The Official Website

https://xleehs.wixsite.com/talesfromthetracks/ (previous URLs: https://xleehs.wixsite.com/jamesfan05official/, https://hnitzel8.wixsite.com/jamesfan05official) is the official website of Tales From The Tracks. The website was launched on December 16th, 2018 by Zach Johnson and Leland Nitzel.

## Content

* Games
* Videos (Including Exclusive Videos)
* Activities
* Sodor Superstars Hall Of Fame (Engine Depot/Character Gallery)
* About
* Link to the Teespring Store *(Formerly)*
* Link to buy The Complete Third Season DVD
* Link to the *Zman & Friends Website*
* Link to the *[slatetruckstudios] Website*

## Site History

The site was launched on December 16th, 2018. It doesn't take on the style of any official *Thomas & Friends* website and instead takes on it's own style, save for the main Character Gallery page, which takes on the style of the *Thomas & Friends Website's Character Gallery Page* seen from 2009-2014, albeit with the "Sodor Superstars Hall Of Fame" banner placed over the original "Engine Depot" banner. The website's header takes on the style of the header seen on the *Thomas & Friends Website* from 2009-2014. In 2021, Zach wanted to add other languages to the website. A Spanish version of the site was added on December 7th, 2021 and a Japanese version was added on January 10th, 2022. Also in 2021, Zach wanted to reformat the Character Gallery to be more like the Sodor Superstars Hall Of Fame seen on the *Zman & Friends Website*. Leland said that he liked the way the character gallery looked on his site, and didn't want it changed yet. In 2021, Zach put the "Sodor Superstars Hall Of Fame" banner over the original "Engine Depot" banner, and in 2022 he changed the buttons on the Character Pages to the ones from the Sodor Superstars Character Pages on the *Zman & Friends Website*. Donald & Douglas' page background was also changed to the Sodor Superstars Background.

## Trivia

* The website was originally titled "JAMESFAN05 OFFICIAL", and was still reflected in the URL for some time.
* The 4 Flash Games originally hosted on the site were removed in 2021, following the discontinuation of Flash. They were replaced by a emulation of the *Sega Genesis Thomas & Friends Game*.
* A download link to the *Thomas & Friends PC Game*, "*The Special Delivery*" was originally hosted on the website, but was taken off some time in 2018 by Leland for unknown reasons.
* The *Thomas & Friends* Theme that plays on the home page has changed over time. First, it was the New Series Theme, then, it was changed to Leland's Cover, then in 2023 it was updated to the one from Season 3.
* In 2022, the Vanish Cap Switch on the Shop page that linked to the *Zman & Friends website* was removed and replaced with a Warp Pipe to the website with the text, "MORE FUN" above it in a similar vein to the *supermariobrothers.org website's* "WORLD 2 MORE GAMES" pipe at the bottom of it's main page during a period of time in 2011.
* In 2022, the games page was redone to add a placeholder for the Hero Of The Rails DS Game (which would later become Puyo Puyo 20th Anniversary) to the main page, and add a new "World 2" section to the games page. The World 2 page is linked on the main games page via an image of Thomas with the text "WORLD 2 MORE GAMES" above him (originally, there was a Warp Pipe instead of Thomas), and the page is stylized after the World 2 Games page from the *supermariobrothers.org website*, complete with header pipes and the *supermariobrothers.org* logo in the clouds at the top of the page. It includes a DOS Thomas game (which as an external link), Sonic 2, Super Mario Bros. 3, Puyo Pop Fever, Michael Jackson's Moonwalker and a download for the fan game Mario Forever. There is also another pipe at the bottom of the page linking to the *Zman & Friends Website's games page*, with text over the pipe saying "WORLD 3 MORE GAMES".

## Goofs

* At one point, Spencer and Stanley's pages could only be accessed by the main character gallery page.
* When the site header was updated, the seperate videos pages were no longer accessible.
* The URL for the wallpapers sub-page for a long time was "thomas-wallpaper", from when it was just the Thomas Wallpaper, and not the Tales From The Tracks wallpapers.
* Many characters who were on the main Sodor Superstars page did not have pages, these included: Annie, Alfie, BoCo, Clarabel, Dart, Den, Diesel 10, Donald, Douglas, Harold, Hector, Henrietta, Jack, Molly, Mr. Conductor, Oliver The Excavator, Rosie, and Rocky. In 2023, the characters who weren't planned for the show were removed, and characters who were planned for or did appear in the show got pages if they didn't have them.
* Skarloey, Rheneas, Peter Sam and Rusty are not listed on the main Sodor Superstars hub despite being planned for Tales From The Tracks.
* For a time, Edward's page did not have his theme.
* Bertie's page plays a mash-up of his theme and the *Super Mario Bros. 2 (USA) Overworld Theme*, made by Sudrian Afro.
* For a time, Edward's page used a promotional image of his Bachmann model.
* Before a promotional picture of him was taken, Spencer's page used an official *Hornby* promo image.
* Stanley's page used the promo from the 2009-2014 *Thomas & Friends Official Website*, but currently uses a *Thomas & Friends* model series promo of him.
* Sir Topham Hatt's page used an official *Thomas & Friends* promotional image until 2023.
* For a time, the Vanish Cap Switch on the Shop page that lead to the *Official Zman & Friends Website* had the wrong URL linked.
* For a time, the "About" button on the header didn't work, as there wasn't an About page on the site at that time. When there wasn't an About page, the button for it on the header was grayed out.
* The Hero Of The Rails DS game was actually the DS version of *Puyo Pop Fever!*. The DS version of *Fever!* was moved to World 2 and the slot on the main games page was replaced with *Puyo Puyo 20th Anniversary*.
* For a time, there was no download link to Mario Forever on it's page. While there is currently a download for the game on there, there is no download for *Mario Worker*, the companion level creation game.
* Due to the use of both text and images, the 8-Bit styled font used on the Mario styled pages is inconsistent.
* The layout of the Mario Forever page is a copy of the World 2 page with minor block and character rearrangements.
* For a time, if you looked outside the bounds of the shop page, you could see wood blocks off the page bounds that are higher than the ones visible.
* On the World 2 page, Mario is floating off the block slightly.
* All the Wood Blocks have a blue sky background. This was most noticeable on the Shop page as it had the sunset background.
* For a time on the shop page, Luigi was floating slightly.
* For a time on the Mario Forever page, most of the Brick Blocks were at a slightly different height than the others. The pipe linking back to the World 2 page was also floating.
* The translations for the other languages are not finished, and some have broken looking pages, particularly in the Sodor Superstars section. There are also no translations for the videos on the site into other languages, barring Thomas' Anthem.
* During the 2023 overhaul, the Copyright Information page was not renovated and was left with the old red and black gradient background.