Thomas and the Jet Engine: Alternate Ending

(Note: This is the rewritten version of a creepypasta I've made nearly a year ago called Thomas and the Jet Engine - Alternate Ending because the original story is outdated with some of the stuff in it. If you still like to read it, click the underlined link provided)
I often question myself about why I go along with the things I do, ultimately making it hard on myself when I could choose a safer path and avoid it altogether. This was one of those moments I seem to remember, but in a weird and uncanny way. Around 2006, the newly created YouTube was still quite young for video sharing and reposting old episodes of popular and nostalgic kids' shows. Of course, that didn’t stop people from doing mysterious and questionable things that would leave others alone with their thoughts. 
Anyways, I’ll get to the point. So, I was feeling nostalgic for a show I used to watch a lot on PBS Kids when I was little. That show was Thomas & Friends, the show about talking engines doing work on the Island of Sodor. There was no other show like Thomas & Friends, at least back then in the 80s and 90s, as the fans claim, now being nothing more than just a show for “Babies” or "Preschoolers". 
I was bored one day and just scrolled through a list of videos about Thomas I could watch. I clicked on an episode I recognized from when I was a kid. It was an episode where James worried about a balloon taking the engine's job of transportation away from them, only for him to realize that it was nothing to worry about since it didn’t jeopardize their work. You can rip on me for not saying the specific name of the episode, but I paid little attention to what it was called nor did I care about it; the episode wasn’t a favorite of mine anyways. Plus, the video quality for each Thomas episode I found was either bad quality or it had a small video box and pitched-down audio to prevent copyright. Ain’t that beautiful for YouTube?
I resorted to scrolling through the comments to see what they had to say. Most of the comments I read were not any better, and most of them seemed to be written by kids under the age of 10. I just kept scrolling for a bit and was about to give up and find another reposted episode to watch until I came across something that caught my eye. There, an isolated-looking comment from everything else, was a link to a website along with a short sentence message about it. 
The comment read, “How would anyone like to watch some episodes of your favorite blue engine? Just click here and get the best quality videos you’ve ever seen; you don’t need to spend a penny on it.” A website with high-quality Thomas episodes for free? Now, if that wasn’t suspicious at all, then I don’t know what is. And me being a gullible 19-year-old youth, I stupidly clicked on it without a second thought, though I knew better than to open a random link by a random weirdo online. 
My excuse was that I was curious about what the link was really about and wanted to see if he was bluffing or not. Turns out, he wasn’t lying at all. The website in question had tons of episodes that, for some reason, only had the first 6 seasons of Thomas & Friends, and most of the videos were indeed high quality, the only exception being the video had low brightness and the contrast of the video looked like it was cranked to 11. The only other catch was that I had to download an adblocker real quick because of how many Trojan ads popped up on the site. But ignoring that, it was surprisingly well made for a website that seemed to be frozen in time.
The question is, why were the first 6 seasons only available? What about the seventh season? I checked the website’s “About Page,” and the date that was last updated was exactly October 11th, 2002. What made it even more off-putting was that the site described Thomas as a completed series and the “conclusion to the well-loved franchise.” If you’re somehow not aware of why this was strange, the reason why that’s the case is because, as I said, Thomas having a 7th season and later, a CGI incarnation, meant that it didn’t get canceled at all. I mean, it’s outdated, and I wasn’t expecting anything too much from it. 
However, I was wondering one thing: what made the creator of the website claim that the show was “completed” to begin with? Was the show meant to end on the 6th season? What happened around that time that pulled the show from airing? Just question after question, so now I have a new interest. I clicked on the 6th and “last” season on the page and scrolled all the way down to the page. It feels like I’m exploring something huge, going deep into the mystery the further I go down the page. Eventually, it stopped at the bottom of the page, and the last episode that appeared there was called, “Thomas And The Jet Engine,” another episode I vividly remember from my childhood, though I don’t remember exactly what happened in this episode to begin with. I figured I would click on it and see what the website creator was talking about, plus I can rewatch an episode again to refresh my memory. Perfect, I thought to myself…
I clicked on it and got up from my seat to grab a small snack from the fridge while the video was up and ready to go. I was nearly halfway to the kitchen when I was caught off guard and startled by the opening theme song playing throughout my house, and it was unnecessarily loud too. So loud, that if you were outside the house, then you would hear it loudly echo. I beelined to my room and paused the video before collapsing into my chair and breathing a sigh of relief. Forget the snack; I wasn’t feeling like eating after that. Now how did the video just play all by itself? 
