that is barely neck length.

International characters

In the 2016 special The big race , some locomotives from different countries appeared and since the Big World! Great Adventure! -Reboot continues to meet new international characters on his world tour.

Ashima , a very colorful locomotive from India, which took part in the big railroad competition in the shunting competition, and won it together with Thomas.
Vinnie , a large American tender that likes to annoy smaller locomotives but is later punished for it. He took part in the test of strength in the railroad competition and most likely won it.
Frieda , a German tender locomotive that also took part in the test of strength and is based on the class 10 of the German Federal Railroad.
Raul , a small shunting locomotive from Brazil that took part in the shunting event of the railroad competition.
Carlos , a Mexican tender that won the battle of strength in the very first railroad competition. At a later one he took part in the decorating parade, but since he was not decorated, he lost.
Yong Bao , a large tender locomotive from China. It was originally painted plain blue and was wound up by the other locomotives, but after he saved one of them, it was painted in the Chinese lucky colors and got a tiger painted on the tender. So he also took part in the decorating parade, but lost it. He met Thomas again during his world tour and taught him a lot about Chinese culture.
Ace , an Australian racing car that encouraged Thomas to be the first steam locomotive to travel the world.

Railway Series-exclusive

D199 , also known by its nicknames Spamcan and Old Reliable , is a big, light blue diesel engine that is naughty and nasty. Immediately after arriving on Sodor, D199 was sent away again.

Bear , formerly known by its old number D7101, is a modern-looking diesel locomotive. It was initially blue and later repainted in dark green, only the cabs in the front and rear are yellow. As usual, the chassis at the front of the buffers is red and the face yellow. Bear is a nice and helpful Diesel and sometimes pulls Gordon's Express when Gordon is too busy.

Philippa , better known as Pip and Emma , two diesel electric locomotives that together make up a BR InterCity 125 express train. Sir Topham Hatt showed an interest in them since 2005 and eventually bought them in 2011 to enable faster express trains to London.

Alice and Mirabel , two Great Western passenger coaches pulled by Duck and sometimes Donald, were saved from scrapping by the Fat Controller.

Isabel and Dulcie , Oliver's carriages. Isabel came with Oliver when he fled the other railroad and Dulcie was later rescued by Sir Topham Hatt and given to Oliver.

synchronization

Where and when exactly the first five seasons were translated is not known, as no translator, director or studio was named. It is only known that Manfred Steffen was the narrator and that the first cassettes appeared around 1994.

The sixth and seventh seasons were never translated for unknown reasons, but books based on these stories have appeared in Germany. The majority of seasons 18 to 20 as well as the entire season 21 were also skipped.

Since the eighth season, the series has been translated at Studio Hamburg , initially under the dialogue and direction by Henning Stegelmann . The dialogue book for the 2013 special King of the Rails was written by Sascha Draeger , who a short time later also took on the speaking roles of Bill and Ben. Dialogue script and direction for seasons 17 and 18 as well as the 2014 Special The Story of Courageous Locomotives was directed by Cindy Beier , who also directed the 2015 film Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure , the script of which, however , was written by Tammo Kaulbarsch . Stegelmann returned with season 19 and the 2016 special The big race and Kaulbarsch stayed as translator and director of the songs until he also took on a speaking role with Theo in 2017. Since the twenty-second season leads Regina Chain dialog book and Stegelmann more direct.

role	Original British speaker	Original American speaker	German speaker
Narrator ^A	Ringo Starr (Seasons 1 to 2) Michael Angelis ( Seasons 3 to 16) Pierce Brosnan ^B^C ( The Big Discovery ) Mark Moraghan ( Seasons 17 to 21)	Ringo Starr (25 episodes from Seasons 1 and 16 from Season 2) George Carlin (Seasons 1 to 4) Alec Baldwin (Seasons 5 to 6) Michael Angelis (four episodes from Season 7) Michael Brandon (six episodes from Season 6, Season 7 to 16) Pierce Brosnan ( The Great Discovery ) Mark Moraghan (from seasons 17 to 21)	Manfred Steffen (seasons 1 to 5) Sky du Mont (seasons 8 to 20)

^A. Since the twenty-second season there has been no third-person narrator and Thomas himself takes on this role by speaking to the viewer.

^B.The plan was for Brosnan to take on the narrative role of seasons 12-14 and he also recorded season 12, as clips with his narrative were released. Why he didn't come back is not known.

^C.Before Brosnan was hired, Gwyneth Paltrow , among others, was in discussion, but she declined.

Steam locomotives

role	Original British speaker	Original American speaker	German speaker
Thomas	Ben Small (seasons 13 to 18) John Hasler (from season 19)	Martin Sherman (seasons 13 to 18) Joseph May (from season 19)	Christian Stark
Edward	Keith Wickham	William Hope	Christos Topoulos
Henry	Keith Wickham	Kerry Shale	Michael Bideller
Gordon	Keith Wickham	Kerry Shale	Tetje Mierendorf
James	Keith Wickham (seasons 13 to 20) Rob Rackstraw (from season 21) ^D	Kerry Shale (seasons 13 to 18) Rob Rackstraw (season 19 and up)	Tobias Schmidt
Percy	Keith Wickham Christopher Ragland (vocal part; The Great Race )	Martin Sherman (seasons 13 to 18) Christopher Ragland (from season 19)	Robin Brosch
Toby	Ben Small (seasons 13 to 18) Rob Rackstraw (from season 19)	William Hope	Volker Hanisch
Duck	Steven Kynman	Steven Kynman	Oliver Warsitz
Donald	Joe Mills ( Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure ) Rob Rackstraw (season 20 and up)	Joe Mills ( sodors Legend of the Lost Treasure ) Rob Rackstraw (from season 20)	Carsten Krabbe
Douglas	Joe Mills	Joe Mills	Ole Jacobsen
Oliver	Joe Mills	Joe Mills	Matthias Klimsa
Emily	Teresa Gallagher Jules de Jongh (vocal part)	Jules de Jongh	Kristina von Weltzien
Nia	Yvonne Grundy Patricia Kihoro (singing voice; big world! Big adventure! )	Yvonne Grundy Patricia Kihoro (singing voice; big world! Big adventure! )	Franziska Trunte
Rebecca	Rachael Miller	Rachael Miller	Manuela eagerly
Rosie	Teresa Gallagher (seasons 13 to 16) Nicola Stapleton (from season 21)	Jules de Jongh (seasons 13 to 16) Nicola Stapleton (from season 21)	Simona Pahl (season 13 to 16) Natascha Pavia (from On a big journey )
Stanley	Matt Wilkinson (season 15 and up) Rob Rackstraw (season 19 only)	Ben Small (seasons 15 and 18) David Menkin (only season 18) Rob Rackstraw (only seasons 19 and 20) John Schwab (from season 20)	Benjamin Morik
Spencer	Matt Wilkinson	Glenn Wrage	Till Huster
Foul	Keith Wickham	William Hope	Tetje Mierendorf ( Nebelinsel rescue mission ) Till Huster (seasons 14 to 17) Kailan Mahadevan (from season 22)
Bill	Jonathan Broadbent (seasons 17 to 19) Rasmus Hardiker (from season 22)	Jonathan Broadbent (seasons 17 to 19) Rasmus Hardiker (from season 22)	Sascha Draeger
Ben	Jonathan Broadbent (seasons 17-19) Matt Wilkinson (season 22 and up)	Jonathan Broadbent (seasons 17-19) Matt Wilkinson (season 22 and up)	Sascha Draeger ^E
Harvey	Keith Wickham	Keith Wickham	Martin Lohmann
Charlie	Matt Wilkinson Steven Kynman (vocal part)	Glenn Wrage ( Seasons 13-15 ) Ben Small ( Seasons 16-18 ) Steven Kynman (Season 20+)	Matthias Klimsa
Hiro	Togo Igawa	Togo Igawa	Kai-Henrik Möller
Bash	Matt Wilkinson	Kerry Shale	Robert Missler
Dash	Keith Wickham	William Hope	Michael Bideller
Ferdinand	Glenn Wrage	Ben Small	Robin Brosch
Scruff	Matt Wilkinson	Kerry Shale	Jesse Grimm
Belle	Teresa Gallagher	Teresa Gallagher ^D	Angela Quest
Stephen	Bob Golding	Bob Golding	Rainer Schmitt ( King of the Rails ) Knud Riepen (from season 17)
Connor	Jonathan Forbes	Jonathan Forbes	Jan-David Rönfeldt
Caitlin	Rebecca O'Mara	Rebecca O'Mara	Merete Brettschneider
porter	Steven Kynman	David Menkin	Oliver Horns
Gator	Clive Mantle	Clive Mantle	Holger Mahlich
Timothy	Tim Whitnall	Tim Whitnall	Johannes Semm
Marion	Olivia Colman	Olivia Colman	Dagmar Dreke
Samson	Robert Wilfort	Robert Wilfort	Jürgen Uter
Ryan	Eddie Redmayne ( Sodor's Legend of the Lost Ark ) Steven Kynman (season 20 and up)	Eddie Redmayne ( Sodor's Legend of the Lost Ark ) Steven Kynman (season 20 and up)	Oliver Böttcher ( Sodor's legend of the lost treasure ) Timo Kinzel (from season 20)
The Flying Scotsman	Rufus Jones	Rufus Jones	Andreas Birnbaum (Seasons 20 to 22) Joshy Peters ( Big world! Big adventures! )
Ashima	Tina Desai	Tina Desai	Manuela Eifrig ( The Big Race ) Franziska Lessing (from season 22)
Vinnie	John Schwab	John Schwab	Daniel Welbat
Raul	Rob Rackstraw ( The Big Race ) Federico Trujillo (from season 23)	Rob Rackstraw ( The Big Race ) Federico Trujillo (from season 23)	Joachim Kretzer ( The Big Race ) Fabian Harloff (from season 23)
Frieda	Teresa Gallagher	Teresa Gallagher	Katja Brugger
Axel	Rob Rackstraw	Rob Rackstraw	Achim book
Gina	Teresa Gallagher ( The Big Race ) Anna Francolini (from season 23)	Teresa Gallagher ( The Big Race ) Anna Francolini (from season 23)	Jennifer Böttcher ( The Big Race ) Mica Mylo (from season 23)
Carlos	David Bedella ( The Big Race ) Gabriel Porras (from Big World! Big Adventure! )	David Bedella ( The Big Race ) Gabriel Porras (from Big World! Big Adventure! )	Joachim Kretzer ( The Big Race ) Jens Wendland (from Big World! Big Adventure! )
Rajiv	Nikhil Parmar	Nikhil Parmar	Mark Bremer
Merlin	Hugh Bonneville	Hugh Bonneville	Martin Lohmann
Hurricane	Jim Howick	Jim Howick	Achim book
Theo	Darren Boyd	Darren Boyd	Tammo ruff
Lexi	Lucy Montgomery	Lucy Montgomery	Katharina von Keller
Lorenzo	Vincenzo Nicoli	Vincenzo Nicoli	Marcus Hanse

