Thomas

Thomas is a little blue tank engine who lives and works on the Island of Sodor, and is the North Western Railway's number 1 engine. He initially worked as the station pilot at Vicarstown. After helping to rescue James from a nasty accident, Thomas was permanently assigned to the Ffarquhar Branch Line with his two faithful coaches, Annie and Clarabel.
== Biography ==
Thomas started his life on the Island of Sodor as a cheeky little tank engine who shunted coaches for the Main Line engines, such as Henry and Gordon. He enjoyed playing tricks on them, including Gordon, "the biggest and proudest engine of all". He was taught a lesson when Gordon tricked him into being coupled to him during his express run. Tired out, he vowed never to tease Gordon again, realising he did not have to be important. Soon he desired to pull his own passenger train too, much to the bemusement of the other engines. He got his chance when Henry became ill, and no one could pull the passenger train. However, Thomas was so excited that he accidentally left his train and his passengers behind, believing he was pulling it easily. He soon realised his mistake and returned to pull the train. The engines laughed at him, though, and soon Thomas wanted to get out of the shunting yards and see the world. Edward offered him a chance to pull trucks, and Thomas excitedly took the job, not realising how troublesome trucks could be. The trucks pushed him down Gordon's Hill into a siding, where the Fat Controller told him to practice so that one day he would become as good as Edward. Thomas soon proved himself when he rescued James after his nasty accident with the trucks, using the Breakdown Train. As a reward for his quick and heroic action, the Fat Controller promised him his own branch line.
Thrilled, Thomas soon began running his branch line with his two new coaches, Annie and Clarabel, who he grew to love very much. He soon considered his branch line to be the most important part of the entire railway, a fact he would constantly remind the other engines of. However, he continued to make mistakes and dream big, and sometimes this got him into trouble.
In 2002,
== Personality ==
Thomas can best be described as cheeky and immature. His cheekiness is often directed towards the big engines, in particular Gordon. This - combined with his immaturity - often gets him into scrapes. Thomas is also known for being impatient and fussy. He is easily irritated by other engines delaying the running of his branch line and will often snap at them, whether the delay was their fault or not.
==Technical Details==
===Basis===
Thomas is based on a London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR) Class E2 0-6-0T. Thomas is one of the second batch of E2s, built with extended side-tanks. Only the first two of these were built early enough to be Thomas, placing his build date at either June or September 1915.
These engines were built by Brighton Works between 1913-1916 to replace the aging Stroudley LB&SCR E1 class and were primarily used for heavy shunting and short-distance goods trains in the London area and on the south coast. During their final working years, the E2 class worked as shunting engines at Southampton Docks alongside the USATC S100 Tank Engines, until they were replaced by the BR Class 07 diesel shunters. In real life, all of the E2s were scrapped, with none surviving into preservation.
File:Thomas'prototype.png|Thomas' basis
While Wilbert Awdry intended Thomas to be a different engine, it was illustrator Reginald Payne who illustrated Thomas as an E2, as Payne was a southern man, and thus based Thomas off a southern engine. Although initially annoyed, Awdry was content after finding out the design was based off a real locomotive, and he allowed it to stay in the series.
=== Livery ===
Thomas is painted in NWR cerulean with red lining on his tanks and boiler and yellow lining around his windows. His number (1) is painted on his side tanks in yellow with a red outline. He has a white running board with red bufferbeams and valences.
When Thomas first arrived to the Island, he was painted in LB&SCR Goods Black livery with red lining and yellow lettering, which was show in Welcome to Sodor.
== Appearances ==
=== Red Panda Express ===
* Welcome to Sodor
* Waiting Distaste
* Thomas Meet Mei
* The Tale Of MINGZILLA!
* The Tour
* Discussing Failures
* Mei Meets James
* Gordon Gets In Trouble
* Party Preparations
* Thomas VS Gordon
* Thomas and Mei Apologize
* Broken Trust
* Gordon Loses Control
* The Runaway
* Help Arrives
* Thomas And Gordon Apologize
* Saying Goodbye
=== Movie ===
* Red Panda Express
== Trivia ==
* Unlike The Adventure Begins, Thomas was not painted teal green with white lining, along with the number 70 in this canon.
Category:Tank engines
Category:Steam locomotives
Category:North Western Railway
Category:Thomas' Branch Line
Category:Standard gauge
Category:Male characters
Category:Awdry-created characters
Category:Real engines