The Engines of Sodor

TEOSLogo — Logo used since the fourth season.

The Engines of Sodor is a fan fiction web series created by Thomas1Edward2Henry3. It is based upon The Railway Series and the TV series based on it Thomas (the Tank Engine) and Friends.

The Engines of Sodor is created with the Trainz software.

History

Thomas1Edward2Henry3 resumed his interest in Thomas around 2009. He made many home videos with his wooden trains but never uploaded them. He bought Trainz 2006 the same year and also made many remakes and fan episodes with the software. They are all on T1E2H3's old computer and will likely never see the light of day. T1E2H3 really got serious with Trainz Thomas when he got Trainz 2010. He started doing various remakes with the program, most of them Season 5 episodes that had not yet been remade in Trainz. He uploaded his first YouTube video, a remake of Toby's Discovery, on January 12, 2013. His intent was always to start a fan series, and had two attempts at starting one. The first was an episode about Sidney that was filmed around November 2012 but was never finished. This episode had no script and was scrapped about halfway through filming. The second attempt was a story about rowdy soccer fans, which had completed filming around May 2013 and even had all the voice actors lines sent. It was scrapped as it was a poorly written story and too similar to an episode of NWR1991's "NWR Tales" series. The second episode that was planned was then brought forward, and this evolved into the actual series pilot, A Wretched Day for Henry and James, which was uploaded on June 13, 2013.

The first season of The Engines of Sodor ran from June 2013 to May 2014, with a break between October and January to focus on specials. The first season was supposed to be a comedic take on Thomas and Friends, with some adult themes and language. The adult language seemed to have garnered mixed opinions, with some loving it whilst others claiming it was not appropriate for a show involving Thomas. The adult themes, on the other hand, were almost universally acclaimed. Episodes would range from being lighthearted and comedic (like Gordon Goes Swimming and Stuck!) whilst others dove into dark adult subjects (A Tale of a Small Green Engine). The first season featured voice actors such as EnterprisingEngine93 and Andrew Homer.

The first special, Haunted Henry, was a two part video that was uploaded in October 2013. It was an extended adaptation of T1E2H3's favorite TV episode. A three part Christmas special called How the Diesel Stole Christmas was uploaded in December and as the title suggests, is based on the Dr. Seuss classic book How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Though both generally received positive comments from the fandom, nowadays, T1E2H3 is not too proud of the two specials. However, he is still impressed with the effort he put into them.

The Second Season started right after the action packed finale of Season 1, Attack of the Railway Pirates, was uploaded. The first episode, Toad the Lucky Brake Van, was uploaded on May 15, 2014. Aside from a different intro and credits, the episodes were in the same format. Ten episodes were intended like the last season, but T1E2H3 only got to six. The sixth episode, The Eyes, acted as the 2014 Halloween special. A seventh episode was planned but reasons stated below, never happened.

The 2014 Christmas special was titled The Search for Smudger and focused on the narrow gauge engines. It dove deep into the characters of Duke, Smudger, and Bertram, who were not touched on much (especially the latter two) in the TV Series. It was critically acclaimed by viewers. In recent times, T1E2H3 thought it wasn't his best work but over time has began to re-appreciate it. The seventh episode of the second season was supposed to air in January afterwards, but there are several reasons why it never did. First, T1E2H3 was exhausted by the amount of work The Search for Smudger required, and took a break that he just never could get out of. This means he was unable to find the motivation to get working on another episode. Another reason was that the planned story of the next episode was very difficult to write. It was going to be a rivalry between Spencer and Crovan, but it was difficult to find situations where the two could interact, both being private engines. Eventually, T1E2H3 decided to put the Engines of Sodor on a hiatus, not knowing when he would resume. During this hiatus, he worked on his extended fan Railway Series and NWR Origins.

Originally planning to continue his Railway Series "books", he decided shortly after NWR Origins that he would rather resume the Engines of Sodor, but with certain changes. As he found out during his RWS, not using voice actors made progress much faster and easier, so he decided to axe them, only to be used in specials. He was also starting to realize that the adult content and language of his first two series did not fit with Thomas and Friends. Therefore, he decided to give a reboot and makeover to the Engines of Sodor. As it had been over a year and half since the last episode, he decided to just start a new season.

The third season began airing on April 24, 2016 with Double Muddle. The stories of the third season were written more in the style of Awdry's stories. Of course, there were a few little innuendos hidden in the dialogue but there was no more explicit swearing. This season contained eight episodes, though like the second, was intended to have 10 but never reached that far. The planned ninth and tenth episodes where supposed to act as the season finale, to be uploaded in December 2016. Unfortunately, many issues came about in T1E2H3's life that delayed production. Also, as T1E2H3 attempted to finally use the Crovan vs Spencer story originally for Season 2 (only this time with the Flying Scotsman), he found again that it was extremely difficult to write the story. The first part was filmed, but the script of the second part was re-written about five times. The final two episodes kept getting delayed to January, then February, and in March, T1E2H3 decided to put the idea on hold and start the Fourth Season. The two episodes were eventually upgraded into a two part special called The Most Famous Engine that was uploaded in May and June, after the fourth season started airing. They featured the voices of DarthWill3 as Spencer and new guest star Jackson Begley as the Flying Scotsman.

The fourth season began on April 22, 2017, two days short of a year from the beginning of the third. The first episode was called The Great Railway Heist. The following two episodes were uploaded in record time, about a week after each other. This was partially due to both scripts already being written. T1E2H3 is determined to have ten episodes for this season like intended before.

Episodes

Season 1 (2013-2014)

Season 2 (2014)

Season 3 (2016)

Season 4 (2017)

Specials

How the Diesel Stole Christmas (3 part special)
The Eyes (also regular episode)
The Search for Smudger (4 part special)
Night Express to Vicarstown
The Most Famous Engine (2 part special)

Cast

Before the third season, these actors provided the voices for the respected characters. However, some of the voice actors will still provied the characters voices in specials: