Trivia

Interesting Trivia pieces relating to the Railway Series & Television Series, and the franchise as a whole.

Trivia

• Before being purchased by The Owner in The Railway Series, Stuart & Falcon, were purchased from the Mid Sodor Railway by the Sodor Aluminum Company for 50 pounds each, likely in a desperate attempt for money after bankruptcy. (This is equivalent to a total of $67.43 in US Dollars, or $33.71 each).
• In the episode Sleeping Beauty, Smudger is no longer at the ruins of the Arlesdale Sheds, meaning he was either scrapped, sold off, or moved to the mine, similar to His RWS Counterpart being moved to Cas-ny-Hawin. Interestingly there is a funnel like structure seen at the ruins of the sheds, however it isn't Smudger's, because it's different in structure, and not in the Generator-Shed area.
• Journey Beyond Sodor's Plot is directly based of The Wizard of Oz, with various allusions and four direct references to the aforementioned film.
• It's never explained whether or not the troublesome trucks were rescued from the ravine, located next to the Hawin Lake Viaduct, after falling into the ravine in Haunted Henry.
• S.S. Roxstar, which uses a model from the TUGS Character S.S. Vienna, has star's on her stacks, this is likely either a reference to the former Star Line from real life, or The Star Tugs from TUGS.
• Human characters such as Nancy, Charles Laxey, Fergus Duncan, Jeremiah Jobling, & Kevin Volley, are likely dead in the Railway Series, however it is possible that some of them are still alive, Kevin Volley would be the least likely to be alive, as he would be 117 currently (as of 2020).
• Various Buildings and background company's were the same as the ones in TUGS, as many of the props were recycled for Thomas & Friends
• Big Mickey's name and character are copyrighted, and don't appear to be legally allowed to use. It is unlikely that HiT Entertainment and Mattel seeked rights to use the Character, from the Screen Actors Guild, who have current copyright for the Character.
• It is unknown if Godred survived his crash at Devil's Back, his crew and passengers seem to have been safe from the accident though, as the Culdee Fell Railway was going through hard times financially, Godred's remains were sacrificed to repair the other engines, and allowed the railway to thrive, he was never replaced as the Number 1 engine on the Railway.
• Awdry himself confirmed that sometime in earlier sudrian history, Satanic worshiping took place in Killdane, by a tribe of Danes, which is an allusion to the standing stone circles in Scotland, however he states that there is 'no evidence to support it, and it might just be a local legend'.
• Early Scripts for Thomas and the Magic Railroad reveal that Lily and Patch would have had a child, as well as mutt having a great-grandson, named 'Jeff'. The Film is told by Lily as an adult, looking back on her childhood.
• Sometime between Season 2-7 Mike O' Donnell and Junior Campbell had plans to update the opening theme of the show, but Britt Allcroft, David Mitton, and others in production didn't let them.
• Several different characters are known to have been built out of other vehicles, these include Fred, the 1985 Iron Duke Replica, & Butch. Fred was built out of the remains of two Hunslet Diesels, the Iron Duke Replica's boiler was sourced from a Austerity Engine, & Butch was constructed out of parts from a diesel, a lorry, and a crane. Additionally, Godred's parts were used to mend the other Culdee Fell Engines, & Frank was built entierely out of spare-parts.
• South-Korean professional golfer Kim Joo-hyung gave himself the nickname of "Tom" after Thomas the Tank Engine.
• Thomas and the Magic Railroad was originally meant for release in 1997, and George Carlin was originally intended to reprise his role as Mr. Conductor.
• Well known families on the Island of Sodor include: The Hatts, Sam's, Croaire's, Regaby's, Dreswick's, Norramby's, and Kellson's. Out of these, the Kellson's are the only ones who don't have any specific members of their family referenced, although it is revealed that they are supposedly descended from Thorkell of Norwich. Other families that have been on Sodor for a long time include the Qualtrough's, Felgood's, and Marown's, Additionally, the Drixon's are one of Sodor's oldest families, descended from Edric who was on Sodor by 1067, if not earlier.
• Several engine characters in the RWS either swear or are implied to swear, as it's stated that they frequently use "rough-language". This includes Percy, Duncan, & Captain Baxter. As revealed in the Talyllyn Railway's "A Day on Awdry's Railway" DVD, Percy apparently once told Mavis "Just what she could do with her trucks". Duncan received his strong-language as a result of working in a factory in Scotland, before coming to Sodor, whilst Captain Baxter received his whilst working in a quarry. Additionally in "Tramway Engines" Mavis censors-swears by saying "Fudge!", it is unknown if this is actually what she said, or if it was edited to keep the book child-friendly.
• According to multiple instances within the franchise, engines can receive hiccups as a result of taking on too much water, similarly to humans. Percy receives them in the 2011 magazine-story "Horrible Hiccups". In the later All Engines Go! episode of the same name Thomas gets hiccups, which later get transferred to Percy, a group of Cows, and eventually Diesel.
• Several characters are known to easily get sea-sick, these being Alfie, and Sir Topham Hatt, as shown in the magazine-story "Ship Ahoy!" Similarly in AEG! Skiff is shown to get "land-sick".
• Several crimes have been seen committed in the franchise. In the story "Stop Thief!" in the RWS book "Really Useful Engines", the Stationmasters house gets burglarized, with his gardening trophies and new car being stolen. In the 1987 annual-story "On Your Guard!" Bill and Ben encounter two thieves. In the 2000 magazine-story "Police Engine" two thieves steal a safe from a factory. In the 2001 magazine-story "Percy's Picture", Percy helps apprehend a thief who stole a priceless painting from an art-gallery. In the 2002 magazine-story "The Winning Shot", two thieves steal a football-trophy. In the 2003 magazine-story "Super Heroes!" a man steals a bag of jewels, as-well as a van to use as a getaway vehicle. In the 2004 magazine-story "Proud Puffer", two thieves rob Wellsworth Bank, but are thwarted due to the efforts of Peter Sam. In the 2008 magazine-story "Tripped Up!" A thief steals money from a ticket-office, and is (accidentally) stopped by Thomas. In the magazine-story "The Great Statue Robbery", two thieves lock Thomas' crew in a shed, and attempt stealing a statue, whilst using Thomas as their getaway-vehicle. In King of the Railway, an account from Sodor's distant past is mentioned, in which a group of thieves once stole King Godred's Crown. They were subsequently found and punished for this, but the crown itself was lost for many centuries before being rediscovered. In Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure, Sailor John steals both Captain Calles' Ship & Treasure, which he is subsequently arrested for. In Season 24, Baz and Bernie steal the Amazing Metal Man, but when this doesn't go as planned, they steal invention blueprints and Kenji instead. All of these thieves were arrested or punished otherwise in the stories they appeared in.
• The Jet Engine, which apparently had a top speed of at-least Mach I, would've had the ability (If the fuel didn't run out, and the entire island was covered in SG Tracks), to traverse the whole of Sodor in about 28 minutes & 31 seconds (5 Miles Per Second).
• Sodor's fastest known engines in the RWS Pip and Emma, would take approximately 2:27:58 to traverse the island, if they had the ability. Hugo from the TVS would take slightly longer at approximately 2:33:09. A Cheetah, the world's fastest known land-mammal would take about 5:59:01 to traverse the island at its highest recorded speed (except it couldn't, as they only run for brief amounts of time, usually about 30 seconds).
• In the episode "Rocky Rescue", Belle, Flynn, Butch, & Harold travel from the Sodor, Search and Rescue Centre to the Ulfstead Branch Line, as Rocky has derailed there, and they are going to help get him back onto the line. Some fans have noted this as indicating that the crew of the show may not have quite-yet considered The Adventure Begins as Canon, as Judy and Jerome weren't used to rescue him. This isn't necessarily true however, and is based upon minimal evidence. If travelling at their respective top-speeds, it would take approximately the following amounts of time for each of them to reach Rocky's location, which was about 15 Miles away. Harold (8 Minutes), Flynn (10 Minutes), Belle (12 Minutes), & Butch 30 Minutes. It would've taken longer for Thomas (who was at the crash-site) to fetch Judy and Jerome, stationed aprox. 33 miles away. At his top speed, this would've taken him about 28 minutes, and 56 minutes total to take them back to Rocky.
• The 2014 TVS Map depicts Sodor with 78 Stations, 20 Tunnels, & 10 Lighthouses. The 1992 RWS Map depicts Sodor with 48 Stations & 9 Lighthouses.
• Railway-Series Publisher Edmund Ward, was seemingly the earliest born person to ever be involved in the Thomas franchise, having been born in 1896. C. Reginald Dalby would seemingly be the second earliest born, having been born in 1904.
• The flag for the Soviet-Union appears as one of the flags on the castle walls at The Great Railway Show yards on the cover-art for the The Great Race, even despite the fact that the special takes place in 2015, and in real-life the Soviet-Union dissolved in 1991. The flag isn't present in the special itself, meaning that it was likely meant as an easter-egg.
• Mr. Bubbles was originally known as Kuffy, and then Mr. Giggles, before receiving his current name. He was also called Bobo the Clown in the 2007 magazine-story "Ding-a-Ling!". In the Norwegian dub he is called Mr. Bubbleman, and in the European-Spanish dub, he is called Mr. Balloons.
• Several engines have been depicted both with and without a face, this includes Tallyllyn, Stepney, Mallard, Lady, and Thomas (As seen via his CGI-Model for the cancelled film The Adventures of Thomas). Some others have also been incorrectly illustrated without faces, such as Gordon, Henry, and James in the final illustration of the story "Off the Rails" in the Railway Series.
• Several television-series characters are directly based upon characters from the Railway Series, this includes Smudger based upon Stanley, Sir Robert Norramby based upon Richard Robert Norramby, and King Godred based upon Godred MacHarold. Additionally Glynn is based off of the TK&ELR Coffee Pots, which it is unclear as to whether or not they were sentient.
• An 8-Pointed Star necklace is worn by the Mayor of Sodor in the Television-Series. This type of star symbol is referred to as the Kaheksakand, and is a symbol of Life, Fertility, & is supposed to ward against evil.
• Some characters have had their names misspelled before, these include Rheneas as "Rhenaes" and "Rhyneas", Sir Handel as "Sir Handle", Duncan as "Dunkan", Bulgy as "Bulgie", Douglas as "Dagrus", Elizabeth as "Elisabeth", Murdoch as "Mordoch" and "Murdock", Jerome as "Gerome", Clarabel as "Clarabell", Isobella as "Isabella", Terence as "Terrence", Duck as "Doc", "Dock", and "Doug", Mrs. Kyndley as "Mrs. Kindley" and "Mrs. Kindly", Sidney as "Sydney", Cranky as "Frankie", Stepney as "Stepny", Bertram as "Bertrum", Bert as "Birt", Fred Pelham as "Fred Pelhay", Lemberg as "Lemburg", & Bertie as "Berdy" and "Birdy". Additionally, the closed-captioning for 10 Years of Thomas misspells Culdee as "Coldy" and Skarloey as "Skarloway". Stephen Hatt's name is frequently misspelled as "Steven" within the Marvel-Comics magazines.
• In "A New Arrival", The Blastbooster-7 is shown travelling a distance of roughly 37 miles in about 47 seconds. The speed required to do this, would be 2834 MPH. This could never happen on a normal railway line, as an object travelling at such a speed would derail quite easily, especially on curves. In real-life, at such speeds, Professor Friedrich would've never been able to hold onto the rocket successfully, such speeds would have also caused his eyes to separate from their sockets. Furthermore, Thomas is somehow able to catch up to this rocket, even though neither object actually appears to be travelling anywhere near these speeds. Travelling at such speeds would've also easily disintegrated Thomas' wheels, if not derailing him first. If Thomas could actually travel at this speed, he'd be travelling almost 8 times faster than the fastest locomotive ever built thus far.
• When Kenji is stolen in "World of Tomorrow", he is shown to travel from Ulfstead Castle to Crosby Tunnel (A distance of Aprox. 22.5 Miles). In a short amount of time. To realistically achieve this, he would've had to be travelling at at-least 562.5 MPH. 425-432 MPH faster than his basis is capable of. The Ro-Plane & Ruth's Hover Car can also apparently travel at the speed, as they are able to catch up to Kenji.
• Annie and Clarabel's Old Friend, introduced in a magazine-story in 1998, is the franchises first known male coach, being introduced 53 years after the first RWS Book was released. The first known male coaches introduced in the show, were two of the Slip-Coaches, 69 years into the franchise.
• Television-Shows in which Thomas has either been referenced/parodied in, or Thomas merchandise has appeared in, include Coronation Street (1960), The Avengers (1961), Jeopardy! (1964), Spitting Image (1984), Bobby Davro's TV Weekly (1987), ChuckleVision (1987), Fast Forward (1989), Seinfeld (1989), The Simpsons (1989), America's Funniest Home Videos (1989), The Red Green Show (1991), Bill Nye the Science Guy (1993), The Outer Limits (1995), Everybody Loves Raymond (1996), King of the Hill (1997), Family Guy (1999), Rikon Bengoshi (2004), Drawn Together (2004), The Doodlebops (2005), Criminal Minds (2005), American Dad! (2005), Robot Chicken (2005), Little Einsteins (2005), Psych (2006), 30 Rock (2006), The Big Bang Theory (2007), The Mr. Men Show (2008), Ghost Adventures (2008), The Cleveland Show (2009), The Chase (2009), Big Babies (2010), Mad (2010), The Amazing World of Gumball (2011), Joshiraku (2012), Lab Rats (2012), Fred: The Show (2012), Pickle and Peanut (2015), Big Mouth (2017), Big City Greens (2018), Hilda (2018), Amphibia (2019), and Hamster & Gretel (2022).
• Several character props were subsequently repainted to be used as other-characters, mainly due to budgetary restraints. This includes Rheneas, later reused for Smudger, Duke reused for Bertram, and 'Arry and Bert reused for Splatter and Dodge. All of these models were subsequently repainted back into their original guises.
• According to the Strasburg Railroad's website, Thomas' speed in the Television-Series is between about 30-40 MPH, this is likely a result of the speeds he is typically seen travelling at in the show. According to the official Thomas & Friends Twitter account however, his top-speed is about 70 MPH, just like his basis.
• According to the official Thomas & Friends Twitter account, Thomas doesn't have any siblings, unlike the Railway-Series, where a few would have existed.
• A blog post about Percy on the Strasburg Railroad's website from August 9th 2018, erroneously claimed that Percy was built in 1900. This likely came from Percy's page on the Thomas wiki which also falsely claimed this at the time.
• Harvey's models in the Wood range are capable of holding at-least 46 standard-sized paperclips at the same time.
• The engine character with the most wheel's in the franchise is Sam, having a total of 34. As per non-sentient engines go, the Union Pacific Big Boy Class engine has the highest number of wheels, coming in at 38.
• A total of 88 models were constructed over the course of the show's Model-Era (Note: Not counting the two pilot models, nor any Large-Closeup Scale models as most were just certain parts of the engine;Essentially, any engine prop that was given a full model, with wheels, to fit on a piece of model-rail is included here).
• Mark and Claire Chambers, Wilbert Awdry's grandchildren, own a 1st edition copy of The Three Railway Engines.
• The narration for Season 1 was recorded at Tittenhurst Park’s studio room. Tittenhurst Park is a country house in Berkshire England built in 1737, owned by Ringo Starr between 1973-1988.
• An animated title sequence was initially considered early on in Season 1 production, and there were simple draft ideas for this, such as puffs of smoke coming up.
• Season 1 was recorded over a period of 18 months.
• David Mitton was nicknamed “Sir Glove” by some of the crew. A clear pun on his last name which sounded like “Mittens”.
• During the early stages of production, the then unfinished Jack and the Pack models “fought” together as the crew enjoyed crashing them around like in “Robot Wars”.
• Thomas & Friends first began airing on German Television on November 22nd 1996, on the Network RTL ZWEI. The show apparently continued to air on this channel until December 30th 1998, when it moved to the related channel Super RTL, where it continued to air for the rest of the shows run.
• In the television-series, food Sir Topham Hatt has been known to eat, includes toast and marmalade, porridge, kippers, bagels, ice cream, and cream doughnuts. In the Marvel-Comics canon he is once shown eating a sandwich and is known to be fond of green beans served alongside roast beef, potatoes and yorkshire pudding, tinned sardines on toast garnished with a sprig of fresh parsley, and finally Humbugs.
• The 'Rhyme' in the Sad Story of Henry is significantly altered in the German Dub of the show, it goes "An engine with an attached train, had enough of the constant rain, when it went into a tunnel, it suddenly played very stolid, to wait in here would be smart".
• The character who took the longest to receive a name after being introduced was Farmer Finney who first appeared in the 1949 RWS Book "Tank Engine Thomas Again", his name would not be revealed until 47 years later in the Annual Story "James Gets Cracking" (Although this may be a different driver as much time had passed). The character who took the second-longest amount of time to receive a name after being introduced, was the TVS incarnation of Sir Topham Hatt, who didn't receive his first name of Bertram until Season 13, 26 years into the show.
• Queen Elizabeth II & Prince/King Charles III are the only two known Thomas characters who have caught COVID-19 (RWS Only).
• Thomas was named by Christopher Awdry, something that he has mentioned several times before.
• Throughout the franchise, Engine and Vehicle characters have been depicted with various different color faces, these include Grey, White, Yellow, Green, Orange, Brown, Red, Blue, Claret, Black, Pink, and Cream. Additionally, The Class 20 Diesel from Enterprising Engines is depicted with a face painted with Yellow and Black Hazard Stripes.
• Engines that lack buffers include, Sir Handel (Formerly;RWS), Peter Sam (Formerly;RWS), Duke, The Other MSR Engines, The CFR Engines, Pip, Emma, Puffing Billy, Stephenson's Rocket, Loch, Snaefell Car 5, Manx Car 20, Douglas Bay Horse Tramway No. 32, Bertram, Hank (Front), Flora, Bash, Dash, Novelty, Connor (Front), Caitlin (Front), Vinnie (Front), Shane (Front), Hugo, Lexi (Front), Gustavo, Kenji, Yen, Coran, The Japanese Engines, The Australian Engine, City Circle Tram, Tracy, Marshall, Dustin, Sam (Front), Zoom, JNR Class C11 Engine, and the E10 Series Electric Boxcab.
• The Great Race, Meet the Contenders, promotional videos inacurately depict the United States flag with only 42 stars.
• Bulgy is approximately 14 Feet 10 Inches tall as in both the RWS & TVS the clearance sign on Bulgy's Bridge reads 14'9, and he didn't fit under it.
• It is unknown how Henry had the ability to sneeze in the TVS, as he has no visible nostrils in that canon.
• Characters who successfully escaped from being scrapped/or the threat of being scrapped, includes Trevor, Donald, Douglas, Stepney, Flying Scotsman, Oliver, Toad, Alice, Mirabel, & Isabel. Additionally, it is highly-likely that Toby, Henrietta, and Elsie, would've been scrapped if they hadn't been sold to the NWR upon the closure of their branch-line.
• Engines with rather large funnels include The Coalbrookdale Locomotive, Puffing Billy, Locomotion No. 1, Stephenson's Rocket, Stephen, Sans Pareil, Stourbridge Lion, Jupiter (1831), Skarloey (RWS), Rheneas, Talyllyn, Jennings, John, Captain Baxter, Stepney, Gerry, Pixie, Duncan, Oliver, Stephenson's Rocket (1979 Replica), Smudger, Fergus, Bash, Dash, Luke, Gina, Rajiv, The Dockyard Engines, Theo, Beau, and Tamika. Non-Rail characters include Trevor and George.
• In Misty Island Rescue, one of the tube wires connecting to Diesel 10's claw is taped up, possibly as a reference to Thomas and the Magic Railroad, even though it isn't canon to the main series.
• Steam-Engines that were illustrated with tongues in the Railway-Series include Thomas, Edward, Gordon, James, Toby, Duck, Donald, and Skarloey.
• Several Thomas characters might (possibly) be named after individuals of extraterrestrial lineage from the past. These are Proteus, Samson, & Merlin. Proteus may have been named after the Greek god of the seas of the same name, who according to Greek Mythology was the son of Poseidon, a god of many things, and the human woman Phoenice. Poseidon was abandoned by the other gods and thrown into exile amongst the humans. He had a large trident that possess supernatural-powers, such as weather manipulation, such as storm creation, which could be considered a technological device misperceived as "magic". Samson from the Bible, whilst stated as being human, may have been genetically enhanced by aliens prior to his birth, as his parents were visited by an "angel" shortly before he was conceived. Additionally Merlin from Arthurian Legend, was supposedly born as the child of a human woman and an Incubus demon, which he inherited his seemingly supernatural powers from. All of these ancient-texts have since been interpreted in this way by some Ancient-Astronaut theorists, as evidence of alien visitations on Earth in the past.
• In the RWS, Duke is the first known tender-engine to arrive on Sodor, with Julius being the second overall, and the first known standard-gauge tender-engine on the island. Edward would be Sodor's third tender-engine overall, excluding some visiting engines from the Midland & Furness railways' that arrived to help out on the new NWR around this time.
• The Iron Melting-Vat that Thomas almost fell into in Journey Beyond Sodor, most likely exceeded temperatures of 2,800°F.
• The Boulder Prop was actually a heavily-modified styrofoam-ball, roughly the size of a Basketball.
• Multiple characters that are unrelated to each-other, share the same last names, including W. Arkwright & Mr. Arkwright, Burnett Stone & Jed Stone, Lady Jane Hatt (née Brown), Miss Brown, & Mr. Brown, Farmer Mills & Mr. Mills, M.C. Bunn & T. Bunn, Stacy Jones, S. Jones, R. Jones, Mr. Jones & R.H. Jones, and finally John Percival and Mr. Percival.
• Several mentioned-only characters within the franchise have been murdered. This includes Earl Sigurd of Orkney, Godred MacHarold, King Andreas, Prince Peter, and Robert Charles Norramby, who were all killed in either Wars or Battles. Additionally Harold the Black was murdered in an Affray, Jesse James was murdered by one of the last surviving members of his gang, and US President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. Also there have since been rumours, that Diana, Princess of Wales, may also have been murdered.
• Three episodes feature brief black and white old-footage styled sequences, these are Happy Birthday Sir!, Duck and the Slip Coaches, and Over the Hill, as-well as the special Hero of the Rails.
• Farmer Finney's small-scale model bore a high-resemblance to Joseph Stalin.
• The number of people who attempted to pull Henry out of the tunnel is as follows 13 (RWS;William Middleton), 12 (RWS/CGI), & 18 (Classic-Series). The number of people who attempted to push him out of the tunnel are 13 (RWS), 15 (Classic-Series), & About 13 (CGI).
• As shown in concept-art, The Horrid Lorries were originally going to have their eyes where their headlights would be, in a much similar fashion to Caroline.
• Engines that received the most significant rebuilds include Skarloey, Rheneas, & Talyllyn, who were built without cabs but received them later, Julius which was originally a tank engine, but was later rebuilt as a tender engine, Henry who was rebuilt into an entirely different class of engine, & Bert who was originally an 0-8-0 and has since had additional modifications made to him.
• Engine & Vehicle characters that the Thin Clergyman has either met or been in the presence of in the TVS include Hugo, Thomas, Annie, Clarabel, Flying Scotsman, Spencer, Philip, Stafford, Edward, Gordon, Percy, Toby, Henrietta, Duck, Oliver, Toad, Emily, James, Nia, Ryan, Rex, Mike, Bert, Peter Sam, Skarloey, Rusty, Millie, Bill, Ben, Donald, Douglas, Harvey, Daisy, Rocky, Marion, Skiff, Bertie, Jack, Alfie, Oliver (Excavator), Max, Monty, Captain, & Ace. Additionally, he appears to be friends with Mr. Percival as they are seen talking to each-other in The Great Race and travel in James to Ulfstead Castle in The Great Little Railway Show.
• Interestingly, despite the fact that St. Finan was born in Ireland and was apparently Caucasian, there is one illustration that depicts him as African.
• The only known engine to have suffered a boiler-explosion in the franchise, is Gordon, who suffered a partial boiler-explosion in the TVS special The Great Race. Additionally, Skarloey's boiler becomes heavily damaged in the episode Wharf and Peace, and Gordon's boiler was previously punctured in the episode Gordon Runs Dry.
• Characters that have been licked by Cows include James, Mike, and Percy (AEG!).
• Percy, Terence (Magazine), Charlie (Magazine), Rocky (Magazine), Emily, Skiff, Salty, Paxton, & Thomas have all been at one time mistaken for Ghosts.
• Characters that are known to be afraid of heights include Rusty (In Wharf and Peace), Gator, Rajiv, & Percy (AEG!).
• Characters that have become covered in food-based products before include Percy, covered in Treacle in Woolly Bear, Jam in A Scarf for Percy, Squashed Fruit in Percy, James and the Fruitful Day, and Chocolate in Percy's Chocolate Crunch. Additionally, BoCo gets covered in Chocolate in the 2005 magazine-story Choc-o-Boco!, Daisy gets covered in Jam in the 2005 magazine-story "Sweet Scent", Gordon gets covered in Jam in the episode Respect for Gordon, and Thomas gets covered in Flour in the episode Flour Power. Rebecca gets covered in Honey, Fruit, and Vegetables in the episode "Gordon Gets the Giggles". Additionally, in the AEG! episode "Thomas and Percy's Eggsellent Adventure", Percy gets covered in Milk and Eggs. Thomas additionally gets covered in milk and eggs after crashing into a lorry in the story "Scrambled Eggs" in the Railway-Series book "Thomas and the Twins".
• Toby, Toby's Brother, Miniature Toby, Flora, Scruff, Novelty, Marion, Shane, and Spunky Steamie are the only Steam-Engines in the entire franchise with square faces.
• The Ballast Spreader, Whiff, and Helpful Steamie are the only vehicle characters in the franchise to wear glasses. Darcy wears goggles while drilling, and Sandy from AEG! sometimes wears a welding-mask.
• Characters that are deceased in one Canon but still alive in another, include Godred, Lady Hatt, S.C. Ruffey, The Thin Clergyman, and The Fat Clergyman. Godred is deceased in the RWS, but alive in the magazines, whilst the rest are all deceased in the RWS, but still alive in the Television-Series. Queen Elizabeth II is also likely still alive in the T&F canon.
