A Deep Dive into Thomas Lost Media - Reviewed & Ranked 

"The Missing Coach" is definitely my favorite entry on this list. The Donald and Douglas introduction arc just feels kind of rushed without it and some of the recreations on RU-vid are actually really good and professional looking. Also, _The Thomas and Friends Institute of Innovation_ is absolutely insane. I still can't believe it actually exists.

ironically, this video almost became lost media itself

38:20: In the BBC's written archive center, there exist documents of the show's production, including a picture of James' model, showcasing what the faces looked like.

The Thomas and Friends Institute of Information should have been a big sign that Mattel were gonna really screw over this brand in the long run. They had ideas to make Thomas way different than he was usually portrayed as long before the likes of BWBA and All Engines Go.

Not only the Pierce Brosnan's Season 12 dubbing is obscure but the fact that Gwyneth Paltrow was originally going to narrate this and the Great Discovery back in 2007 which would've made her the first Thomas female narrator, but she declined the offer. My hunch as to why is because Iron Man was probably in production around the same time as the Great Discovery. I can only imagine what it would've been like if we had Pepper Potts being a new Thomas and friends narrator.

The fact we got a screenshot of what the 1953 Sad Story of Henry looked like after this video's original publication.

I would definitely like to watch a video that covers "the Thomas Media we never got" that would include proposed characters or models that never got off the ground.

So, we have an update on the status of "The Adventures of Thomas"! Good News: Someone actually managed to get into contact with one of the producers and got hold of the first script for the movie! Bad News: Turns out the movie was in fact basically going to be "Thomas and the Magic Railroad" again, but with a darker, more grungier tone.

Something I find crazy is that a fair few things on this list has since gotten some sort of update since the OG upload: Pack story outlines (and 2 full scripts) scripts for the Down The Mine pilot and The Missing Coach a massive chunk of the original Polish dub and 2 tapes containing missing episodes of the French Dub from seasons 2 and 3 have shown up We know what Barry's true basis is the 1953 Sad Story Of Henry shooting/camera script has surfaced Pretty cool imo

Can we get a count of how many times he said “it is now stored away in Mattel’s warehouse” and used the guy pushing a box away in a warehouse?

Timestamps 2:25 #17. The Original Cut Of Thomas And The Magic Railroad 5:07 #16. Sir John Gielgud Narrations 6:55 #15. The Cut Season 21 Episodes 10:26 #14. The Missing Coach 12:42 #13. The Proper Season 7 US Dub 15:20 #12. Cancelled Chris Awdry Book Treatments 17:05 #11. The Thomas And Friends Institute of Innovation 18:27 #10. Down The Mine 1983 Pilot Episode 20:47 #9. Pierce Brosnan's Dub Of Season 12 23:35 #8. Foreign Dubs 25:30 #7. Dustin 27:00 #6. Gordon's Snow Machine 28:40 #5. The Original Draft of Day Of The Diesels 30:47 #4. The Adventures Of Thomas 33:09 #3. Jack And The Pack 36:37 #2. The Sad Story Of Henry (1953) 38:52 #1. Thomas The Tank Engine By Andrew Lloyd Webber

We were robbed big time with The Adventures of Thomas WWll movie being cancelled! Let’s hope the Marc Forster movie doesn’t suffer the same fate.

Fun fact Henry Japanese voice is sonic the hedgehog Japanese voice

The entry that got me interested in was The Adventures of Thomas. It's a shame that we never got to see the finished film, as it did have some potential. I'm not sure if it would've been good or bad, but for it to be cancelled hurts. Hopefully, Marc Forster's Thomas movie wouldn't go through the same development hell.

fun fact: Degas for some reason has one line in DOTD that was kept for unknown reasons, that line being "The steamworks is OURS now!"

Gordon shivering in his Timbers after diesel 10 zoomed by was my favourite part of the movie

Tug, I just wanted to say, thanks for this video. Without it, I wouldn't have discovered my favorite stage musical, Starlight Express

33:01 Let me be the first one to acknowledge the *ageing* of that part (and I guess the whole section).

The fact that there IS a Trainz model of Gordon’s snow-blowing machine means that reference photos must exist.

