100 Fun Facts About Thomas the Tank Engine

What are the names of the two faithful carriages Thomas pulls along his branch line?

Annie and Clarabel came with the branch line Thomas was given as a reward, and he loves them dearly, though in one early story he steams off and leaves their guard behind by mistake.

Which of Thomas's fellow engines is bricked up in a tunnel after refusing to come out in the rain?

Henry stayed walled in until a train broke down that one engine could not shift alone, and he was let out to help pull it.

Thomas is modelled on tank engines of a railway linking London with which resort?

Brighton: Thomas was drawn as an E2 of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway. Only ten were built and every one was scrapped in the 1960s, so none of the real engines survives.

In his first book, Thomas fetches what for the bigger engines?

Coaches: when he teased the express engine once too often, it set off before Thomas could be uncoupled from them and dragged the little shunter along at top speed.

Which book launched Awdry's series in 1945, a year before Thomas appeared?

The Three Railway Engines had no Thomas in it at all, and its first pictures so displeased Awdry that the whole book was later redrawn by another artist.

Which tractor does Thomas mock for his caterpillar tracks, only to need his help in a snowdrift?

Terence got the last laugh: Thomas laughed at the tracks, then stuck fast in a snowdrift, and it was Terence who pulled him free and earned an apology.

Awdry's son reportedly asked for a wooden model of which engine, but got the toy that became Thomas instead?

Gordon was too much for the odds and ends Awdry could find in wartime, so he made a small tank engine instead and gave it to his son for Christmas.

Which illness kept young Christopher Awdry in bed when his father first told him the engine stories?

Measles kept Christopher in bed, and he had the tales told over and over, correcting every slip, until his father wrote them down to keep them straight.

Which title relaunched The Railway Series in 1983, eleven years after Wilbert Awdry's final book?

Really Useful Engines was the first of 16 books by Awdry's son Christopher, the boy the stories were first told to, who wrote his as bedtime tales for his own son; together they make 42.

Which road vehicle boasts he is faster than Thomas, races him along the branch line and loses?

Bertie the Bus claimed he was the faster of the two, but lost the race to the end of the line after having to stop at a traffic light, and the pair became friends.

Which emerald-green tender engine arrived in series 7 of Thomas & Friends and joined the Steam Team?

Emily made a bad start by borrowing Thomas's carriages without his knowledge; all was forgiven after she saved Oliver from a nasty accident, and she was given two of her own.

Awdry complained that illustrator C. Reginald Dalby drew which engine like 'a green caterpillar with red stripes'?

Percy was the final straw: Dalby took offence at the caterpillar jibe and quit the series in 1956.

Which engine was the hero of Awdry's first story for his sick son, about an old engine left sad in the shed?

Edward's Day Out went on to open the first book, where the little old engine who had not been out for so long ends up helping a far bigger one up a hill.

What is the Fat Controller's real name?

Sir Topham Hatt is the only name American audiences hear: the makers of the US version thought 'the Fat Controller' too unkind and used his real name instead.

What was the Fat Controller called in the first two books of The Railway Series?

The Fat Director was renamed in the third book because Britain's railways were nationalised in 1948, which turned a private company's director into a regional controller.

Which Beatle narrated the first two series of Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends?

Ringo Starr assumed he was wanted for his Beatles fame, but producer Britt Allcroft said it had nothing to do with that: she thought his mellow Liverpool voice was perfect for storytelling.

Who replaced the original narrator of Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends for American viewers?

George Carlin was cast on the strength of his voice alone; producer Britt Allcroft recalled that he was nervous with no audience in the booth, so a teddy bear sat in on every recording.

Which James Bond actor narrated the 2008 Thomas & Friends special The Great Discovery?

Pierce Brosnan was unveiled in 2007 as the show's new regular narrator, but in the end The Great Discovery was the only Thomas story released with his voice.

Producer Britt Allcroft discovered The Railway Series while making a film about which heritage line?

Bluebell Railway research put the books in her hands: she told Awdry she loved 'this whole little world' he had created and offered to bring it to the screen herself.

After the BBC's 1953 Railway Series adaptation flopped, which channel launched the 1984 Thomas series?

ITV's series succeeded where the BBC's attempt, scrapped soon after viewers complained, had failed; its producer had spent four years raising the money to film the first 26 episodes.

In the show's 1983 pilot, Thomas ignores a danger sign and ends up where?

