A Thomas Promise

"*Don't worry, Gordon... ugh... I'll get it there for you! I Thomas Promise!*"
— Thomas making a promise

**A Thomas Promise**, also known as **Thomas' Promise**, is the first episode of the first season and the first episode of *Thomas & Friends: All Engines Go* altogether.

## Plot

Thomas is out playing a stacking game with Carly and Sandy, with Percy as a spectator. After beating his record and recovering his nearly fallen stack, Thomas gets his flatbed stolen by a newly arrived Diesel, who intends on beating Thomas and succeeds with help from Carly and Sandy. Severely annoyed by this, Thomas attempts to take back his flatbed, but neither he nor Diesel intend on letting go, and their couplings end up snapping, the force sending its load of sleepers flying into the air. They then fall as a cage around Percy, a house around Diesel, and a pile on Gordon's line, the latter of which forces him to jump, though it gets caught between his tender and cars and breaks his rear coupling. Sandy then inspects the cars, and Gordon reveals that before his coupling was broken, he was delivering a load of recyclables to Whiff's Recycling Plant. Feeling bad for the incident, Thomas promises to finish the delivery for Gordon, but the train is too heavy for him to pull alone. He ends up sharing half of the train with Diesel so that they could have a race, and wanting to see who wins, Sandy follows after them, with Carly and Percy close behind.

As the two make their way to the Recycling Plant, Thomas manages to beat Diesel to the Tunnel of Zoom. Sandy, Carly and Percy hear his whistle from the tunnel, and as Thomas exits, Diesel manages to overtake him, blinding him with smoke before switching the tracks to send him off course. As Carly, Percy and Sandy look for him, they see him in trouble; Diesel's switching had left him on a collision course with Kana. Forced to jump over her to avoid a crash, he ends up losing some items that fly over Sandy, Percy and Carly. Diesel chuckles about his advantage, but catching up behind him, Sandy tosses a traffic cone and hits a switch, sending Diesel down a different route. Thomas is then reloaded with his runaway items as he switches onto the right track, only for Diesel to switch himself onto the track next to him and race him towards the steep hill. Thomas proves to be carrying a lighter load, but Diesel, determined to win, transfers a heavy refrigerator from his train into Thomas', weighing down the tank engine and causing his cars to break away. Although Percy manages to avoid both the cars and Thomas, Carly accidentally switches them onto a track heading towards a mud pit, leading to both falling in and Thomas feeling dejected. As Carly winches him out, she, Percy and Sandy give him words of encouragement, and Thomas is back on his mission.

Thomas continues his way back up the hill, and determined to help him keep his ‘Thomas Promise’, Percy, Sandy and Carly all bank him up the slope. Making it to the top, Thomas spies Diesel waiting impatiently for a boat to pass through the open Quickdraw Bridge. Unfortunately, in his haste to win, Diesel is oblivious to his train losing it's contents. Seeing this, Thomas ultimately decides to stop and keep his promise to deliver *all* of Gordon's cargo. With the help of Percy, Carly and Sandy, Thomas picks up all of what Diesel leaves behind. Diesel ultimately beats the others to the Recycling Plant, but upon seeing Thomas's large load, is shocked to see his cars empty. The others eventually explain what happened, and as Gordon thanks Thomas, the little blue engine gives his gratitude to his friends, including a very surprised Diesel. Sandy later repairs Gordon's coupling, and as he sets off Thomas and Diesel begin another race, with Sandy, Percy and Carly not far behind to watch.

## Characters

* Thomas
* Gordon
* Percy
* Diesel
* Carly
* Sandy
* Kana
* Whiff (*dropped*)

## Locations

* Tidmouth Sheds
* The Tunnel of Zoom
* Quickdraw Bridge
* The Funnel Tunnel
* The Broken Bridge
* Whiff's Recycling Plant
* A Level Crossing
* The Maintenance Yard (*dropped; role replaced with Tidmouth Sheds*)

## Cast

### US

* Meesha Contreras as Thomas
* Neil Crone as Gordon
* Charlie Zeltzer as Percy
* Shomoy James Mitchell as Diesel
* Jenna Warren as Carly
* Ava Ro as Kana (*uncredited*)
* Glee Dango as Sandy

### UK

* Aaron Barashi as Thomas
* Will Harrison-Wallace as Gordon
* Henri Charles as Percy
* Henry Harrison as Diesel
* Eva Mohamed as Carly
* Chloe Raphael as Kana
* Holly Dixon as Sandy

