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* SpotlightHog: Thomas, who reached near CreatorsPet levels from Season 8.
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* CreatorBacklash: While the Awdrys often cooperated with the show on early seasons, and even wrote some new novels for extra material, Rev Awdry was rather critical of it's attempts at original stories due to their lack of realism towards railways, most infamously "Henry's Forest". Christopher Awdry also disliked some of his newer stories to contribute to the show, as well as being forced to make more Thomas-centric stories to tie in on it's main character.
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* CreatorBacklash: While the Awdrys often cooperated with the show on early seasons, and even wrote some new novels for extra material, Rev Awdry was rather critical of it's its attempts at original stories due to their lack of realism towards railways, most infamously "Henry's Forest". Christopher Awdry also disliked some of his newer stories to contribute to the show, as well as being forced to make more Thomas-centric stories to tie in on it's main character.
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* SorcerersApprenticePlot: Done frequently whenever an engine makes a slight alteration to their work run, or is given the job of another more experienced one. Naturally they usually have to face the annoyance of the Fat Controller afterwards.
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* ThemeTuneAbandonment: Due to the original composers resigning, the theme tune was replaced with the Engine Roll Call in Season Eight onwards. The rest of the original soundtrack was also replaced.
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* ThemeTuneAbandonment: ThemeMusicAbandonment: Due to the original composers resigning, the theme tune was replaced with the Engine Roll Call in Season Eight onwards. The rest of the original soundtrack was also replaced.
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* ThemeTuneAbandonment: Due to the original composers resigning, the theme tune was replaced with the Engine Roll Call in Season Eight onwards. The rest of the original soundtrack was also replaced.
** ThemeTuneCameo: It reappears as the calliope's music in "Percy And The Calliope" however.
** ThemeTuneCameo: It reappears as the calliope's music in "Percy And The Calliope" however.
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* CreatorBacklash: While the Awdrys often cooperated with the show on early seasons, and even wrote some new novels for extra material, Rev Awdry was rather critical of it's attempts at original stories due to their lack of realism towards railways, most infamously "Henry's Forest". Christopher Awdry also disliked some of his newer stories to contribute to the show, as well as being forced to make more Thomas-centric stories to tie in on it's main character.
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* ThePeteBest: George Carlin joked about this after he replaced Ringo Starr.
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* KarmaHoudini: The adapatation of "Old Iron" neglects to mention the fate of the two boys who meddled with James' controls and caused him to run off out of control, whethers in the book they are caught by the police and [[ValuesDissonance "soundly walloped"]] by their fathers.
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** Don't throw rocks at trains, or they might sneeze at you.
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** Don't throw rocks at trains, or they might sneeze '''boiling hot steam''' at you.
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* AIIsACrapshoot: These trains have personality issues.[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCzODUHQSE4 Not to mention the ridiculous amounts of crashes that they seem to get into.]] The Island of Sodor's insurance companies must be pretty efficient.
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* AIIsACrapshoot: These trains have personality issues.[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCzODUHQSE4 Not to mention the ridiculous amounts of crashes that they seem to get into.]] The Island of Sodor's insurance companies must be pretty efficient.into. (See Incompetence Inc below)
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* IncompetenceInc: With all of the crashes and runaways on Sodor, how does the railway stay in business? The logging company on Misty Island, too, which probably makes absolutely no profit since cranes keep throwing logs into the river.
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* IncompetenceInc: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCzODUHQSE4 With all of the crashes and runaways on Sodor, Sodor,]] how does the railway stay in business? The logging company on Misty Island, too, which probably makes absolutely no profit since cranes keep throwing logs into the river.
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* AIIsACrapshoot: These trains have personality issues.
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* AIIsACrapshoot: These trains have personality issues.[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCzODUHQSE4 Not to mention the ridiculous amounts of crashes that they seem to get into.]] The Island of Sodor's insurance companies must be pretty efficient.
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** SanityBall: Though it's not rare for some of the younger, more reckless engines to sometimes show moments of clarity as well. Thomas and Percy in particular switch irratically between being arrogant dimwits or kind natured voices of reason.
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* AscendedExtra: Some recurring engines like Diesel only appeared in a handful of stories from TheRailwaySeries.
* BreakoutCharacter: Thomas of course, who was only as prominant as most other recurring engines in the books.
** A few other trucks are shown dismantled in episodes. Also the show kept in S.C. Ruffey's destruction from the novels, but had him repaired rather than scrapped.
* LighterAndSofter: The later HiT episodes, combined with a bit of DenserAndWackier. Most of the realism is thrown out the window, even the nastiest of engines tend to show a redeeming side, and scrapping is refered to a lot less (or when it is, is made clear that Sir Topham has no interest in it whatsoever).
* LovableCoward: Toby in later seasons. Percy and Henry sometimes get in on it too.
* MrViceGuy: Almost ''every'' engine, particularly in later seasons, is hard working and effecient, but often causes great problems due to a defining flaw (eg. Thomas' poor attention, James' arrogance, Toby's cowardice, Percy's naivete). Most of their spotlight episodes revolve around them overcoming their flaws to be "really useful", while in supporting roles they often act as more capable [[TheStraightMan Straight Men]].
** A lot of the wiser more rashional engines such as Edward and Toby are given more prominant flaws and moments of incompetence in later episodes.
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* SparedByTheAdaptation: In the original novels Bulgy was last seen acting into a chicken coop. In the show however, he is redeemed and converted back into a working bus.
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* SparedByTheAdaptation: S.C. Ruffey was scrapped in the novels after being dismanteled by Oliver. In the show he is repaired and appears in later episodes.
** In the original novels Bulgy was last seen acting into a chicken coop. In the show however, he is redeemed and converted back into a working bus.
** In the original novels Bulgy was last seen acting into a chicken coop. In the show however, he is redeemed and converted back into a working bus.
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* ADogNamedDog: A diesel named Diesel (sometimes called "Devious Diesel").
** Diesel 10 to a lesser extent.
** Diesel 10 to a lesser extent.
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* NamesTheSame: In the UK, Season 2 and Season 11 both had unrelated episodes titled "Dirty Work." The former, taken from the Railway Series' ''Duck and The Diesel Engine'', was re-titled "Diesel's Devious Deed" in the US.
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* NamesTheSame: In the UK, Season 2 and Season 11 both had unrelated episodes titled "Dirty Work." The Work," but in the US, the former, taken from the Railway Series' ''Duck and The Diesel Engine'', was re-titled "Diesel's Devious Deed" in Deed." The US is not immune to this, however, as it had a Season 1 episode called "Thomas Saves the US.Day" (its British title was "Thomas and the Breakdown Train") and a Season 8 episode also called "Thomas Saves the Day."
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* NamesTheSame: In the UK, Season 2 and Season 11 both had unrelated episodes titled "Dirty Work." The former, taken from the Railway Series' ''Duck and The Diesel Engine'', was re-titled "Diesel's Devious Deed" in the US.
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Just accidentally a word.
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* AscendedFridgeHorror: The earlier storlines, like "Saved From Scrap," implied, but did not show, that characters could scrapped when they could no longer work. Later, however, some of the books/episodes, like "Stepney the Bluebell Engine" and "Twin Engines" got absolutely ''viscious'' with this concept, after the Reverend decided to do a TakeThat against [[NationalRail BR's]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1955_Modernisation_Plan#The_Modernisation_Plan Modernization Plan.]] The way the mass scrapping is portrayed, especially in the books, sometimes goes beyond FantasticRacism and implies that the characters think of it more like genocide.
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* AscendedFridgeHorror: The earlier storlines, like "Saved From Scrap," implied, but did not show, that characters could be scrapped when they could no longer work. Later, however, some of the books/episodes, like "Stepney the Bluebell Engine" and "Twin Engines" got absolutely ''viscious'' with this concept, after the Reverend decided to do a TakeThat against [[NationalRail BR's]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1955_Modernisation_Plan#The_Modernisation_Plan Modernization Plan.]] The way the mass scrapping is portrayed, especially in the books, sometimes goes beyond FantasticRacism and implies that the characters think of it more like genocide.
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A Worldwide Punomenon cleanup
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* TearOffYourFace: This is how one of the Scottish Twins actually kills the Spiteful Brakevan (a bullying caboose) at the end of the episode "Brake Van", by ramming into him [[AWorldwidePunomenon face-on]], smashing the caboose to bits, and tearing off his face.
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* TearOffYourFace: This is how one of the Scottish Twins actually kills the Spiteful Brakevan (a bullying caboose) at the end of the episode "Brake Van", by ramming into him [[AWorldwidePunomenon [[IncrediblyLamePun face-on]], smashing the caboose to bits, and tearing off his face.
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* ThemeTuneExtended: The original theme tune is in fact a mere snippet from the original[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5SMxYT8FHo two minute long track]].
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* SavedByTheAdaptation: Non lethal example. In the original novels Bulgy was last seen acting into a chicken coop. In the show however, he is redeemed and converted back into a working bus.
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* SparedByTheAdaptation: In the original novels Bulgy was last seen acting into a chicken coop. In the show however, he is redeemed and converted back into a working bus.
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* SavedByTheAdaptation: Non lethal example. In the original novels Bulgy was last seen acting into a chicken coop. In the show however, he is redeemed and converted back into a working bus.
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* MerchandiseDriven: Arguably; some characters are only in one episode and seem to exist purely for merchandise reasons. The worst case of this is currently ''Day of the Diesels''. Three new characters - Norman, Paxton and Sidney - are introduced and marketed...and none of them have a single line of dialog, only seen creeping around in the background.
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* MerchandiseDriven: Arguably; some characters are only in one episode and seem to exist purely for merchandise reasons. The worst case of this is currently ''Day of the Diesels''. Three new characters - Norman, Paxton and Sidney - are introduced and marketed...and none of them have a single line of dialog, only seen creeping around in the background. A few characters from ''TheRailwaySeries'' that were never adapted into the show have also made it onto ''Thomas And Friends'' merchandise.
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* NotSoAboveItAll: A few episodes depict a day in the life of Sir Topham Hatt, which often end disasterously with him getting into mishaps and vehicle related blunders he is constantly scolding the engines for.
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trope renamed at TRS
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* {{Nakama}}: The main 'Steam Team' considers themselves one.
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* TrueCompanions: The main 'Steam Team' considers themselves this.
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* AlternativeForeignThemeSong: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g75YK_yIxNM This]] is the theme song in Japan.
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* FamilyUnfriendlyDeath: The Spiteful Break Van, who was smashed to pieces by Douglas, and S.C Ruffey that Oliver broke apart (though he was rebuilt). For FridgeHorror, there are scrapyards.
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* OneMarioLimit: The name "Thomas" is forever linked with the this series' title character.
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* OneMarioLimit: The name "Thomas" is forever linked with the this series' title character.
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* OneMarioLimit: The name "Thomas" is forever linked with the this series' title character.
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moral dissonance means the character violating their own morals, not the morals of the audience
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* CrapsaccharineWorld: An [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation altenate inrerpretation]].Imagine this- as a locomotive, you live in a world where it's nearly impossible to leave a set line of rails (and for those who do attempt this the results are almost always very, very bad), you deal with the JerkAss trucks every day, the overtaking diesel engines, and absolutely everything is your fault. If you're late? They forget that you're being driven by people and blame you. If you crash? They usually blame you for that too and apparently forget that you're alive and could actually be in pain. If your life is threatened, see MoralDissonance below. All this leads to the fact that you're called "useful." Think about the fact that if you're not "a very useful engine" it means being scrapped, AKA, death. You work for a job where you can be executed for uselessness. Enjoy your day.
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* CrapsaccharineWorld: An [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation altenate inrerpretation]].Imagine this- as a locomotive, you live in a world where it's nearly impossible to leave a set line of rails (and for those who do attempt this the results are almost always very, very bad), you deal with the JerkAss trucks every day, the overtaking diesel engines, and absolutely everything is your fault. If you're late? They forget that you're being driven by people and blame you. If you crash? They usually blame you for that too and apparently forget that you're alive and could actually be in pain. If your life is threatened, see MoralDissonance below. All this leads to the fact that you're called "useful." Think about the fact that if you're not "a very useful engine" it means being scrapped, AKA, death. You work for a job where you can be executed for uselessness. Enjoy your day.
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* MoralDissonance: In one story, Stepney gets stranded at the steelworks because his driver takes on a job without permission and when they get lost there's a faulty signal. Bert and 'Arry decide to melt him down for scrap and are only stoppd by the Fat Controller's intervention. And then ''Stepney'' gets chewed out for not following orders, but [[KarmaHoudini not a word is said to the two engines essentially caught redhanded in a murder attempt]].
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''Thomas The Tank Engine and Friends'', now known as ''Thomas and Friends'', is a British series first broadcast in 1984. It began life as ''TheRailwaySeries'', a series of books about a group of [[CoolTrain talking steam engines]] living on the Island of Sodor and the adventures they have under the guardianship of the Fat Controller (Sir Topham Hatt). The books were originally written by the Reverend Wilbert Awdry; his son Christopher now has the job. There is also a widely-available series of books based on TV episodes.
The books were adapted for British television by Britt Allcroft in 1984. The first four series followed the books, but since Series 5 the show has gone in a completely different direction, so much so that the show and books are almost unrecognisable to each other. In the US, the stories were originally [[FramingDevice encapsulated]] into the live-action PBS show ''ShiningTimeStation''; later series are DirectToVideo.
Thomas and his friends are given a voice by a {{Narrator}}, with many of the stories being renarrated for North American audiences. These narrators include:
UK:
* [[TheBeatles Ringo Starr]]: 1-2.
* Michael Angelis: 3 and onward.
* [[JamesBond Pierce Brosnan]]: ''The Great Discovery''.
North America:
* Ringo Starr: 1-2.
* GeorgeCarlin: 3-4, renarrated 1-2.
* Alec Baldwin: 5-6.
* Michael Brandon: 7 and onward.
* Pierce Brosnan: ''The Great Discovery''.
In addition - long before the series was televised - some of the stories were narrated by Johnny Morris (a children's television presenter best remembered for narrating and voicing the animals for Animal Magic). The stories were released in the 1960s on 45rpm records under the Delyse label.
Oddly enough, care to take a guess at the group of children that favours ''Thomas'' above all other kids' shows? ''Autistic children.'' People with autism can be extremely sensitive to sensory input, but the visuals in ''Thomas'' are largely static - unless the trains are traveling, the only things moving are their eyes and the occasional smoke. Even when the trains ''do'' travel, it's not a particularly "busy" visual. Furthermore, the static, expressive faces help children with autism (or the milder Asperger's syndrome) to understand expressions and their connection to emotions. And the narration approach (as opposed to individual voices) also seems to help.
Here is a [[Characters/ThomasTheTankEngine list of all the main characters]] for more information.
----
!!The series includes:
* TheAce: Stanley and Spencer.
* AchievementsInIgnorance: In season 15, "Firey Flynn". Thomas's firebox catches on fire. Let that sink in for the moment.
* AchillesInHisTent: ''The Sad Story of Henry''.
* AcquiredSituationalNarcissism: Thomas becomes a bit stuck-up after he gets his branchline in season 1.
* AesopAmnesia: Especially in the later seasons, with Thomas, James and Duncan being the worst offenders.
* AIIsACrapshoot: These trains have personality issues.
* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: Harvey's crane, Peter Sam's special funnel, Sir Handel's wheels--although these make him egotistical until the events of "Steam Roller".
* AllThereInTheManual: The books ''The Island of Sodor: Its People, History and Railways'', ''Sodor: Reading Between the Lines'' and ''The Thomas the Tank Engine Man'' explain between them pretty much everything about the early series.
* AlwaysChaoticEvil: Most of Sodor's freight cars, along with any engine who actually gets along with them.
* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: Stanley in ''Thomas & The Great Discovery''. Also Spencer and City of Truro for Gordon.
* AnachronismStew: The current series is set in modern times, yet uses engines from different time periods and locations on Sodor. A TruthInTelevision, since most modern steam railways use engines from different time periods and locations.
* AnAesop: including, but not limited to:
** BeYourself
** ThePowerOfFriendship
** [[TruthInTelevision Never be cocky or become careless around heavy machinery and freight cars.]]
** TeamSpirit: Particularly in the later series.
** BrokenAesop: Sadly, very often. The worst offender may be the recent episode "The Biggest Present of All". Thomas is given the task of telling the other engines about a welcome party for Hiro at the Big Station, but Thomas thinks finding Hiro a welcome present would be more fun instead. He tells all his friends he's looking for a gift, but never tells them about the party. Later, he finds that Hiro is alone at the station, waiting for guests. Thomas is horrified and runs off to tell the others about the party, but they're all looking for presents too. Thomas ''[[{{Hypocrite}} promptly chews them out for doing the exact same thing he JUST did]]''.
** On a positive note, "Henry's Forest" handled the GreenAesop pretty well. Helps that it was an early episode, and that the last scenes are [[SceneryPorn very pretty.]]
* AnotherDimension: The Island of Sodor in ''Thomas and the Magic Railroad''. Also doubles as a MagicalLand. This is particularily odd as in the books and TV series Sodor was simply a small island directly besides Britain. The books also established that all the engines in the world, not just the Sodor ones, were alive, unlike in the movie where you can see nonsentient locomomtives.
* AppliedPhlebotinum: In ''Thomas and the Magic Railroad'', gold dust and [[spoiler:coal from Sodor]].
* ArtShift: Hiro's flashback in ''Hero Of The Rails'', as well as the opening credits.''Misty Island Rescue'' also does it.
* AscendedFridgeHorror: The earlier storlines, like "Saved From Scrap," implied, but did not show, that characters could scrapped when they could no longer work. Later, however, some of the books/episodes, like "Stepney the Bluebell Engine" and "Twin Engines" got absolutely ''viscious'' with this concept, after the Reverend decided to do a TakeThat against [[NationalRail BR's]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1955_Modernisation_Plan#The_Modernisation_Plan Modernization Plan.]] The way the mass scrapping is portrayed, especially in the books, sometimes goes beyond FantasticRacism and implies that the characters think of it more like genocide.
** About half of the very long [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/ThomasTheTankEngine Nightmare Fuel]] page for this show is about scrapping.
* {{Backstory}}: ''Hero of the Rails'' takes some time off to explain Hiro's past.
* BadDreams: In ''Calling All Engines'', the characters have bad dreams about what might happen to them if no holiday makers came to Sodor anymore.
* {{Barsetshire}}: The whole fictional setting of the Island of Sodor (which is supposed to be between the lake district and the Isle of Man).
* BiggerIsBetter: In "Thomas's Trusty Friends", the forman kept fitting Oliver with bigger wrecking balls to knock a particular wall down.
* TheBlank: Henrietta (Toby's passenger coach) and City of Truro
* TheBooRadley: "Hector the Horrid".
* {{Bowdlerise}}: In the US version, The Fat Controller was referred to by his Sunday name "Sir Topham Hatt", "The Sad Story of Henry" became "Come Out, Henry", and in that episode the line "so that Henry could never get out" was changed to "so that other engines wouldn't bump into him", and the line "We shall leave you here for always and always and always" was cut.
* BottleEpisode: "Steamy Sodor" (season 13) and "Victor Says Yes" (season 14), both which take place at the Steamworks.
* BreakTheHaughty: Expect this to happen to Gordon or James, and probably any other character trying to be important.
* BrickJoke: Bulgy was made into a henhouse after getting stuck under a bridge. In "Train stops Play", you can see him in the background.
* TheCameo: Famous locomotives ''City of Truro'' and ''Flying Scotsman'', or at least models of them.
* CaptainObvious: "And banannas are no good for building sheds!"
* CastHerd: The Standard Gauge, Narrow Gauge, roadway, trucks and carriages, and then everyone else.