• Thomas & Friends currently holds the record of being the second longest running show on PBS Kids, airing from 1999-2017 (18 Years), only being beaten by Arthur which aired on the channel for 22 years from 1999-2022 (Not counting reruns). Thomas also had a presence on PBS in general for a period of 28 years (1989-2017), airing on the main channel between 1989-1999.
• Despite the fact that Captain Calles' Pirate Ship (Built during the 16th Century) features a Jolly-Roger flag, in reality this type of flag wasn't invented until much later, in the 1710's. The Skull and Cross Bones symbol in general however is much older, and is believed to have been created by the Knights Templar during the Middle Ages (Specifically between the 12th-14th Century).
• In the 7th illustration of "Toby Takes the Road" in the RWS Book "Toby, Trucks and Trouble", Sir Stephen Topham Hatt III appears to be incorrectly illustrated with six fingers on one-hand.
• Several engines have animals painted on their sides, BoCo, Jinty, and Derek have a lion as part of the British Railways Logo, Belle has an emblem featuring dolphins, and Yong Bao has a tiger painted on his tender. Additionally, Dexter has the following animals painted on his side: Rabbit, Butterfly, Bee, and an Elephant.
• According to the Thomas Marvel Comics Issue 175, the distance between Knapford and Barrow is about 40 Miles. In the RWS and T&F however, it is a distance of roughly 71 Miles. It is also stated here that it would likely take Thomas 1-2 hours to travel to and from these locations, meaning that his average travelling speed in the magazines is usually 20-40 MPH.
• In the RWS, the Island of Sodor has had at-least a total of 12 different railways, 5 of which are currently operational. In the TVS the island has had at-least a total of 9 railways, 6 of which are currently operational.
• The only completely faceless, but also seemingly non-sentient engines in the TVS, are The Märklin Engine & The Misty Island Speeder.
• Henry had a total of 12 Accidents over the course of the show, out of these, 7 were derailments.
• Gordon had a total of 22 Accidents over the course of the show, out of these, 9 were derailments.
• James had a total of 32 Accidents over the course of the show, out of these, 12 were derailments.
• Percy had a total of 37 Accidents over the course of the show, out of these, 13 were derailments.
• Donald & Douglas' Crews from the time they arrived on Sodor in 1959, were also related, albeit it is not mentioned how. It can be presumed they may have been quadruplets, or other related family-members.
• Actors and Actresses who attended the premiere of Thomas and the Magic Railroad in 2000, but weren't involved with the films production, include Dylan Mcdermott, Shiva Rose, Mimi Rogers, Katherine Heigl, Andrew Stevens & his family, Debra Winger, Bruce Davidson, Lisa Pelikan, Marlee Matlin, AI Corley, Tracey Gold, & Blair Underwood & his family.
• The only known electric narrow-gauge engine on Sodor in the RWS (or any Thomas Canon for that matter) is the Ministry of Defence Engine. It is additionally, the only known electric engine on Sodor in the RWS, apart from the Peel Godred Engines.
• Tugs & Season 5 of Thomas & Friends were apparently filmed in the exact same room/building at Shepperton Studios, this being the F-Stage building, which apparently was once used as a boiler-room. Some of the 2011 film "Captain America: The First Avenger" was also filmed in this same building.
• The following characters have their numbers displayed on their front buffer-beams, Oliver (Some RWS Illustrations), Mallard, Flying Scotsman (RWS Only), Merlin, Hurricane, & Frankie.
• Characters that originally had different liveries before being repainted, in the TVS, include Thomas, James, Victor, Skiff (Partially), Rosie, & Yong Bao. In the RWS, Gordon, Toby (Partially), Peter Sam, Sir Handel (Twice), Donald & Douglas, Mike, Trevor, & Bear.
• Characters that were briefly given a temporary livery include Henry (RWS), and in the Television-Series, James (Twice), Bulgy, Salty, Rheneas, Bill, and Ben. Additionally the artwork on a 1989 Frankel and Roth Ltd. Thomas bag depicts Thomas in a gray-livery.
• The Second Mr. Conductor's favorite movie is The Wizard of Oz (1939).
• There are only two known characters in the franchise that have had the shape of their faces change, Jack's face was originally a circle, but changed to a square when he returned in CGI. Cassia's face was revised after Big World! Big Adventures! to be a rectangle instead of a square. Additionally multiple characters in the TVS have had the sizes of their faces change over the years. From Season 6-11 Rusty's Face had increased in size (As-Well as scenes in Season 5 episodes where his), it decreased in size again and was slightly lowered in Season 12, only to increase in size again when he returned in the CGI Series. Duck's face significantly decreased in size in multiple Season 12 episodes. When he returned in CGI Rocky's face was significantly lowered in position, and slightly decreased in size. In some Model-Era episodes, Henry's face, as-well as various other engines, doesn't quite fill up the complete front of his smokebox, whereas in the CGI Series it does. Additionally, in the CGI Series, Toby's Face became thicker/blockier in appearance.
• Carly's face is based upon that of actress Jennifer Saunders. Prototype face designs were based upon actress' Helen George & Suranne Jones. Frieda's face is based upon actress Diane Kruger, Yong Bao's face is based upon actor's Jet Li and Andy Lau & Hurricane's face is based upon Actor Channing Tatum. All new engine and vehicle characters animated by Arc were apparently based upon celebrities to some degree or another.
• Somebody who helps run the official UK eBay Twitter account, is apparently a Thomas fan. [1]
• In the Turkish dub of the episode "School of Duck", Duck is called "Quack-Quack".
• Victor, Ferdinand, Luke, Millie, Gator, Ashima, Rajiv, Lexi, Yen, & Nuria, have all been rescaled, compared to what the gauges of their basis' are.
• In the Railway-Series Toby is only shown to have one accident, this being in the book "Toby, Trucks and Trouble", in the story "Toby Takes the Road", where he slightly derails. This is most certainly not his first accident however, as in "Toby the Tram Engine". It is stated that "Toby hasn't had an accident in years". In the show, he is visibly shown to have four derailment accidents, in the episodes "Toby Feels Left Out", "Emily Knows Best", "Sticky Toffee Thomas", and "Henry's Health and Safety".
• Skarloey's name means "Lake in the Woods". Skarloey itself is actually a scribe's error of an earlier Sudric word, Scacaloey, which means Wooded hillside lake, which is in itself a corruption of the word Skogarloey which means The Wooded Lake.
• In the RWS, Skarloey & Rheneas were the only engines on the Skarloey Railway for 87 years, until Sir Handel & Peter Sam arrived in 1952. During World War II however, they were helped by two visiting Diesels on loan from the British War Department.
• The number of Rosie's freckles is inconsistent. On her sad facemask she had 44/57 freckles, 45/49 on her smiling face, 73 on her closed-mouth facemask, 50, 51, & 52 in Season 12, and 42 & 44 in the CGI-Series.
• According to Mike O'Donnell, Bulgy’s Theme was initially created for Season 3, despite not being heard until Season 7.
• According to Mike O' Donnell, when asked about some of his favorite things relating to Thomas and Tugs:
  • Percy is his favorite character.
  • Escape is one of his favorite episodes that he worked on.
  • Thomas’ Anthem & Gone Fishing are some of his favorite Thomas songs.
  • One of his favorite Tugs episodes is Pirate.
  • Some of his favorite Tugs characters are Big Mac and O.J.
  • He stated that if he could’ve voiced any Thomas character, that he would’ve picked Bertie.
• Walter Richards, The manager of the Culdee Fell Railway in the Railway Series, who was introduced in the 1964 book "Mountain Engines", coincidentally shares his name with the father of Mary Richards, on the 1970 TV-Series "The Mary Tyler Moore Show".
• Characters that share their names with animals include Duck, Toad, Pug, Bear, Tiger Moth, Gator, Mr. Percival, & formerly Sir Handel. Out of these, Duck & Gator are nicknames, as they're real names are Montague & Gerald respectively.
• Death is referenced in the following RWS Books, Enterprising Engines, Duke the Lost Engine, Tramway Engines, Toby, Trucks and Trouble, & Thomas and his Friends.
• In the Railway-Series, Toby was illustrated with 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, & 25 Sensor Brackets, 21 in the Classic Series, 22 in the New Series, & 27 in the CGI-Series. In merchandise and books illustrations he has been depicted as having 10, 12, 13, 29, & 35. Toby's Basis had approximately 22 Sensor Brackets on each Cowcatcher.
  • Toby's Brother in the RWS was illustrated with 23 Sensor Brackets.
• In the Railway-Series, Mavis was illustrated with 13, 14, 15, 16, & 17 Sensor Brackets. In the Model-Era she had 16, and then 18 in the CGI-Series, and was portrayed with 23 in other artwork, which is also the correct number her basis in real-life would've had on each Cowcatcher.
• In the RWS Book "Main Line Engines" in the 4th illustration of the story "Buzz, Buzz", James' Builder's Plate reads "1948" despite the fact that he was built in 1912/13. This is a reference to 1948, the year the book James the Red Engine was first published.
• Awdry explains that the number currently worn by Oliver in the RWS (1436), isn't necessarily the number allotted to him in 1946. Interestingly, several illustrations from Oliver the Western Engine, instead depict him with the number 1420, both on his buffer-beam and cab-plates. If he is actually No. 1420, this would mean he was built in November 1933. It is equally possible, that he is actually neither member of the class, and an entierely different unknown number all together. Oliver is depicted with this number on his front in the 4th & 6th illustrations of Toad Stands By, and on his side in the 6th illustration of Resource & Sagacity, and the 3rd illustration of Bulgy.
• Several characters have incorrectly been depicted as being different gauges, from what they actually are. This includes Rusty, Skarloey, Sir Handel, Culdee, Godred, & Lord Harry who have been depicted as Standard-Gauge, and Stepney who has been depicted as Narrow-Gauge. Rusty is depicted as Standard-Gauge in the 1998 magazine story "Rusty and the Cheeky Boys", the 2007 magazine story "Rusty's Rescue!", & the 2012 magazine story "Going Rusty". Skarloey is depicted as Standard-Gauge in the 1997 magazine story "Silly Skarloey!". Sir Handel is depicted as Standard-Gauge in the 1996 annual story "Edward Saves the Day" and the 1997 magazine story "The Flower Train". Stepney has variously been incorrectly referred to or depicted as a Narrow-Gauge engine. The Official-Website once referred to him this way, he is depicted as such in the 2005 book "Railway Rhymes", was included in a Take-Along Narrow Gauge Gift Pack, and was included amongst the nameboard sequences of the Skarloey Railway engines in Season 4. Culdee is depicted as Standard-Gauge in the 1994 magazine-story "Castle in the Hills", as-well as the 2001 magazine story "A Special Story about Sir Handel", along with Sir Handel & Lord Harry. Additionally Godred is depicted as a new Standard-Gauge engine on the Island within a 1990's Play & Learn magazine story.
• World War II is referenced in both Duke the Lost Engine & Thomas and the Great Railway Show.
• The Island of Sodor is only mentioned in the following RWS Books: Toby, Trucks and Trouble, Thomas and the Great Railway Show, Wilbert the Forest Engine, & Thomas and his Friends.
• Henry appeared in the most RWS Books out of any other character, appearing in a total of 27 Books & 58 Stories.
• Several Deceased Characters from the Railway-Series have been made into merchandise, this includes Godred, S.C. Ruffey, Lady Hatt, as-well as characters who may have been scrapped, such as the Spiteful Brake Van. Additionally, Smudger from the television series also had merchandise made of him, but his ultimate fate is unknown.
• The RWS Confirms that Christopher Awdry has met both Sir Handel & Henry.
• The Thin Clergyman, in the RWS, met Duke, Rex, Mike, Bert, & Thomas.
• The television-series is indirectly mentioned in Thomas and the Great Railway Show.
• The Foreword of Jock the New Engine, incorrectly states that the Arlesdale Railway is Narrow-Gauge.
• The correct pronunciation of Rheneas' name is REN-eas.
• An early draft of the story "Edward, Gordon and Henry" in the book "The Three Railway Engines" states that The Express is comprised of 16 coaches. This is something that has always been inconsistent in the franchise. In the RWS it was depicted with 4, 5, 6, and 8 coaches. In the TVS it was depicted with either 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or 8 coaches, but was most consistently shown with 3.
• The tie Sir Topham Hatt is seen wearing in the episode "Sir Topham Hatt's Holiday" comes from the Marylebone Cricket Club of London, meaning that somehow he was likely a member at one point or another.
• Prior to the episode Salty All at Sea, Salty had apparently never been on a ship before in the TVS. He did go on a ship in the 2008 magazine-story Sea-Bound Salty however, when he travelled via ship to the mainland for a "Diesel Engine Rally".
• In the TVS, several engines have fallen into the ocean near the shore. This includes Thomas in Something Fishy & Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure, Henry in Something in the Air, Percy in Percy Takes the Plunge, Victor in Blue Mountain Mystery, & Salty in Steam Team to the Rescue. Additionally, Kevin fell into the ocean at Brendam Docks in Kevin's Cranky Friend.
• Characters that Cranky has lifted include The Horrid Lorries, Luke, Victor, Harvey, Thomas, Hiro, Spencer, Ferdinand, Gator, Kevin, & Salty. Although not physically seen, he likely lifted Edward, Gordon, & James onto the Sodor Line in Misty Island Rescue, although it's possible it was Big Mickey. He additionally lifted Henry back onto the rails in Something in the Air, albeit he isn't physically seen doing so. Additionally, Big Mickey lifted Gator in Tale of the Brave, and Carly lifted Thomas in Big World! Big Adventures!
