Thomas

**"Cinders and Ashes!"**

-Thomas' catchphrase.

**Thomas the Tank Engine** is the Number #1 blue tank engine who lives and works on the Island of Sodor, on the North Western Railway. He originally worked as the station pilot at the Big Station but longed to leave his yard to go out and see the world. After helping to rescue James from a nasty accident, Thomas was rewarded with two new coaches, Annie and Clarabel, and was given the responsibility of running the Ffarquhar Branch Line, where he works to this day.

## Appearance

Thomas is a tank engine who came from Brighton to help out on the Island of Sodor. He's painted blue. And he has six small wheels, a short stumpy funnel, a short stumpy boiler and a short stumpy dome. He's also painted with red lining on his wheel-arches, his side, on his cab and on the back of his bunker. He has a lamp on his left lamp-iron. He has a whistle, which sounds very popular. He has two round windows on his cab. And he has the number one painted on his side.

## Personality

Thomas is described as being a cheeky and fussy engine. He often gets into scrapes, usually by being over-eager to do things best left to bigger and more sensible engines. But clouds never last long in Thomas' life and he is soon bustling about again, playing his part in the yard and on his very own branch line, of which he is extremely proud.

He loves teasing the others, especially the bigger engines, such as Gordon and on occasion brags about his superiority, but is always brought down to earth in due course by anyone willing to correct him, especially the Fat Controller and his two coaches, Annie and Clarabel. If Thomas has one major character flaw, it is that he is forgetful and rather impatient. However, he cares about his friends very much, and is also optimistic, idealistic and altruistic with a heart of gold.

A friend to everyone and a popular member of the Fat Controller’s Railway, Thomas is the No.1 engine and does his best every day to live up to that through helping his friends and those that he cares about. He lives to be a Really Useful Engine and encourages everyone else to do the same. He likes to be better than James and Bertie in races. He can, however, also get annoyed about being useful such as the time when Rosie followed him around because she idolized him so much.

While he might drive others away, Thomas is very good at luring back friends should the situation demand it.

Despite all this, he does have his pride and will sometimes take wrong advice at the wrong time - such as from Sailor John or Ace, as well as refusing help even when he needs it.

In other cases, Thomas can be highly curious and positive, with slight hints of skepticism and forgetfulness, including tendencies to daydream. He is also however depicted with a subtle tone of wisdom, helping engines like Sonny and Rajiv be really useful, despite their difficulties or insecurities in the past. Thomas also has a high perspective on odd objects or people, quickly growing suspicious upon seeing the Tiger Hunters' hidden cage, Diesel 10's plans to take over the railway of steam engines with his fellow diesels and Baz and Bernie's whispering.

## Technical Details

Thomas is based on the LB&SCR Class E2 0-6-0T, particularly the second batch of locomotives built with extended side-tanks. These engines were built by Brighton Works between 1913-1916 to replace the ageing Stroudley 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 (Rosie's basis), until they were replaced by the BR Class 07 diesel shunters (Salty's basis). All of the E2s were scrapped, with none surviving into preservation.

Thomas has several major differences from the original E2 class. He is much shorter in length than his original basis, he has two extra windows on the sides of his cab and he has wheel splashers, something the original E2 class lacked. In the early volumes of *The Railway Series* and the television series, Thomas' footplate is dipped at the front, but oddly enough is not dipped at the back. In *Branch Line Engines*, his footplate was levelled out from smokebox to bunker.

## Trivia

* Thomas has the most nicknames of any character, with nineteen in total.
* When Thomas first arrived on Sodor, he wasn't blue. He was painted teal-green with white lining. He had the initials "LBSC" and the number 70 painted on the sides of his tanks and cab respectively in yellow with red lining and his wheel rims were painted white. He has this livery on his first day, before he went to the Sodor Steamworks and received his current blue livery.
* He has sometimes been seen going well over his top speed of seventy miles per hour.
* Thomas is great friends with his steam engine friends and some of the diesels on Sodor.
* He's especially good friends with Dora, Boots, Blossom, Lincoln, Leo, Annie, June, Quincy, Rocket, Blooter, Bobby, Patty, and to his girlfriend, Dorothy and her dog Toto.
* Following Mr Conductor in Thomas and the Magic Railroad, Thomas became the second character to narrate in first-person.
* In Calling All Engines!, Thomas sleep-whistles. This is apparently the steam engine version of snoring, though instead typical snoring sounds, Thomas makes warbling whistles after pausing before the next toot. This was only mentioned in Calling All Engines as it might be because his crew never shut off his steam properly.
* He is the first Sudrian engine with a separate driver in international locations.
* He is the only vehicle character with headwear (a nightcap in the series 9-12 closing segments, a party hat in the ninth series episode Thomas' Milkshake Muddle, an aviator pilot hat in the tenth series episode Sticky Toffee Thomas and a top hat in the same episode and the eleventh series episode Smoke and Mirrors (if one were to also count The Fat Controller's top hat in Topped Off Thomas), not counting Whiff's glasses or Darcy's visor (or the Santa caps on all the vehicles in the early Christmas episodes).
* Thomas is the first character in the show to have lost his voice onscreen with the twenty-third series episode, Too Loud, Thomas!. With this, he is the third character on the show with a speech impediment (albeit temporarily) after Theo.
* Even though Edward was the first character for the Railway Series, Thomas was the first character introduced in the television series.