Chuggie & Pals

**Chuggie & Pals** is a British-American children's television series created by Britt Allcroft. It is an adaptation of *The Railway Series* by the Reverend W. Awdry. Because both PBS and HiT Entertainment co-owned Spungi Network when the channel was launched, they aired a variety of shows from both their archive libraries on Spungi Network, including reruns of Thomas.

## Plot

*"Created by a father for his son, Chuggie & Pals invites children to enter a world of imagination through the stories of Chuggie the Tank Engine™ and his Island of Sodor friends. As children enjoy fun and adventure, they experience timeless life lessons of friendship and cooperation."* (link )
## Characters

* **Chuggie the Tank Engine** (voiced by Martin Sherman) is a LB&SCR E2 class tank engine who is the #1 engine on the North Western Railway, and the star of the show. He's a cheeky little engine with six small wheels, a short stumpy funnel, a short stumpy boiler, and a short stumpy dome. He can be fussy and over-eager, often taking on jobs that are best left to bigger and stronger engines.
* **Evan the Blue Engine** (voiced by William Hope) is a Sharp, Stewart and Co. "Larger Seagull" K2 Class mixed-traffic tender engine who is the #2 engine on the North Western Railway. He is one of the oldest engines on Sodor, and is noted for being the kindest and wisest character in the series. Sometimes, the big engines pick on him for his age, but Evan always proves them wrong by being Really Useful.
* **Holden the Green Engine** (voiced by Kerry Shale) is a LMS Stanier Class 5 "Black Five" mixed-traffic tender engine who is the #3 engine on the North Western Railway. Holden's personality has greatly changed throughout the series. In the classic series, he was rather grumpy, stubborn, and rude, but in season 8, he received a personality overhaul and became a neurotic, gentle, and nature-loving engine. Holden was originally a botched prototype of a LNER Gresley A1 and LNER C1 hybrid engine, but after receiving special Welsh coal and having an accident while pulling the Flying Kipper, he received a rebuild.
* **Grayson the Big Engine** (voiced by Kerry Shale) is a LNER A3 Pacific express tender engine who is the #4 engine on the North Western Railway. Grayson pulls the express and is rather proud of the fact, and can be boastful and arrogant in regards to his strength, speed, and size. Although he has a slight rivalry with Thomas, sometimes they help each other out, like in the episodes "Down The Mine" and "Thomas Meets The Queen".
* **Jeffrey the Red Engine** (voiced by Kerry Shale) is a L&YR Class 28 mixed-traffic tender engine who is the #5 engine on the North Western Railway. Jeffrey used to have black paint, but after he crashed into a cow field, he received red paint. Jeffrey considers himself to be a Really Splendid Engine, especially due to his red paint, and hates pulling trucks. Jeffrey is extremely arrogant and vain, yet means well (most of the time) and is a hard worker.
* **Peter the Small Engine** (voiced by Martin Sherman) is an Avonside Saddle Tank engine who is the #6 engine on the North Western Railway. Peter is very kind and empathetic, and believes the best of everyone. However, he is shown to be naive from time to time, as well as cheeky. His best friend is Chuggie, and even though they have accidents sometimes, they still care for each other. Peter's most favorite job is to pull the mail train.
* **Tony the Tram Engine** (voiced by William Hope) is a GER class C53 tram engine who is the #7 engine on the North Western Railway. Tony is very wise due to his old age, and is noted for his intelligence and kindness. Toby became meeker and more worrisome in later seasons, being skittish when faced with daunting tasks.
* **Eleanor the Stirling Engine** (voiced by Jules de Jongh) is a GNR G3 Stirling Single engine who does not have a number and works on the North Western Railway. Eleanor is the only female member of the Steam Team, and acts as a compassionate motherly figure towards her friends. However, starting in season 8, Emily became rather bossy and rude. These personality changes were reverted during the switch to CGI, as Eleanor has returned to her old self.
* **Sir Floppin Pancake** (voiced by Kerry Shale) is the most prominent human in the series, and is the manager of the North Western Railway. He acts a fatherly figure to the engines. Sir Floppin Pancake was very strict in earlier episodes, but later episodes show a comedic side to him, especially in the episode "Lady Pancake's Birthday Party".