^D. Although James and Belle have the same speaker in both versions, they have different accents in the different versions.

^E. In season 22, Draeger gave Ben a drastically different voice after the twins previously sounded identical.

Diesel locomotives

role	Original British speaker	Original American speaker	German speaker
diesel	Kerry Shale	Michael Brandon (Seasons 13-16) Martin Sherman ( Seasons 17-18 ) Kerry Shale (Season 19+)	Martin May
Daisy	Teresa Gallagher (season 19) Tracy-Ann Oberman (season 20 and up)	Teresa Gallagher (season 19) Tracy-Ann Oberman (season 20 and up)	Nadine Schreier
Mavis	Teresa Gallagher	Jules de Jongh (seasons 13 to 16) Teresa Gallagher (from season 17)	Joey Cordevin
Diesel 10	Matt Wilkinson	Matt Wilkinson	Martin May ( Nebelinsel rescue mission ) Jürgen Holdorf (from steam locomotives against diesel locomotives )
'Arry	Kerry Shale	Kerry Shale	Jürgen Holdorf
Bert	Kerry Shale (seasons 14 to 15) William Hope (season 16 and up)	Kerry Shale (seasons 14 to 15) William Hope (season 16 and up)	Rainer Schmitt
Paxton	Keith Wickham (season 15) Steven Kynman (season 16 and up)	Keith Wickham (season 15) Steven Kynman (season 16 and up)	Martin Brücker ( The Secret of the Blue Mountain ) Tobias Diakow (from season 17)
Norman	Kerry Shale (season 15) Keith Wickham (season 17 and up)	Kerry Shale (season 15) Keith Wickham (season 17 and up)	Peter Weis
Sidney	Bob Golding	Bob Golding	Oliver Warsitz
The	Rupert Degas (an episode from season 15) Keith Wickham (from season 15)	Rupert Degas (an episode from season 15) Keith Wickham (from season 15)	Burkhard Schmeer
Darts	Rupert Degas (seasons 15 to 16) Steven Kynman (from season 17)	Rupert Degas (seasons 15 to 16) Steven Kynman (from season 17)	Lennardt Kruger (season 15 to 16) Christian Rudolf (from season 17)
Phillip	Rasmus Hardiker	Rasmus Hardiker	Tim Kreuer
Ivan	Bob Golding	Bob Golding	Andreas Kleb
Salty	Keith Wickham	Keith Wickham	Walter Wigand
Frankie	Sophie Colquin	Sophie Colquin	Johanna Dost
Flynn	Rupert Degas (seasons 15 to 16) Ben Small (season 17) Glenn Wrage (an episode from season 19) Rob Rackstraw (from season 19)	Rupert Degas (seasons 15 to 16) Ben Small (season 17) Glenn Wrage (an episode from season 19) Rob Rackstraw (from season 19)	Rainer Schmitt
Hugo	Rob Rackstraw	Rob Rackstraw	Mark Bremer