• In the television series, many of BoCo's Facemasks seem to be based off of Gordon's, as they have many very similar facial features.
• In The Railway Series the term Henry I refers to Henry before his rebuild, whilst Henry II refers to him after his rebuild. The Thin Clergyman never met Henry I, but it is presumed he may have met Henry II, as he talked to crew members of the engine.
• During his model's refurbishment during Season 3, Gordon's prop was specially modified to have a removable dome, specifically for the episode "Gordon and the Famous Visitor".
• The Mid Sodor Railway Manager is the only Sodor railway-controller present in the Railway-Series who doesn't have a known first or last name.
• In the Television Series, the only Animals with the ability to talk are the three moles from the Jack and the Pack episode "Thomas and the Moles" however it's unknown if they can actually talk, or if it's just their thoughts being heard. Other than this, the only other known animal characters in the franchise with the ability to talk, are the three ants from an episode of Thomas' Magic Birthday Wishes.
• The first name of the original Sir Topham Hatt from The Railway Series remains a mystery.
• A girl seen in the episodes "Scaredy Engines" & "Halloween", as-well as the song "Boo! Boo! Choo-Choo", wears a witch costume, featuring a hat with the Satanic inverted pentagram symbol.
• In the episode "Scaredy Engines" there is a distinct difference between the small and large scale models of the boy dressed as a mummy. The large model has brown eyes, whereas the small model has blue eyes.
• The large bonfire seen during the halloween fireworks celebration in Scaredy Engines is a UK celebration called a Bonfire Night, or more specifically, Guy Fawkes Night. It refers to the events of November 5th 1605, when Guy Fawkes a member of the Gunpowder Plot, was arrested while gathering explosives, that the plotters had planned on placing beneath the House of Lords in an effort to assassinate King James I and his entire parliament. Celebrations of Bonfires occurred around London, as the public celebrated the plots failure, which has become a tradition ever since. Interestingly, this episode aired for the first time on Guy Fawkes Night in Australia in 2002. Two other fireworks related episodes aired for the first time on Guy Fawkes Night in the UK, these being Too Many Fire Engines in 2013, and Samson and the Fireworks in 2018. A Guy Fawkes celebration occurs in the 1994 annual story "Oliver's Sparkler". Guy Fawkes Night is mentioned in the 1996 magazine story, "The Hallowe'en Special". In the 2004 magazine story, "Proud and Loud", Henry takes Children dressed as Guy Fawkes to a Guy Fawkes parade. In the 2004 magazine story, Sounds Like Fun!, Spencer attends a Guy Fawkes night celebration. In the 2012 magazine story, "Prize Guys", Stephen & Bridget make a Guy Fawkes effigy for Bonfire Night, as a "Best Guy" contest is being held.
• Stephen & Bridget Hatt's mother makes her first and only appearance in the 2012 magazine-story "Prize Guys", previously being referenced in the 2003 magazine-story "Playbus". In the Railway-Series, their mother was Amanda Croarie, but she never physically appeared, whereas their father Sir Charles Topham Hatt II did. In the television-series their parents are never seen nor mentioned.
• In the magazines, engines & vehicles are shown to have headaches, implying that they possess either brains or blood, as headaches are usually caused by either chemical activity in the brain, or nerves or blood-vessels in the surrounding areas of the skull. Bulgy gets a headache in the story "The Nature Bus!" (1994), Henry in "Proud and Loud" (2004), The Troublesome Trucks in "Trouble for Stepney" (2004), & Bertie in "Bulgy's Back" (2006).
  • Additionally Henry is depicted with Blood-Arteries of the eyes in the Railway-Series book Henry and the Express in the story "Out of Puff".
• Somehow, Salty survived being underwater for a prolonged period of time, when he fell off the dock and into the ocean in "Steam Team to the Rescue". It was already morning by the time The Fat Controller sent Thomas to Brendam Docks to collect Salty on a flatbed, once Cranky lifted him out of the water. This highly indicates that in the Television-Series, engines either don't have to breath, or they can survive without air for much longer than people can. This would indicate that either Rusty's Ghost Engine story was made up, or the engine died, as a result of not being rescued. Presumably the latter explanations would be more correct, because after being rescued, Salty exclaims that he thought he was going to Davy Jones' Locker.
• Although unconfirmed, it can be presumed that at-least some Season 5 episodes were re-worked from unused Tugs scripts, which would explain the darker tone of some episodes from this series.
• Motor Road & Rail/Plarail Toby holds the record as the piece of Thomas merchandise that has endured the longest. This toy has been sold, unchanged, since 1996, a total of 26 years as of 2022.
• Terence & Bertie are the only vehicle characters in the franchise to have pupils. They had them in Season 1 & 2 of the show, but after that they disappeared, likely to be more like the other characters.
• At its biggest points, The Island of Sodor is approximately 60 Miles West to East & 50 Miles North to South.
• Thomas & Friends had three characters who were given a face after debuting without one, these are Henrietta, Big Mickey, & Butch. Henrietta was only illustrated with a face once in the Railway Series, in the book "Thomas and Victoria", which was also her final RWS appearance. Additionally Willie's Tractor is sentient in the RWS, whereas in the TVS it is non-sentient and has a different basis.
• In the Railway-Series, throughout Sodor's history, the island has been mined for the following elements, Copper, Aluminum, Lead, & Uranium. In the Magazines it was mined for Tin, & in the Television-Series it was once mined for Gold, as-well as Lead, just like in the RWS. In the RWS, Sodor also was abundant with Slate & Coal.
• Characters that have differing basis' in the Railway Series & Television Series canons, include Annie, Clarabel, The Spiteful Brake Van, & Willie's Tractor. Additionally, in the Annuals, Algy's basis changed, and in the TVS, Jack's basis slightly-changed when he returned in the CGI-Series. Additionally, in the 1998 magazine-story "Duncan Has a Spill" Smudger is illustrated to resemble his RWS Counterpart, and thus is depicted here with a different basis.
• Engine & Vehicle characters that have mustaches include Earnest, The 1985 Iron Duke Replica, Coran, Etienne, The Brazilian Steam Engine, Race Car 17, Beau, & Lorenzo. Early in-production, Hank was intended to have a handlebar-mustache. Additionally, Clive Spong illustrated Sir Charles Topham Hatt II with a mustache, and some TVS human-characters have mustaches, Sir Lowham Hatt for instance. Mighty is additionally the only vehicle or engine character to have hair at the top of his face, and the Horrid Lorries, 'Arry, Bert, Butch, Gruffy, and Heary have stubble. Smarty from the Thomas Creator Collective has a small Goatee. Additionally, Bulgy is the only vehicle character to have a full beard (RWS Only).
• Engine & Vehicle Characters in the franchise to wear makeup include Ada, Mavis (In a few RWS Illustrations), Daisy (In the TVS), Flora, Rosie (Pre Season 21), Dilly, Abiar, The Australian Garrat, City Circle Tram, & The Golden Steam Engine. Jane & Mabel's faces aren't fully seen in the Railway-Series, but it can be presumed that they wear lipstick just like Ada, and are depicted this way in their Thomas Wooden Railway models.
• Both Bertram & Beau (Tender Engines), were initially intended to be tank-engines, before their designs changed early on in production.
• Mark I-V, Frank, Fred, Jock, Ivo Hugh, & Cleo were all built on the Island of Sodor. It can be presumed that Glynn was also.
• Several characters have been threatened with violence before, notably Duncan in "Home at Last", when Sir Topham Hatt threatens to "cut him down to size" if he keeps rocking and rolling, stating that his career is "on the line". In Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure, during the chase scene, Sailor John attempts unsuccessfully to blow Thomas up with Dynamite. Soon afterwards, he threatens to turn Skiff into driftwood, if he speaks "one more word of mutiny".
• In the Railway Series, James & Henry, are two engines in which no longer retain the original tender, in which they were built with. James' original Pony Truck tender was replaced in 1924/25, when he was sent to Crovan's Gate Works, to be repaired, following his crash. It was here that he was fitted with a Fowler tender. Henry's original tender, was replaced with a Fowler tender, during his rebuild at Crewe in 1935. It can be presumed that the original tenders were most-likely scrapped.
• Engine characters that have cried in the show include Thomas, doing so in "Thomas, Terence and the Snow" & "Down the Mine (RWS & TVS), Toby in "Toby and the Stout Gentleman" (RWS & TVS), James in "Troublesome Trucks" (RWS & TVS), Duck in "Dirty Work", & Percy in "Day of the Diesels". Additionally Edward can visually be seen crying in one illustration in the original William Middleton version of "Edward's Day Out" in The Three Railway Engines, as well as Daisy in the Railway-Series story "Snow Problem" in Thomas Comes Home. Also, Percy is seen crying in the 1995 magazine story "Percy has Problems".
• Some engine characters can be seen sweating in the Railway-Series, this includes Mike in the story "Mike's Whistle" in Small Railway Engines, Duke in the story "Bulldog" in Duke the Lost Engine, Mavis in the story "Mavis" in Tramway Engines, Toby in the story "Toby's Tightrope" in the same book, and Duncan in the story "Pop Special", in the book Great Little Engines.
• Experimental Engines within the franchise include Theo, Lexi, Merlin, & The Log Engine. Henry (Formerly) & Gordon can also be counted as experimental engines as they were both prototypes for their class. James is an experimental variation of his class, built specifically to test flaws in the design. Additionally both Hugo & Hurricane's basis' were one-off experimental designs.
• Their are a few instances in the television-series in which vehicle characters are seen spitting out or holding an item in their mouth. This includes Henry spitting out water in "Something in the Air", 'Arry getting gravel in his mouth in "Calling All Engines!", Skiff spitting out both water and gravel in "Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure", Salty accidentally catching a fish in his mouth in "New Crane on the Dock", Daisy tasting a fake snowflake in "Daisy's Perfect Christmas", & Thomas catching a rose in his mouth in "Rosie is Red".
• In the CGI-Series, Daisy has a total of 78 eyelashes. 38 on the left eye, and 40 on the right eye. (40 on the left, 38 on the right, viewer's perspective).
• In the 1987 book "Thomas's ABC", Skarloey's Birthday cake has 72 candles, whereas in the RWS-Canon, at the time this book was initially released, he would've been 123 years old.
• Characters that have freckles on their face, include Alfie (Pre Season 12), Rosie, Dash, Mac, Kevin, & Duchess. Sandy from AEG! also has freckles.
• Characters that have buckteeth include Nigel (One Bottom Tooth), Salty (Two Bottom Row Teeth), Billy, S.C. Ruffey (One Bottom Tooth), & Gachapin (One Upper Tooth). Additionally, some Salt Vans, 7-Plank Trucks, LNER 12 Ton Vans, Standard Tankers, & LBSC Railway 8 Ton Vans, have been seen with buckteeth, and Thomas' shocked face gained a single bucktooth between Season 3-5.
• Character's that were originally intended to have different names include Elizabeth (Grumpy), Jack (Harry), Arthur (Clarence), Dennis (Denzel), Owen (Bud), Merrick (Bradley), Carly (Mildred), Nia (Kessie), Rebecca (Miranda), and Isla (Ruby). Hiro, Stafford, Millie, and Stephen were also originally going to have different names, however it is unknown what these names would've been. Additionally Oliver (The excavator) was originally going to be called Buster, but this name was used for another Pack character instead. Sandy, Kana, and Bruno from All Engines Go! were originally going to be called Dusty, Akira, and Bruce respectively. Additionally Thorkell of Norwich's original name was going to be Thcokel, this was then revised to Thovkel, before finally becoming Thorkell. Roy from Shining Time Station media was originally going to be called Tecky.
• Gordon's crash in "A Better View for Gordon" & Henry's Crash in "Journey Beyond Sodor" were both based upon the same real-life incident of 1895 known as the "Montparnasse derailment".
• Several tank-engines have been incorrectly illustrated with tenders before, including Duncan in the magazine-story "The Mountain Railway", Rosie in the 2008 magazine-story "Red for Rosie", & Oliver in a Thomas Wooden Railway set art.
• Engine's whose numbers correspond to the year they were introduced in the Television-Series, include Nia & Duchess. Luke & Stafford's numbers correspond to the year their basis' were built.
• In the RWS, the Island of Sodor has been around since at-least the 5th Century AD, whilst in the TVS it is at-least 150 Million Years Old. In AEG! it is at-least 65 Million years old. Although Unknown it can be presumed that in the RWS Sodor would've formed sometime around 22,000 B.C. just like the neighboring island of Walney.
• In the episode Edward's Brass Band, the band plays morse-code on their instruments when they are in trouble. Edward hears and recognizes this, meaning he knows morse-code.
• Wilbert Awdry shares a birthday with other notable-figures, such as Xi Jinping, Courteney Cox, Ice Cube, & Neil Patrick Harris.
• W. Awdry's favorite Cartoon was Tom & Jerry. His favorite TV Show was Last of The Summer Wine, his favorite film was Campbell's Kingdom (1957), and his favorite book was A Morbid Taste For Bones (1977).