* CatchPhrase: "Really Useful Engine(s)", "Cinders and ashes!", "Confusion and delay", "Bother(ations)!" "Hurry, hurry, hurry!" The Narrator's "Then there was trouble", "He/She/They was/were very cross/pleased.", "Luckily, no one was hurt" and "An idea flew into his/her funnel". "Bust my boiler/buffers!", "'On, on, on!' yelled the cars," Ferdinand's "That's right!", Gordon has any phrase involving the word "Indignant!"
* CharacterNameAndTheNounPhrase: Especially the form "Thomas and the....."
* ChekhovsGun: It's pretty obvious from the minute the Breakdown Train shows up that Thomas is going to have ''some'' reason to haul it out later in the episode.
** The Canvas Barrier in the Season 5 episode 'Put Upon Percy'
* ChekhovsSkill: The Scottish Twins were allowed to stay on Sodor after they demonstrated a particular talent for plowing snow. Later episodes showed them clearing the tracks after snowstorms and rescuing some of the other engines that had gotten trapped by snowdrifts.
* ChristmasEpisode: The series has had several winter and Christmas-themed episodes each season. However, one episode, 'Thomas and Percy's Christmas Adventure' was [[{{Bowdlerise}} Bowdlerised]] into a Thanksgiving episode, as the ShiningTimeStation episode it premiered on was Thanksgiving-themed. A controversial Bowdlerisation in the later winter episodes was that the season would always be referred to as the 'Winter Holidays' rather than the 'Christmas Holidays', despite Christmas trees and presents appearing in the episodes.
* ColourCodedForYourConvenience: The Skarloey Railway engines in the TV series - their original uniform color was thought to confuse younger viewers, and Rusty with black colors could be confused for Diesel. Now the only engines with similar colors are Sir Handel with Mighty Mac, and Skarloey with Rheneas.
* CompanionCube: Henrietta, Toby's personal coach, has turned into this. She only ever had a speaking role in her first appearance way back in season 1. She's been completely silent ever since, even though Toby still treats her if she was alive. The movie Misty Island Rescue has a few machines with names but no faces - a crane called Old Wheezy and a steam donkey called [[PunnyName Hee-Haw]].
* ComicallyMissingThePoint: ''Thomas Comes to Breakfast.'' When Thomas skids off the rails and crashes into a house, just as the family within is sitting down to breakfast, the stationmaster's wife is more upset about her ruined pancakes that the ''freakin' locomotive that just drove into her livingroom.''
** A barber is angry that Duck took out half his shop, so to get back, he puts shaving cream on his face.
* [[ConspicuousCG Conspicuous Cel Animation]]: The bees in ''(James Goes) Buzz Buzz''.
* ContinuityNod: An early episode has Henry crashing because snow weighed a lower-quadrant signal down to its "clear" position. In the next series Percy is confused when he sees an upper-quadrant signal which points "up" to its "clear" position. In the third series, upper-quadrant signals are seen frequently in the background.
* ContinuitySnarl: In the books and television series, the island of Sodor is off the coast of England. ShiningTimeStation put it in another dimension. ''Thomas and the Magic Railroad'' placed Sodor in another, ''magical'' dimension, kept afloat by [[spoiler: Lady and her gold dust,]] even though there was nothing mystical about the series until (or after) that point (pushing ''Magic Railroad'' toward FanonDiscontinuity).
* CoolTrain
* CrapsaccharineWorld: An [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation altenate inrerpretation]].Imagine this- as a locomotive, you live in a world where it's nearly impossible to leave a set line of rails (and for those who do attempt this the results are almost always very, very bad), you deal with the JerkAss trucks every day, the overtaking diesel engines, and absolutely everything is your fault. If you're late? They forget that you're being driven by people and blame you. If you crash? They usually blame you for that too and apparently forget that you're alive and could actually be in pain. If your life is threatened, see MoralDissonance below. All this leads to the fact that you're called "useful." Think about the fact that if you're not "a very useful engine" it means being scrapped, AKA, death. You work for a job where you can be executed for uselessness. Enjoy your day.
* CuteShotaroBoy: Thomas and sometimes Percy.
* DarkIsNotEvil: A number of diesels.
* DemotedToExtra: Edward from seasons 4-6, but everybody gets this treatment in the newer movies. The only characters to get a lot of Focus are Thomas and the new engine introduced. Toby's been getting the worst it lately. In Hero Of The Rails, not only does he get only one line, not only one word, but one '''Syllable'''.
* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment: "That tricky Thomas and his tricks!"
* DevelopmentHell: ''[[TheMovie Thomas & The Magic Railroad]]'' was far changed from what it was originally. Even the main villain changed.
* DisproportionateRetribution: The trucks/cars have been known to do this. Their way of getting retribution on engines that bump them one time too many (or annoy them) is often to tease them (often with Pop Goes the Weasel-rhyming songs) or even worse, push them back. And whenever the Trucks/Cars push back, they try to cause a crash of some kind. One episode features them breaking away from Edward and trying to push Duck ''into a train'', another shows them pushing Oliver into a turntable well, and perhaps one of the most disturbing is when the trucks/cars decide to get revenge on Sir Handel by ''riding down the hill into his face''. And they don't realize it's actually ''Peter Sam'' they suicide-themselves onto!
* DistaffCounterpart: Toby and Flora. Flora's debut episode was even entirely focused on her being the "new steam tram".
* DoomedHometown: The Railway, where Duke, Peter Sam, and Sir Handel once lived. Great Waterton may also count. As well as Toby's old line.
* {{Eagleland}}: Misty Island (all the locomotives there are of an American build) is portrayed as a mixture of types one and two- the Logging Locos are rather loud, boorish, and mischevious, but they all have a good heart and always have the best intentions.
* EmbarrassingNickname: Inverted: Duck doesn't like that the people who coined his name say he waddles, but still prefers it to his real name, "Montague."
* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: The Fat Controller.
* EverythingsWorseWithBees: ''(James Goes) Buzz Buzz''.
* EverybodyLaughsEnding: Used a lot since the show went CGI.
* ExecutiveMeddling: Negative examples - see Did Not Do The Research above. Also, Thomas and the Magic Railroad got butchered thanks to Hollywood executives being ignorami.
* ExtremeOmniGoat - usually eating the Fat Controller's hat. Sometimes a goat, sometimes a ram.
* FamilyUnfriendlyViolence: Many examples, especially in the early years when the railway accidents were fairly realistic.
* FanFicMagnet: Mostly James, sometimes Edward or Smudger.
* FantasticRacism: The steam engine/diesel hatred came to a head in ''Calling All Engines'', and has mostly disappeared since then.
* {{Flanderisation}}: Edward and Toby went from being old and wise to being just old, Gordon went from being somewhat pompous to being completely full of himself, James went from being snobbish, but cheerful and hard-working to being a lazy, spoilt narcissist and Percy went from being somewhat naive to making [[TheSimpsons Homer Simpson]] look intelligent.
* FollowTheLeader: The biggest complaint about the PoorlyDisguisedPilot ''Jack and the Pack'' was that it seemed to be a knockoff of the fellow [=HiT=] Entertainment show ''Bob the Builder''.
* FourTemperamentEnsemble: The original tender engines: James is Sanguine, Gordon is Choleric, Henry is Melancholic, and Edward is Phlegmatic.
* FramingDevice: ''Shining Time Station'' introduced when the series was shown in America.
* FriendToAllChildren: Any engine who happens to he pulling a "special" special related to children. Namely, Thomas. Trevor was first introduced as this.
* FruitCart: In "Percy, James and the Fruitful Day", Percy crashes while pushing some trucks full of fruit. He gets covered in smashed fruit. "The Spotless Record" has Arthur crashing into Duck's train full of fruits.
* FurryConfusion: Though all locomotives are alive, the depiction of the road vehicles vary widely. Some, like Bertie, are sentient, while others, like Sir Topham Hatt's car, are not.
* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: In the episode 'Mavis, the titular character gets stuck over a road crossing. An angry farmer is seen telling her 'just what she could do with her train'!
* HardWorkMontage: Used quite frequently when shunting rolling stock is part of the episode plot.
* [[TheHedonist Hedonist]]: New engine Charlie has shades of being this, described as 'the most fun engine' and seeking fun and games from the other engines in the form of racing, jokes, and shirking their responsibilities.
* HeroicRROD: When the engines are old, or overworked, they begin to break down and show damage. Such as Edward losing his siderods in "Edward's Exploit."
* HeterosexualLifePartners: Thomas and Percy. Gordon and James could count, too. Especially in the earlier seasons.
* HeyItsThatVoice: [[SailorMoon Linda Ballentyne and Susan Roman]] respectively voiced Percy and James in ''[[TheMovie Thomas & The Magic Railroad]]''.
** While the UK and American version of the show didn't start using individual voices alongside the narrator until Hero of the Rails, the Japanese version on the other hand used a narrator and individual Seiyuu for each of the characters since the first season. To name some of the characters, Edward is [[SailorMoon Artemis]], Henry is [[DragonBall Vegeta]], Gordon is [[DragonBall Recoome]], James is [[Anime/ScienceNinjaTeamGatchaman Ken the Eagle]], Percy is [[SaintSeiya Esmerelda]], Diesel is [[DragonBall Mr Satan]], Trevor the Traction Engine is [[MobileSuitGundam Char Aznable]], and Sir Topham Hatt is [[DragonBall Master Roshi]].
* TheHouseOfWindsor: Queen Elizabeth II comes to visit the engines in a season 4 episode.
* [[AndIMustScream I Have No Funnel, and I Must Steam]]: Scrapping. Also Smudger, who was converted into a stationary steam pump.
* IdiotBall: Expect stupidity, accidents, or unrealistic things to ensue whenever anybody is put in charge of a special. It's even more jarring when older, experienced engines are the ones making the mistakes.
* IncompetenceInc: With all of the crashes and runaways on Sodor, how does the railway stay in business? The logging company on Misty Island, too, which probably makes absolutely no profit since cranes keep throwing logs into the river.
* IncrediblyLamePun: From ''Magic Railroad:''
--->Splatter (to Diesel 10): Liar, liar.
--->Dodge: Pants on fire.
--->Splatter: Does he wear pants?