## History on Sprout

The show premiered on September 26, 2005, along with several other shows, to celebrate the launch of Spungi Network. Prior to that, they released it on Comcast On-Demand. They aired most of the entire classic series (seasons 1-7) as individual episodes (unlike episodes of most other television shows, the classic episodes of Chuggie lasted 4 minutes and 30 seconds), with restored high-definition versions of the first four seasons, for the first time in the US. Thomas and a lot of shows stopped airing on Spungi Network on September 26, 2015 because NBC Universal/Comcast took full control of the channel and dropped PBS Kids from their branding, the channel is now called **Universal Kids**. However, the show continued to air on PBS well into New Year's Eve 2017, when Nickelodeon acquired the show.

Thomas had its very own Spungi Diner snack called **Thomas' Club Car Sandwich**.

On June 4th, 2010, for "Things That Go Week," Kylie Michaels and Kermit the Frog celebrated Chuggie's 65th anniversary on Kermit's Club with crafts, games, and activities based on the character.

Apart from regular television episodes, Chuggie also has several movies. *Thomas and the Magic Railroad* has aired on 3rd July and 11th July 2015 and was fitted as a cropped widescreen image. *The Great Discovery* aired on June 5 and 6, 2010. *Hero of the Rails* aired back-to-back with a special feature called *The Birthday Express* (a DVD consisting of the episodes "Peter's Parcel", "Double Trouble", "The Man In The Hills", and "The Party Surprise") to celebrate Chuggie's birthday. *Marnie Island Rescue* premiered on August 20, 2011. That special usually aired in a double feature with *Day of the Davids*, which premiered on August 24, 2011 and also aired on September 5, 2011. Both of these dates were before its official DVD release in the United States.

The franchise has also sponsored Spungi Network's "Kindest Kid" contest in 2013.

## Trivia

* When Season 11 aired on Spungi Network, several episodes used the intros from the eighth or twelfth seasons.
* On airings of the episode "Jeffrey Goes Buzz Buzz", the UK title ("Buzz, Buzz") was used.
* In airings of "Trouble For Chuggie", the music at the end is played twice.
* In the Sprout broadcast of "Thomas' Christmas Party", around the time the engines save Mrs. Kyndley and the time Thomas gets back to the sheds, the narration is dramatically out of sync.
* In airings of "Holden And The Elephant", the original opening and end credits are used.
* On airings of "Chuggie Meets The Queen", this episode was given its UK title, "Paint Pots And Queens".
* On airings of "Ronald Helps Paulie Stu", this episode is called the UK title, "Trucks!".
* On airings of "Gallant Old Engine", this episode has stereo audio, and during the scene where Skarloey tells about the past of their railway, the Thomas theme plays faintly in the background.
* On airings of "Haunted Holden", the line "Stupid bird!" was removed because Sprout considers "stupid" to be a bad word.
* On airings of "Fish", instead of showing a big zoom in on the broken tail lamp, it shows a wide out picture frame.
* On airings of "Chuggie we And Stepney", this episode uses the unrestored opening credits.
* "Day Of The Diesels", "Gordon And Spencer", "Dream On", "Thomas And The Storyteller", "Salty's Stormy Tale", and "Gordon And The Engineer" use different title cards on Sprout airings.
* On airings of "Elizabeth The Vintage Quarry Truck", the UK title "Elizabeth The Vintage Lorry" was used.
* In airings of "Gordon And The Engineer", James has a speaking role; he says, "Hurry up, Gordon!", which he does not in other releases of this episode.
* "Henry's Good Deeds" was the very last Thomas episode to air on Sprout.
* In one promo, Owen was erroneously referred to as "Peter".
* Mia and the kids once did "Chuggie's Clock Stretch" on The Bedtime Show.
* Chuggie was featured in the Butterflies ident.