• There is a brewery in Ffarquhar called "The Toby", it was formerly named "The Toby Jug" after the jug's of the same name, but was renamed shortly after Toby's arrival on the island. His image is now painted on the brewery's signboard.
• The Push-Along toy for the AEG! character Bruno was released before he even appeared in the show.
• Engine's who have had their basis' named in the franchise, include BoCo & Merlin (In the TVS), Henry (In a magazine story), Big City Engine (In Famous Engines), & Spencer (In the 2008 magazine-story Red for Rosie).
• Engines that were left in their sheds for a long time, include Duke (For 22 years), Bloomer, The Old Shed Engine, & Millie. Additionally, Sir Handel & Peter Sam were sheeted for nearly a year once the Sodor Aluminium Company no longer needed them, before they were purchased by the Skarloey Railway.
• Characters that were going to either have completely different or somewhat different liveries, before their designs were finalized, includes Buster, Arthur, Murdoch, & Frankie.
• In 1989, Harry & Tanya Cupper became the franchises first African-American Characters. In the 1987 book "The Island of Sodor: Its People, History and Railways" Jesus is briefly mentioned. Some historians believe he was black, but his actual ethnicity remains a mystery.
• In the RWS, Duck first met Toby in 1985, 30 years after arriving on the island.
• In the RWS, Thomas first met Bill & Ben in 1988, 40 years after they first arrived on the island.
• "Thomas the Tank Engine: The New Collection" Incorrectly states that Edward is the NWR's oldest loco, when its actually Bloomer. Percy is also incorrectly referred to as the youngest engine out of the major characters in the series.
• Characters that share their names with Awdry family members, include Thomas, Edward, George, Lucy, Bridget Hatt, Lady Margaret Cranstal, several characters named Richard, several characters named Charles, several characters named William, several characters named Mary, Annie, John, Elizabeth, & Gertrude.
• Engines that carry a real number that was featured on an engine of their class, include Duck & Oliver (In the RWS), BoCo (Former BR RWS Number), Old Stuck-Up, Class 40 (TVS Number), Salty, Dennis, Victor (Before being repainted), Shane, Raul, Merlin, Hurricane, Frankie, & The High-Speed Post Train. Additionally, Belle, Ryan, & Thomas' TVS LB&SCR Number, were all real, albeit being carried by different classes. Merlin's number came from an engine in his class called "Sir Gillemere", instead of the real Merlin, which was numbered "740".
• Several human-characters have been shown to be injured in the show, Lorry 2's Driver gets a bump on the head in Horrid Lorry, Gordon's Driver gets a broken-arm in a sling as a result of Gordon's crash in A Better View for Gordon, & Sir Topham Hatt has a broken leg in Diesel's Ghostly Christmas.
• Several characters have been shown with a black-eye, these being The Spiteful Brake Van, Lorry 2, & Sir Topham Hatt, after hitting himself in the eye with a paddle-ball in Lost Property.
• The only characters to lose their faces, after being introduced with them, are the Horrid Lorries, as after their only appearance, they are seen in the background many times, albeit faceless. These faceless lorries with the same registration plates are almost certainly not meant to be them however, as at the end of "Horrid Lorry" it is stated that they didn't return to Sodor after being sent away.
• After being sent away from Sodor for the first time in the TVS, Diesel subsequently returned without explanation in Thomas and the Missing Christmas Tree, Gordon and the Famous Visitor, & Thomas, Percy and the Dragon. He returned, again on a trial-run, in Diesel Does it Again, only to be sent away again at the end of the episode. He returns, again without explanation, in Mavis & Tender Engines, He finally becomes a permanent resident of Sodor in the Season 6 episode The World's Strongest Engine. Additionally, he is accidentally sent away from Sodor in The Great Race. He also appeared in deleted-scenes from Edward, Trevor and the Really Useful Party & Cranky Bugs.
• Several characters have nearly fallen off of mountains before, including Sir Handel (Then Falcon) in Bulldog, Peter Sam in the 2001 magazine-story Airborne Engine, Thomas in Blue Mountain Mystery & Big World! Big Adventures!, Nia in Big World! Big Adventures!, & one of the Mean Engines in Yong Bao and the Tiger. Also, Da Li almost fell off the Himalayan Mountains in the promotional short of the same name that Yong Bao and the Tiger is based off. Additionally, in the RWS Godred fell off Devil's Back, plummeting roughly 1,446ft to the ground, and had to be scrapped as he was beyond repair, Lorry 2 fell off a small cliff-face in Horrid Lorry, & Thomas fell off Muffle Mountain in Thomas and the Magic Railroad.
• Several characters have been introduced in the TVS, specifically to take the roles of other engines in different canons, these including Smudger & The Mean Engines, with Smudger replacing Stanley from the RWS, & The Mean Engines replacing Da Li and Xiao Hu from the Yong-Bao and the Tiger short.
• In the episode "Letters to Santa" it is implied that each year Jeremy flies from The Mainland to the North Pole to deliver letters to Santa. Assuming Jeremy can go the same full speed of his basis (548 mph) the journey to and from would take him a little over seven hours, as the distance between the two locations is approximately 3918 miles.
• The station on Sodor with the highest elevation is the Culdee-Fell Railway Summit Station which reaches 2,046ft above sea-level.
• Two characters were World War I veterans, these being Stanley & Charles Henry Norramby, who fought in the Sodor Regiment, and retired with the rank of Lieutenant General. Stanley was sent to work on the trench-railways in France towards the end of WWI, making him the only engine character to be a war-veteran. Mitchell fought during World War II, specifically during the Battle of Britain. Additionally, Robert Charles Norramby served during World War II, but was sadly killed in action in North Africa in 1943, as a Lieutenant Colonel of the Sodor Regiment.
• Engine characters that have bell's include Toby, Belle, Porter, Sam, & Lexi.
• Salty likely arrived on Sodor via the Vicarstown Bridge as in "Salty All at Sea" it is stated that he has never been on a ship before.
• Engines that have had their original funnels since replaced, include Peter Sam, Hiro, Thomas (TVS;Slippy Sodor), & Stephen.
• Some engine Driver's have been named, these include Charlie Sand (Edward's driver in the 1950's), Joe (Culdee's driver in the 1970's), Ted (Henry's driver in a magazine-story), Jem Cole (Trevor's driver;George in the TVS), Bob (Thomas' driver in Day of the Diesels), Franz (Hugo's driver), & Billy Twofeathers (Rainbow Sun's driver). Other drivers include Mr. Perkins, Mr. Arkwright, & Mr. Roberts. The real-life original driver of Locomotion No. 1, James Stephenson, appeared in an Annuals illustration of the locomotive.
• Fireman in the franchise include Sidney Hever (Edward's driver in the 1950s). Sir Topham Hatt briefly took over as Thomas' fireman in both Lady Hatt's Birthday Party & Thomas and the Royal Engine. Additionally, the real-life original fireman of Locomotion No. 1, William Gowling, appeared in an Annuals illustration.
• Several stationmasters have been named in the franchise, Galahad Qualtrough (The Stationmaster of Ulfstead Road in the 1890's), Kevin Volley (Appointed Stationmaster of Ffarquhar in 1936, Knapford in 1956, and Cronk between 1960-1968), & Old Bailey (The stationmaster of the Hawin Lake station).
• Several signalmen have been named in the franchise, these are Simon, Mr. Edwards, Bob, Dave, Bert, Joe, & Alan.
• Several guards have been named in the franchise, these being Bill, Bob, Sally, & Old Jim.
• Several porters have been named in the franchise, these are Fred, Bert, Sam, Bill, & Tim.
• Several characters have been named by other character's, for instance Percy was named by Sir Topham Hatt I (In the RWS), & Sir Bertram Topham Hatt (In the TVS), Jock was named by Douglas, & Ivo Hugh was named by Mr. Roger Sam. It can be presumed that Frank was either named by Ivan Farrier or Fergus Duncan, Glynn by Sir Bertram Topham Hatt, & Cleo by Ruth.
• Alec Baldwin's Season 5 Toad voice sounds similar to Stewie Griffin from Family Guy, which first premiered the following year in 1999.
• Cranky's voice in the CGI-Series sounds similar to Skips from Regular Show, which was first released 8-months after Season 13 premiered in 2010.
• In the television-series, the rails inside Ulfstead Mine, are likely meant to be the oldest rails on the island, as the crown thieves stole King Godred's Crown and hid it here in ancient-times, and it was on the rails when Stephen discovered it. It could also be theorized that it was moved from various different places over a vast amount of time, as others may have discovered it, and re-hid it. It is possible however that these rails are meant to be from the middle-ages, as this was one of the world's earliest forms of a railway, used for mining. The first use of rails for mining was in the 1550s, and the first railway itself was built in 1594. If true however, this would be historically inaccurate, as rails made from steel were not manufactured until about 1831, and didn't become common use until the mid 1850s.
• Sodor's first known railway in the RWS was a horse-drawn plate-way nicknamed "The Railroad", it was built in 1806, which makes it one of the world's first railways after the introduction of the steam-locomotive (Even though they weren't in common use quite yet). This would make "The Railroad" the 5th or so documented railway, after the creation of the Steam Locomotive in 1802.
• The engines which were oldest in age when they first came to Sodor, would be Bloomer (RWS) & Stephen (TVS), Bloomer was 124 years old when he first arrived on Sodor in the RWS, & Stephen was 184 years old when he first arrived on Sodor in the TVS. Additionally this makes them the oldest engines on Sodor in their respective canons, with Skarloey being the second oldest engine on the island in both canons (Unless Neil still lives on Sodor in the RWS). Although unlikely, it is possible that their are even older engines on the island, that are among the undocumented ones.
• As stated in the episode "Emily Saves the World" The Jet-Engine in "Thomas the Jet Engine" was capable of propelling him at Mach I (768 MPH). This correctly corresponds to how fast he was seen travelling in the episode. He travelled roughly 22 Miles in 1 Minute and 43 Seconds, which would've required a speed of 768 MPH to do so. The order of locations he moves through, goes as follows, Brendam Docks, Lower Tidmouth, Dryaw, The Watermill,Maron,Gordon's Hill,the Three Track Road Bridge,the Three-Track Level Crossing and Signalbox,The Viaduct,Crosby Road Bridge, & Crosby Tunnel. After the Jet-Engine runs out of fuel, he soon arrives back at Knapford Station.
• The official Burger King twitter account began interacting with some Thomas fans in late 2021. Additionally the official McDonald's twitter account once replied to a post made by @ThomasTankMerch. Both restaurants have at one point or another sold Thomas toys in the past.
• The Standing Stones on Sodor have existed since at-least the 5th Century AD. It is unknown how they were erected, or for what purpose, but it can be presumed that similarly to other megalithic sites throughout the world, they may have been either built through the use of some long lost technology, or through the aid of extraterrestrial help.
• Several characters who either hadn't returned at the time, or didn't return at all, were referenced in the CGI-Series. Thomas mentions the Skarloey Railway engines in Hero of the Rails, Duncan is mentioned in Don't Bother Victor!, Ned is indirectly mentioned in Tale of the Brave, Mrs. Kyndley is mentioned and was present off-screen at the Great Railway Show in The Great Race, & Byron is indirectly mentioned in Mines of Mystery.
• Several locations not seen in the CGI-Series were mentioned, these include Crosby, Cronk, Cros-ny-Cuirn, Suddery, Great Waterton, & the Sodor Airport.
• The TIOS book mentions that Falcon received his blue coat of paint upon arriving on the MSR. This means that he either arrived in an undercoat or was given a different paint-job at the factory.
• Locations that exist in the Television-Series, as indicated from maps, but never physically appear, includes Wellsworth Hospital, St. Tibba's Nunnery, Marthwaite, Ulfstead Road, Cas-ny-Hawin, King Orry's Bridge, Shiloh, Skarloey Road, Culdee Fell, Summit Station, Devil's Back, St. Machan's Cave, Loey Machan, Sodor Aluminium Works, Dubbyn Moar, Cregwir, Ballaswein, Droghan-y-Claghan, & Kirkleas. Additionally, Killaban & the Hawin Croka river exist in the TVS, but are only seen in the non-canon film Thomas and the Magic Railroad.
• Excluding James in fantasy-sequences, Rheneas is seen in more liveries throughout the franchise, than any other character. His main livery is red, but he is seen in a yellow-livery at the end of Blue Mountain Mystery, a pink livery in promotional artwork, a purple livery in one magazine story, and an orange livery in some merchandise. Additionally his livery appears more orange in some shots of the later model-era.
• Some characters continued to receive merchandise long after their final appearance in the show, these including Bash, Dash, Ferdinand, Gator, & Diesel 10. Additionally, some RWS only characters have also received merchandise.
• In the RWS Book Edward the Blue Engine, Bertie gains the registration plate of "CRD 54" a reference to illustrator C. Reginald Dalby, and the year the book was first published, 1954. Additionally, in the book Gallant Old Engine, a blue car appears in one-illustration with the license plate "JTK 62", a reference to illustrator John T. Kenney, and the year the book was first published, 1962.
• Several Thomas characters share a birthday with famous-people. Stepney shares a birthday with actress' Jane Fonda & Kaitlyn Dever, The Thin Clergyman with US President Benjamin Harrison, D5705 with US President Martin Van Buren, Veronica Chambers with Archduke Franz Ferdinand & Joseph Stalin, & Nathaniel Kaz with Leland Stanford & Yuri Gagarin. Additionally, Thomas' birthday in the Magazines-Canon is implied to be on September 18th, if so, that would mean he shares a birthday with Greta Garbo, June Foray, & Dan Povenmire, in this Canon.
