Thomas (Thomasfan9)

“Thomas is a tank  engine who lives at a Big Station on the Island of Sodor. He's a cheeky little engine, with six small wheels, a short, stumpy funnel, a short, stumpy boiler and a short, stumpy dome.”
 * ―The Narrator describing Thomas[src]

Thomas is a tank engine who works on the North Western Railway. He originally worked as the station pilot at the Big Station, but longed to leave his yard to go out and see the world. After helping to rescue James from a nasty accident, Thomas was rewarded with two new coaches, Annie and Clarabel, and was given the responsibility of running the Ffarquhar Branch Line, where he continues to work to this day.

== Bioghraoh ==

Thomas was built in Brighton, June 15th 1911, the same day as when the Rev. W. Awdry was born, His parents were Reginald Robert Payne (1880-) and Marie (1884-). His brothers were Rhys, Richard, Thomas jr, Dom, Tom, Zoey and Jason. And his sisters were Tina, Mary, Sally and Natalia

He arrived on Sodor in May of 1915. He was not supposed to be on Sodor, but a mix-up in Southern England led to him being sent to Sodor instead of his lazy brother 107, who was sent to the factory in Ireland where Thomas was supposed to work. Sir Topham Hatt chose to keep him because his brother refused to leave. He was used as a station shunter who shunted coaches for engines like Edward, Eagle, Henry and Gordon. Thomas was cheeky at first, and enjoyed teasing Gordon by steaming him up while he was resting at Knapford. Gordon managed to get back at Thomas by leaving the station too quickly before he could be uncoupled, and Thomas learned his lesson about teasing Gordon. But he still found the job very boring and often wanted to see the world and go beyond the yard at Knapford station. He did get two chances for this but each attempt went wrong. He was given the chance to pull his first passenger train when Henry became ill, but left the station too early when he mistook the Guard's whistle for Edward's train for his own, leaving behind his coaches and passengers. Thomas was stopped by a Signalman, and he went back to the station to fetch his train. Thomas was teased relentlessly about this mistake by the other engines, especially Gordon and James, though Edward felt sorry for him and offered to let Thomas take his goods train while he took care of his shunting duties in the yard. Thomas could hardly contain his excitement and was too excited to listen to Edward's warning about the trucks, believing that he could handle them easily. However, as he reached the top of Gordon's Hill, the trucks began pushing Thomas down the line, causing him to run out of control and nearly crashed until he stopped in a siding at Maron. As punishment for not doing his work in the yard, the Fat Controller made Thomas shunt in the yard only, giving Edward the same punishment as him. Upon noticing that Henry had not come out of the sheds to pull his train during a rainy day, Thomas raced back to Tidmouth Sheds and managed to convince a paranoid Henry that the rain would not hurt him, finally helping him get over his fear of the rain. Thomas continued to work in the yard, and over time, he became more skilled at shunting. While taking a break in the yard one day, Thomas saw James being pushed by his trucks. unable to stop due to his burning brake blocks. Thomas bravely chased after James and tried to stop him, but unfortunately James derailed and landed in a field. Thomas rushed back to Knapford and retrieved Judy and Jerome, who helped him re-rail James. As a reward for his heroic actions, he was rewarded his own branch line and given two coaches named Annie and Clarabel.

Thomas loved his branch line dearly, and had many adventures during his first days on the line. He once left his guard behind by accident, and on another occasion he accidentally swallowed a fish in his tank when he took on water from the lake, causing him tremendous pain. During the autumn season, Thomas met Terence and teased him for his caterpillar tracks, though he later came to regret this after he became stuck in the snow and had to be pulled out by him. Thomas later met Bertie and was challenged to a race to Ffarquhar. Although he was behind for most of the race, Thomas managed to overtake Bertie and won.[9]

After a compliment by his driver went to his smokebox, Thomas became conceited, believing that he no longer needed his driver to control him. The next morning, Thomas found himself moving on his own after a careless cleaner had meddled with his controls, but he was unable to stop and crashed into the Ffarquhar stationmaster's house. Thomas was sent to the Works to be mended and received some changes to his design, including a new footplate that was now level from smokebox to bunker. When Thomas returned to the branch line, he began looking after the passenger trains with Daisy.[10]

Thomas was late with his passengers at Spring City, which makes Gordon cross.

In 2023, Thomas was invited by the National Railway Museum to represent the North Western Railway in the Great Railway Show, an event showcasing many famous engines across the UK. Thomas was excited, but the journey to York was shaky; he damaged his front bufferbeam when he hit a crossing gate, and the lorry, he was traveling on was booked for parking illegally. Thomas was repaired when he arrived at the Museum and befriended Green Arrow while he was being mended, though he continued to have bad luck when he ran into a bag thrown onto the line and frightened a small child. Fortunately, Thomas managed to make up for his bad luck when, as he was double-heading a railtour with Green Arrow, he noticed the line up ahead was damaged and stopped the train. As a reward for his actions, Thomas was made an honourary member of the National Railway Museum and received a commemorative plaque.[11] Afterwards, Thomas left York and returned to Sodor.[12]

Thomas was the one who finally found out who the mysterious engine was, which turned out to be Neil.

One winter's night, Thomas was about to go to sleep when he got a nasty case of the "tickles". Next morning, the mystery was solved when his crew discovered a mother cat with six kittens asleep in his cab.

Personality
Thomas is described as being a cheeky, fussy 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's 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 optimistic, idealistic, and altruistic, and has a heart of gold.

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.

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 aging Stroudley E1 class, and were primarily used for heavy shunting and short-distance freight 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, until they were replaced by the BR Class 07 diesel shunters. All of the E2s have been scrapped, with none surviving to 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 leveled out from smokebox to bunker.

Livery
Thomas is painted in the North Western Railway's sky blue livery 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.

Thomas was originally painted black with red lining. He had the initials "LB&SCR" and the number 105 painted on the sides of his tanks and cab respectively in yellow with red lining, and his wheel rims were white.

Season 1

 * Important Jobs
 * Edward's Story (cameo)
 * The Trouble With Thomas
 * James Goes Too Far
 * Ghost Train
 * Thomas, Percy and the Dragon
 * The Mountain Adventure

Season 2

 * Why, Percy, Why?
 * Gordon Shows Off (cameo)
 * Gordon and Spencer
 * Jason To The Rescue
 * Heroes
 * Thomas-In-The-Box
 * Thomas Helps Out

Specials

 * The Adventure Begins
 * The Adventure Continues
 * The Adventure Goes On
 * Thomas And The Great Discovery
 * King of the Railway
 * Thomas And The Christmas Disaster
 * The Magical Railway

Voice Actors

 * Thomasfan8 (Season 1 - Season 2)


 * JakerBraker123 (Season 3 - present)

Television Appearance
Since Thomas is the main character of the show, he has obviously appeared in every season and special. He is voiced by John Hasler in the UK and Joseph May in the US. He was previously voiced by Ben Small (UK) and Martin Sherman (US) in the 13-18th seasons, and Eddie Glen in Thomas and the Magic Railroad.

Trivia
the United States. However, the model was recreated in 2015 for a 70th Anniversary sizzle. LB&SCR locomotive, an A1 named "Poplar" currently preserved by the Kent & East Sussex Railway. The number also represents the 70th Anniversary of the Railway Series. has had only two lead roles in the Engines of Sodor, in Engine Unknown (and even that is debatable as he didn't appear until the second half of Engine Unknown but was the one who found Neil) and Double Muddle. This is so that other engines can get a chance and the show doesn't just focus on him like the TV series.
 * Thomas was the first character in the Railway Series to have a number. According to Brian Sibley, Awdry used the number one because it was the easiest to draw.
 * Thomas was the first character introduced in the television series.
 * Christopher Awdry lost the original Thomas toy when he was in
 * In the TV series, Thomas' LBSC number, 70, was actually carried by a real
 * When Thomasfan8 voices him, Thomas has a London accent.
 * Despite being the title character of the real TV show, Thomas