A mine: the track gave way beneath him and a bigger engine he had been teasing was sent to haul him out. The test film, 'Down the Mine', then sat unseen until it was restored and released in 2025.

In the US, Thomas stories first appeared as segments of which PBS show?

Shining Time Station wrapped the short British films in a live-action show set at a small-town railway station, where a tiny Mr. Conductor who lived in the wall told the Thomas stories.

What brought the engines to life in 1984's Thomas series?

Radio-controlled models ran on a real miniature railway while a single narrator told every story; the engines only got voices of their own when computer animation arrived in 2009.

In one classic story, Thomas's crew top up his tank with river water, and what gets in with it?

Fish: Thomas felt a pain in his boiler, an inspector found his pipe blocked, and the crew pulled the catch out of his tank and ate it with chips.

Which toy giant bought HIT Entertainment, Thomas's owner, for $680 million in 2011?

Mattel is said to have wanted Thomas on his own, but in the end it bought the whole company, which brought Barney, Bob the Builder and Pingu along with him.

Which 2018 rebrand swapped two of Awdry's engines for two new female ones?

Big World! Big Adventures! sent Thomas to China, India and Australia, and its film took him to Brazil and the United States, while Nia and Rebecca moved into the Steam Team.

Nia, who joined Thomas's Steam Team in 2018, was the show's first engine from which continent?

Africa: Nia was developed with help from the United Nations, which held workshops with the producers to work five of its Sustainable Development Goals into the new stories.

Which 2021 reboot of Thomas & Friends moved to 2D animation by Canada's Nelvana?

All Engines Go replaced the original series outright, ending a run that had lasted from 1984 to 2021, and redrew Thomas as a younger cartoon engine.

Which composer's abandoned 1970s TV musical of The Railway Series later inspired one of his stage hits?

Andrew Lloyd Webber's version never got beyond a pilot, but the idea of singing trains resurfaced in 1984 as Starlight Express.

Which 2000 film was the Thomas franchise's first cinema release?

Thomas and the Magic Railroad was recut so heavily after test screenings that its human villain, P.T. Boomer, vanished from the story, and it still took only $19.7 million against a $19 million budget.

Who played Mr. Conductor in Thomas's 2000 big-screen adventure?

Alec Baldwin's Mr. Conductor spends the film running short of the gold dust that carries him to Sodor; Fonda and Means played other parts in it.

Which claw-armed villain hunts the lost engine Lady in Thomas's 2000 cinema film?

Diesel 10 calls the hydraulic claw on his roof 'Pinchy'; his lines were re-recorded by Neil Crone before release, replacing the actor heard in the first cut.

Which old wooden tram engine came to Sodor with his coach Henrietta after his own line closed down?

Toby was sent for after a policeman barred Thomas from the roadside line to the quarry for having no cowcatchers or side plates; Toby had both.

Which 2009 special first gave the engines in the TV series voices of their own?

Hero of the Rails gave Thomas a British voice, Ben Small, and an American one, Martin Sherman, who walked out five years later in a contract dispute, saying he felt bullied.

What is Sodor's native language called in Awdry's books?

Sudric belongs to the detailed island history Awdry drew up with his brother George, maps and all, so that the stories' scenery stayed consistent and readers' awkward questions had answers.

Which real island's diocese name inspired Awdry to invent Sodor?

Isle of Man: on a preaching trip there Awdry noticed that its bishop is Bishop of Sodor and Man, yet no island called Sodor existed, so he drew one into the sea next door.

Thomas's branch line runs from the junction at Knapford up to which village?

Ffarquhar was also the name of the model railway Awdry built of Thomas's branch and took to exhibitions around the country.

Which Welsh line, where Awdry volunteered as a guard, inspired Sodor's Skarloey Railway?

Talyllyn Railway: a mishap from his first stint as guard in 1952, when the train left the tea lady behind, went straight into one of his Skarloey stories.

Sodor's Culdee Fell Railway, which climbs the island's highest peak, copies which real line?

Snowdon Mountain Railway is Britain's only public rack line: the climb is so steep that cogs under the trains grip a toothed rail, and Awdry gave his mountain engines the same.

What is the Fat Controller's standard-gauge railway on Sodor called?

North Western Railway trains reach the mainland by a bridge at Barrow-in-Furness, where Awdry swapped the real Vickerstown on Walney Island for a 'Vicarstown' of his own.

Which character from the Thomas stories sneers that railways are slow and out of date, then loses a race to an engine?

Harold the Helicopter lost for want of somewhere to land: the small tank engine he had sneered at was already at the wharf while he was still hovering overhead.

Which real locomotive appears in the books as the last surviving brother of Sodor's express engine?

Flying Scotsman's visit was laid on to cheer up the big blue engine, who had been miserable since hearing that the rest of his class had gone for scrap.

Wilbert Awdry wrote himself into his later Railway Series books as which character?

The Thin Clergyman turns up as a railway enthusiast alongside a Fat Clergyman, Awdry's friend the Rev. Teddy Boston, who in real life built a railway in the grounds of his Leicestershire rectory.

As a boy in Wiltshire, Awdry lay in bed hearing engines 'talk' as they climbed which railway's main line?

Great Western trains laboured up the slope to Box Tunnel near his home, and Awdry said it took little imagination to hear, in the puffing and panting, what the engines were saying to each other.

Which real-life figure visits Sodor in an early Railway Series story, arriving by special train?

Queen Elizabeth II visits in a book published in 1953, the year of her coronation; one hopeful engine is ruled out when a pot of paint lands on him, and the proud express engine gets the Royal Train.

Which company launched the OO gauge 'World of Thomas the Tank Engine' range in 1985?

Hornby already sold a model of the real E2 tank engine, so its Thomas was that model given a face and longer water tanks.

In which Marvel film does a toy Thomas swell to full size and land on a police car?

Ant-Man's makers had to pitch the scene to Thomas's owners, who found it funny but set conditions: nobody could be tied to the tracks and run over by him.

A famous 2013 mod replaced the dragons of which video game with Thomas the Tank Engine?

Skyrim's dragons became airborne, fire-breathing engines, and the joke spread: a later mod for the Resident Evil 2 remake gives its stalking monster, Mr. X, the face of Thomas.

In Thomas and the Breakdown Train, Thomas rescues which engine and wins a branch line?

James came to grief when his wooden brake blocks caught fire and the trucks pushed him off the rails into a field; Thomas fetched the breakdown train to rescue him.

In a famous 1961 story, a cleaner's carelessness sends Thomas rolling away to crash into what?

A stationmaster's house: Thomas crashed into it, ruined the family's breakfast and had to be sent away to the Works for repairs.

Which Oscar-winning British actor voiced Ryan, a purple tank engine, in a 2015 Thomas & Friends film?

Eddie Redmayne played Ryan in Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure, which had a short run in British cinemas before reaching home video.

In 2007, around 1.5 million Thomas & Friends wooden toy trains were recalled after tests found what in them?

Lead turned up in the red and yellow paint of wooden trains sold between 2005 and mid-2007, all of them made in China.

Thomas Land, a theme-park area built around Thomas & Friends, first opened in 1998 in which country?

Japan got there first: the Fuji-Q Highland park opened its Thomas Land with a roller coaster and an indoor ride ten years before a British park followed.

Wilbert Awdry made the first toy Thomas the Tank Engine for his young son from which household object?

A broomstick and scraps of wood were all that wartime shortages allowed, and the finished toy was painted blue with yellow lining.

The twin engines Donald and Douglas come to Sodor in The Railway Series from which part of Britain?

Scotland sent two engines when the Fat Controller had ordered only one, and each twin feared the scrapyard if he was the one sent back.

Whiff, the bespectacled green tank engine of Thomas & Friends, spends his days collecting what around Sodor?

Rubbish and scrap are Whiff's daily load, hauled to the waste dump with his helper Scruff, which is why he smells the way his name suggests.

The South Devon Railway's Fat Controller at Thomas the Tank Engine events was told to quit or do what?

Shave off his beard, the rights holders insisted, because volunteers must look the part exactly: a Fat Controller may not even be too thin.

Bulgy, the railway-hating double-decker bus of The Railway Series, gets stuck under a bridge and is turned into what?

A henhouse was Bulgy's fate in the books, though the TV series let him off more lightly as a travelling vegetable stand.

How did producer Britt Allcroft raise £50,000 to help bring Thomas the Tank Engine to television?

She mortgaged her house after four years of chasing funds, and the first episode went on to draw 8.5 million viewers.

Wilbert Awdry placed the fictional Island of Sodor, home of Thomas the Tank Engine, in which sea?

The Irish Sea let Awdry tuck Sodor just off the English coast, joined to the mainland at Barrow-in-Furness yet safely apart from British Railways.

Duck, the green pannier tank engine of The Railway Series, is only a nickname; what is his real name?

Montague is his given name, but the other engines said he waddled, and he decided he liked Duck better.

George, who grumbles in The Railway Series that railways should be torn up for roads, is what kind of machine?

A steamroller owned by the island council, George chants his anti-railway views while he flattens roads, and his run-ins with the engines end in trouble.

Cranky, a tall green fixture of Thomas & Friends who hoists loads above the engines, works at which Sodor location?

Brendam Docks is Cranky's post, at the end of a branch line that leaves the main line at Wellsworth.

Which elderly engine, once hailed as the Master of the Railway, does Thomas find abandoned on an overgrown Sodor line?

Hiro begged Thomas to keep him secret for fear of being scrapped, so Thomas quietly gathered spare parts to get him running again.

Victor, the narrow-gauge engine who runs the Sodor Steamworks in Thomas & Friends, comes from which country?

Cuba is Victor's homeland, and he works beside his yellow assistant Kevin before later joining the Skarloey Railway.

Which silver streamlined engine in Thomas & Friends belongs to the Duke and Duchess of Boxford?

Spencer comes from the mainland and can be even more arrogant than Sodor's own express engine, who is his cousin and rival.

Which actor narrated the British version of Thomas & Friends from 1991 to 2012, longer than anyone else?

Michael Angelis was already known for the drama Boys from the Blackstuff when he took over the storytelling, and he stayed for two decades.

Thomas & Friends was filmed for more than a decade at which famous English film studio?

Shepperton Studios housed the model sets from the second series until the last model-filmed special in 2008, after which computer animation took over.

Bruno the Brake Car, a 2020s addition to Thomas & Friends, was written as a character with which condition?

Autism shapes Bruno, who was developed with groups including the National Autistic Society and the Autistic Self Advocacy Network.

In a 1991 Railway Series book, Thomas visits the National Railway Museum, which stands in which English city?

York's museum made Thomas an honorary member of the National Collection, and its library holds the books, so in a sense he truly does belong there.

Wilbert Awdry sent early copies of his Thomas the Tank Engine books as a gift to which young royal?

Prince Charles later appeared in the stories himself, arriving on Sodor by high-speed train in the 2011 book to unveil a statue marking the author's centenary.

Bill and Ben, the mischievous tank-engine twins of The Railway Series, work for a Sodor company that digs what?

China clay keeps the twins busy, and Awdry modelled them on a pair of tank engines named Alfred and Judy that he saw at Par in Cornwall.

Daisy, who fills in on Thomas's branch line in The Railway Series while he is being repaired, is what kind of vehicle?

A diesel railcar, Daisy was the first female engine in the books, though at first she would only do the work she fancied.

Toad, who escapes the scrapyard alongside Oliver in The Railway Series, is what kind of railway vehicle?

A brake van weighing twenty tons, Toad fled with Oliver and a carriage named Isabel, and in the books he ends up working for Douglas, their rescuer.

Rheneas, who saved the Skarloey Railway from closure in The Railway Series, earned which nickname?

Gallant Old Engine became his title for keeping the line open, and the nickname went on to name a whole book in 1962.

In The Railway Series, Duke the Lost Engine lies forgotten for years after what buries the shed he is left in?

A landslide hid the shed until an expedition dug Duke out, a tale inspired by a real engine found preserved in the Brazilian rainforest.

Which Oscar-winning British actress voiced Marion, a rail-mounted steam shovel, in Thomas & Friends films?

Olivia Colman joined the cast as Marion for 2014's Tale of the Brave and came back for a treasure-hunting sequel the following year.

Which American actor played Burnett Stone, keeper of a lost engine, in Thomas the Tank Engine's 2000 feature film?

Peter Fonda signed on in August 1999 to play the caretaker and driver of the enchanted engine at the heart of the plot.

Which 1972 title was the twenty-sixth and last Railway Series book that Wilbert Awdry wrote himself?

Tramway Engines was such a struggle to write that Awdry dropped his plans for a twenty-seventh book and retired from the series.

Which artist illustrated every Railway Series book by Christopher Awdry, more volumes than any other illustrator?

Clive Spong was chosen to blend the gem-like charm of the early pictures with the technical realism of the artists who came later.

Sodor's miniature Arlesdale line in The Railway Series copies which real 15-inch-gauge railway in Cumbria?