## Trivia

* Being the first episode of *All Engines Go*, this episode also marks the first of several things:
	+ The first episode made using 2D animation.
	+ The first episode to have a 10-minute runtime.
	+ The first episode to not feature any narration whatsoever.
	+ The first production in the franchise since *Thomas and the Magic Railroad* to have Neil Crone as Gordon, albeit only in the US dub.
	+ The first production since the original series episode, Whiff's Wish to have a completely different voice cast in the US and UK dubs.
	+ The first episode since the original series episode Merry Misty Island to be dubbed in Welsh.
* According to Rick Suvalle:
	+ Whiff was originally going to appear in this episode. However, he was ultimately dropped, most likely due to Nelvana not having the budget to make his model at the time.
	+ He started writing this episode in October 2019 and finished writing in December of the same year.
	+ This episode was originally titled **Overloaded**, then **The Great Recycle Race**, and then **Thomas' Promise** before Rick finally settled on **A Thomas Promise**.
		- Interestingly, some US, Canadian, UK, and Irish TV guides still call this episode by one of its original names, **Thomas' Promise**.
	+ Writer David Shayne originally came up with the "Thomas Promise" phrase for the episode, A Quiet Delivery. Suvalle liked the phrase, so he reworked it into the first episode and made a regular phrase for the series.
* In the Latin American Spanish dub, this episode is called "A Promise from Thomas".
* In the leaked concept trailer from January 2021:
	+ Diesel has an alternate expression in the scene when he first appears.
	+ Gordon chases Thomas down when he falls into the mud pit instead of Carly.
* In an early version of the script from January 2020 used for auditions:
	+ Several characters' names are changed in order to keep the series a secret.
		- Thomas was named Riley.
		- Percy was named Tom-Tom.
		- Diesel was named Joey.
		- Carly was named Eva.
	+ Kana and Sandy had their original names, Akira and Dusty respectively.
	+ The beginning of the episode takes place at the Maintenance Yard rather than in front of Tidmouth Sheds.
	+ Kana (Akira) appears at the start of the episode racing Diesel (Joey) when he enters the yard.
	+ Thomas (Riley), Percy (Tom-Tom), Carly (Eva) and Kana (Akira) are revealed to all be eight years old, while Sandy (Dusty) is six.

## Goofs

* In the beginning of the episode, the flatbed Thomas uses has blue wheels. But when Diesel tells Carly to load him up, the wheels are now black as is some of the trim. A few scenes later, the flatbed has blue wheels again.
* When Gordon says he is happy, the top of his funnel is missing.
* Sandy inexplicably gains buffers while pushing Thomas up the hill, but they vanish afterwards.
* When Thomas says "Huh?", his wheels are moving backwards.
* When Gordon jumps over the spilled rail ties, his back wheel disconnects from his axle.
* Ava Ro is not credited for voicing Kana in the credits for the US dub.
* When Diesel sets off, Gordon can still be seen with three hoppers despite all six being coupled to Thomas and Diesel. This error lasts until Carly, Sandy and Percy roll offscreen.
* During the first portion of the song I'm Gonna Chug, Thomas and Diesel are consistently changing tracks,
* Percy's lamp is on the wrong side of his running board when he catches the tire.
* When Diesel says "I won! I won the race!", his buffers and coupler detach from his bufferbeam and fall under his footplate.
* When Thomas, Percy, Carly and Sandy arrive at the recycling plant, Percy has no buffers and Carly's headlights appear to be elongated.
* In the Milkshake! and Nick Jr. airings, the US dub credits appear at the end as opposed to the UK dub.
* In the UK dub, when Percy says "Quack", the audio for it is taken from the US dub.
* When Diesel enters the recycling plant, the third hopper car is missing details.
* When Gordon was seen on a close-up, the top of his smokestack goes missing.

## Merchandise

* Push Along
* Book adaptation

## Home Media Releases

### US/CAN

* Time For Teamwork!
* Season 25

### JPN

* Thomas the Tank Engine Series 25 Vol. 1

## References

1. ↑ Rick Suvalle on Twitter
2. ↑ Rick Suvalle on Twitter
3. ↑ Rick Suvalle on Twitter
4. ↑ Rick Suvalle on Twitter
5. ↑ Rick Suvalle on Twitter
6. ↑ Rick Suvalle on Twitter