Thomas

Thomas is a blue (formerly green in the television series) tank engine who works on the North Western Railway. He worked as the station pilot at the big station, while having greater ambitions. After helping to rescue James from a nasty accident, Thomas was rewarded with two new coaches, Annie and Clarabel, and was tasked with running the Ffarquhar Branch Line, where he works to this day. Aside from branch line work, Thomas performs several jobs on the railway not restricted to Ffarquhar Station, namely pulling passenger and goods trains and the occasional shunting and odd jobs around Sodor, including small errands. Thomas also pulls the post train alongside Percy when multiple engines are required, and he sometimes travels to railways in foreign countries.

Personality
Thomas is described as being a cheeky engine. He often gets into scrapes, usually by being over-eager to do things best left to bigger and more sensible engines. But clouds never last long in Thomas' life and he is soon bustling about again, playing his part in the yard and on his very own branch line, of which he is extremely proud.

He loves teasing the others, especially the bigger engines, such as Gordon and on occasion brags about his superiority, but is always brought down to earth in due course by anyone willing to correct him, especially the Fat Controller and his two coaches, Annie and Clarabel. If Thomas has one major character flaw, it is that he is forgetful and rather impatient. However, he is also cheerful, optimistic, idealistic, altruistic, kind-hearted, supportive and helpful.

A friend to all engines and a popular member of the Fat Controller’s railway, Thomas is No.1 and does his best every day to live up to that through helping his friends and those that he cares about. He lives to be a Really Useful Engine and encourages everyone else to do the same. He likes to be better than James and Bertie in races. He can, however, also get annoyed about being useful such as the time when Rosie followed him around because she idolized and loved him so much.

Because of his popularity amongst his fellow engines and the people of the railway, Thomas often likes to view himself as a leader to the other engines. He is quick to take action when necessary and - despite the dangers or fears he might experience - has a strong sense of bravery and will never leave any of his friends behind, even despite any previous conflicts. Because of this, the other engines often follow in his tracks. However, he can feel jealous or threatened if he feels a newer tank engine is trying to replace him, as shown with Stanley and Ryan. But in the end, Thomas is always willing to make amends with those whom he previously distrusted, proving his leadership.

Thomas is infamous to the other engines for his dislike of wearing a snowplough, often claiming his to be heavy and uncomfortable. On numerous occasions, he has shown he has no problems with doing anything to avoid wearing one, from banging it around to leaving it in disrepair and leaving it to be buried by snow. He does always get his comeuppance for these deeds, however, and knows that having a snowplough is important in bad snowy weather. He tolerates wearing a plough much better in the present day, but Thomas will still groan about it if given the chance, particularly when other engines make fun of him for this.

While most of the other engines and especially Annie and Clarabel tolerate his slight ego to a bare minimum, Thomas has often found himself going too far, driving away even close friends such as Percy, Toby, and even Edward. When these occasions happen, Thomas is very good at luring back friends when motivated, often pulling through his personal distastes to help others out and rekindle friendships.

Despite all this, he does have his pride and will sometimes take wrong advice at the wrong time - such as from Sailor John or Ace, as well as refusing help even when he needs it. Thomas also highly despises the smell of fish, and as such, when he once had the job of delivering fish, he wanted to finish quickly to avoid the smell, and ignored instructions, causing confusion and delay doing so. His dislike of fish is most prominent in the later model series, and less prominent in the earlier model series and the CGI series.

In other cases, Thomas can be highly curious and positive, with slight hints of scepticism, stubbornness, and forgetfulness, including tendencies to daydream. He is also however depicted with a subtle tone of wisdom, helping engines like Sonny and Rajiv be really useful, despite their difficulties or insecurities in the past. Thomas also has a high perspective on odd objects or people, quickly growing suspicious upon seeing the tiger hunters' hidden cage, Diesel 10's plans to take over the railway of steam engines with his fellow diesels and Baz and Bernie's whispering. Backing up his perception is a very high sense of creativity, allowing him to quickly adapt to a tricky situation.

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.

Thomas has several major differences from the original E2 class. He is much shorter in length than his original basis (making his water tanks shorter as well), he has two extra windows on the sides of his cab, he does not have the ladders near his front buffer beam, his bunker is notably longer and he has wheel splashers, something the original E2 class lacked. In the 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. Reginald Payne also illustrated Thomas without the additional cab side window and also gave him a southern railway-style smokebox saddle and lowered his front bufferbeam. These features were removed when C. Reginald Dalby re-illustrated the book.