• Dr. Phil premiered on TV for the first time, on the same day Season 6 premiered.
• Season 9 premiered on September 2nd 2005, the same day Bob Denver (Gilligan on Gilligan's Island) died.
• The series finale of Thomas & Friends occurred on the same day Joe Biden was inaugurated as the 46th President of the United States.
• According to The Thomas the Tank Engine Man book, sometime after creating the original wooden Thomas model for his son Christopher, Awdry additionally built him a wooden Edward model. The model's current whereabouts, or whether or not it still exists, is unknown.
• Character's named after others, in-universe, include Godred, Patrick (Mountain Engine), Peter Sam, Sir Handel, Ivo Hugh, Wilbert, almost every character that shares a name with Thomas, Winston Churchill (Named after the former PM of the UK), Sir Handel Lloyd Brown II, Queen Elizabeth II, Prince/King Charles, Billy Twofeathers, Allicia the Mouse, and finally, Agnes, Ruth, Lucy, & Beatrice Brown.
• Several real-life products have been confirmed to exist within the TVS Canon, through small posters present on some of Sodor's Stations in the Model-Era, these include Guinness Beer, Hudson's Soap, & Atora. Additionally, a poster on Elsbridge Station advertises a TV-Presentation called "Man in the Street Tells the BBC". Interestingly, this is seemingly not based upon any known TV-Broadcast done by the BBC.
• James' Original Gauge 1 Model, has seemingly been to more places throughout the world than any other Thomas Prop, at-one time or another, being in four-different countries, across three world continents. Countries the prop has been to, include The United Kingdom, The United States, Japan, and Canada. It is currently in the US, being owned by ThomasTankMerch.
• It was speculated by Awdry, that out of the three LNER J70 Trams built in 1914, that Toby was most likely No. 127/7127/68221. If accurate, this would make Toby one of the few characters in the Railway Series, in which we know a rough or exact estimate, as to when exactly during the year they were built. If Toby was indeed the first engine of the 1914 batch, this would mean that he was finished being built on June 30th 1914. Thomas was finished being built in either June or September 1915, Gordon sometime in 1922, but prior to the first official member of his class being finished in April of that year, Duck on March 31st 1929, Oliver on August 31st 1934, BoCo on September 29th 1958, and Old Stuck Up in December 1960, Note that this list does not include real-life engines seen within the Railway Series.
• In the Railway-Series the only two engine characters to be built during World War I, were Thomas & Stanley. The only Vehicle character to be built during World War II, was Toad. The Two British War Department Diesels came to Sodor in 1939, but it is unknown whether or not they were built prior to this year.
• In the Railway-Series, the North Western Railway owned at-least 80 locomotives by 1987, however only about 20 of these are actually seen in the books, plus the Ballast-Spreader.
• In the Television-Series, the North Western Railway had a total of at-least 58 locomotives. Other assets included Marion, Flynn, Elizabeth, Kevin, Cranky, Big Mickey, Carly, Winston, Bertie, & Bulgy, plus a surplus of rolling stock.
  • A total of 75 engines are seen living on the island in the TVS.
• Christopher Awdry remembers that The Fat Controller was not based on any particular person, but shared a resemblance to his doctor at the time. It is possible this is connected to The Fat Controller's "my Doctor has forbidden me" quotes from The Sad Story of Henry.
• 'Arry's full name was unknown for many years. However due to the fact that the British don't pronounce the letter H at the beginning of some words, it was theorized to actually be Harry. This theory was later confirmed to be true on a character face-sheet (See Behind the Scenes/Gallery).
• There are extremely few characters in the franchise, in which were built during the 21st Century, these include Carly & Cleo. Skiff, Philip, & The Chinese Diesel, may have also been built during this century, however it is unknown. Philip is referred to as a "young engine" and Season 21 confirms that he is under 68 years old, his actual age isn't specified however. As far as human characters go, Thomas the little boy was born during this Century. As far as animals go, Thomas the Alligator was born during this century, & it's extremely likely that Jeff (Mutt's Great-Grandson), was also born during this century.
• In 2021, the Thomas UK Magazine became the longest running UK licensed comic-related title, after reaching 800 issues, and being around for 34 years.
• Several Thomas-Characters (Which are real-engines in real life), have made appearances in film, for example, Flying Scotsman has appeared in The Flying Scotsman (1929), Agatha (1979), and 102 Dalmations (2000), and Captain Baxter has appeared in Muppets Most Wanted (2014).
• Sodor: Reading Between the Lines contains some inconsistencies that are inaccurate, as proved by the first lore book by Wilbert & George Awdry. These include Skarloey's build-date incorrectly being stated as 1865, and Rheneas' as 1866. Mr. Fergus Duncan is incorrectly called "Francis", and Henry's crash with the flying-kipper is stated to have taken place in 1951, whereas it actually occurred in 1935, a fact that is interestingly, previously, corroborated by Christopher Awdry's RWS volume entitled "Thomas and the Fat Controller's Engines", where Henry states that he met the engine "Bahamas" during his time at Crewe, an engine that was built their in 1935.
• The Island of Sodor is located were the real life Walney Island stands.
• Although it never appeared, the existence of the Culdee Fell Railway is acknowledged, several times throughout the Television-Series' history. It is first mentioned on the Season 3 West Sodor Map by David Mitton. it later appears on a map in the Season 5 song "It's Great to be an Engine". It is later mentioned in the 2012 promotional-video entitled "Standard Gauge and Narrow Gauge" in which it's confirmed that Mr. Percival is in charge of the railway in the TVS Canon. It finally appears, on the 2014 TVS map.
• The Newspaper in King of the Railway that Sir Robert Norramby reads, has a date of 2013, and is labelled as daily news, despite this however, it is shown that the newspaper was established in about 1949, meaning it would have volumes in the thousands, as opposed to hundreds, as shown in the special. This however could be explained away by the newspaper potentially operating a non-daily series as-well, which perhaps this volume was a part of.
• Many Bridges have collapsed throughout the franchises history, mainly ones featured in the Television Series, these include Blondin Bridge, Neville's Bridge, Ffarquhar River Bridge, the Old Quarry Bridge, The Rickety Old Bridge, The Old Wooden Bridge, The Fenland Track Bridge (Two Times), The Dam Bridge, The Big Dipper, The Sodor Suspension Bridge (Three Times), The Rolling River Bridge, The S&M Railway Bridge, and Rheneas Bridge. Bridge's that have partially collapsed, include Bulgy's Bridge, the Shake Shake Bridge, The Old Trestle Bridge, & The Old Rickety Bridge in Australia. Additionally, Toby's Flood Bridge was swept away by a storm.
• The first and second half-hour block of All Engines Go! In the US received approximately 90 Thousand and 97 Thousand views respectively, still being the lowest rated show starting out for the new Cartoon Network Lineup.
• Big City Engine, Culdee, and presumably the other Culdee Fell Railway engines, all exist within the television series canon, despite never making an appearance within the show.
• Billy, Freddie, Derek, Duke, Splatter, Dodge, Colin, Patrick (Cement-Mixer), and George were all at one time considered as returnees to the show, during the CGI Era, but ultimately none of these ever happened. Additionally Sam Wilkinson had mentioned wishing to bring Fergus & BoCo back into the show at some-point in the future, as well as to introduce RWS Exclusive characters into the show, such as Bear and the Culdee Fell Engines. None of these ultimately ended up happening either. Additionally Sir Handel & Peter Sam were originally intended to return in CGI in the Season 15 episode "Kevin the Steamie", a year before they actually returned in Blue Mountain Mystery.
• Patrick was meant to return in either King of the Railway or Season 17. The part was offered to Irish actor Ardal O' Hanlon, but he declined the role.
• In the television series, Thomas has traveled to at-least 15 different countries across 6 world-continents. These include the United Kingdom, United States, Egypt, Senegal, Mauritania, Kenya, Tanzania, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, China, India, Italy, Russia, & Australia.
• Thus far, the only Thomas related Actor to physically appear in a Thomas fan-film, was Brian O’Connor, reprising his role as Horace Schemer from “Shining Time Station”, for “The Magic Railroad Parody” in 2020, in which his character appears on the telephone briefly at the very end of the film.
• The Television Series Map confirms that some of the long-closed railways from the RWS did exist in the TVS Canon, these including, the Cronk and Harwick Railway & The Railroad.
  • Additionally, the map confirmed the existence of the Arlesdale Railway in the TVS, a year before its first appearance in the special “Sodor’s Legend of the Lost Treasure”. It's existence in the TVS was first confirmed on a map seen in the Season 5 song "It's Great to be an Engine!".
  • The map also confirms that Skarloey first arrived on Sodor via Ship to Kirk Ronan Harbour, just like in the RWS. However, it is unknown as to whether or not Neil and the Sodor & Mainland Railway ever existed in the TVS Canon or not.
• The Railway Series exists within the Television Series Canon, as a book series based upon the events happening on Sodor in the show. Although never referenced by name, The Railway Series is indirectly mentioned in the episodes, “Pop Goes the Diesel”, “A Bad Day for Sir Handel”, “Tit for Tat”, and “Thomas and the Royal Engine”. The Television Series on the other hand, exists within the Railway Series canon, as a fictional television program, inspired from the books, as a result of The Railway Series being meant to take place in a real-world based universe, meaning that near-everything that happens in the real-world, is also canon to the Railway Series.
• The only instances from the main Railway Series books, in which the characters and events of the stories are treated as fictional, come from the forewords of “The Little Old Engine” and “Enterprising Engines”, in which Awdry admits that Skarloey is “not real. You can only see him in these books”, and cites that photographs sent in provided inspiration for one story and several of its illustrations within Enterprising Engines, respectively. These examples are unique, for otherwise, the events in the books are always treated as real, and happening within a real-life setting. Although unknown, this could mean that the foreword of these books might be different within the Canon of the RWS itself, as well as other pieces of RWS-based media, in which it is admitted that the characters, events, and settings are fictitious, in order to more correctly conform to the real-world based setting, the books are meant to be set in.
• It is Extremely Likely that Percy’s Siderods were reused from Gordon’s pilot model.
• The Loop Line is mysteriously not present on the RWS Maps.
• Considering the large-ranges of new Mountain-esque sets featured on the Skarloey Railway during Season 5, it is possible that the Mountain Engines could have originally been considered for the season, although this is unknown.
• Modelmaker Martin Gill wanted a Henry model to be built for the pilot, but due to this not being necessary, it didn’t happen. To accommodate for this, Henry’s model was allegedly the first one built, following Season 1 getting greenlit.
• A VHS Advert for the Season 3 VHS "Time for Trouble and other stories" was broadcast on ITV on December 21st 1991, during a late-night TV-Airing of the movie "The Shining".
• Thus far there are only 6 Thomas characters that have appeared in three different official shows, these being Thomas, Henry, Gordon, James, and The Fat Controller, all of which have appeared in different incarnations in the Untitled 1953 Series, Thomas & Friends, and All Engines Go! Big Mickey has appeared in TUGS, Thomas & Friends, and All Engines Go! (Albeit as a faceless crane)
• It is unknown who would've been the original No. 2 & No. 3 on the Mid Sodor Railway, as Stanley arrived in 1920, 40 years after the railway first opened, and Sir Handel arrived in 1904, 24 years after the railway first opened.
• Britt Allcroft's Californian home that she lived at in the 1990's, was apparently owned by Silent-Film actress Mary Pickford around 1917. The home later became a brothel, and was used as a boarding-house for hippies in the 1960's.
• Britt Allcroft's first job was working as a clerk at the Worthing Art Gallery and Museum in 1962.
• Describing in 1990, what he would have as a dinner snack, Awdry said "I'd put two packets of mug soup into a bowl and have a juicy pear, biscuits and butter, but no cheese, which I abominate".
• Sir Topham Hatt I retired as controller at the age of 74, Sir Topham Hatt II, at the age of 70, and Sir Topham Hatt III retired as controller in the RWS Canon in 2023 at the age of 82.
• During early production Thomas and the Magic Railroad was going to be called "Thomas and the Rainbow Railroad", The Great Discovery was to be called "Leader of the Track", and Day of the Diesels was to be called "Charge of the Steam Brigade".
• Several Real World landmarks have appeared in the franchise, including The Statue of Liberty, the original World Trade Center, Big Ben, The Great Wall of China, the Taj Mahal, London Eye, and many others.
• In 1987, Michael Angelis narrated a InterCity Trains TV-Commercial for the UK.
• The Instrumental Break from the 1978 Wings song "With a Little Luck" is highly similar to the original-opening sequence Thomas music, meaning it could possibly have served as inspiration for it.
• Excluding, Wooden Railway Engines being animated in CGI in a 1990's German Commercial, Thomas and Lady in Thomas and the Magic Railroad, were the first two characters to be animated fully in CGI. In 2004, Bulstrode's second model appeared behind a CGI-esque background for a promotional image.
• The final two characters to be introduced in "Thomas & Friends" were the unnamed Mean Engines from the Season 24 episode "Yong Bao and the Tiger".
