Thomas (AEG)

For other uses, see Thomas.

Thomas is a blue tank engine who lives and works on the Island of Sodor and is the North Western Railway's number 1 engine. He is also the titular protagonist of the All Engines Go reboot series.

Biography

Thomas is a blue tank engine who lives on Sodor with his friends. He is part of the Biggest Adventure Club and Percy's best friend. The two share a roundhouse called Tidmouth Sheds along with Nia (who he first met on Steep Hill when she was new to Sodor)^[4], Diesel and Kana. Thomas is also quite close with Gordon, and the two appear to share a father-son dynamic.

Once, on a day off, Thomas encountered an old boxcar in the Maintenance Yard, which he named "Boxy".^[5] Since then, Thomas has grown fond of the boxcar and often took him around with him. By the time of the second series, Boxy was close the point of completely falling apart. Thomas tried to find parts to repair him, but did no good. After gaining advice from Whiff, Thomas was inspired to try again and he, with the help of Percy, Carly and Sandy, restored Boxy to look brand new.^[6] However, despite being restored, Boxy was still an old boxcar, and eventually, due to Thomas' recklessness, Boxy was completely destroyed by a boulder in Crumble Canyon, much to his sadness. While Sandy was unable to repair him this time, she and Carly used some of Boxy's remaining parts to turn him into a repair shed as a surprise for Thomas.^[7]

Personality

Thomas is a cheeky but hard-working engine who is always there to help his friends. He's always willing to upkeep a “Thomas Promise” and works hard to make up for any mistakes he's made. He simply wants to be the best little #1 tank engine he can be.

Technical Details

Basis

Thomas is an 0-6-0 tank engine. He is loosely based on a London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR) Class E2 0-6-0T with extended side tanks - his basis in the original series - albeit heavily abstracted.

Livery

Thomas is painted blue with red lining on his tanks and boiler and yellow lining around his windows. His number (1) is painted on his side tanks in yellow with a red outline. His running board, bufferbeams and valences are all red.

The prototype of the book Meet the Engines also states that Thomas was green when he first arrives, however it is likely this is a holdover from the original book, which was based on the original television series.

Appearances

Audio Files

Whistles

Bell

Trivia

• Earlier promotional images for All Engines Go feature a slightly different design for Thomas' whistle, with the two valves being closer together like in the original television series.
• Thomas is the only one of a few things:
  • The only member of the Biggest Adventure Club who was featured in the original television series to keep his original whistle sound.
  • As the title character, he is the only character to appear in every main episode of the series.
    • Additionally he was originally announced as being the lead character of every episode, but since Nia's Perfect Plan, he has occasionally been put into a supporting role, allowing other characters to take the lead on their own.
• As seen in the storyboards for the test pilot, Thomas is allergic to hay, making him the first engine shown to have an allergy.
• In an early version of the script for A Thomas Promise used for auditions in January 2020:
  • Thomas is renamed Riley, in order to keep the series a secret.^[8]
  • It is revealed that within the series, Thomas is eight years old.
• Most merchandise erroneously depicts Thomas' bunker as being narrower than his cab, likely due to it being a different colour to the rest of him on his 2D vectors.
• Unlike all past iterations, Thomas likes wearing his snowplough.

See also

• Thomas in The Railway Series
• Thomas in Thomas & Friends

References

External Links

• Thomas the Tank Engine on Wikipedia