The grey tank engine is also based on an LB&SCR Class E2 and has the same modifications as Thomas.

Livery
In The Railway Series, Thomas is shown to be a dark blue color with a number 1 in deep yellow on his side tanks. He has red lining along his tanks and wheel covers. In the earlier stories, he is illustrated to be a bright blue, reminiscent of the TV show.

In the television series, Thomas is painted in NWR cerulean with red and yellow lining. His number 1 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 formerly painted teal green with white lining. His company's initials, LBSC were painted on the sides of his tank and his number 70 was painted on the sides of his cab, both in yellow with red lining. His wheel rims were painted white. In real life, the E2s were painted in either LB&SCR Goods Black, with at least 3 members of the class confirmed to have been painted in the LB&SCR Umber Livery at some point in their career, Southern Railway Maunsell Green, Southern Railway Black, or BR Goods Black with its British Railways number painted on either the coal bunker or the side tanks.

In the first three series of the television series, Thomas had red lining on the back of his coal bunker, but during the production of the third series episode, All at Sea, the lining was removed. This also happened in The Railway Series once Clive Spong took over as illustrator. The lining was reapplied in The Adventure Begins.

Television Series

 * Season 1 - The Trouble With Trucks, Stepney's Problem, Thumper Saves the Day (cameo), A Scottish Tale (mentioned, cameo), Toby and the New Engine, The Trouble With Spencer (cameo), Lorry Takes A Tumble (cameo), Duties of The Diesels (cameo), Wilbert to the Rescue, Wilbert and Tigermoth (cameo), Frank and the Trucks (cameo), Wilbert, Frank, and the Milk (cameo), Thomas' 4th of July, Gordon Plays a Trick and Murdoch and the Express (cameo)
 * Season 2 - Skarloey & Rheneas Depart For Crewe (cameo), A Special Visitor, James' Tender Trouble (cameo), A Flying Surprise (cameo), Twin Trouble, Jealous James (cameo), Old Slow Coach (does not speak), The Flying Scotsman Returns, Save Sir Topham Hatt, Thomas Helps a Friend, Murdoch's New Coach (cameo) and Disaster on Sodor
 * Season 3 - Double Trouble (cameo), Hideous Henry, George the Steamroller, Cranky's Delivery (does not speak), Rusty Rocks the Railway (cameo), Diesel's Dilemma, New Engine Fever (mentioned, cameo), Toby's New Cowcatchers, Mike's Ice Cream Party (cameo), Clumsy Culdee (cameo), Rickety's Revenge (does not speak), S.C. Ruffey and the Foolish Freight Cars (cameo), Trouble on the Track, Donald Visits the Scrapyard and Frank and Fred the Orange Coal Car (cameo)
 * Season 4 - All For One and One For James (cameo), Catherine's Story (cameo), Duncan and the Passengers (cameo), Sir Handel and the Brakevan (does not speak) and Slippery Rails (cameo)
 * Season 5 - TBA
 * Season 6 - TBA
 * Season 7 - TBA
 * Season 8 - TBA
 * Season 9 - Tender Bender
 * Season 10 - TBA
 * Season 11 - Fergus' Day Off (cameo), Stepney and the Bluebell Branchline (cameo), Around the Railyard in 64 Seconds (cameo), The Great Western Way (cameo), Big City Rumor, Station Situation (cameo), Duncan in the Dumps (cameo), Just Duck's Luck, Hank and the Hatt St Crossing (cameo), Spencer Goes Too Far, Holly Jolly Molly, Trembling Trevor (cameo), Old Square Wheels (cameo), Wooden Brakes (cameo) and BoCo and the Cocoa
 * Season 12 - Greetings, Montague!, Stafford's Electric Slide (cameo), Scottish Blues] (cameo), [[The Importance of Being Billy, Truckus Ruckus (cameo), The Mavis Matrix (cameo), Gordon's Last Hurrah, Percy Gets a Promotion, Henry's Handcar Havoc (cameo), Rheneas and the Risky Rendezvous (cameo), If the Dome Fits, Bulgy Takes the High Road, The Mystery Train, Sidney the Renegade and Vicarstown Takedown
 * Season 13 - Duck and the Quack Attack, It's Good To Be Belle (cameo), Victor's Loco Motives, Bert's Arlesdale Fail (cameo), The Duke of Hazard (cameo), Rust or Bust (cameo), Go Boldly, Culdee, Oliver's Fossil Fright (cameo), Who Stole the Coal? (cameo), Sam I Am (cameo), Toad Gets Towed (cameo), Ivo Hugh's Day at the Zoo (cameo), Sideplates and Skirmishes (cameo), Hector and Logan's Hot Pursuit (cameo) and How Gator Stole Christmas
 * Season 14 - Millie's Castle Hassle (cameo), Henry Gets Stumped (cameo), Quarry Quest (cameo), Double-Decker-Wrecker (cameo), Freddie at the Ready (cameo), Hiro and the Heat Wave, Cabless Companions (cameo), Furious George, Hugo Takes Flight (cameo), Merlin the Magical Engine (cameo), Dirty 'Arry (does not speak), James in a Jam, S.C. Ruffey's Sweet Tooth, Flat Stanley and Hatt Trick
 * Season 15 - Roundhouse Roulette, Flash Gordon (cameo), Philip Finds a Friend (cameo), Harvey's Happy Accident (cameo), Tyrannical Rex (cameo), The Maron Station Makeover, Toby's Turntable Fable (cameo), For Whom The Belle Tolls (cameo), Nightmare on Sodor, Jock Beats the Clock (cameo), The Crosby Coalition (cameo), Polar Express Coming Through! (cameo), Ice Ice Daisy, The Island of Misfit Engines and A Christmas Caroline
 * Season 16 - Sweet Sixteen (cameo), Bulstrode Barges In (cameo), Henry's Hill (cameo), Marion Had a Little Lamb (does not speak), Bye Bye Bertie, Luke Dukes It Out (cameo), Painting the Rosie's Red (does not speak), Bad News Bear (cameo), Bowler Strikes Again, Paxman Pulls Through, Victor and Victoria (cameo), Knock it Off, Stanley (cameo), Throw Topham from the Train, Ace in the Hole and Finding Lorry
 * Season 17 - Unidentified Flying Scotsman (does not speak), Tender Love and Care (cameo), Dustin the Really Useless Engine (does not speak), Bold Slow Coach (does not speak), Hard to Handel (cameo), Sidney Transplant (cameo), Wellsworth the Wait (cameo), Big Trouble on the Little Western (cameo), Oliver Confusion (cameo), Diesel Gets the Bronze, James and the Giant Screech, Toby, Or Not Toby, Thomas' Crown Affair, Rocked by a Hurricane and Para-Norman Activity

Specials
Thomas has also appeared in many Discussions.
 * Thomas and the Storm
 * Lady the Lost Engine
 * The Strange Case of Splatter and Dodge
 * Battle of the Branchlines
 * The Legend of Diesel 10
 * Sodor's Last Stand
 * Hiro's Origins
 * Claw of the Law
 * Oliver's Eleven
 * Saving Pirate Ryan

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 series era, Thomas had three different facial expressions (frustrated, livid and jovial) that were not used on-screen. His unused second series jovial face, however, was designed in The Great Festival Adventure game, where Thomas teased Gordon on the turntable.
 * According to Steve Asquith, the reason two of Thomas' angry expressions were left unused is because they were unsuitable for Thomas as he never has anger issues all the time on-screen.
 * 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, created by model maker Jeremy King, which was originally made as a joke to David Mitton. Robert Gauld-Galliers recalls Mitton coming onto the set at the start of the day, picking up Thomas's eye transmitter, glancing at the monitor, and promptly falling over in laughter.
 * 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.
 * Thomas and James are the only engines to have two different colours in The Adventure Begins.
 * 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.
 * As Thomas is shorter than an actual E2, this means his tanks are smaller as well. His coal bunker is also notably bigger.
 * A Bachmann G scale model of Thomas, wearing the face from the HO scale model, was featured in the Marvel 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 Fergus and 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.
 * Thomas' whistle from Thomas, You're the Leader was previously heard in most parts of the official website from 2005.
 * As the titled protagonist, Thomas has had the most appearances in the TV Series.
 * Didi Conn has said that Thomas was her favorite engine.
 * To celebrate Easter in 2017, a giant 140 kg 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 of 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. One of his alternate happy face masks was on his television series model when he first arrived in 2009 and was put on display at the Discover Thomas & Friends Exhibition, 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.
 * Four of Thomas' face masks are now owned by Twitter user ThomasTankMerch.
 * A TrackMaster Thomas appeared in the 1st Series finale of the DC streaming Service exclusive show, Titans.
 * Thomas was the very first character onscreen to have a permanent lamp, though despite it being a key part of his design, some merchandise lines (the non-talking wooden and diecast ranges, early Hornby models, late 2011-early 2012 TrackMaster and numerous smaller toylines) omit the lamp completely.