--->Dodge: Well, training pants.
--->Splatter: Alright.
* IndyEscape: The Episode ''Rusty and the Boulder''.
* InspectorJavert: The Constable in ''Thomas In Trouble''.
* IntergenerationalFriendship: Percy and Toby, Thomas and Hiro in ''Hero of The Rails''.
* JerkJock: Gordon, James & Henry in season 2.
* JustInTime: From season 8 onward, this happens '''all the time'''.
* JustTrainWrong: This applies to numerous railway gaffes from season 6 onward, where the writers (no longer working from Awdry's books) seem to know little about the workings of steam engines and railways. Nitrogen Studios seems to have very little knowledge of how steam engines are supposed to work. For example, in real life, cylinders for big tender engines are attached to the engine's main frame. But in the animated series, the cylinders appear to be completely independent from the rest of the body. 'Misty Island Rescue'' apparently has a railway track built ''inside a hollow log.'' What the hell?
* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: The 1999 Fox Family series ''Storytime With Thomas''. It would feature two episodes from series 1-5, sandwiched with an episode of Britt Allcroft's other show TheMagicAdventuresOfMumfie in between. No VHS or [=DVDs=] were ever released of the show, and it was never sold to other networks.
* KilledOffForReal: The Spiteful Brakevan is the ''only'' character in the entire show to die permanently.
* TheKlutz: Kevin the crane.
* {{Leitmotif}}: Each character had their own theme in the earlier series.
* LastOfHisKind: The real life engines that Thomas, Toby and Edward were based on were all scrapped, with none of their numbers surviving to preservation beyond replicas of the characters themselves.
* LawyerFriendlyCameo: ''Double Teething Troubles'' featured a BR "Clayton" diesel which, as in real life, suffered from having insufficient engines crammed into a compact space. While originally named "Paxman" after the contained engines, the producers decided the company might not take so kindly to the reference. He went unnamed in the episode, but the merchandise now calls him "Derek."
* TheLostWoods: Several: Henry's Forest, the Whistling Woods, and Misty Island could all qualify.
* LightningBruiser: These are trains afterall.
* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: Adding more in each season doesn't help.
* LockedOutOfTheLoop: In "Don't Tell Thomas", the engines are planning a surprise party for Thomas, and he grows suspicious. Eventually he gets fed up enough that he runs away, leaving Harold to find him and tell him about the party.
* LooksLikeSheIsEnjoyingIt: In "Pop Goes the Diesel" the trucks made a very... ''suggestive'' sound when Diesel forcefully pulls them. Also, rare male and non-human example.
* LongRunner: The television series has been running since 1984. The Railway Series, meanwhile, is OlderThanTelevision, originally running from 1945 to 2011.
* LostAesop: ''Misty Island Rescue'' is supposedly about making decisions, but this message is inverted and subverted so many times it's impossible to tell whether the writers support or condemn the idea of Thomas making decisions for others.
* LostEpisode: Though 'The Missing Coach' was never finished, the production team took a few still shots corresponding to this story. When these got out on the Internet, for a while some people did think the entire thing had been filmed.
* MacGuffin: The ''special'' specials.
* ManipulativeBastard: Diesel, and occasionally, Gordon.
* MeaningfulName: In a very odd example, Gordon. His name was chosen to be meaningful to Christopher Awdry, the late Reverend's son. It was meaningful because the character is bossy, and there was a bossy boy living on the Awdrys' street named Gordon.
* MediumBlending: The CGI faces in season 12 and the full CGI in ''Hero Of The Rails''. Earlier, the 2D-animated bee that stings James in "Buzz, Buzz."
* MerchandiseDriven: Arguably; some characters are only in one episode and seem to exist purely for merchandise reasons. The worst case of this is currently ''Day of the Diesels''. Three new characters - Norman, Paxton and Sidney - are introduced and marketed...and none of them have a single line of dialog, only seen creeping around in the background.
* {{Metaphorgotten}}: In one episode when Peter Sam is put in charge of finding a new location for the Refreshment Lady's stand:
--> '''Peter Sam:''' I can find her a beautiful place.
--> '''Refreshment Lady:''' I knew it! It will be a piece of cake!
--> '''Peter Sam:''' Tea rooms don't live in cakes...
* MoralDissonance: In one story, Stepney gets stranded at the steelworks because his driver takes on a job without permission and when they get lost there's a faulty signal. Bert and 'Arry decide to melt him down for scrap and are only stoppd by the Fat Controller's intervention. And then ''Stepney'' gets chewed out for not following orders, but [[KarmaHoudini not a word is said to the two engines essentially caught redhanded in a murder attempt]].
* [[MortonsFork Morton's Fork:]] Donald and Douglas's backstory. Sir Topham Hatt only expected one of them to come to Sodor, and decided to send the one that was less useful back to the Caledonian Railway--where they would be scrapped. For either of them to do their best work would be to doom the other, but to shirk off just a bit might mean to doom themselves. Fortunately, the situation was eventually [[ItGotBetter resolved.]]
* TheMovie: Two theatrical, three direct to video with another to follow in 2011, to be directed by [[{{WesternAnimation/Nine}} Shane Acker]] and written by WillMcRobbAndChrisViscardi.
* {{Nakama}}: The main 'Steam Team' considers themselves one.
* {{Narrator}}
* NeverMyFault: The engines getting blamed for the railwaymen's mistakes. This helps contribute to the FridgeHorror and NightmareFuel of the series - no wonder the trains look ''sad'' when they're in an accident!
* NewTechnologyIsEvil: The diesels, who are usually portrayed as arrogant, rude, and cruel. There are some exceptions. (Rusty, who is nice, and Daisy who is a SpoiledBrat but can be a SpoiledSweet if she wanted to.)
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Thomas pulls this off in "The Great Discovery", and because of this, Great Waterton almost doesn't get completed in time.
* NobleFugitive: Oliver, Toad and Stepney.
* NoOSHACompliance: In recent seasons, many of the engines have done things that real railways would consider irresponsible or even illegal.
** The Shake Shake Bridge. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8qcmZdJqMY See for yourself.]]
* NowLetMeCarryYou: In ''The Great Discovery'', Stanley rescues Thomas, but breaks down in the process. Thomas then helps Stanley back home, and the two become good friends ever since.
* OhCrap: [[http://ttte.wikia.com/wiki/File:ThomasComestoBreakfast10.jpg Often without need for words, apart from the narrations. The facial expressions speak for themselves]].
* {{Oireland}}: The Logging Locos in the UK dub have Irish accents. This is extremely strange, considering [[{{Eagleland}} where their prototypes are from...]]
* OlderThanTheyLook: Sort of. According to WordOfGod, Thomas was built over one hundred years ago, but still acts like a child.
* OminousFog: Used in ''Misty Island Rescue'', when Thomas first arrives on the island. It's seen again when Edward, James, and Gordon get lost.
* OneSteveLimit: [[AvertedTrope Averted]]: we have Bertie/Bert/Bertrum, Bill/Billy, two characters named Oliver, and a literal handful of diesels without proper names: Devious Diesel/The Diesel(261)/Diesel 10/D 199/Derek the Diesel. Whew!
* OnlySixFaces: Averted. According to one British newspaper, the engines' facial expressions are actually more expressive than ''human'' faces!
* OutOfCharacterMoment: Edward's been suffering a small number of these from season 6 onwards.
* OvertookTheSeries: From season 5 onward due to the well of Railway Series stories drying up. Admittedly not every story from the original books has been adapted and the direction the television series is taking means it will probably never happen.
* PlayingAgainstType: George Carlin, the legendary comedian famous for his profane material played Mr. Conductor in the US version.
* PoorlyDisguisedPilot: For the proposed {{Spinoff}}, ''Jack and the Pack''.
* PunnyName: Guess what Sir Topham Hatt wears? Lampshaded in ''Misty Island Rescue'' by the Logging Locos, saying that he sounds funny.
* RealPersonCameo: H.M. the Queen in "Paint Pots and Queens" and three real trains: City of Truro, Flying Scotsman and Stepney.
* ReassignedToAntarctica: Why the Logging Locos were sent to Misty Island (apparently they misbehaved on their old mainland railway).
* RememberTheNewGuy: Fearless Freddie randomly appears one day... but it's all okay! He was just hiding off screen, never mentioned, for the entire series until then!
* RetCon: In addition to Hiro building the railway, Fearless Freddie is now established as the oldest engine on the Skarloey Railway.
* {{Retool}}: From Season 6 onward, arguably.
* RhymesOnADime: Thomas gets a few in ''The Great Discovery''. "I am brave and I am strong. I'll get to the wharf and it won't take long!" Since then, the engines seem to come up with a recurring mantra almost OnceAnEpisode, with examples like:
* RippedFromTheHeadlines: All the episodes based on the Reverend's original books were in turn inspired by real life railway events. Everything in the railway series has happened to some engine, somewhere, at some time. [[http://www.pegnsean.net/~railwayseries/database.htm This site]] has an entire database of the real-life anecdotes which inspired the Reverend's stories.
* RookieRedRanger: Jack would have been this in the proposed ''Jack & The Pack'' SpinOff.
* RuleOfThree: From season 8 onward, almost ''all'' plots follow this, where a character must make one mistake three times in the row before realizing what they did wrong, and then things get {{Anvilicious}}.
* SantaClaus: Has a minor appearance in the Season 2 finale.
* SaveBothWorlds: Basically the entire plot of ''Thomas and the Magic Railroad''.
* SceneryPorn: The modelers for before the series went CG made some beautiful scenery and backgrounds for the trains to roll around in. There's still quite a lot of it in the CG series, especially in ''Misty Island Rescue''.
* SceneryGorn: The Vicarstown Dieselworks, which is filthy, grimy and full of broken machinery, including a broken crane. [[spoiler:And then it catches fire.]]
* SeriousBusiness: Pretty much every race Thomas gets in. Similarly the railway itself is a SeriousBusiness since pretty much everything on Sodor is somehow affected by the railway. Especially in later seasons.
* ShallowParody: [[http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=9522038 Thomas The Chav Engine]]
** Ernest the Engine Cart from Australian series Comedy Inc..
* ShesAManInJapan: Rusty was referred to as she in the US narration of season 9, though this had quickly been corrected.
* ShortCutsMakeLongDelays: If an engine even thinks of taking a shortcut somewhere, expect them to get lost, trapped, crashed, or otherwise delayed.
* ShoutOut: There's no way that the song played in the beginning of ''Misty Island Rescue'' wasn't partially inspired by the ''PiratesOfTheCaribbean'' theme.
* [[ShouldntWeBeInSchoolRightNow Shouldn't You Be Working On Schedule Right Now?]]: There are multiple episodes where an engine, who should be working at a [[MacGuffin 'Special Special']], is instead seen travelling light-engine around the island with nothing in tow, allowing themsleves to stop at any location they please. One has to wonder if the railway schedules still exist, or can The Fat Controller just order any engine to do something on a whim.
* ShownTheirWork: Rev. Awdry was a railway nut and obsessive about details being right. Many stories in the original books were based on stories from railway workers. He would often fire or insult away book artists who hadn't gotten enough details right. The early TV seasons were based directly on the books, so inherited the accuracy of detail. Plus, while the new episodes are less realistic, the characters are still (mostly) based on real machines, with maybe some proportional changes.
* SingleMindedTwins: Bill and Ben, and to a far lesser extent Donald and Douglas. Bash and Dash rely heavily on this trope, to the point where they finish each other's sentences.
* SixthRanger: Percy and Toby in season 1. Duck in season 2. Emily also fits.
* TheSmurfettePrinciple: ''TheRailwaySeries'' featured just two female engines, Daisy and Mavis, neither of whom were exactly strong characters. The TV series added more female engines in later series, such as Emily, Molly and Rosie. However, coaches such as Annie and Clarabel were always female. Which, given that the coaches couldn't even move without an engine's help, [[UnfortunateImplications made things worse]].
* SneezeOfDoom: Variant example. In an early story, boys drop stones on Henry and his train. [[CrowningMomentOfFunny He pays them out on his return trip by "sneezing" ashes from his smokebox on them]].
* SpaceWhaleAesop: Being steam engines means that the consequences of their actions will be strange and pretty impractical for it to happen to humans. Some examples include:
** Tell lies, and you might get turned into a chicken coop.
** Do sloppy work, and you might get turned into a [[AndIMustScream stationary generator]]
** Be vain, and you might get [[BuriedAlive bricked inside a tunnel]].
** Don't throw rocks at trains, or they might sneeze at you.
** It's OK to beat the living crap out of the guy that's bullying you and your brother, as long as it technically happens accidentally.
* SpoiledBrat: Daisy. She even gets ''away'' with some spoiled antics in her introductory episode by throwing a tantrum. Although she does get called out on it a couple times, and is given another chance because she helped clean up the mess caused when she (indirectly) caused an accident to Percy.
* StealthPun: The Island of Sodor is named for the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diocese_of_Sodor_and_Man Diocese of Sodor and Man]], which by Awdry's day had dwindled down to just the Isle of Man. So he invented an Island of Sodor to go with it.
* SteamNeverDies: Steam locomotives are forever and ever and ever. And ever.
* SteamPunk: Being steam locomotives, obviously.
* StepfordSmiler: Common in episodes where characters ignorantly cause damage to everything and everyone around them.
* TheStinger: [[spoiler:After the credits of Misty Island Rescue, Diesel 10, the BigBad from ''Thomas and the Magic Railroad'', appears watching the Sodor engines, with an EvilLaugh and promising ruin and destruction.]]
* TheStoryteller: The Narrow Gauge Engines
* TearOffYourFace: This is how one of the Scottish Twins actually kills the Spiteful Brakevan (a bullying caboose) at the end of the episode "Brake Van", by ramming into him [[AWorldwidePunomenon face-on]], smashing the caboose to bits, and tearing off his face.
* TerribleTrio: Gordon, James and Henry in season 2. Diesel 10, Splatter and Dodge in Magic Railroad.
* ThatMakesMeFeelAngry: Basically every episode will have some variation of "That made (character) feel very (emotion)." This was strictly limited in earlier seasons, but became more prominent from season 8 onward, mainly because it was a selling point for autistic children.
* ToothStrip: In the original books and TV series. Averted with some Trucks. Interesting to note, in the early days of the TV series, the production crew did make an individually toothed face for a smiling Gordon... It didn't look too well.
* TransAtlanticEquivalent: PBS' ''ShiningTimeStation'' added a FramingDevice with a live action EnsembleCast to the British footage. The Narrator's actor became a character (Mr. Conductor) who told the stories to the children.
* TwinSwitch: Bill and Ben in "The Diseasel". A variation since instead of acting as each other, they pretended to be one unnamed engine. Besides, they are pretty much the same in personality.
** Donald and Douglas also used this early in their tenure on Sodor, when Sir Topham Hatt was still trying to decide which one to send home. If one ever seemed to be outperforming the other, they'd switch tenders (the only places their numbers were painted) and do each other's work until their records evened out, so the boss couldn't make a decision.
* UltimateJobSecurity: The railway men are hardly ever punished for their mistakes.
* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: Nobody seems to notice or care that their vehicles are alive and sentient. Many of the engines are good friends with humans and vice versa.
* ViewersAreMorons: HIT's reasons for extensively retooling the show.
* [[ViolentGlaswegian Violent Caledonian]] "Spite Douggie, will ye? Take that!"
* VitriolicBestBuds: Gordon and James are Type 2.
* WantingIsBetterThanHaving: In "Tender Engines", Henry is jealous of a visiting engine with two tenders (the two that No. 4472 Flying Scotsman carried while on tour in the '60s). Duck and Donald overhear and [[LiteralGenie tell Henry they have six tenders for him to take]]. [[HumiliationConga Once everyone has gathered to see him, Henry finds out the tenders are all old, grimy, and sludge-filled]].
* WellExcuseMePrincess: Emily and Daisy.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse?: Much of Salty's story about [[spoiler: Misty Island. He says they use smoke signals there, but aside from Thomas using it as a [[ChekhovsGun way to get Percy's attention across the bay,]] we never see it used on the island.]] Salty also mentions that [[spoiler: an engine was lost there once, but after "puffing three times" we don't know what happened to him]], and it's never mentioned again.
* WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway: Rosie isn't strong enough to pull heavy loads, but is really good for pulling trucks full of balloons.
* WatchingTheSunset: Thomas, Percy, and Duck at the end of 'All at Sea.'
* YouDidntAsk: Duck and Diesel in "Pop Goes The Diesel".
----
The books were adapted for British television by Britt Allcroft in 1984. The first four series followed the books, but since Series 5 the show has gone in a completely different direction, so much so that the show and books are almost unrecognisable to each other. In the US, the stories were originally [[FramingDevice encapsulated]] into the live-action PBS show ''ShiningTimeStation''; later series are DirectToVideo.
Thomas and his friends are given a voice by a {{Narrator}}, with many of the stories being renarrated for North American audiences. These narrators include:
UK:
* [[TheBeatles Ringo Starr]]: 1-2.
* Michael Angelis: 3 and onward.
* [[JamesBond Pierce Brosnan]]: ''The Great Discovery''.
North America:
* Ringo Starr: 1-2.
* GeorgeCarlin: 3-4, renarrated 1-2.
* Alec Baldwin: 5-6.
* Michael Brandon: 7 and onward.
* Pierce Brosnan: ''The Great Discovery''.
In addition - long before the series was televised - some of the stories were narrated by Johnny Morris (a children's television presenter best remembered for narrating and voicing the animals for Animal Magic). The stories were released in the 1960s on 45rpm records under the Delyse label.
Oddly enough, care to take a guess at the group of children that favours ''Thomas'' above all other kids' shows? ''Autistic children.'' People with autism can be extremely sensitive to sensory input, but the visuals in ''Thomas'' are largely static - unless the trains are traveling, the only things moving are their eyes and the occasional smoke. Even when the trains ''do'' travel, it's not a particularly "busy" visual. Furthermore, the static, expressive faces help children with autism (or the milder Asperger's syndrome) to understand expressions and their connection to emotions. And the narration approach (as opposed to individual voices) also seems to help.
Here is a [[Characters/ThomasTheTankEngine list of all the main characters]] for more information.
----
!!The series includes:
* TheAce: Stanley and Spencer.
* AchievementsInIgnorance: In season 15, "Firey Flynn". Thomas's firebox catches on fire. Let that sink in for the moment.
* AchillesInHisTent: ''The Sad Story of Henry''.
* AcquiredSituationalNarcissism: Thomas becomes a bit stuck-up after he gets his branchline in season 1.
* AesopAmnesia: Especially in the later seasons, with Thomas, James and Duncan being the worst offenders.
* AIIsACrapshoot: These trains have personality issues.
* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: Harvey's crane, Peter Sam's special funnel, Sir Handel's wheels--although these make him egotistical until the events of "Steam Roller".
* AllThereInTheManual: The books ''The Island of Sodor: Its People, History and Railways'', ''Sodor: Reading Between the Lines'' and ''The Thomas the Tank Engine Man'' explain between them pretty much everything about the early series.
* AlwaysChaoticEvil: Most of Sodor's freight cars, along with any engine who actually gets along with them.
* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: Stanley in ''Thomas & The Great Discovery''. Also Spencer and City of Truro for Gordon.
* AnachronismStew: The current series is set in modern times, yet uses engines from different time periods and locations on Sodor. A TruthInTelevision, since most modern steam railways use engines from different time periods and locations.
* AnAesop: including, but not limited to:
** BeYourself
** ThePowerOfFriendship
** [[TruthInTelevision Never be cocky or become careless around heavy machinery and freight cars.]]
** TeamSpirit: Particularly in the later series.
** BrokenAesop: Sadly, very often. The worst offender may be the recent episode "The Biggest Present of All". Thomas is given the task of telling the other engines about a welcome party for Hiro at the Big Station, but Thomas thinks finding Hiro a welcome present would be more fun instead. He tells all his friends he's looking for a gift, but never tells them about the party. Later, he finds that Hiro is alone at the station, waiting for guests. Thomas is horrified and runs off to tell the others about the party, but they're all looking for presents too. Thomas ''[[{{Hypocrite}} promptly chews them out for doing the exact same thing he JUST did]]''.