• The 1983 West Sodor Map confirms that in the TVS Marthwaite is a Standard-Gauge station, in-between Arlesdale End and Upper Arlesburgh Station. This is retconned in the 2014 Map where it becomes a station on the Arlesdale Railway, in the same placement as the RWS.
• The David Mitton Season 3 West-Sodor Map confirms a few new things:
  • There were two airports on this part of the island at the time. One at Tidmouth and one at the Dryaw Airfield.
  • The first mention of the existence of the Culdee Fell Railway in the TVS is made.
  • A lighthouse which is never seen in the show, exists at Brendam, as-well as two at Knapford Harbour (Previously seen in the 1983 Knapford Map), and one near the Lead-Mines. All of these are also present on the 2014 Map, except the Brendam Lighthouse. Ironically, All Engines Go! would later feature a lighthouse at Brendam Docks.
  • The original name for River Reagh in the TVS is confirmed to have been River Merry.
  • A shipwreck is confirmed to exist near Brendam, due to an area of spikey-underwater rocks.
  • The first mention of Black Loch is made. It wouldn't appear physically until Season 7.
• In both the RWS & TVS the Island of Sodor covers approximately 365 miles in total.
• The Thomas Wood Henry Model was actually released in late 2019 around December to many regions particularly in the United States and United Kingdom. The 2020 date was simply the originally scheduled shelf-date, but the release was pushed back to 2019.
• Smudger's Whistle Sound actually originates from a sound produced by a factory-whistle. (https://www.pond5.com/sound-effects/item/8902699-whistle-factory).
• In the TVS, Bertie is about 7 Feet 5.7 Inches Tall.
• Thomas is about 11 Feet 1.52 Inches tall in the show. Sir Topham Hatt is 5'2", & Queen Elizabeth II is about 5'8".
• In the Season 19 episode "Wild Water Rescue" the Sodor Search and Rescue Centre completes their 1000th rescue. This would mean, that since its founding the Rescue Centre performed rescues roughly 18 times per year. Provided the significant possibility that a retcon occurs in the timeline of the show, starting with King of the Railway, then it would be more like an average of 200 rescues per year.
• Characters that have travelled around the world include Roddy Bowlby, Thomas (T&F), Nia, Sir Bertram Topham Hatt, Sir Robert Norramby, & The Moon (Which is sentient in the book "Thomas and the Shooting Star"). Additionally, Salty has worked at dockyards all over the world, according to the 2003 Writer's Bible, however this information is retconned by the episode "Salty All at Sea".
• Toby's original Bell sound originates from a last-serving bell at the nags head pub in Sunningdale England. It was borrowed by composer Mike O' Donnell, so as he could record the sound it made for Toby's Bell during Season 1 production. The pub had him return it the next day.
• It's possible Thomas never would have been created if World War II didn't happen. This is because Wilbert Awdry originally created Thomas as a wooden toy for his son Christopher. He originally intended to create Henry and Gordon, but due to constraints from the war, he was unable to find the material needed to build them.
• Woolly Bear and Percy and the Signal would've been filmed around the same time, as in a promotional image for Percy and the Signal, some of the treacle is still visible on Percy.
• In the RWS, Sodor's fastest known engines are Pip and Emma, at a top speed of 148 mph. Hugo is likely Sodor's fastest engine in the TVS, as his basis had a top speed of 143 mph.
• In the RWS, Fred is likely the slowest engine on Sodor, with a top speed of under 9mph (The TK&ELR Coffee Pot No. 1 could travel at 6mph). In the TVS, Stephen is Sodor's slowest engine, with a top-speed of 0 MPH (At the speed he is shown to travel, it would take him about four and a half hours to travel one mile. At his fastest, he travels at about 1200 feet per hour). This would mean that if he was able to travel the island non-stop, and the entire island had standard-gauge rail-connections, it would take him about 66 days & 22 hours to complete the entire journey.
• The Franchise has actually set several world records, including the following:
  • The James model used in the "Big Live Tour" and "All Aboard Live Tour" earned a Guinness World Record in 2004 as the world's largest electric model train.
  • TrackMaster track was used twice to break the world record for the longest toy train set. The first was at the Thomas Land Theme Park in the UK in 2008 and later at The Workshops Rail Museum in Australia in 2010.
  • The World's longest Live-stream thus-far, accomplished around October 15th 2020.
  • The World's Longest YouTube video ever, accomplished on October 31 2020.
  • Two other live-streams they did in mid 2021, subsequently beat these records.
• Many real world people have appeared in the franchise, most notably Queen Elizabeth II and Prince/King Charles. Various ancient figures were referenced in The Island of Sodor: Its People, History and Railways. Even Wilbert Awdry, Teddy Boston, C. Reginald Dalby, and others appeared as themselves in the Railway Series.
• LEGO Products were used at-least several times during the Classic Series. For instance the platform The Fat Controller steps on in Thomas' Christmas Party was made of Lego Bricks. Additionally one of the parts' on the side of Terence's snowplow originates from a Lego "air-tank" piece from 1979's release entitled "886 Space Buggy".
• Thomas likely would have never arrived on Sodor, had it not been for the first world war.
• It is unclear what causes Boulder's strange behavior, as well as his disappearing face carving.
• In the episode of James and the Coaches, it is implied that the Cows were temporarily removed from the field, following James' accident. The reason for this remains unclear.
• The franchise has had several crossover specials, however they were only released in Japan.
• The N-Word was originally used in the book Henry the Green Engine, in the story "Henry's Sneeze". The offensive word was later removed from all editions since 1972, and Awdry apologized.
• In the model series, the only characters to apparently use their own voices were The Troublesome Trucks when they sang 'Pop Goes the Diesel' or laughed. In reality their voices are actually Junior Campbell's and Mike O' Donnell's voices played in lower pitch, but mainly Junior's.
• The Island Song was originally created with the intention of possibly being an opening song for a future Sodor-centered Thomas stage-musical.
• the song "Gone Fishing" was originally going to feature primarily Junior Campbell singing it, but this was changed during production, as it was felt that it didn't sound right, and so the norm of having kid's sing the songs was stuck to.
• the songs "That's What Friends are For" and "Rules and Regulations" did have stock-footage filmed versions made during Season 4, which were never released, as it was felt that they didn't quite fit in with the overall theme and tone of other Thomas songs at the time.
• There's at least six different universes in the franchise, that being the railway series, the 1953 series, the classic series, the CGI series, the Magic Railroad, and the Magazines universe. They are all different, because they feature a different timeline of events, and or basic design. (See Multiverse).
• The titles of two episodes from the television-series are references to Elvis Presley songs of the same name, this includes the episodes "Stuck on You" and "Love Me Tender".
• The episode "Rusty and the Boulder" was the first and only episode of the series to use real pyrotechnics, doing so in the seen where Boulder crashes into the sheds, which in turn results in a small explosion.
• Interestingly when Henry Gets it Wrong first aired on Sprout, the CGI faces were omitted, possibly meaning that Sprout received the raw footage of the episode from HIT Entertainment. It is unknown if this was also done with any other Season 12 airings or not. The footage is now lost.
• The outside of Stephen's boiler is made of wood, however this would be impossible in real life, considering the fact that the boiler is lit on fire to create fuel, which would in turn burn the wood.
• Apparently the engines aren't able to survive being underwater. At least according to Rusty's story in "Duncan Get's Spooked".
• It's never explained whether or not Rusty's story in "Duncan Gets Spooked" was true or not. If it was, then it likely means the engine's remains are still somewhere in Cattle Creek.
• In total, their were approximately 450+ Crashes/Other Accidents in Thomas & Friends.
• Various props are now owned by fans, for example Sir Handel, Trevor's large Scale Model, and James' perspex model are owned by ThomasTankMerch, among props owned by other fans
• An Engine of Many Colours marks the first episode written by a fan to be broadcast, it was written by Michael White, who is known in the fandom as WhitehouseFilms. However if one is to consider production order, Hunt the Truck is really the first episode written by a fan.
• It remains unknown how Toby could have been on the Sodor Tramways sign, despite apparently never visiting Great Waterton in the past before it's rediscovery, and presumably having not yet arrived on the Island when Great Waterton originally opened.
• Gordon, Arthur, Samson, and Stanley (Narrow Gauge) are all named after real people, Gordon was named after a rude boy who lived on the Awdry's street when Christopher was a child, Arthur was named after the late Grandfather of naming contest winner Luke Sharp, and Samson was named after current railway-consultant Sam Wilkinson, whilst Stanley was presumably named after politician Stanley Baldwin. Although unconfirmed, it can be presumed that Awdry named Lucy and George, after his mother and brother respectively. Merlin would also be named after a real person, if one is to believe that Merlin the Magician was a real historical figure.
• Sir Topham Hatt I from The Railway Series is known to have used curse words. This is confirmed in "The Island of Sodor: It's People, History, and Railways" in which three dashed lines are used to remove expletives he was using when referring to Henry's builder who had scammed him.
• Thomas is one of the few children's shows to use the word God in it, doing it only once thus far, by Monty in Out of Site.
• Prior to ending, Thomas & Friends was one of the longest-running children's programs in the US, coming in only second to Sesame Street. It was also the 29th longest-running show overall in the UK, and was one of the longest running shows in the world overall.
• Several characters who haven't been seen in the CGI Series yet, have been considered for episodes, Derek was meant to appear in Bust My Buffers!, Duke, Peter Sam, and Sir Handel, were purportedly meant to appear in Kevin the Steamie, George was meant to appear in Free the Roads, and Splatter & Dodge were considered for appearing in both Day of the Diesels, and The Great Race, before ultimately being dropped.
• The production of the first season of the television series cost around 1 Million Pounds, Britt Allcroft even had to mortgage her house with her bank in order to help fund production. The production of the third season cost about 1.3 Million Pounds, or about 50,000 Pounds per-episode.
• Once in 2019, Mattel accidentally blocked one of their own videos on the United States Thomas & Friends YouTube Channel entitled "The Making of The Great Race" this was fixed shortly afterwards though.
• Although Diesel 10 is a completely fictional character, as a BR Class 42 carrying the number "D10" never existed, a BR Class 44 did carry this number, with its name being Tryfan.
• The Official Thomas & Friends US YouTube channel has mispronounced Bertie's name as "Birdy" several times now, first in the description of a February 2020 video now removed from their channel, and second in a video entitled "Birdy Takes a Detour" uploaded on February 27th 2020, which is only accessible by link. ( [2] [3]). Later, the second video was removed, and re-listed as a Private-Video Only.
• Steam-Engines in the franchise, who don't have faces where their smokebox-door would usually be, but have their faces elsewhere, include Toby, Toby's Brothers, Flora, Spencer, Mallard, Glynn, Kwaku, Lexi, Vinnie, Connor, Caitlin, Shane, Axel, Dustin, Marshall, Logan, Raul, The Brazilian Steam Engine, and The Australian Garratt (Possibly).
  • In the television series, the only engines that can be visibly seen without faces on their smokebox-doors, include The Märklin Engine, City of Truro, Flora, Lexi, Kwaku, and Lady when she's not on Sodor. The first two do not have visible faces at-all. This doesn't include the various scrap-engines seen in the show.
    • It can be presumed that the Class 08 Diesel from The Railway Series story "Escape" didn't have a face on its front, considering it did have a face on its back.
• Throughout the course of the television series, several characters have been referred to as being "The Fastest Engine in the World" This includes Spencer, Kenji, and Hugo. Additionally Connor and Caitlin were also referred to as being "faster than Spencer". Out of all these characters, in Real-Life, Hugo would be the fastest at a max-speed of 143 MPH. The fastest locomotive seen in the franchise in-general is a non-sentient SNCF TGV Sud-Est Class Locomotive, which appeared in the 1998 annual, and would have a max-speed of 186 mph.
• A remote control device called "Mr. Motorman" released in Japan, used for remote-controlling of Plarail and Battery-Operated Wooden Trains, also has the ability to remote-control Thomas Wooden Railway battery-powered products, as-well as the TrackMaster RC Engines.
• In September 2020, a copy of the Railway Series book "Small Railway Engines" made headlines in the news after it was returned to the Basingstoke Discovery Centre, nearly 48 years after it was originally rented out in 1972. It wasn't initially returned because the family that rented it out moved away, and forgot about it for years.
• In the RWS, at least 110 engines currently live on Sodor. In the TVS, at-least 76 engines live on Sodor.
  • In the RWS, at least 142 engines have ever lived on Sodor. In the TVS, at-least 82 engines have ever lived on Sodor.
• Christopher Columbus, Jesse James, Harry Houdini, William Shakespeare, and Theodore Roosevelt have all been referenced in Thomas media.
• In The Great Discovery, one of Henry's Old Tenders from Season 3's "Tender Engines" can be seen. Firstly, one can be seen by the station when Thomas discovers the town. Additionally, another can be seen in a promotional shot for the special, alongside Gordon.
• Sir Handel Brown I's daughters (With the exception of Hilda), were named after the coaches operating on the Skarloey Railway
• In the Online Promotional Video Series entitled "Thomas' Magical Birthday Wishes", it is said that Thomas has thirteen magical wishes, but he actually uses fourteen throughout the course of the series. Additionally, it is never explained where Thomas got his magical wishes from in the first place.
• Bertram had the least screen time in Thomas & Friends, compared with any other character, having only appeared in one-episode, for a total of thirty-two seconds.
