Thomas

## Thomas the Tank Engine

Thomas is a blue tank engine who lives on the Island of Sodor, and is numbered as the North Western's number 1 who has his own branch line, also known as the Ffarquhar Branch Line. He is one of the main members of the Steam Team.

## Bio:

Thomas first started off as a station pilot at Tidmouth station in 1925, where he enjoyed teasing Gordon whenever the big engine would doze in a siding. Eventually, Gordon got his own back at Thomas by pulling out of the station before he could uncouple from the coaches, dragging him down the line.

Thomas soon proved himself to the other engines when he saved James from a crash. When James was pulling a train of trucks who were pushing him too fast, Thomas chased after him and tried to couple to the back of the train to slow James down, but he failed and James and his trucks derailed. After fetching Judy and Jerome, who lifted him back onto the tracks, he was given Annie and Clarabel as well as his own branch line, which had previously been run by Glynn the "coffee pot" engine.

In 1960, Thomas crashed into the stationmaster's house at Ffarquhar after a careless cleaner had meddled with his controls. Thomas was sent to Crovan's Gate Works to be mended but he soon returned to the branch line and began looking after the passenger trains with Daisy.

In 2010, when Martha was brought onto the Ffarquhar Branch to take over for Mavis, who was given the job to transport trucks of stone to Brendam Docks, Thomas was tasked to teach Martha how she should handle shunting at the Ffarquhar Quarry. This didn't end well as Martha's shunting cause the trucks to be destroyed leading both Thomas and Percy to try and reteach Martha how to properly shunt. But after many crashes Percy suggested to Thomas that Martha should pull passengers instead. Thomas was hesitant at first, but eventually agreed and continued working at the Ffarquahr Quarry until Martha returned. Later that same year, he and Toby were invited to the Vicar's Garden Party hosting at the Wellsworth Vicarage Orchard. Thomas tried to come up with an excuse not to go, but he reluctantly agreed and he got covered in confetti for the party. Because Thomas left early, wanting to get the party over and done with, this left Toby to be the only engine to collect the ice cream from the Ice Cream Factory, which in turn caused Toby run out of water. Thomas was sent to help Toby and together the two engine brought the ice cream to that orchard for the children.

In 2012, Winston had dreams about being a real road vehicle to which Thomas over heard and began singing explaining to the track inspection car why the railways were better than the road, to which Winston ran away. Later on, when Winston has an accident causing a road jam, Thomas puffed by gloating that he was right about the road's being more trouble then the rails.

## Personality:

Thomas can be seen as self-absorbed, only thinking about himself as the number one engine in the spotlight, but there has been moments where he is generally nice and friendly towards his close friends. However, he can be rather irritable and easily annoyed when being teased by the big engines, being overworked or when it comes to being late. He is quite cheeky too, as shown when he teased Henry about his love for Gordon and how he jokes with the other engines pushing their buttons.

Thanks to the success of the Railway Series and the TV series, this had only boosted his ego to think he's the only engine that solely matters on the whole railway. But in the early 2000s, the fame soon got too much for Thomas to handle, for people where thinking of him as a children's icon much to his displeasure. This in turn has sometimes turned Thomas to be rather peeved about children concretely pointing him out and many adults seeing him as a giant toy train to babysit kids. Nowadays, Thomas doesn't attend Day Out With Thomas Events anymore and can easily get frustrated when being forced to attend and even for children.

## Appearances:

### The Adventures on Sodor:

#### Season 1:

* A Royal Treat, Henry's Attempt, The Right Way or the Wrong Way, Diesel Love, A Change for Martha, The Pink Blues, Grow Up and Swap Around \*mentioned\*, Assembling Feelings, Crank it Cargo, Steamies Vs Diesels

#### Season 2:

* Next Stop: Castle Fantasies, The Break Up, What Place is Right for You?, Tale Of The Old Warrior, Logs Away, Three's A Crowd, Friends and Fantasies, Road Problems, Spy Dennis

### Specials:

* 1963 - \*mentioned\*
* TAOS: How Diesel Stole Christmas
* TAOS: World War Sodor - An Eagle Story
* TAOS: A Cranky Christmas Carol
* TAOS: The Untold Story of Timothy \*Remastered\*
* TAOS: Little Engines Save Christmas

### Shorts:

* Christmas Short
* The Complaint Truck

## Technical Details:

### **Basis:**

Thomas is based on a London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR) Class E2 0-6-0T. These engines were built by Brighton Works between 1913-1916 to replace the ageing 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 (Rosie's basis), until they were replaced by the BR Class 07 diesel shunters (Salty's basis). In real life, all of the E2s were scrapped, with none surviving into preservation. 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.

### Livery:

* LBSCR Teal ''(formerly)''
* NWR Sky Blue

## Trivia:

* Thomas is currently the only member of the Steam Team to have no cameo appearances so far.
* Before joining the North Western Railway, Thomas' number was 107, based upon The Adventure Begins numbering Thomas as 70 in mark of the Railway Series' 70th aniversery.
* Thomas hates Day Out With Thomas Events, thanks to the HiT Era of the TV Show to make the public see him as a children's icon.

## Gallery:

Thomas in confettiThomas in "How Diesel Stole Christmas"Thomas in "World War Sodor: An Eagle Story"Thomas in "A Cranky Christmas Carol"The real life 107