** On a positive note, "Henry's Forest" handled the GreenAesop pretty well. Helps that it was an early episode, and that the last scenes are [[SceneryPorn very pretty.]]
* AnotherDimension: The Island of Sodor in ''Thomas and the Magic Railroad''. Also doubles as a MagicalLand. This is particularily odd as in the books and TV series Sodor was simply a small island directly besides Britain. The books also established that all the engines in the world, not just the Sodor ones, were alive, unlike in the movie where you can see nonsentient locomomtives.
* AppliedPhlebotinum: In ''Thomas and the Magic Railroad'', gold dust and [[spoiler:coal from Sodor]].
* ArtShift: Hiro's flashback in ''Hero Of The Rails'', as well as the opening credits.''Misty Island Rescue'' also does it.
* AscendedFridgeHorror: The earlier storlines, like "Saved From Scrap," implied, but did not show, that characters could scrapped when they could no longer work. Later, however, some of the books/episodes, like "Stepney the Bluebell Engine" and "Twin Engines" got absolutely ''viscious'' with this concept, after the Reverend decided to do a TakeThat against [[NationalRail BR's]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1955_Modernisation_Plan#The_Modernisation_Plan Modernization Plan.]] The way the mass scrapping is portrayed, especially in the books, sometimes goes beyond FantasticRacism and implies that the characters think of it more like genocide.
** About half of the very long [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/ThomasTheTankEngine Nightmare Fuel]] page for this show is about scrapping.
* {{Backstory}}: ''Hero of the Rails'' takes some time off to explain Hiro's past.
* BadDreams: In ''Calling All Engines'', the characters have bad dreams about what might happen to them if no holiday makers came to Sodor anymore.
* {{Barsetshire}}: The whole fictional setting of the Island of Sodor (which is supposed to be between the lake district and the Isle of Man).
* BiggerIsBetter: In "Thomas's Trusty Friends", the forman kept fitting Oliver with bigger wrecking balls to knock a particular wall down.
* TheBlank: Henrietta (Toby's passenger coach) and City of Truro
* TheBooRadley: "Hector the Horrid".
* {{Bowdlerise}}: In the US version, The Fat Controller was referred to by his Sunday name "Sir Topham Hatt", "The Sad Story of Henry" became "Come Out, Henry", and in that episode the line "so that Henry could never get out" was changed to "so that other engines wouldn't bump into him", and the line "We shall leave you here for always and always and always" was cut.
* BottleEpisode: "Steamy Sodor" (season 13) and "Victor Says Yes" (season 14), both which take place at the Steamworks.
* BreakTheHaughty: Expect this to happen to Gordon or James, and probably any other character trying to be important.
* BrickJoke: Bulgy was made into a henhouse after getting stuck under a bridge. In "Train stops Play", you can see him in the background.
* TheCameo: Famous locomotives ''City of Truro'' and ''Flying Scotsman'', or at least models of them.
* CaptainObvious: "And banannas are no good for building sheds!"
* CastHerd: The Standard Gauge, Narrow Gauge, roadway, trucks and carriages, and then everyone else.
* CatchPhrase: "Really Useful Engine(s)", "Cinders and ashes!", "Confusion and delay", "Bother(ations)!" "Hurry, hurry, hurry!" The Narrator's "Then there was trouble", "He/She/They was/were very cross/pleased.", "Luckily, no one was hurt" and "An idea flew into his/her funnel". "Bust my boiler/buffers!", "'On, on, on!' yelled the cars," Ferdinand's "That's right!", Gordon has any phrase involving the word "Indignant!"
* CharacterNameAndTheNounPhrase: Especially the form "Thomas and the....."
* ChekhovsGun: It's pretty obvious from the minute the Breakdown Train shows up that Thomas is going to have ''some'' reason to haul it out later in the episode.
** The Canvas Barrier in the Season 5 episode 'Put Upon Percy'
* ChekhovsSkill: The Scottish Twins were allowed to stay on Sodor after they demonstrated a particular talent for plowing snow. Later episodes showed them clearing the tracks after snowstorms and rescuing some of the other engines that had gotten trapped by snowdrifts.
* ChristmasEpisode: The series has had several winter and Christmas-themed episodes each season. However, one episode, 'Thomas and Percy's Christmas Adventure' was [[{{Bowdlerise}} Bowdlerised]] into a Thanksgiving episode, as the ShiningTimeStation episode it premiered on was Thanksgiving-themed. A controversial Bowdlerisation in the later winter episodes was that the season would always be referred to as the 'Winter Holidays' rather than the 'Christmas Holidays', despite Christmas trees and presents appearing in the episodes.
* ColourCodedForYourConvenience: The Skarloey Railway engines in the TV series - their original uniform color was thought to confuse younger viewers, and Rusty with black colors could be confused for Diesel. Now the only engines with similar colors are Sir Handel with Mighty Mac, and Skarloey with Rheneas.
* CompanionCube: Henrietta, Toby's personal coach, has turned into this. She only ever had a speaking role in her first appearance way back in season 1. She's been completely silent ever since, even though Toby still treats her if she was alive. The movie Misty Island Rescue has a few machines with names but no faces - a crane called Old Wheezy and a steam donkey called [[PunnyName Hee-Haw]].
* ComicallyMissingThePoint: ''Thomas Comes to Breakfast.'' When Thomas skids off the rails and crashes into a house, just as the family within is sitting down to breakfast, the stationmaster's wife is more upset about her ruined pancakes that the ''freakin' locomotive that just drove into her livingroom.''
** A barber is angry that Duck took out half his shop, so to get back, he puts shaving cream on his face.
* [[ConspicuousCG Conspicuous Cel Animation]]: The bees in ''(James Goes) Buzz Buzz''.
* ContinuityNod: An early episode has Henry crashing because snow weighed a lower-quadrant signal down to its "clear" position. In the next series Percy is confused when he sees an upper-quadrant signal which points "up" to its "clear" position. In the third series, upper-quadrant signals are seen frequently in the background.
* ContinuitySnarl: In the books and television series, the island of Sodor is off the coast of England. ShiningTimeStation put it in another dimension. ''Thomas and the Magic Railroad'' placed Sodor in another, ''magical'' dimension, kept afloat by [[spoiler: Lady and her gold dust,]] even though there was nothing mystical about the series until (or after) that point (pushing ''Magic Railroad'' toward FanonDiscontinuity).
* CoolTrain
* CrapsaccharineWorld: An [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation altenate inrerpretation]].Imagine this- as a locomotive, you live in a world where it's nearly impossible to leave a set line of rails (and for those who do attempt this the results are almost always very, very bad), you deal with the JerkAss trucks every day, the overtaking diesel engines, and absolutely everything is your fault. If you're late? They forget that you're being driven by people and blame you. If you crash? They usually blame you for that too and apparently forget that you're alive and could actually be in pain. If your life is threatened, see MoralDissonance below. All this leads to the fact that you're called "useful." Think about the fact that if you're not "a very useful engine" it means being scrapped, AKA, death. You work for a job where you can be executed for uselessness. Enjoy your day.
* CuteShotaroBoy: Thomas and sometimes Percy.
* DarkIsNotEvil: A number of diesels.
* DemotedToExtra: Edward from seasons 4-6, but everybody gets this treatment in the newer movies. The only characters to get a lot of Focus are Thomas and the new engine introduced. Toby's been getting the worst it lately. In Hero Of The Rails, not only does he get only one line, not only one word, but one '''Syllable'''.
* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment: "That tricky Thomas and his tricks!"
* DevelopmentHell: ''[[TheMovie Thomas & The Magic Railroad]]'' was far changed from what it was originally. Even the main villain changed.
* DisproportionateRetribution: The trucks/cars have been known to do this. Their way of getting retribution on engines that bump them one time too many (or annoy them) is often to tease them (often with Pop Goes the Weasel-rhyming songs) or even worse, push them back. And whenever the Trucks/Cars push back, they try to cause a crash of some kind. One episode features them breaking away from Edward and trying to push Duck ''into a train'', another shows them pushing Oliver into a turntable well, and perhaps one of the most disturbing is when the trucks/cars decide to get revenge on Sir Handel by ''riding down the hill into his face''. And they don't realize it's actually ''Peter Sam'' they suicide-themselves onto!
* DistaffCounterpart: Toby and Flora. Flora's debut episode was even entirely focused on her being the "new steam tram".
* DoomedHometown: The Railway, where Duke, Peter Sam, and Sir Handel once lived. Great Waterton may also count. As well as Toby's old line.
* {{Eagleland}}: Misty Island (all the locomotives there are of an American build) is portrayed as a mixture of types one and two- the Logging Locos are rather loud, boorish, and mischevious, but they all have a good heart and always have the best intentions.
* EmbarrassingNickname: Inverted: Duck doesn't like that the people who coined his name say he waddles, but still prefers it to his real name, "Montague."
* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: The Fat Controller.
* EverythingsWorseWithBees: ''(James Goes) Buzz Buzz''.
* EverybodyLaughsEnding: Used a lot since the show went CGI.
* ExecutiveMeddling: Negative examples - see Did Not Do The Research above. Also, Thomas and the Magic Railroad got butchered thanks to Hollywood executives being ignorami.
* ExtremeOmniGoat - usually eating the Fat Controller's hat. Sometimes a goat, sometimes a ram.
* FamilyUnfriendlyViolence: Many examples, especially in the early years when the railway accidents were fairly realistic.
* FanFicMagnet: Mostly James, sometimes Edward or Smudger.
* FantasticRacism: The steam engine/diesel hatred came to a head in ''Calling All Engines'', and has mostly disappeared since then.
