Teaser poster for the movie, The Adventures of Thomas, which never arrived.
Given the show's long history, it should come to no surprise that some ideas ended up getting sent to the scrap yard.
The show:
- Andrew Lloyd Webber was interested in adapting the Thomas the Tank Engine stories into a musical for children, but then couldn't get the rights. He took the songs he'd written about trains and made Starlight Express.
- A few discarded stories from The Railway Series were planned for adaptation early on, but were canned due to time and budget constraints, or being considered too complex for children's stories (eg. "The Missing Coach" and "Gordon Goes Foreign"). A few other stories that were more loosely adapted are also the result of this (e.g. "Tender Engines", which was originally planned to be closer to the novel's "Tenders For Henry" until budget prevented them from making a full model for the Flying Scotsman; one rumor says the model was complete, but was dropped accidentally and badly damaged, and with time and budget ruling out any repairs, the damaged model was attached to the completed tenders and the episode hastily rewritten).
- "The Missing Coach" is notable in that it was actually filmed, but ultimately canned because Britt Allcroft thought that kids would find the plot of Donald and Douglas switching tenders too complex; it was to be the second season premiere, and was replaced by "Thomas, Percy, and the Coal". Multiple screenshots of the unaired episode still exist, and many YouTube users have made their own reconstructions of what the episode may have looked like using Trainz Simulator or the existing screenshots.
- For "Gordon Goes Foreign", the Foreign Engine was to have been Henry with a different face, paint scheme, and added smoke deflectors. London would have been represented by a redressed version of the Tidmouth set. The story did, however, make its way to the official YouTube channel as part of the Mr. Perkins Story Time series.
- A feature length special was planned that would have involved The Fat Controller loaning the railway to the king of Sodor. For whatever reason, this special was scrapped and Blue Mountain Mystery took its place. It's possible that this idea morphed into King of the Railway.
- The show was originally planned as a BBC kids show, but after only one episode ("Thomas and Gordon", obviously), the show moved to ITV instead.
- The first draft of the Season 13 episode "Splish Splash Splosh" was written with Billy in the role that ultimately went to Charlie (the two are basically interchangeable due to sharing the exact same basis), presumably to sell merchandise of yet another engine.
- The Season 15 episode "Kevin the Steamie" was originally to include appearances by Sir Handel, Peter Sam and Duke. But said appearances never materialized past the storyboard stage, and the narrow-gauge engines did not make their CGI debut until Season 16 (with Duke still being MIA).
- John Lennon was tapped
to narrate the series at one point, but he told the producers to "fuck off". - Devious Diesel was planned to appear in "Edward, Trevor, and the Really Useful Party", going off of a few rare images. His scene was cut from the final product for unknown reasons.
- Series 5:
- A production drawing depicts a tall, curved viaduct over the ravine in "Haunted Henry," while the final episode only mentions the viaduct in passing.
- Derek from "Double Teething Troubles" was originally named "Paxman" after the brand of diesel engines utilized in the Class 17 design.
- Bertram from "Toby's Discovery" was planned to be a tank engine, as evidenced by his 2000 Wooden Railway model. Due to financial difficulties in making a new model, Duke's model was repainted and given Smudger's face.
- Series 6:
- An early concept was to introduce a narrow gauge double-ended Fairlie called Little Giant. Each smokebox had an opposite personality, described as "schizophrenic". A similar concept was eventually utilized for Series 9's Mighty Mac, who were treated more as Conjoined Twins.
- An early concept was to introduce a narrow gauge double-ended Fairlie called Little Giant
- Series 7:
- A storyboard panel for "Emily's New Coaches" shows Emily helping a broken-down Toby instead of Oliver. An edit to the writing shows that even earlier, she was meant to save Percy instead.
- "Rheneas and the Rollercoaster" was originally going to have Peter Sam as the lead character.
- A color reference illustration for Murdoch shows him with a primarily maroon color scheme, rather than orange.
- Arthur was depicted in concept art with his British Railways number on his bunker.
- After Series 6 included 2 Backdoor Pilots for Jack and the Sodor Construction Company, 13 episodes were produced around the time of Series 7. It was going to star The Pack, with Thomas, Percy, and The Fat Controller in supporting roles (Thomas and Percy even had models built to the same scale as the rest of the cast). The show was shelved when HiT Entertainment bought the rights to Thomas, believing it would've competed with HiT's own construction-themed children's show. The completed episodes were released on DVD years later as part of the main series, with many episodes retitled to focus on Thomas and Percy.
- Speaking of Jack and the Sodor Construction Company, there were many scrapped episodes such as "The Importance of Being Patrick", "Bossy Byron", "No Dozer is an Island", and "Kelly's Heroes".
- Series 8:
- The composition of the "Steam Team" in the Retool was, in part, dictated by the condition of certain character models. There was also the desire to include a prominent female cast member after years of criticism about the lack of many female characters with agency on the show. This led to much criticism for Emily, and fan backlash at the exclusion of Duck. The situation is alluded to in the Series 18 episode "Duck and the Slip Coaches", with a running gag of Duck taking Emily's place at the sheds (which some fans felt was too mean-spirited).
