Really Useful: A Thomas the Tank Engine thread

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About a week ago, on December 15, 2023, Silbert Records released the third digital album for the songs from Shining Time Station.

Shining Time Station: The Juke Box Puppet Band SingSongs from Season Three

Like the previous release (but unlike the first), it contains only the songs performed by the Jukebox Band (specifically 25 this time since there were that many episodes in the third season) and none the songs from the music videos of that season. And once again, the show's theme song is omitted.

It's available to download at all the normal places, and to listen to for free on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kY61FUIHxATpP3rDWC1aT8uZzfFlahLVk

And, looking at the artwork for this album, only now do I realize that both Stacy Jones and the Ringo version of Mr. Conductor are visible in this illustration. I wanna say that the guy sticking his head out the window next to Stacy might be Schemer, but I'm not as sure.

With this album, all that remains are the 13 songs (well, 12 since one of them was a repeat) performed in the Family Specials. But it's a shame that so many other songs from the show's music videos were just left out altogether, especially the theme song too.

 

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Oh man! MAJOR news!

The Unlucky Tug has posted his annual New Years video talking about what he has planned to come for the rest of the year. And among the expected news for his usual projects (Sodor's Finest, The Thomas Retrospective, his model train videos, etc. etc.) is a HUGE announcement about an extra special project that will be released on a daily basis starting today, on his other channel "The Lucky Tug".

I don't want to give away what this special project is, but it's the first two topics discussed in the video right after the intro. But I will say, it's a TUGS project.

 

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Thomas is back in the public news:

 

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Oh, this is priceless!

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1808206646918762766

 

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Super late to this but the Awdry Extravaganza 4 took past last month on the 20-21 of July at the Talyllyn Railway in Wales.

Here's the announcement trailer from beforehand:

Here's a brief recap of the event (yes, those are cosplayers dressed as the Thin Controller, Sir Robert Norramby, and the George Carlin version of Mr. Conductor):

And here's the official livestream of the event, this time split into two parts for this year:

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And, as an extra special bonus treat, I just now found out about a super rare piece of nearly-lost media having been uploaded online for all to see and preserve.

Back in 2005, Christopher Awdry attempted to get his father's original Island of Sodor lore book (which was itself very hard to find having been out of print since 1992) reprinted by the publishers, but all his attempts to do so were denied and met with failure. So, he took it upon himself to write and publish a bring new book that served as a companion piece to that original book. The result was "Sodor: Reading Between the Lines".

As time went on, however, this book also became very hard to find after it went out of print, and has never been reprinted.

Well, as of May 7, 2024, someone went and scanned the entire book and uploaded all of it to Archive.org, where everyone and anyone can now read it as they please, or even save a copy of it for themselves as PDF.

 

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On this day, October 9, forty years ago in 1984, the British children's television series Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends made its world premiere in the United Kingdom.

To celebrate this 40th anniversary occasion, Nic "The Unlucky Tug" Goodrich has shared his personal story as a lifelong fan of Thomas and how the series has impacted his life over the years. It is a very touching and heartwarming video with a lot of love and passion put into it:

And next year, 2025, comes the 80th anniversary of The Railway Series as a whole, with its first book, The Three Railway Engines, having originally been published in the UK on May 12, 1945.

Happy anniversary, Thomas & Friends.