Either it had the same kind of feature YouTube has when it plays automatically upon clicking on a video, or I must’ve clicked play while it was loading before I left the room. I decided to go with the video automatically playing scenario as that made more sense to me. After all, I don’t remember clicking the video right as I left the room. I mean, why would I do that when I was getting a snack before viewing the episode? I made sure to turn down the audio on my computer, which I found out was the reason behind it, and skipped over to the part where the episode began. I didn’t feel like watching the intro as I’ve seen it a hundred times before. Oh boy, this would totally be smart of me to be doing instead of ignoring the suspicious link altogether. Again, I had the excuse that I was curious about the supposed “completed” series the website creator claimed, so that was what motivated me to watch.
The episode began with Gordon, the big blue tender engine, running down the line with his express coaches behind him, with the narrator explaining how fast Gordon was and how he was proud of it. Now again, the episodes had low brightness and high contrast to them, but there was something else that I saw within the episode. It’s barely noticeable, but the video was a bit grainy. It kind of defeats the purpose of the episodes being high quality, but it’s better than what I’m finding on YouTube. The scene transitions to Knapford Station, and the engines were all there. They seemed to be annoyed by Gordon's arrival, all except Percy, who had a cheerful expression on his face. 
Gordon then spoke up, “I’m the fastest,” as the narrator, voiced by Alec Baldwin replies, “Boasted Gordon. But not all the engines were impressed.” It then showed James and Edward, both still annoyed as James replied to Gordon. “Speed isn't everything,” James said smugly to Gordon, followed by Edward saying, “But being reliable and useful is.” 
Gordon didn’t take the comments made by both James and Edward so kindly but still remained boastful about it, kinda like a smartass comment. “You slow engines will never understand…” Gordon snorted in a condescending tone. “because you'll never go as fast as me.” The narrator then explained that Sir Topham Hatt walked up to the engines to announce a huge surprise.
“Hello, everyone,” Sir Topham Hatt began as the engines looked at Sir Topham Hatt. “I need an engine to head over to Brendam Docks to collect a jet engine and take it to the airfield.” It then showed the engines astonished with such a special job, which I should bring up, is a common thing in the show that the engines all enjoy. 
However, Thomas was still annoyed. It wasn’t about the surprise, but it was still about Gordon’s boasting. He looked down at his buffers and spoke quietly, “I wish I was just as fast as Gordon so I could prove him wrong,” Thomas said to himself. Duck seemed to notice Thomas’ comment and replied to him. “What if you took the jet engine to the airfield? That way, you can go as fast as him and maybe break his record,” he suggested to Thomas. He looked back down at his buffers and thought to himself for a bit. 
Then Thomas spoke up to Topham. “I’ll take the jet engine to the airfields,” Thomas said to him. The controller looked at Thomas and just smiled. “Very well,” he replied. “I shall be sending you there to pick it up; don’t rush now.” Then, just like that, Thomas puffed out of the station and rolled along the tracks down to Brendam Docks.
Thomas was shown to be puffing along the tracks, whizzing past two stations before veering onto a smaller line, presumably leading to Brendam Docks. Upon Thomas's arrival, Cranky was already in the process of unloading the jet engine. The appearance of the jet engine caught my attention. Although I couldn't recall its exact details from childhood memories, there was something distinctly off about it. It seemed slightly longer than I remembered, but I couldn't be certain if it was just my perception playing tricks on me. 
Thomas then coupled up to the jet engine and was being extremely impatient, which bothered Cranky the crane a lot. “Hurry up,” Thomas said to Cranky, “This is a special special, and I can’t miss out on it!” Next came the moment where things get real. By pure accident, Cranky knocked the switch on, sending Thomas hurtling down the tracks with incredible speed, unable to stop.
Thomas was starting to freak out, but soon came to the realization that this was the wish he asked. Zooming past numerous stations, he caught glimpses of familiar faces: James, Henry, Percy, Duck, and even Bertie the Bus. Meanwhile, Gordon proudly pulled the express, proclaiming himself as the fastest, as it shows Thomas catching up to Gordon and passing him, flying into the tunnel with both the engines emerging from the other side. Gordon was surprised to see Thomas, out of all engines, overtaking him. 
Little to Thomas’ shock, including mine, that would shortly end… Tidmouth Station was shown as Edward was shunting a goods train in a siding filled with “Petrol” as the narrator explains. Edward then reversed out of the siding and stopped at the platform. My eyes were already widening as I already knew what was about to happen, Yet, it kept me at the edge of my seat. 
Thomas was then shown rounding the bend as he saw Edward on the same line as Edward and both were panicking as he grew closer and closer. The narration had stopped around this time and it made me even more worried about what was about to happen. Before I could think about what was about to happen, Thomas veered into the siding and the sound of screaming could be heard, still belonging to the narrator, but the way it sounded was genuinely unnerving to listen to.