Electric locomotives

role	Original British speaker	Original American speaker	German speaker
Stafford	Keith Wickham	Keith Wickham	Marios Gavrilis
Etienne	Rob Rackstraw	Rob Rackstraw	Erik Schäffler

Narrow gauge locomotives

role	Original British speaker	Original American speaker	German speaker
Skarloey	Keith Wickham	Keith Wickham	Jens Wendland
Rheneas	Ben Small (seasons 16 to 18) John Hasler (from season 20)	Ben Small (seasons 16 to 18) John Hasler (from season 20)	Jesse Grimm
Sir trade	Keith Wickham	Keith Wickham	Daniel Montoya (season 16) Marcus Just (from season 17)
Peter Sam	Steven Kynman	Steven Kynman	Marios Gavrilis (season 16) Kai-Henrik Möller (from season 17)
Rusty	Matt Wilkinson	Matt Wilkinson	Arash Marandi (season 16) Achim Buch (from season 17)
Duncan	Tom Stourton	Tom Stourton	Martin May (season 18)
hatch	Michael Legge	Michael Legge	Henning Nöhren ( The secret of the Blue Mountain ) Niels Rieke (from season 17)
Millie	Miranda Raison	Miranda Raison	Sonja Stein
Victor	Matt Wilkinson (seasons 13-15 ) David Bedella (season 16 and up)	David Bedella	Robert Missler (seasons 13 to 20) Kailas Mahadevan (from season 22)

Miniature locomotives

role	Original British speaker	Original American speaker	German speaker
Mike	Tim Withnall	Tim Withnall	Constantin von Westphalen
Rex	Tom Stourton	Tom Stourton	Bernd Lambrecht
Bert	Keith Wickham	Keith Wickham	Christian Rudolf

Wagons

role	Original British speaker	Original American speaker	German speaker
Annie	Teresa Gallagher	Teresa Gallagher	Julia Holmes
Clarabel	Teresa Gallagher	Teresa Gallagher	Margret Strassburger (Season 16) Monika Hein ( King of the Rails ) Marion von Stengel (from Season 17)
Henrietta	Maggie Ollerenshaw	Maggie Ollerenshaw	Marion Schmitz (from season 22)
Rocky	Matt Wilkinson	William Hope	Gerhard Hinze (seasons 13 to 16) Jürgen Uter (from season 17)
Toad	Joe Mills	Joe Mills	Achim Schülke
The stubborn wagons	Ben Small (seasons 16 to 18) Christopher Ragland (from season 19) Rob Rackstraw ( on a long journey ) William Hope ( on a great journey ) Lucy Montgomery ( on a great journey ) Kerry Shale (from On a great journey ) Rasmus Hardiker (season 21)	Ben Small (seasons 16 to 18) Christopher Ragland (from season 19) Rob Rackstraw ( on a long journey ) William Hope ( on a great journey ) Lucy Montgomery ( on a great journey ) Kerry Shale (from On a great journey ) Rasmus Hardiker (season 21)	Johannes Semm Marcus Just Andreas Birnbaum ( On a great journey ) Liza Ohm ( On a great journey ) Flemming Stein ( On a great journey )
To An	Siu-see Hung	Siu-see Hung	Franciska Friede
Yin long	Windson Liong	Windson Liong	Oliver Hermann
Lei	Windson Liong	Windson Liong	Stefan Weissenburger
Aubrey	Genevieve McCarthy	Genevieve McCarthy	Muriel Bielenberg
Aiden	Tim Bain	Tim Bain	Flemming stone
Beppe	Vincenzo Nicoli	Vincenzo Nicoli	Felix Strüven

Other machines

role	Original British speaker	Original American speaker	German speaker
Bertie	Rupert Degas (seasons 15 to 16) Keith Wickham (from season 17)	Rupert Degas (seasons 15 to 16) Keith Wickham (from season 17)	Gerhard Hinze (seasons 15 and 16) Rainer Schmitt (season 17) Helgo Liebig (seasons 18 and 19) Wolf Frass (from season 23)
Bulgy	Colin McFarlane	Colin McFarlane	Constantin von Westphalen
Trevor	Nigel Pilkington	Christopher Ragland	Robert Knorr
Butch	Rupert Degas (season 15) Matt Wilkinson (from season 16)	Glenn Wrage (seasons 15 to 16) Steven Kynman (season 17 and up)	Robert Missler (Season 17)
Cranky	Matt Wilkinson	Glen Wrage	Walter Wigand
Jack	Steven Kynman	David Menkin	Tim Kreuer ( King of the Rails ) Daniel Schütter ( Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure ) Joachim Kretzer (from season 23)
Alfie	Nathan Clarke (Season 20) Tom Stourton (from season 23)	Nathan Clarke (Season 20) Tom Stourton (from season 23)	Kai-Henrik Möller ( Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure ) Alexander Merbeth (from season 23)
Oliver	Tim Whitnall	Tim Whitnall	Matthias Klimsa
Max	Tim Whitnall	Kerry Shale	Roman Rossa
Monty	Rasmus Hardiker	Rob Rackstraw	Johannes Klaussner
Brenda	Teresa Gallagher	Teresa Gallagher	Elise Eikermann
Darcy	Harriet Kershaw	Harriet Kershaw	Emma Luise Hermann

People

role	Original British speaker	Original American speaker	German speaker
Sir Bertram Topham Hatt / The Fat Controller	Keith Wickham	Kerry Shale (seasons 13-18) Keith Wickham (season 19 and up)	Eberhard Haar Jürgen Holdorf (vocal part)
Mr. Peregrine Percival / The Thin Controller	Keith Wickham	Kerry Shale	Benjamin Morik (seasons 16 to 19) Jens Wendland (from Big World! Big Adventure )
Sir Robert Norramby / The Duke of Sodor	Mike Grady	Mike Grady	Bernd Stephan
The Duke of Boxford	Matt Wilkinson	William Hope	Volker Hanisch (season 13) Herbert Schöberl (season 15) Bernd Stephan (from season 19)
The Duchess of Boxford	Teresa Gallagher	Jules de Jongh Teresa Gallagher (season 17)	Joey Cordevin
The widow hatt	Keith Wickham	Keith Wickham	Margrit Strassburger
Jane, Lady Hatt	Teresa Gallagher	Jules de Jongh Teresa Gallagher (season 17)	Margrit Strassburger
Stephen Hatt	Teresa Gallagher	Teresa Gallagher	Max Buckreus
Bridget Hatt	Teresa Gallagher	Teresa Gallagher	Florentine stone
Mr. Bubbles	Michael Brandon (seasons 13 to 16) Keith Wickham (season 19 and up)	Keith Wickham	Fabian Harloff
Farmer McColl	Matt Wilkinson	William Hope	Joshy Peters
Farmer Trotter	Matt Wilkinson	Kerry Shale	Joshy Peters
The harbor master	Matt Wilkinson (season 14 and up) Steven Kynman (season 18) Keith Wickham (season 19)	William Hope (season 14 and up) Keith Wickham (season 19)	Gerhart Hinze (season 14) Carsten Krabbe (from season 17)
The great composer	Keith Wickham	Keith Wickham	Jens Wendland
The announcer of the great railway competition	Rob Rackstraw	Rob Rackstraw	Marek Erhardt
The judge of the great railway competition	Robert Wilfort	Robert Wilfort	Peter Weis
Sailor john	John Hurt	John Hurt	Peter Weis
Miss Jenny Packard	Harriet Kershaw	Harriet Kershaw	Katrin Decker

Episode list

→ Main article: Thomas & Friends / Episode List

Differences to the book template

In every single adapted story there are minor deviations from the original, but there are also major changes that are completely different in the TV series from the Railway Series:

Tidmouth is the largest station in the Railway Series and Knapford in the TV series. In the Railway Series, Knapford was rather small and only served as a junction and junction on Thomas' branch line. For the first four seasons of the TV series, Elsbridge was the hub of the branch line.

Tidmouth also had the largest port in the Railway Series, in the TV series it has been the port of Brendam at least since the fifth season.

The Skarloey Railway steam locomotives in the Railway Series were all red with blue stripes. In the TV series they all have different liveries to make them easier to tell apart.

Henry was temporarily painted blue in the Railway Series, but was too often mistaken for Gordon because of this, which is why he turned green again. To avoid this confusion, always stay green on the TV series.

Donald and Douglas were painted blue in the Railway Series after being inducted onto the NWR, but remained black in the TV series.

Duck and Oliver got numbers 8 and 11 in the TV series, while they kept their old GWR / BR numbers in the Railway Series. They also have their own named passenger coaches in the Railway Series, which are missing from the TV series (although Duck has been pulling slip coaches since season eighteenth).

Stepney's story in the Railway Series is based on the story of the real locomotive that was rescued from the Bluebell Railway. In the TV series, Stepney was rescued by Rusty and works on the bluebell branch line that is supposedly on Sodor, although the adapted stories say he only visits the NWR.