• In his narration of "The Eight Famous Engines" story "The Fat Controller's Engines" John Gielgud, incorrectly refers to Sir Charles Topham Hatt II, as being named "Derek".
• The Thomas Franchise has made various references to various films over the years, these include (In order by the movie's release years), Tugboat Annie (1933), Oh, Mr. Porter! (1937), The Wizard of Oz (1939), Bambi (1942), Casablanca (1942), Bad Day at Black Rock (1955), The Fly (1958), The Producers (1967), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Freaky Friday (1976), The Shining (1980), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Back to the Future (1985), License to Kill (1989), Cool Runnings (1993), Braveheart (1995), Titanic (1997), Finding Nemo (2003), School of Rock (2003), and Big Hero 6 (2014). Additionally, Harold's Season 2 instrumental theme is a reference to the main score from the film "The Dam Busters" (1955), and musical variations of "The Great Escape" (1963) theme, can be heard in two Season 3 episodes, "Escape" and "Oliver Owns Up". The Pirates of the Caribbean Film Franchise is also referenced, through music in Misty Island Rescue, that is directly based upon it's own instrumental music. The Mission: Impossible film franchise is also referenced.
• The Thomas Franchise has made several different references to TV-Shows over the years, including Father Knows Best (1954), Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955), Batman (1966), The Banana Splits (1968), The A-Team (1983), & Chowder (2007).
• The Thomas Franchise has made several different references to Books and Novels over the years, including A Christmas Carol (1843), War and Peace (1869), The Cat That Walked by Himself (1902), & How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1957).
• According to the former Awdry Family website, Ffarquhar is actually pronounced "Far-Kar".
• Information confirmed by Sir Topham Hatt in the "Question Time with Sir Topham Hatt" Cassette Tape:
  • He supposedly received the name "The Fat Controller" from engine drivers on Sodor.
  • Lady Hatt sometimes suggests that he go on a diet of green-salads and other healthy foods. When this happens, he pretends to diet, but actually sneaks off to Mrs. Kyndley's house to drink some of her refreshments.
  • He states that he has perhaps as many as fifty engines working on the Railway.
  • He confirms the existence of an engine's rights organization called "The Trainspotters Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Engines".
• Thomas appeared in 530 Episodes of Thomas & Friends Total
  • Gordon appeared in 454 Episodes Total.
  • Cranky appeared in 149.
  • Toby appeared in 173.

• The (Approximate/Rounded) time needed to watch the entire Thomas & Friends Series:
  • 80 Hours, 12 Minutes (Thomas & Friends).
  • 17 Hours, 3 Minutes (All Movies/Specials).
  • 39 Hours, 19 Minutes (All Spinoff Series Content).
  • All of these in total: 136 hours, 34 Minutes (Or alternatively 5 Days, 16 Hours, 34 Minutes).

• Episode Runtimes (In Minutes & Seconds):
  • 4:30 (Season 1-7).
  • 7:00 (Season 8-12).
  • 8:45/6 (Season 13-21).
  • 17:29 (Diesel’s Ghostly Christmas).
  • 7:00 (Season 22-24).
  • 21:30 (Season 23 Triple Length Episodes).
  • 21:28 (Thomas and the Royal Engine).
  • 21:27 (A New Arrival).
  • 21:29 (World of Tomorrow).
• The amount of products released in various different Thomas merchandise ranges as of 2020 (Including different variations of the same products; Except for VHS/DVD/Books).
  • Motor Road and Rail/Plarail/Trackmaster/Trackmaster Push-Along (1012).
  • Thomas Wooden Railway/Wood (1221/Around 1417 or higher if including the Home Video Bonus Back Releases).
  • Take-N-Play/Adventures (432).
  • Minis (594;25 Cancelled;21 Accessories).
  • Home-Media Releases (A total of at-least 1204 releases have ever been produced;Note: This does not include re-releases/variants, or STS & AEG releases).
• BoCo's mentioned brother "D5702" (nicknamed CoBo) from the annual of 1999 "Bill and Ben"'s real name is Frank like the minimum diesel engine according to a photo on Flickr.

Awdry Lectures

• Crovan’s Gate ruins date back to the 11th Century and prior.
• Normanby was later retconned to Norramby.
• Crovan’s Gate was an agricultural market town until the 1920s when the NWR established their loco works there.
• The Ben Glas (Referred to here as Benglas) and Hawin Dooey valleys were mined for copper from very early times, but these were small outcrop workings, and serious mining only began in the latter half of the 18th Century, when the Crovan’s Gate Mining Company was formed to exploit the rich veins of copper ore in the Ben Glas valley. This method was slow and labor-intensive, so in 1810 (Later retconned to 1806), a plateway was laid from Cros-ny-Cuirn to the wharf at Balladwail thus shortening the pack-mule stretch and cutting out one transhipment.
• James Spooner from the Ffestiniog Railway was called to Sodor, to supervise the construction of what later became the Skarloey Railway.
• The S&M Railway planned a low-level bridge over the Walney Channel. Local interest on Sodor existed for its construction, but Britain wasn’t having it, as it would connect Sodor via rail to the UK, which they weren’t interested in, even after attempted persuasion in 1883. They tried such projects anyway, but the Admiralty was destructive, and thus they got nowhere. They tried to cut a tunnel under a Kirk Ronan ridge, and then underneath the Walney Channel, due to expenses, endless rock-falls, and rushing in Ocean water, this was abandoned and never completed.
• In 1874 Sudrians were still campaigning for a bridge connecting Sodor and the Mainland. This time however, the Admiralty eventually agreed. Sir Thomas Bouch raised the money needed for its construction. This early high-level bridge was doomed however, as a series of disasters befell it. The British foundations were destroyed by a tide-rip. They were lifted out of the sea, and this damage was repaired by 1878, as the bridge neared completion. One night, the bridge was destroyed by an autumn gale, and due to the recent Tay Bridge Disaster, nobody seemed interested in raising more money to try and rebuild it.
• The remaining S&M Engine was worked so hard that it died in 1901. This means that engines and other vehicles in the Railway-Series can die of natural-causes, such as exhaustion, which is seemingly what happened here. They seemingly cannot die of old-age though (For instance Bloomer is 170 years old as of 2021). The engine's remains were likely scrapped after this.
• The Mining Company had begun to exhaust the available Copper they were mining, and by 1906 nothing was left.
• The Skarloey Railway was the only Slate producer on the island, and this helped the railway to get by during the early 1900’s.
• Mr. Robert Sam had a “Summer Circular Tours Scheme” which was a successful effort for the SR, what had tickets at a cheap rate, offering a rail journey from Crovan’s Gate to the SR, followed by a journey over the moore via Charabanc, which went all the way to Cronk and then back to Crovan’s Gate via the NWR. Validity of the tickets lasted a week, and the journey allowed passengers to explore anything they wanted along the way, in either direction. Following World War II, these journeys were revived by Mr. Peter Sam. This time around, passengers would meet by motor-coach at the SR. Sodor Roadways would then take the passengers over hills to the Culdee Fell, where they could either climb the mountain, or ascend via the CFR’s rack-rails, and the validity of the tickets were extended to a fortnight. This eventually extended  into a two-season scheme that included a tour of the Arlesdale Railway and of the North Western Railway’s Arlesburgh Branch. The tours, being very popular, helped to bring a change for the better to the railway’s fortunes.
• During the entirety of World War II, the Skarloey Railway carried heavy traffic, but also included transportation of timbers and explosives. Skarloey and Rheneas were assisted by two Narrow-Gauge Diesels loaned by the British War-Department, which stayed on the Railway, until the war finally ended in 1945.
• The correct pronunciation of Rheneas’ name is Rhe-nee-us.
• New Location Names: Garfwyr (Grey Ravine), & Balla Moddy, a mountain village between Cas-ny-Hawin & Peel Godred.
• The Culdee Fell Railway is said to have opened in 1896, information that would later be retconned to 1900.
• Crovan’s Bridge was later retconned into being called King Orry’s Bridge.
• The journey through the Mid-Sodor Railway was 21 miles, and would have taken about One and a half hours, the distance would later be retconned to 25 miles.
• The MSR had a boat-train passenger-service, run in connection with the Isle of Man steamers. These would only stop at Ulfstead Road.
• The Peel Godred Power Co. is a subsidiary of the British Aluminium Co. Sodor Roadways is a subsidiary of the North Western Railway.
• The last MSR Mine was stripped of all it’s resources by 1946, which was another contributing factor in the MSR’s closure.
• Duke is referred to as ‘she’ during the lecture.
• The British Government helped sponsor the construction of the NWR.
• Here, Sir Charles Topham Hatt II became the controller in 1957, information that would later be retconned to 1954.
• Ten hopper wagons were built specifically for the Arlesdale Railway.
• The MSR had used spoils from the lead mines as ballast to cover up their old trackbeds, something that was later discovered by Sir Topham Hatt II, who had samples analyzed, which were discovered to have weed-resistant properties (See Small Railway Engines).
• Frank was initially intended to be based off of his basis Perkins’ prior form, which was a steam-outline diesel. Additionally, he was originally intended to be painted Green. Although Frank, like Jock, was created by Wilbert Awdry, he wasn’t used as a character until the time of Christopher’s books.
• Sigrid of Arlesdale (nameless at the time), was originally intended to be based upon the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway's No. 6 Diesel engine "Royal Anchor" which was built in 1956, and acquired by the railway in 1961. Like Frank, Awdry later changed the basis to the No. 7 Diesel, "Shelagh of Eskdale".
• Ben Glas is Sudric for "White River".
• Balladwail is Sudric for "The farm on the black stream".
• Edward’s Dossier was destroyed in a fire that occurred at Crovan’s Gate in the 1930’s.
• The lecture states that the drawings used to build Henry were likely stolen in 1918, and that Gordon’s rebuild took place in 1938 or thereabouts, this is retconned to 1919 and 1939 respectively in the TIOS book.
• By the 1830’s “The Railroad” track sections at Cros-ny-Cuirn were relayed with Fishbelly-edged rails, and the line ran over a timber viaduct with inclined planes. Breakways of carts became frequent and the horse-power was slow.
• A traced version of a Mid-Sodor Railway map from a book by C.I.J. Body, created around the time of the Railway's closure, was made and used to help find Duke in 1969.
• According to employees at Crovan’s Gate Works, the main consensus for how Henry was able to be rebuilt into a Black 5 design at Crewe by William Stanier, is because, when they were apprentices together, Sir Topham Hatt I saved Stanier, on at-least one occasion, from the consequences of what would’ve been considered to be a somewhat scandalous episode. Awdry writes “Let us not speak of the details of this incident” and say that “Sir Topham Hatt was both quick thinking and resourceful. As it is to never speak of William Stanier’s indiscretions ever again”. This incident is also mentioned, however less detailed, in the TIOS book.
• Mr. Peter Sam is said to have become the controller of the Skarloey Railway in 1945. This was retconned in TIOS to 1951.
• Sir Handel Brown I is said to have died by 1949, however this is retconned in TIOS to 1950.
• The S&M had a line from Rolf’s Castle to Cronk and Rolf’s Castle to Peel Godred.
• C.I.J. Body wrote a book called “Narrow Gauge Rails in Sodor” published by Ash Grove Press, Tidmouth.
• A newspaper called “Illustrated Sodor News” was around in 1864.
• By 1905, after a period of prosperity, the larger coastal ships could not clear the high-tide at Suddery Harbour caused by some remains of Suddery Castle, blown up between 1816-48. Dredging the area was far too expensive, and thus the line was extended down to Brendam instead.
• Silas' boiler wore out a few years after he was built, and was thus replaced with a Steam donkey boiler. The engine had a speed of 6 MPH. Topham also subsequently replaced the engine’s chassis, allowing it to pull up to 100 tons or more.
• A TK&ELR extension to Elsbridge was built in 1910, but in 1908 a great gale had destroyed the road and that part of the rail-connection to Tidmouth, alongside the coast. Communications and trade were disrupted as a result and a petition was sent to Parliament. The treasury then had Sir Topham Hatt I start cutting a tunnel between Tidmouth and Knapford for A.W. Dry. Work was done by unemployed Quarrymen and Miners. The railway was laid under Topham Hatt’s direction, and the first train passed through on July 5th 1910.
• Albert Regaby’s birth year is given here as 1874. It would later be retconned to 1864.
• The first four miles of the gradient of Gordon’s Hill is 175 degrees.
• Tidmouth appeared frequently in news bulletins of the early 1900’s, referred to as a “Northwestern Port”.
• The name of the CFR Viaduct seen in Mountain Engines - Danger Points - Illustration 2, is the Midway Viaduct.
• Just like the Skarloey Railway, the North Western Railway also borrowed locomotives during WWII, however no additional details are given.

Unanswerable Questions

Questions about Thomas that make no logical sense, or are simply unknown.

• How did Duke sleep for 22 years underground, and how could he breath?
• Was it really Father Christmas who appeared in Thomas and the Missing Christmas Tree, or simply someone else wearing a disguise?
• How long did Luke hide on the Skarloey Railway, before realizing he wasn't responsible for murder?
• How long was Hiro abandoned in his hideout for?
• How many years was Lorenzo trapped in the Italian Mine?
• As Thomas and the Magic Railroad is non-canon, It is never explained whether Lady exists in the main universe or not. However it is possible, as Thomas' had a dream about her in Calling All Engines!