Thomas flew into the tankers which exploded on impact and started to twist and shatter the tankers like glass. It wasn’t edited in; it was an actual fire that erupted from the tankers. Edward reversed as he watched Thomas fly into the station and knock over the wooden people on the platform. They, along with the station, were now set on fire because of Thomas. The glass roof on the station somehow remained intact, though I can see it was cracked all over and on the verge of breaking. 
Gordon then rushed into view and slammed on the brakes, just nearly inches away from the catastrophe in front of him. Gordon looked horrified at the aftermath and started to sob as the shot panned at Thomas’ battered-up and really mutilated-looking face. Again, the sobbing belonged to the narrator which I must admit. 
For a guy that has a taste of horror, this was just hard to listen to, and it wasn’t like one of those crappy lost episode videos. All of this I’m seeing was made by Britt Allcroft and the team behind the TV show. What kind of Thomas episode was I watching at this point?! It was now obvious on what the creator of the site was talking about, but this was not at all what I expected.
The last scene showed the scrapyards as the theme song played on what sounds like a creepy music box as it panned on every single rusty propped steam engine. It then showed Thomas’ model, he was all rusty and lacked a face, let alone, his smokebox. Large punctured holes in the model were seen on both his boiler and on his dome with part of the running board and the whole funnel gone as well. It looked like someone ripped them off the model with ease. 
It was just… how do I even describe this? This was just heartbreaking to see a childhood character get killed off, at least for me. The shot faded out into darkness as the credits began to play. The credits were the same for the most part and Thomas was shown to be alright, as if nothing happened. The credits that scrolled on the screen were entirely different. It read,
"“With all I’ve been through since the premiere of the movie back in 2000, I’ve reached my breaking point. Not only have I lost my job as the main creator of the show, I was put behind the scenes for smaller roles as new people began to work on it and ruined the charm about Thomas the Tank Engine. I, along with most other people who helped to make this show, are not at all happy with this and we decided to kill off this series as payback. I hate to do this as much as I like this show, but these dipshits had to ruin it, and neither of us had any other choice but to play along. I apologize to anyone who likes the series, but somebody has to put an end to it before it’s too late.” - Britt Allcroft"
The final layer of text appeared on the screen one last time with neither the Gullane nor Hit Entertainment logo appearing, only the old Britt Allcroft logo. “They made me like this!” as it faded out… the video was now over, all I could do was collect my thoughts and try to process what I just saw. I wasn’t horrified, nor was I tearing up anymore, I was in disbelief… I know it’s an episode I vividly remember, but this was obviously not at all what I remembered as a kid. I was still on YouTube and decided to reply to the guy about what I just saw; however, the page was refreshing the video. Before I knew it, I could no longer find the comment I saw; it just vanished without a trace, nor did I have a screenshot of it to even prove it. There was no point in trying to find it again… 
Thankfully, I was still on the website and decided to put it on my bookmark; then I opened the search bar and looked up the episode on YouTube. I then clicked on a random episode, not caring about the quality of it, and watched it side by side… I’ve noticed so many differences compared to the so-called “finale.” However, I don’t really feel like listing all of them, so here are some huge differences I spotted.
1: Sir Topham Hatt directed Thomas alone to transport the jet engine to the airfields, a task to which Thomas consented, though surpassing Gordon wasn't his foremost concern.
2: During Thomas's journey to Brendam Docks, the stations he traversed and the junction to the branch line didn’t appear in the final cut of the episode.
3: The jet engine appeared notably elongated compared to its depiction in the final version, displaying more details to it with the reduced length.
4: Duck was absent from the final version, including with the narrator's silence regarding him, meaning he would never have suggested taking the jet engine and making Gordon look as stupid as possible.
5: That ending was significantly different from the alternate ending. Instead of reaching Tidmouth station, the jet engine's fuel began to run out which caused it to cool down, Giving Thomas control and arriving at Knapford, where he apologized to Gordon with the other engines chuckling at Gordon’s expense.
I wish I could prove its existence other than the screenshots I provided, but I don’t want to upload the video to YouTube myself and face the consequences against the new owners of Thomas and Friends. There’s no other way for me to prove it… I find myself truly perplexed by whatever the hell this was, now fully aware of the show’s real conclusion. 
Each time I revisited an episode of Thomas & Friends, I couldn't shake the thought: "That isn’t the real Thomas the Tank Engine I know; he’s stuck at the smelter’s yard… dismantled, charred, layered all over with rust, never to see the light of day again..."
Category:Thomas & Friends
Category:Lost Episodes
Category:Alternate Ending
Category:Computers and Internet
Category:Death
Category:Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends