Thomas

Thomas is a tank engine that works on both the Island of Sodor and Crotoonia's Inkblotia-Celgreb City Branchline

Personality
Thomas is a cheeky, fussy little engine who very often ends up getting into a scrape or two! A hard working, but sometimes mischievous friend, he runs a branch line on his home (the Island of Sodor) and helps run another on Crotoonia, which travels up from Celgreb City to Inkblotia Castle. Even though he may seem like a really cheeky and fussy engine, he's a kind and positive-thinking friend who always tries to put things right.

Basis
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 E2 class lacked. In 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.

However in Crotoonia, a replica of his class works at Pinewood Island. Another can be seen in the slag pit at the steelworks.

Livery
Thomas is painted in NWR sky blue with red lining. His number is painted on the sides of his tanks in yellow with red lining and the lining around his cab windows is yellow.

In The Adventure Begins, Thomas was originally 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.

In the first three seasons of the television series, Thomas had red lining on the back of his coal bunker, but during production of the third season episode, All at Sea, the lining was removed. The lining was later re-added to him in The Adventure Begins.

Voice Actors

 * John Hasler (UK)
 * Joseph May (US)
 * Daniel Figueria (Brazil)
 * Jan Kalous (Czech Republic)
 * Caspar Phillipson (Denmark)
 * Juha Varis (Finland)
 * Fabrice Trojani (France and French Speaking Canada)
 * Christian Stark (Germany)
 * Haris Grigoropoulos (Greece)
 * Csore Gabor (Hungary)
 * Doriel Zohar (Israel)
 * Marco Vivio (Italy)
 * Kumiko Higa (Japan)
 * Marc Winslow (Latin America)
 * Martin Lange (Norway)
 * Janusz Zadura (Poland)
 * Richard Balint (Romania)
 * Prokhor Chekhovskoy (Russia)
 * Shin Yong-U (South Korea)
 * Jürgen Theuns (The Netherlands)
 * César Díaz Capilla (Spain)
 * Nick Atkinson (Sweden)
 * Steffan Rhys (Wales)
 * Gia Trí (Vietnam)

Trivia

 * Thomas was the first character in the Railway Series to have a number. According to Brian Sibley in Thomas The Tank Engine Man, Awdry used the number one because it was the easiest to draw.
 * Thomas was the first character to be introduced in the television series.
 * From the first to twelfth series during the model era, Thomas had three different facial expressions: livid, peeved and jovial; that were not used on-screen. His unused second series jovial face mask, however, was designed in The Great Festival Adventure game, where Thomas teased Gordon on the turntable.
 * Also in the tenth series episode, Topped Off Thomas, his unused third series enraged face was used where Thomas was arguing with Spencer about going or not going faster than the wind and later challenging him to a race to Kellsthorpe Road.
 * Sometime before or during the production of the fourth series, Thomas had an elderly face mask, created by model maker Jeremy King, which was originally made as a joke to David Mitton during the filming of Thomas and the Magic Railroad.
 * Christopher Awdry lost the original Thomas toy when he was in the United States. However, a replica was made for a 70th-anniversary sizzle reel. The second version of the original toy was made as a "thank you" gift by Michael White.
 * In the American and Finnish cast, Thomas is the only character voiced by Joseph May and Juha Varis in the series.
 * Thomas' LBSC number, 70, was actually carried by a real LB&SCR locomotive, an A1 named "Poplar" currently preserved by the Kent & East Sussex Railway. The number also represents the top speed of his basis and the 70th anniversary of the Railway Series. All the actual E2s, however, were only numbered from 100 to 109.
 * According to Sir Topham Hatt on the 2001 version of the official website, Thomas was given his name by the engine workshop which built him.
 * Thomas is one of three characters to have a speaking role in every series and special, the other two being Henry and James.
 * A Wooden Railway toy of Thomas, along with one of Stepney's, appeared in the second series of The Big Bang Theory in an episode called "The Friendship Algorithm".
 * An Ertl toy of Thomas along with one of James' also appeared in the sixth series of Full House in one of its episodes called "Be True to Your Preschool".
 * 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.
 * A model of Thomas has a major appearance in the film Ant-Man.
 * Thomas has the most nicknames of any character, with nineteen in total.
 * Thomas is the first Sudrian engine with a separate driver in international locations.
 * Thomas 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.
 * Thomas has sometimes been seen going well over his top speed of seventy miles per hour.
 * Despite having lining present on his bunker, only a select few merchandise items have had it during their course. They were subsequently removed in renovations and to date, items of Thomas with the bunker lining are rare to find.
 * Thomas is the only original member of the current Steam Team not to have handrails across his boiler or side tanks.
 * He has the most appearances in both the TV Series and the Railway Series.
 * To celebrate Easter in 2017, a giant 140kg chocolate sculpture of Thomas was displayed at Kings Cross Station. Made out of real Belgian chocolate, the display piece was sculpted in two-hundred-fifty hours by three master chocolatiers and was surrounded by TrackMaster engines running around. An actor dressed as Sir Topham Hatt was on hand to hand out easter eggs.
 * In episode 5 of Season 3 of Gavin and Stacey a ride on Thomas can be seen in the background of one of the scenes.
 * One of Thomas' television series brass models is currently on display at the Explore the Rails exhibit and is wearing one of his happy face masks.
 * The other brass model from Thomas and the Magic Railroad is currently on display at the Hara Model Railway Museum in Japan and is wearing one of his happy face masks (Previously on display at Nitrogen Studios in Canada)
 * One of the tenth series brass model is currently on display at Drayton Manor and is wearing one of his alternate happy face masks.
 * Four of Thomas' face masks are now owned by Twitter user ThomasTankMerch. One of Thomas' alternative happy face masks was on his television series model when he first arrived in 2009 and was put on display at Drayton Manor, but it was replaced with a replica face. One of his alternate happy face masks was put back on his restored television series model in early 2020.
 * Thomas' normal whistle sound was reused for Edward in Trouble in the Shed, Saved from Scrap (US only), Better Late than Never and Duck and the Slip Coaches, as well as some intermission segments from Series 8. It was also reused for Percy, but only in a intermission segment from Series 8.
 * Casey jr and him are voiced by Matt enterprising michaud,      this is only in tillie and the magic railroad