* {{Flanderisation}}: Edward and Toby went from being old and wise to being just old, Gordon went from being somewhat pompous to being completely full of himself, James went from being snobbish, but cheerful and hard-working to being a lazy, spoilt narcissist and Percy went from being somewhat naive to making [[TheSimpsons Homer Simpson]] look intelligent.
* FollowTheLeader: The biggest complaint about the PoorlyDisguisedPilot ''Jack and the Pack'' was that it seemed to be a knockoff of the fellow [=HiT=] Entertainment show ''Bob the Builder''.
* FourTemperamentEnsemble: The original tender engines: James is Sanguine, Gordon is Choleric, Henry is Melancholic, and Edward is Phlegmatic.
* FramingDevice: ''Shining Time Station'' introduced when the series was shown in America.
* FriendToAllChildren: Any engine who happens to he pulling a "special" special related to children. Namely, Thomas. Trevor was first introduced as this.
* FruitCart: In "Percy, James and the Fruitful Day", Percy crashes while pushing some trucks full of fruit. He gets covered in smashed fruit. "The Spotless Record" has Arthur crashing into Duck's train full of fruits.
* FurryConfusion: Though all locomotives are alive, the depiction of the road vehicles vary widely. Some, like Bertie, are sentient, while others, like Sir Topham Hatt's car, are not.
* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: In the episode 'Mavis, the titular character gets stuck over a road crossing. An angry farmer is seen telling her 'just what she could do with her train'!
* HardWorkMontage: Used quite frequently when shunting rolling stock is part of the episode plot.
* [[TheHedonist Hedonist]]: New engine Charlie has shades of being this, described as 'the most fun engine' and seeking fun and games from the other engines in the form of racing, jokes, and shirking their responsibilities.
* HeroicRROD: When the engines are old, or overworked, they begin to break down and show damage. Such as Edward losing his siderods in "Edward's Exploit."
* HeterosexualLifePartners: Thomas and Percy. Gordon and James could count, too. Especially in the earlier seasons.
* HeyItsThatVoice: [[SailorMoon Linda Ballentyne and Susan Roman]] respectively voiced Percy and James in ''[[TheMovie Thomas & The Magic Railroad]]''.
** While the UK and American version of the show didn't start using individual voices alongside the narrator until Hero of the Rails, the Japanese version on the other hand used a narrator and individual Seiyuu for each of the characters since the first season. To name some of the characters, Edward is [[SailorMoon Artemis]], Henry is [[DragonBall Vegeta]], Gordon is [[DragonBall Recoome]], James is [[Anime/ScienceNinjaTeamGatchaman Ken the Eagle]], Percy is [[SaintSeiya Esmerelda]], Diesel is [[DragonBall Mr Satan]], Trevor the Traction Engine is [[MobileSuitGundam Char Aznable]], and Sir Topham Hatt is [[DragonBall Master Roshi]].
* TheHouseOfWindsor: Queen Elizabeth II comes to visit the engines in a season 4 episode.
* [[AndIMustScream I Have No Funnel, and I Must Steam]]: Scrapping. Also Smudger, who was converted into a stationary steam pump.
* IdiotBall: Expect stupidity, accidents, or unrealistic things to ensue whenever anybody is put in charge of a special. It's even more jarring when older, experienced engines are the ones making the mistakes.
* IncompetenceInc: With all of the crashes and runaways on Sodor, how does the railway stay in business? The logging company on Misty Island, too, which probably makes absolutely no profit since cranes keep throwing logs into the river.
* IncrediblyLamePun: From ''Magic Railroad:''
--->Splatter (to Diesel 10): Liar, liar.
--->Dodge: Pants on fire.
--->Splatter: Does he wear pants?
--->Dodge: Well, training pants.
--->Splatter: Alright.
* IndyEscape: The Episode ''Rusty and the Boulder''.
* InspectorJavert: The Constable in ''Thomas In Trouble''.
* IntergenerationalFriendship: Percy and Toby, Thomas and Hiro in ''Hero of The Rails''.
* JerkJock: Gordon, James & Henry in season 2.
* JustInTime: From season 8 onward, this happens '''all the time'''.
* JustTrainWrong: This applies to numerous railway gaffes from season 6 onward, where the writers (no longer working from Awdry's books) seem to know little about the workings of steam engines and railways. Nitrogen Studios seems to have very little knowledge of how steam engines are supposed to work. For example, in real life, cylinders for big tender engines are attached to the engine's main frame. But in the animated series, the cylinders appear to be completely independent from the rest of the body. 'Misty Island Rescue'' apparently has a railway track built ''inside a hollow log.'' What the hell?
* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: The 1999 Fox Family series ''Storytime With Thomas''. It would feature two episodes from series 1-5, sandwiched with an episode of Britt Allcroft's other show TheMagicAdventuresOfMumfie in between. No VHS or [=DVDs=] were ever released of the show, and it was never sold to other networks.
* KilledOffForReal: The Spiteful Brakevan is the ''only'' character in the entire show to die permanently.
* TheKlutz: Kevin the crane.
* {{Leitmotif}}: Each character had their own theme in the earlier series.
* LastOfHisKind: The real life engines that Thomas, Toby and Edward were based on were all scrapped, with none of their numbers surviving to preservation beyond replicas of the characters themselves.
* LawyerFriendlyCameo: ''Double Teething Troubles'' featured a BR "Clayton" diesel which, as in real life, suffered from having insufficient engines crammed into a compact space. While originally named "Paxman" after the contained engines, the producers decided the company might not take so kindly to the reference. He went unnamed in the episode, but the merchandise now calls him "Derek."
* TheLostWoods: Several: Henry's Forest, the Whistling Woods, and Misty Island could all qualify.
* LightningBruiser: These are trains afterall.
* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: Adding more in each season doesn't help.
* LockedOutOfTheLoop: In "Don't Tell Thomas", the engines are planning a surprise party for Thomas, and he grows suspicious. Eventually he gets fed up enough that he runs away, leaving Harold to find him and tell him about the party.
* LooksLikeSheIsEnjoyingIt: In "Pop Goes the Diesel" the trucks made a very... ''suggestive'' sound when Diesel forcefully pulls them. Also, rare male and non-human example.
* LongRunner: The television series has been running since 1984. The Railway Series, meanwhile, is OlderThanTelevision, originally running from 1945 to 2011.
* LostAesop: ''Misty Island Rescue'' is supposedly about making decisions, but this message is inverted and subverted so many times it's impossible to tell whether the writers support or condemn the idea of Thomas making decisions for others.
* LostEpisode: Though 'The Missing Coach' was never finished, the production team took a few still shots corresponding to this story. When these got out on the Internet, for a while some people did think the entire thing had been filmed.
* MacGuffin: The ''special'' specials.
* ManipulativeBastard: Diesel, and occasionally, Gordon.
* MeaningfulName: In a very odd example, Gordon. His name was chosen to be meaningful to Christopher Awdry, the late Reverend's son. It was meaningful because the character is bossy, and there was a bossy boy living on the Awdrys' street named Gordon.
* MediumBlending: The CGI faces in season 12 and the full CGI in ''Hero Of The Rails''. Earlier, the 2D-animated bee that stings James in "Buzz, Buzz."
* MerchandiseDriven: Arguably; some characters are only in one episode and seem to exist purely for merchandise reasons. The worst case of this is currently ''Day of the Diesels''. Three new characters - Norman, Paxton and Sidney - are introduced and marketed...and none of them have a single line of dialog, only seen creeping around in the background.
* {{Metaphorgotten}}: In one episode when Peter Sam is put in charge of finding a new location for the Refreshment Lady's stand:
--> '''Peter Sam:''' I can find her a beautiful place.
--> '''Refreshment Lady:''' I knew it! It will be a piece of cake!
--> '''Peter Sam:''' Tea rooms don't live in cakes...
* MoralDissonance: In one story, Stepney gets stranded at the steelworks because his driver takes on a job without permission and when they get lost there's a faulty signal. Bert and 'Arry decide to melt him down for scrap and are only stoppd by the Fat Controller's intervention. And then ''Stepney'' gets chewed out for not following orders, but [[KarmaHoudini not a word is said to the two engines essentially caught redhanded in a murder attempt]].
* [[MortonsFork Morton's Fork:]] Donald and Douglas's backstory. Sir Topham Hatt only expected one of them to come to Sodor, and decided to send the one that was less useful back to the Caledonian Railway--where they would be scrapped. For either of them to do their best work would be to doom the other, but to shirk off just a bit might mean to doom themselves. Fortunately, the situation was eventually [[ItGotBetter resolved.]]
* TheMovie: Two theatrical, three direct to video with another to follow in 2011, to be directed by [[{{WesternAnimation/Nine}} Shane Acker]] and written by WillMcRobbAndChrisViscardi.
* {{Nakama}}: The main 'Steam Team' considers themselves one.
* {{Narrator}}
* NeverMyFault: The engines getting blamed for the railwaymen's mistakes. This helps contribute to the FridgeHorror and NightmareFuel of the series - no wonder the trains look ''sad'' when they're in an accident!
* NewTechnologyIsEvil: The diesels, who are usually portrayed as arrogant, rude, and cruel. There are some exceptions. (Rusty, who is nice, and Daisy who is a SpoiledBrat but can be a SpoiledSweet if she wanted to.)
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Thomas pulls this off in "The Great Discovery", and because of this, Great Waterton almost doesn't get completed in time.
* NobleFugitive: Oliver, Toad and Stepney.
* NoOSHACompliance: In recent seasons, many of the engines have done things that real railways would consider irresponsible or even illegal.
** The Shake Shake Bridge. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8qcmZdJqMY See for yourself.]]
* NowLetMeCarryYou: In ''The Great Discovery'', Stanley rescues Thomas, but breaks down in the process. Thomas then helps Stanley back home, and the two become good friends ever since.
* OhCrap: [[http://ttte.wikia.com/wiki/File:ThomasComestoBreakfast10.jpg Often without need for words, apart from the narrations. The facial expressions speak for themselves]].
* {{Oireland}}: The Logging Locos in the UK dub have Irish accents. This is extremely strange, considering [[{{Eagleland}} where their prototypes are from...]]