Ravenglass and Eskdale engines have doubles on Sodor: Jock, a later arrival among the small engines, is based on its locomotive Northern Rock.

In The Railway Series, Peter Sam went by which name during his earlier days on the Mid Sodor Railway?

Stuart and his shed-mate Falcon were sold on when their line closed and renamed after Skarloey Railway figures, Falcon becoming Sir Handel.

Which famous real locomotive, the first to appear in The Railway Series, spends a night on Sodor talking with Duck?

City of Truro stayed a single night during a 1957 railtour and talked with Duck until morning, much to the annoyance of the big express engine.

Junior Campbell, co-composer of the music for Thomas & Friends, first found fame in which 1960s pop group?

Marmalade's guitarist co-wrote the band's biggest hits, then spent two decades scoring 182 Thomas episodes with Mike O'Donnell.

Series creator Britt Allcroft first chose which unlikely person to voice Thomas in the tank engine's 2000 feature film?

Her taxi driver, an off-duty firefighter named John Bellis, sounded exactly right to her, but after a test screening a professional voice actor replaced him.

Which international body helped the makers of Thomas & Friends work its global goals into the 2018 series?

The United Nations helped design a new engine for the cast, and its Sustainable Development Goals were written into both the episodes and a film.

Which Staffordshire theme park opened a Thomas Land area in 2008, complete with a narrow-gauge railway ride?

Drayton Manor built its Thomas Land on the site of an older themed area, with models of Thomas and two friends hauling visitors through the park.

Fans have modded Thomas the Tank Engine into the 2019 remake of which horror video game?

Resident Evil 2 had its relentless trench-coated pursuer swapped for Thomas, one of many fan mods that have also dropped him into Grand Theft Auto V.

Which Harry Potter film actor voiced Thomas in a Robot Chicken sketch that parodied Thomas & Friends?

Daniel Radcliffe voiced Thomas in the sketch, which the adult comedy show titled Blow Some Steam.

Ashima, the pink tank engine who befriends Thomas in the 2016 film The Great Race, comes from which country?

India's Nilgiri Mountain Railway was Ashima's old home, and she travelled to the Great Railway Show to compete in its Shunting Challenge.

Which Oscar-nominated British actor voiced the villain, a treasure-hungry sailor, in a 2015 Thomas & Friends film?

John Hurt was billed as a special guest star, playing a scheming sailor who happens to share his first name.

Which town, the far terminus of the main line from the mainland, is the largest on Sodor in The Railway Series?

Tidmouth is bigger than the capital, the city of Suddery, and it is where the island's express to London starts its journey.

Harvey, a maroon tank engine in Thomas & Friends, is built with what unusual piece of equipment?

A crane is built into Harvey, a rare design known as a crane tank, so he can lift engines back onto the track after accidents.

Hugo, a silver rail zeppelin in Thomas & Friends, is pushed along the track at high speed by what?

A propeller makes Hugo one of a kind: he is very fast, and passengers love to watch it spin.

Which British comedy show lampooned Thomas the Tank Engine in 1988 as a drunk who had gone off the rails?

Spitting Image sent Thomas up only four years after his television debut, a mark of how famous the engine had become.

Which British actor voiced Merlin, an engine sure he can turn invisible, in Thomas & Friends: Journey Beyond Sodor?

Hugh Bonneville guest-starred as the three-funnelled experimental engine in a 2017 film that sees Thomas held captive at a mainland steelworks.

Who worked with Wilbert Awdry to devise the history, geography and language of Thomas the Tank Engine's Island of Sodor?

His brother George, librarian of the National Liberal Club, helped compile notes so detailed that they were later published as a book of their own.

Which former child star played Lily, granddaughter of Burnett Stone, in Thomas the Tank Engine's 2000 feature film?

Mara Wilson was announced for the role in August 1999, playing the girl whose grandfather looks after an enchanted steam engine.

Thomas the Tank Engine's 2000 feature film shot scenes on the Strasburg Rail Road, a heritage line in which US state?

Pennsylvania's Strasburg Rail Road later made a full-size steam Thomas of its own, rebuilt from an engine that once shunted the Brooklyn waterfront.

Trevor, rescued from a scrapyard in The Railway Series and kept in a vicarage orchard, is what kind of machine?

A traction engine due to be broken up, Trevor was saved by a vicar and now gives rides at fetes and garden parties.