BoCo, Daisy, and George's faces were green in the Railway Series and built into their bodies, like Harold, Annie, and Clarabel. In the TV series, they got gray clay faces.

In the Railway Series, James was originally black and was only painted red after his accident in The Accident Train , while in Season 1 he was red from the start. However, when the first stories were rematched with The Adventure Begins in 2015 , care was taken to have James black initially. Nonetheless, James has blue stripes and a red roof in the Railway Series, and gold and black stripes and a black roof in the TV series.

Trains

The trains connect cities and villages of Sodorus with each other. The standard gauge railway's North-West Railway ( North Western Railway in short NWR ) and the individual trains are usually very precise tasks. The express trains (in the Railway Series of the Wild Nor 'Wester ) with the largest passenger cars and large locomotives like Gordon , James or Henry (replaced in the Railway Series by Pip and Emma since 2011 ) seem to have the most important function: They move them Passengers on the main line from Barrow in England to Knapford in the west of the island (Tidmouth in the Railway Series). Smaller locomotives like Thomas or Toby with smaller or older wagons are on the way on the branch lines . There are, for example, Thomas' branch line from Knapford to Ffarquhar, Edward's branch line from Wellsworth to Brendam harbor and Duck's branch line from Tidmouth to Arlesburgh. Occasionally there is a night train . The freight trains are not that popular. One of them, the flying kipper ( translated as flying herring in the CGI series ), pulled by Henry, transports boxes of freshly caught fish from the harbor across the island at high speed at dawn.

Cartoon

In Germany, the series was first broadcast on January 5, 1998 by RTL II. It was later repeated by Super RTL , Toggo plus , ORF eins Fox Kids MDR Kabel eins BR Rbb Hr Das Vierte Anixe KiKA ZDF Junior premiere Kids SRF two SRF 1 ATV Sat.1 and ATV2 . Thomas, the fantastic locomotive was shown at funny fon ( tele 5 ) and Boomerang .

Others

Spokesman in the German version of the animation series is among others Sky du Mont , in earlier episodes Manfred Steffen , in the original English version partly Ringo Starr . Thomas was spoken by the actor Dirk Bach in the radio plays for the Europa company .

The “fat inspector” is by no means a (ticket) inspector, rather he oversees the entire railway system on the island. The misleading term “fat controller” results from the wrong translation of the original English term “fat controller”. A suitable German term would be "Eisenbahn-Director". In the older German book editions from the 1980s, the term "fat director" is still correctly used. The German translation of the series also contains other errors.

In English, the word game is using his last name Hatt clear: Because sound similar has (hat, but also Chapeau and hat he always wears such) and head (meaning head or (departmental) -Head or boss and his position indicates).

Another translation error: Originally Thomas is a tank locomotive . The correct translation would be tank locomotive. As tender locomotives Gordon, James, etc. referred to, which actually drag are tender locomotives. However, this bug was fixed in season eight, but has continued to appear every now and then since season seventeen.

In the German translation, the sixth, seventh and twenty-first seasons were completely omitted and in the eighteenth to twentieth seasons 20 episodes each (22 in season 20) were skipped.

In the sixth season, the persona Jenny Packard was introduced, who everyone calls Miss Jenny . She heads the Sodor construction company. In parallel to the seventh US season, attempts were made to introduce an offshoot of Thomas. 13 episodes were realized that were only released as DVD exclusive in 2003 (two episodes were not published in Germany because they were on a different DVD than the Thomas and his loyal friends DVD). The focus is on the construction machines from Miss Jenny's vehicle fleet, which then implement various construction projects. Thomas and Percy only appear as secondary characters.

The fleet includes:

Jack , the friendly front loader (red, No. 11).
Alfie , a very small excavator (green, No. 12).
Oliver , an old backhoe that is mostly used for demolition work (beige, no. 14).
Maximilian and Montgomery , better known as Max and Monty , two construction trucks with a great temperament and a great propensity for nonsense (red cab, No. 15 & 16).
Kelly , the construction crane and the oldest in the squad (dark blue, No. 17).
Byron , a bulldozer (black and yellow, No. 18).
Ned , a somewhat clumsy steam excavator (brown-orange, No. 19).
Isabella , the friendly squeaky yellow but vain lady in the team (yellow, No. 22).
Nelson , a huge articulated lorry that can also pull and move locomotives like Thomas (black, No. 10).
Patrick , is a cement mixer (purple, No. 23).
Buster , another Sodor's steamroller that likes to race (red).
Brenda , another bulldozer, has taken Byron's place in the animated series (turquoise, # 24).
Darcy , a tunnel boring machine (yellow).