* OlderThanTheyLook: Sort of. According to WordOfGod, Thomas was built over one hundred years ago, but still acts like a child.
* OminousFog: Used in ''Misty Island Rescue'', when Thomas first arrives on the island. It's seen again when Edward, James, and Gordon get lost.
* OneSteveLimit: [[AvertedTrope Averted]]: we have Bertie/Bert/Bertrum, Bill/Billy, two characters named Oliver, and a literal handful of diesels without proper names: Devious Diesel/The Diesel(261)/Diesel 10/D 199/Derek the Diesel. Whew!
* OnlySixFaces: Averted. According to one British newspaper, the engines' facial expressions are actually more expressive than ''human'' faces!
* OutOfCharacterMoment: Edward's been suffering a small number of these from season 6 onwards.
* OvertookTheSeries: From season 5 onward due to the well of Railway Series stories drying up. Admittedly not every story from the original books has been adapted and the direction the television series is taking means it will probably never happen.
* PlayingAgainstType: George Carlin, the legendary comedian famous for his profane material played Mr. Conductor in the US version.
* PoorlyDisguisedPilot: For the proposed {{Spinoff}}, ''Jack and the Pack''.
* PunnyName: Guess what Sir Topham Hatt wears? Lampshaded in ''Misty Island Rescue'' by the Logging Locos, saying that he sounds funny.
* RealPersonCameo: H.M. the Queen in "Paint Pots and Queens" and three real trains: City of Truro, Flying Scotsman and Stepney.
* ReassignedToAntarctica: Why the Logging Locos were sent to Misty Island (apparently they misbehaved on their old mainland railway).
* RememberTheNewGuy: Fearless Freddie randomly appears one day... but it's all okay! He was just hiding off screen, never mentioned, for the entire series until then!
* RetCon: In addition to Hiro building the railway, Fearless Freddie is now established as the oldest engine on the Skarloey Railway.
* {{Retool}}: From Season 6 onward, arguably.
* RhymesOnADime: Thomas gets a few in ''The Great Discovery''. "I am brave and I am strong. I'll get to the wharf and it won't take long!" Since then, the engines seem to come up with a recurring mantra almost OnceAnEpisode, with examples like:
* RippedFromTheHeadlines: All the episodes based on the Reverend's original books were in turn inspired by real life railway events. Everything in the railway series has happened to some engine, somewhere, at some time. [[http://www.pegnsean.net/~railwayseries/database.htm This site]] has an entire database of the real-life anecdotes which inspired the Reverend's stories.
* RookieRedRanger: Jack would have been this in the proposed ''Jack & The Pack'' SpinOff.
* RuleOfThree: From season 8 onward, almost ''all'' plots follow this, where a character must make one mistake three times in the row before realizing what they did wrong, and then things get {{Anvilicious}}.
* SantaClaus: Has a minor appearance in the Season 2 finale.
* SaveBothWorlds: Basically the entire plot of ''Thomas and the Magic Railroad''.
* SceneryPorn: The modelers for before the series went CG made some beautiful scenery and backgrounds for the trains to roll around in. There's still quite a lot of it in the CG series, especially in ''Misty Island Rescue''.
* SceneryGorn: The Vicarstown Dieselworks, which is filthy, grimy and full of broken machinery, including a broken crane. [[spoiler:And then it catches fire.]]
* SeriousBusiness: Pretty much every race Thomas gets in. Similarly the railway itself is a SeriousBusiness since pretty much everything on Sodor is somehow affected by the railway. Especially in later seasons.
* ShallowParody: [[http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=9522038 Thomas The Chav Engine]]
** Ernest the Engine Cart from Australian series Comedy Inc..
* ShesAManInJapan: Rusty was referred to as she in the US narration of season 9, though this had quickly been corrected.
* ShortCutsMakeLongDelays: If an engine even thinks of taking a shortcut somewhere, expect them to get lost, trapped, crashed, or otherwise delayed.
* ShoutOut: There's no way that the song played in the beginning of ''Misty Island Rescue'' wasn't partially inspired by the ''PiratesOfTheCaribbean'' theme.
* [[ShouldntWeBeInSchoolRightNow Shouldn't You Be Working On Schedule Right Now?]]: There are multiple episodes where an engine, who should be working at a [[MacGuffin 'Special Special']], is instead seen travelling light-engine around the island with nothing in tow, allowing themsleves to stop at any location they please. One has to wonder if the railway schedules still exist, or can The Fat Controller just order any engine to do something on a whim.
* ShownTheirWork: Rev. Awdry was a railway nut and obsessive about details being right. Many stories in the original books were based on stories from railway workers. He would often fire or insult away book artists who hadn't gotten enough details right. The early TV seasons were based directly on the books, so inherited the accuracy of detail. Plus, while the new episodes are less realistic, the characters are still (mostly) based on real machines, with maybe some proportional changes.
* SingleMindedTwins: Bill and Ben, and to a far lesser extent Donald and Douglas. Bash and Dash rely heavily on this trope, to the point where they finish each other's sentences.
* SixthRanger: Percy and Toby in season 1. Duck in season 2. Emily also fits.
* TheSmurfettePrinciple: ''TheRailwaySeries'' featured just two female engines, Daisy and Mavis, neither of whom were exactly strong characters. The TV series added more female engines in later series, such as Emily, Molly and Rosie. However, coaches such as Annie and Clarabel were always female. Which, given that the coaches couldn't even move without an engine's help, [[UnfortunateImplications made things worse]].
* SneezeOfDoom: Variant example. In an early story, boys drop stones on Henry and his train. [[CrowningMomentOfFunny He pays them out on his return trip by "sneezing" ashes from his smokebox on them]].
* SpaceWhaleAesop: Being steam engines means that the consequences of their actions will be strange and pretty impractical for it to happen to humans. Some examples include:
** Tell lies, and you might get turned into a chicken coop.
** Do sloppy work, and you might get turned into a [[AndIMustScream stationary generator]]
** Be vain, and you might get [[BuriedAlive bricked inside a tunnel]].
** Don't throw rocks at trains, or they might sneeze at you.
** It's OK to beat the living crap out of the guy that's bullying you and your brother, as long as it technically happens accidentally.
* SpoiledBrat: Daisy. She even gets ''away'' with some spoiled antics in her introductory episode by throwing a tantrum. Although she does get called out on it a couple times, and is given another chance because she helped clean up the mess caused when she (indirectly) caused an accident to Percy.
* StealthPun: The Island of Sodor is named for the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diocese_of_Sodor_and_Man Diocese of Sodor and Man]], which by Awdry's day had dwindled down to just the Isle of Man. So he invented an Island of Sodor to go with it.
* SteamNeverDies: Steam locomotives are forever and ever and ever. And ever.
* SteamPunk: Being steam locomotives, obviously.
* StepfordSmiler: Common in episodes where characters ignorantly cause damage to everything and everyone around them.
* TheStinger: [[spoiler:After the credits of Misty Island Rescue, Diesel 10, the BigBad from ''Thomas and the Magic Railroad'', appears watching the Sodor engines, with an EvilLaugh and promising ruin and destruction.]]
* TheStoryteller: The Narrow Gauge Engines
* TearOffYourFace: This is how one of the Scottish Twins actually kills the Spiteful Brakevan (a bullying caboose) at the end of the episode "Brake Van", by ramming into him [[AWorldwidePunomenon face-on]], smashing the caboose to bits, and tearing off his face.
* TerribleTrio: Gordon, James and Henry in season 2. Diesel 10, Splatter and Dodge in Magic Railroad.
* ThatMakesMeFeelAngry: Basically every episode will have some variation of "That made (character) feel very (emotion)." This was strictly limited in earlier seasons, but became more prominent from season 8 onward, mainly because it was a selling point for autistic children.
* ToothStrip: In the original books and TV series. Averted with some Trucks. Interesting to note, in the early days of the TV series, the production crew did make an individually toothed face for a smiling Gordon... It didn't look too well.
* TransAtlanticEquivalent: PBS' ''ShiningTimeStation'' added a FramingDevice with a live action EnsembleCast to the British footage. The Narrator's actor became a character (Mr. Conductor) who told the stories to the children.
* TwinSwitch: Bill and Ben in "The Diseasel". A variation since instead of acting as each other, they pretended to be one unnamed engine. Besides, they are pretty much the same in personality.
** Donald and Douglas also used this early in their tenure on Sodor, when Sir Topham Hatt was still trying to decide which one to send home. If one ever seemed to be outperforming the other, they'd switch tenders (the only places their numbers were painted) and do each other's work until their records evened out, so the boss couldn't make a decision.
* UltimateJobSecurity: The railway men are hardly ever punished for their mistakes.
* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: Nobody seems to notice or care that their vehicles are alive and sentient. Many of the engines are good friends with humans and vice versa.
* ViewersAreMorons: HIT's reasons for extensively retooling the show.
* [[ViolentGlaswegian Violent Caledonian]] "Spite Douggie, will ye? Take that!"
* VitriolicBestBuds: Gordon and James are Type 2.
* WantingIsBetterThanHaving: In "Tender Engines", Henry is jealous of a visiting engine with two tenders (the two that No. 4472 Flying Scotsman carried while on tour in the '60s). Duck and Donald overhear and [[LiteralGenie tell Henry they have six tenders for him to take]]. [[HumiliationConga Once everyone has gathered to see him, Henry finds out the tenders are all old, grimy, and sludge-filled]].
* WellExcuseMePrincess: Emily and Daisy.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse?: Much of Salty's story about [[spoiler: Misty Island. He says they use smoke signals there, but aside from Thomas using it as a [[ChekhovsGun way to get Percy's attention across the bay,]] we never see it used on the island.]] Salty also mentions that [[spoiler: an engine was lost there once, but after "puffing three times" we don't know what happened to him]], and it's never mentioned again.
* WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway: Rosie isn't strong enough to pull heavy loads, but is really good for pulling trucks full of balloons.
* WatchingTheSunset: Thomas, Percy, and Duck at the end of 'All at Sea.'
* YouDidntAsk: Duck and Diesel in "Pop Goes The Diesel".
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