- Series 9:
- Originally, Sir Topham Hatt was going to dress as a devil for his Halloween costume when he assigned Thomas to collect the flour in "Flour Power". This was changed to a wizard in the final product, likely to avoid any controversy from religious groups. A photo of the devil costume from the original version can be seen in a magazine, with the caption "Did you know? The Fat Controller likes to dress up. Once he was a devil!" near it.
- Series 12:
- The Great Discovery DVD included a bonus feature showing Pierce Brosnan recording lines for Series 12 episodes. Early press had highlighted Brosnan as the new voice of the show for all regions, but later promotions quietly changed to advertising him as a Special Guest for the movie. Series 12 aired with Michael Angelis and Michael Brandon as narrators in their respective regions.
- During pre-production, an idea was proposed to give Annie & Clarabel CGI faces but have them be grey like most of the other characters. Ultimately, they kept their normal faces for that season as well as when the show transitioned into full CGI the following season.
- There were some plans for further live action/CGI series, including Hero of the Rails. The expense of maintaining the aging models and repairing them after crashes made full-CGI a more attractive option for the producers.
- Gwyneth Paltrow was originally in negotiations to become the narrator for TGD and would have been the first female narrator in the entire franchise's history if she accepted the role, she declined however.
- Series 17:
- Some early tie-ins named Porter "Baldwin", possibly after Baldwin Locomotive Works (his final design is an engine built by H.K. Porter). It may also be a reference to Alec Baldwin.
- During the early development stages of Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure, an idea was considered to have Donald & Douglas return as they still do in the actual film, but with new blue liveries similar to the ones they sported in the Railway Series. However, this was rejected in favor of them keeping their original black liveries as how most remembered them.
- Before Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure was put into production, a different special was proposed for the 70th anniversary year in 2015. This special would have seen the introduction of Vicarstown station brought forward by a year and would have also utilised the tramway featured in the set with three new tram characters being introduced. This special was not greenlit by Mattel, so it was ultimately scrapped.
- Splatter and Dodge were originally to return in Day of the Diesels, but were replaced with Sidney and Paxton, both Class 08 shunters like them. This happened again when they were going to finally return in The Great Race but were replaced with the Mainland Diesels.
- Season 20 was meant to be the last season of the show, but Brenner and Ian were able to negotiate for more seasons...albeit this came with the caveat of the eventual transition to Big World! Big Adventures!.
- Season 21 was originally going to be 26 episodes, but the delayed productions of the 19th and 20th seasons due to the fast-tracking of The Adventure Begins into Arc Productions' schedule as well as the announcement of Big World, Big Adventures and the funds required to produce it meant that 8 episodes had to be cut from the season. While it is unknown how these episodes would've played out, it is known that Rosie, who was meant to become more of an Ascended Extra, had her role severely downgraded and Bulgy lost out on having an episode focused on him. However, it can be assumed that some of the episodes have since seen the light of day across the 22nd and 23rd seasons
- New Steam Team member Rebecca was originally going to be named Miranda, as revealed by artwork of her prototype liveries.
- An early synopsis on Channel 5 for the episode "Cyclone Thomas" indicates that Isla was originally called Ruby at one point, as it refers to her as such.
- The fantasy sequence in "Hunt the Truck" had to be changed for the final episode as the original was considered "too depressing".
- George was originally to appear in the episode "Free the Roads". However, the final episode has Max & Monty in his place as the episode's writer Michael White thought they were good choices for causing Bulgy to lose control.
- The episodes "Percy's Promise" and "Time for Trouble" (originally Double Header from the Railway Series) were originally planned to be a part of Season 2, but was pushed to Season 3.
- According to Andrew Brenner, he had wanted BoCo and Hank to return in Season 22, but Mattel wanted more female characters, so they were rejected.
- When the show came to the US, Edward was going to be a girl named Alice there. However, he stayed male when the show officially debuted in America.
- David Menkin (the voice of Jack and Porter in the US dub) was offered the chance to voice Thomas in said dub following Martin Sherman's departure from the cast; however, he declined in order to support Sherman's decision. Sherman admitted in an interview in 2020 that he regrets this and thought Menkin would've done a great job.
- The show's Continuity Reboot was going to be the 25th series, in which Thomas would visit Japan, before it was confirmed to be another show in January 2021, due to the failure of the Big World! Big Adventures! seasons and decreasing toy sales.
- Another episode planned for the original series' 25th season would have had Thomas seeing a replica of H.G. Wells' time machine at the science-fiction exhibit at Tidmouth Museum and fantasize about travelling through time. Had it been produced, this episode was intended to feature the original Gauge 1 model of Thomas used in the first series as part of a fantasy sequence, marking the first appearance of it since Season 11's "Thomas and the Stinky Cheese". Like the Japan episodes mentioned above, this was cancelled and replaced with All Engines Go! due to the failure of Big World! Big Adventures! and decreasing toy sales.
