Mysteries of Thomas the Tank Engine Discussion

Can engines be different races? Could there be a black engine? Several diesels in the RWS had different color faces.

OneJ_QuintupleA wrote:-Who are the Electric Peel Godred Engines?
-Why haven't they never been seen yet on their branch line or anywhere for that matter?
-What exactly happened to the (original) plans to make an extension from Arlesburgh to Harwick?
-Is Misty Island an abandoned site now since we've seen the seemingly blocked up tunnel?

Because of Misty Island's obvious lack of people and realism in general, I have always thought that the events on Misty Island during MIR and any episode featuring the Logging Locos are dreams had by Thomas. So, in MIR, Thomas leaves Sodor to collect Jobi wood, falls asleep on the boat, and his dream becomes the story in MIR. Then he collects the wood an the Search hand Rescue Centre is completed. (I think about episodes like Rusty and the Boulder as dreams as well)

Maybe the episodes with special coal are also dreams.

I don't think we should explain them away as "dreams". Here's my theory: sometime between Series 5 and TATMRR, Henry was somehow damaged, requiring special coal/happy coal/Welsh coal/Sodor coal to compensate until he was repaired, in 2005, say. All the special coal episodes are set during that time. This also gives Gordon's "Don't tell me he needs special coal again" comment more merit- if he had, it would have been the third time!

You can go with your theory but since I like to think of the Classic Series, TATMRR, the New Series, the Nitrogen series and the Arc series as separate canons and since the Arc series contains almost everything, the special coal episodes could of been dreams by Gordon which is why Toby was confused in KOTR.

I don't think the writers ever considered any sort of canon until King of the Railway. So I don't think about it that hard.

ZadokTheBeast wrote:Can engines be different races? Could there be a black engine? Several diesels in the RWS had different color faces.

I doubt this, as the steam locomotives all had grey faces - I suppose for racial neutrality.

On the 'Sodor engines have life due to extreme science' idea, I'm actually thinking of making a series about that. Any one agree with the idea?

Yes! Go ahead.

In my canon, the engines get faces when they move for the first time, and never lose it until they know for sure there's no hope. Kinda sappy, I know. But they can be revived with a new personality if they move independently once more.

Now for another pressing topic: Why do most of the newer engines have weird, bright colors? (like Rosie, Stanley, Billy, or Molly)

They were meant for merchandising, and children love bright colours.

Plus having all the engines in hostorically authentic liveries, there would not be a very varied color palette

We'll take all the engines

and paint them all NWR Blue!

And then it'll be like the Skarloey Railway. I like the "all red" thing there, but not for the NWR engines.

Yeah, and I think James wouldn't agree.

I personally prefer the multiple color schemes for the Skarloey Engines.

Another query - THE TUMBLEWEED IN THE MAGIC RAILROAD.

(For the uninformed, a minor character in Thomas and the Magic Railroad was a tumbleweed, who was sentient and commonly seen communicating with the engines.)

I always thought it was because the tumbleweed was some sort of "guardian" of the magic buffers. It was once a normal tumbleweed, but the magic railroad "mutated" it.

Perhaps. I always liked him (Or her? It sounds male.).

Speaking of the tumbleweed, I think its lines were mistaken for Thomas' in the Hebrew version.

Any specific scenes?

When Thomas was taking Lily to the Magic Buffers that leads through to Muffle Mountain, he encountered the tumbleweed on Sodor before he even made it to the buffers and it spoke in a male voice

I see.

What else..

Smudger - Where is he? Japanese promotional material says (Or so I've heard!) that he was brought to the Skarloey Railway to work - Still as a generator. 

Can the engines bleed?

They are machines. Of course not. If their water tank was punctured, maybe something similar, but otherwise... probably not.