After Thomas, the fantastic locomotive , another movie was planned, which would also play the series universe. The Adventures of Thomas should appear in 2010 and tell a comparatively dark story that took place during World War II . The script was completed, but the publication date was postponed again and again until there were no more reports and the project seems to have been canceled.

Sodor Island

Wilbert Awdry and his brother George wrote a detailed fictional history of the island of Sodor and published it in the book The Island of Sodor: Its People, History and Railways . When the editors later rejected a new edition, Christopher Awdry wrote a new book in 2005: Sodor: Reading Between the Lines . Wilbert and George also created several maps of Sodor and later these were edited and adapted to the TV series. In 2014, railroad consultant Sam Wilkinson created another map of the TV series, which was criticized for various reasons: The placement of some locations contradicts what was seen in the series and the map includes many locations that only have a single appearance and whose existence is actually just a great contradiction.

Thomas and his friends are based on the fictional island of Sodor . An island nation that is part of the United Kingdom . The capital is Suddey near the south coast, the largest city Tidmouth in the west with a population of 35,000 (as of 1951). There is regular shipping to the nearby mainland, but only since the computer-animated series shown. Since 2016, you can also see, for example, the ferry function of ships for locomotives.

Sodor is located between Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria in northern England and the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea . According to publications by Panini-Verlag, Sodor measures about 60 miles from west to east and about 50 miles from north to south. The official website, however, calls the dimensions 40 by 30 miles.

In winter there are sometimes meter-high snow drifts on the tracks , which the locomotives have to clear. This suggests a northern, cool, temperate climate.

In the series, Sodor is depicted as a hilly country, most of which are quite gentle. One of the long slopes is called Gordon's Mountain . Historic windmills, as we know them from Holland or Northern Germany, seem to be still active. This allows conclusions to be drawn about the wind conditions. Occasionally the routes lead past castle ruins, the most famous of which is the Scottish castle in the north, which Henry equipped with a new flagpole.

In the interior of the island there are low mountain ranges and the Culdee Fell Railway climbs these mountains, including the highest mountain, Culdee Fell, whose summit is 2,048 feet above sea level. There are also several quarries , including a lead ore mine on Thomas' branch line as well as the Ffarquhar quarry, where Toby and Mavis work, the kaolin plant in the south, where Bill and Ben work, several slate quarries and also the Blue Mountain Quarry for the narrow-gauge locomotives.

From season 14 to 16 there was the legendary foggy island south of Sodor . Due to the constant fog, this is only visible from Sodor on a few days a year. An old dilapidated single-track railway tunnel leads to it, which Thomas rediscovered from Fog Island and Mief from Sodor. The geography or morphology, climate and flora of the Mist Island are strongly reminiscent of the temperate rainforests in British Columbia . The tunnel to the island was bricked up again in season 17 (see The Thomas Method and Too Many Fire Engines ) and even completely removed in 23 (see Steam Team To The Resce ). The island was mentioned again in Season 20 of The Way She Does It and in Big World! Great Adventure! The film was alluded to again. Other than that, it was removed from the series after season 16 because the concept was too unrealistic for the new tone.

marketing

A large merchandise market has already arisen around the series . In addition to plates, cups, drinking bottles, bags, cutlery, T-shirts and pillows, there are models of all imaginable forms of locomotives. A whole series of these locomotives is available to match conventional wooden trains . Even Lego has eight locomotives (Thomas, Gordon, James, Percy, Spencer, Toby, Stanley and Salty) as well as the Cranky crane from the series in the Duplo program. From Märklin there was a starter set “Thomas & his friends” in the H0 gauge with the Thomas locomotive and three wagons as well as Percy. For this purpose, the Hornby models were converted to Märklin's three-rail system. The Märklin size H0 “Thomas” locomotive and the Thomas starter set with Annie, Clarabel and a tank car are no longer in production. The H0 systems are usually not compatible with each other.

In England, the model railway manufacturer Hornby and the American company Bachmann have a fairly large range of models. In Germany there are now shops that only sell Thomas products.

There are also children's books, DVDs , video cassettes, radio play CDs from Europe , a label from Sony Music Family Entertainment and puzzles from Schmidt Spiele in the German-speaking area . Ravensburger has the product "Aquadoodle", a painting mat, which has won several awards in England. The children's magazine “Thomas und seine Freunde” is published by Panini-Verlag. This is aimed at children from the age of two. Mainly the well-known film adventures of Thomas and his friends are retold there.

The US amusement park group Six Flags has addressed the children's area as "Thomas Town" in four of its theme parks. These attractions can be found in Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, New England, Magic Mountain, and Six Flags Over Georgia .

Thomas the Tank Engine Events

The popularity of the series prompted numerous tourist and museum railways to organize “Thomas the Tank Engine Events” as an attraction for families with children , especially in the British Isles . Machines that match the locomotives of the series are given faces and amateur actors act as the human figures, in particular the "Fat Controller" is one of the unavoidable appearances at such events.

From the summer of 2007, conditions on the part of the licensor HiT Entertainment that were increasingly difficult to meet led to resentment with the railway operators. In addition to special requirements for amateur actors, the license conditions now included the obligation to submit a police clearance certificate (Criminal Records Bureau check) for all participating employees. Since the railway companies do not want to impose this procedure, which is intended to protect children from sexual assault, on their mostly voluntary employees, numerous railway companies have not extended their contracts with HiT Entertainment and are now offering alternative offers for the family audience.

Nominations

In 1985 and 1987 Thomas the Little Locomotive & Friends was nominated for the British Academy Film Award for Best Animated Short Film.

Web links

Commons : Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Panini Publishing House
Thomas & Friends
ThomasAndFriends.com (English)
Thomas & Friends in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Thomas the Little Locomotive (German)
Thomas the Tank Engine Wikia (English)
Sodor Iceland Fansite (English)
The old Sodor Island fansite (archived; English)

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g The TV Series. Retrieved June 26, 2020 (English).

^ Sodor Island - A Thomas Fan Site. August 13, 2018, accessed June 26, 2020 .

^ The Thomas the Tank Engine ™ Man (1995 Documentary). Retrieved June 26, 2020 .

^ Brian Sibley: The Thomas the Tank Engine Man . Ed .: William Heinemann. October 1995, p. 187 - 189 (201 - 204 in the 2015 version) .

^ The Sad Story of Henry (1953). Retrieved July 3, 2020 .

↑ File: Sadstorysnippet.PNG - The Lost Media Wiki. Retrieved July 3, 2020 .

↑ Andrew Lloyd Webber: Unmasked . S. Chapters 16 and 20 .

^ Brian Sibley: The Thomas the Tank Engine Man . Ed .: William Heinemann. October 1995, p. 310-13 (2015 version) .

^ Thomas the Tank Engine (1976). Retrieved July 3, 2020 .

↑ Tim Staffel. Retrieved July 18, 2020 .

^ David Payne. Retrieved July 18, 2020 .

↑ John Lee. Retrieved July 18, 2020 .

↑ Robert Gauld-Galliers. Retrieved July 18, 2020 .

↑ Down the Mine (Unaired Pilot). Retrieved July 18, 2020 .

↑ Series June 1 , 2018, accessed July 18, 2020 .

↑ Series 1. Accessed July 18, 2020 .

↑ Thomas' Christmas Party. Retrieved July 18, 2020 .

↑ More About Thomas the Tank Engine. Retrieved July 18, 2020 .

↑ Series July 2, 17, 2018, accessed July 18, 2020 .

↑ Shining Time Station. June 21, 2018, accessed June 26, 2020 .

↑ Series 2. Accessed July 18, 2020 .

↑ George Carlin. Retrieved July 18, 2020 .

↑ TUGS. Retrieved July 18, 2020 .

↑ What happened to Tugs? Models & Interviews! Documentary. September 9, 2018, accessed July 18, 2020 .

↑ Tugs History | thestartugs. March 25, 2020, accessed July 18, 2020 .

^ New Crane On The Dock, twenty-first season

↑ ^a ^b David Mitton Memories. Retrieved July 19, 2020 .

↑ Series August 3, 23, 2018, accessed July 18, 2020 .

^ Robert D. Cardona. Retrieved July 18, 2020 .

^ The Thomas the Tank Engine ™ Man (1995 Documentary). Retrieved July 4, 2020 .

↑ Thomas' Anthem. Retrieved July 18, 2020 .

↑ Thomas' Anthem: Music Video. Retrieved July 18, 2020 .

^ The Thomas the Tank Engine ™ Man (1995 Documentary). Retrieved July 18, 2020 .

↑ ^a ^b Series August 4, 16, 2018, accessed July 18, 2020 .

↑ SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1995; GENDER WATCH: Sex of A New Machine . In: The New York Times . February 26, 1995, ISSN 0362-4331 ( nytimes.com [accessed July 18, 2020]).

^ Rusty. Retrieved July 18, 2020 .

^ Stanley (narrow gauge). Retrieved July 18, 2020 .

↑ Smudger. Retrieved July 18, 2020 .

Jump up , fourth season

↑ Stepney. Retrieved July 18, 2020 .

↑ Series 4. Accessed July 18, 2020 .

^ Henry and the Elephant. Retrieved July 18, 2020 .

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