- Shane Acker of 9 fame was to direct a Darker and Edgier movie set during World War II, The Adventures of Thomas. It never materialized. However, there is another feature film in development, to be directed by Marc Forster.
- Allegedly, the stories around the Culdee Fell railway were intended to be adapted, possibly for season 5 or 6. This is obvious in that the ERTL and Wooden Railway toylines actually did have the rights to include the Culdee Fell engines. However, due to Creative Differences between the Awdrys, Britt planning for The Movie, and the engines themselves being somewhat problematic* they never made it in. However, supplementary material does suggest that the Culdee Fell railway is on Sodor somewhere... The idea was allegedly revisited for the CGI series at one point following the introduction of the miniature engines, to the point that one rerelease of the Take-n-Play notably had a CGI render of Culdee, but the idea was scrapped again due to the Big World! Big Adventures! Retool.
- Sometime around 2013, Patrick the Cement Mixer was considered to be reintroduced into the series and to be voiced by Ardal O'Hanlon. However, O'Hanlon turned down the role and Patrick remained a One-Shot Character.
Merchandise:
- The ERTL line was discontinued in 2001 in the US in favor of the Take-Along Thomas line, but it lasted three years longer in the UK. Agnes, Jemima, The Truck, the Sodor Slurry Tanker, and Mike were planned to be released for the line (and prototypes of them have even surfaced online), but they got cancelled due to the line ending in favor of Take-Along.
- A variant of the Nabi SE themed after the series was to be released by Mattel, in similar vein to the American Girl, Barbie and Hot Wheels editions, as evidenced by this FCC approval page and unused assets hidden within the Nabi Mode launcher. For whatever reason this appears to have been shelved, as no further mention of it was made on either the Thomas and Friends or Nabi websites. It is likely that the scheduled release may have been marred by licensing issues, but this isn't confirmed. It is however possible to somewhat reactivate the Thomas and Friends theme by editing relevant values in build.prop, though some elements such as shortcuts to videos and other Thomas-related media are missing.
- Many characters were planned to be released for the Thomas Wood line, such as Rocky, Connor, Gator, Ferdinand, and the Flying Scotsman, all of which were previously released in Wooden Railway form, as well as newcomers such as Frankie and Beau. Several new sets were planned as well, including one involving a bank robbery, one involving an alligator farm, one involving a carnival, and one involving ice skating. However, the Thomas Wood line's negative reception and poor sales led to the line ending in mid-2021 and the engines and sets being cancelled, while Thomas Wooden Railway was re-introduced in a redesigned form the following year.
- Interactive Learning Railway was a short-lived merchandise line produced by Learning Curve, which appeared to be a combination of Wooden Railway and Take-Along, having the track shapes and proportions of the former, but the appearance of the latter. The engines were die-cast and had smart magnets that could connect either way, the track was plastic, and the destinations used special sensors to recognize specific engines. This line was sold at Target from late 2004 to early 2005, and six engines were released in it; Thomas, Percy, James, Gordon, Henry, and Toby. Edward, Emily, Salty, and Spencer were also planned for the line, but it was discontinued before they could be released.
- Daisy was planned to have her own model in the Trackmaster range, but it was never produced. According to the HiT toy company's customer service, the reason for this is because the company couldn't decide whether or not Daisy should have some rolling stock to pull, as at the time, she never pulled any rolling stock.
- LEGO Ideas user KaijuBuildz had proposed a LEGO system Thomas as part of the LEGO Ideas initiative. While the project was popular and was able to quickly get the 10.000 supporters necessary to be put into the review process, LEGO ultimately rejected the set for unknown reasons, although it is very likely because of the fact Mattel owns Mega Bloks/Mega Construx, LEGO's major competitor in the market, and so the rejection would have been due to competition reasons.
- According to early online descriptions, the Thomas Wooden Railway 60th Anniversary Set was going to be based on "Thomas and Gordon"/"Thomas Gets Tricked" and would have featured Thomas, Gordon, a Water Tower, a Special Engine Shed, a 37" x 20" track layout with accessories, and a "Thomas and Gordon" story card. The final product was instead based on "Thomas and the Guard/Thomas and the Conductor" and featured Thomas, Annie, Clarabel, Henry, the Stop and Go Station, the Knapford Covered Bridge, Tidmouth Station, a 37" x 20" track layout with accessories, and a "Thomas and the Branch Line" story card.
- In 1993, video game adaptations were released for the SNES and Sega Genesis by THQ, each of which had a different collection of mini-games. The SNES version had sliding and jigsaw puzzles, setting switches, racing Bertie, Percy, and James, fixing the tracks, a quiz game, and read-along stories based on "Thomas and the Breakdown Train", "Thomas and Bertie's Great Race", and "Thomas, Percy and the Mail Train", while the Genesis version had cargo delivery, racing, exploration, coloring pictures, and five playable engines; Thomas, James, Percy, Toby, and Duck. A NES game was also planned to be released, and it would have been an eight-bit version of the SNES game, having an 8-bit soundtrack and lacking the voice samples of its 16-bit cousin. For unknown reasons, the game was never officially released, but a ROM of it has been leaked in March 2007.