The Lost Media has really caught my eye, especially the Pierce Brosnan season 12 dubs and The never made Model Cut of Hero Of The Rails but I cannot wait to see the full Down The Mine Pilot in 2025

22:58 Just to add, at the TomsProps event in October 2022, Simon Spencer did confirm that an executive at HiT at the time had a personal wish to see "a Bond actor" perform as Thomas's narrator, despite Simon Spencer being more in favour of the show's "unsung heroes", Angelis and Brandon. I can't remember the confirmed reason Simon Spencer gave for dropping Brosnan but I believe it was a mix of HiT wanting to go ahead with the full CGI switch and cost-saving measures. As for Lost Media, the Three Tramway Engines who were apparently supposed to have been introduced in The Great Race would be nice to see. As they were for the Vicarstown Tramway, it would have been cool to see what their personalities and character designs would have been like had they gone ahead in production.

Actually the reason why Pierce Brosnan was made as a guest narrator for The Great Discovery instead of narrating 3 more seasons and 2 specials was because of an executive decision by HiT era producer Simon Spencer who felt that Brosnan was not appropriate for a production on a smaller scale rather than a movie (but like I really don't get it).

When I heard about The Adventures of Thomas, I was so excited to watch it. But it kept getting pushed to Late 2010, Spring 2011, and then 2012. Mattel even tried to finish the movie but they cancelled it in 2014. Man I was so disappointed about it. Oh well, at least there's going to be a new Thomas movie next year and I hope this one doesn't get cancelled. Does anyone else know other reasons why The Adventures of Thomas was cancelled?

I remember watching the thomas and the jet engine dvd when I was young, and I remember me rewatching those episodes on youtube for the first time in years immediately wondering why the music was different lol. I wouldn't be surprised if Unlucky Tug nominated Saltys Stormy Tale for the stand out episode for season 7 because of the original music.

It's amazing to see what has surfaced just over the span of the last three years. From the David Mitton Sodor maps over the season 5 rushes to the photo of the James model from 1953.

I hope all the season 12 episodes with Pierce Brosnan’s narrations get found soon, it would be nice to see all of S12 narrated by him.

Therapist: gigachad Hatt doesn’t exist. He can’t hurt you. Gigachad Hatt:

This Video: Talks about Lost Media Tug's First Channel: Technically Lost Media Lost Media within Lost Media! It's Lost Media-ception!

30:47, update on this section: in June 2024 of this year, A RU-vidr, Derek Smith, managed to get contact with one of the producers on The Adventures of Thomas and provided a early draft of the script on how the story would’ve went, providing details on what the engines would’ve looked like and what new characters it would’ve Introduced. And well, it had a cyberpunk/apocalypse theme tone where Diesels took over Sodor,Steamies were deemed useless, and apparently the World War 2 setting in the real world was an “allegory” for the steamies vs diesels plot, certainly was definitely something you didn’t expect for a movie based on Thomas(WEEEEEEESH).

I love this video! Lost media is always interesting in a slightly creepy way… On another note, will you be re uploading the live streams?

From what I can gather, The Adventure Begins is the best and worst thing that ever happened to Thomas & Friends. Good in terms of quality, but it caused a domino effect of delays.

Fun fact: in France, Thomas was called: “Thomas le petit train” which translates to “Thomas the little train”

As a German viewer I always wondered why I never got to see season 6 nor 7 as a Kid. Kinda sad that they just didn't translate them, as my firm belief is that Thomas did very well over here.

Thanks for mentioning Polish dubbing. You said Mr. Grzegorz Fedorowski's name very well for someone who never spoke Polish. Greetings from Poland.

The one I want unearthed the most is the proper US dub of Season 7. For purists like me, Hartshorne’s music in Season 7 is a poor substitute.

More noteworthy lost media: 1. The George Carlin dubs of "The Sad Story of Henry" and "Edward, Gordon, and Henry". Both are now available on Digital, but until then, were lost as they were never released on DVD/VHS. The only release of either dub in the US was Ringo Starr's on "Thomas Gets Tricked". The only proof till then that Carlin had dubbed them would've been from people seeing them on Shining Time Station. 2. Alec Baldwin's dub of "Jack Jumps In". Before Season Six got on Amazon Prime, this was lost due to lack of a DVD release, as "New Friends For Thomas" had Michael Angelis's dub due to the transition from Baldwin to Michael Brandon being incomplete. For some reason this episode wasn't on "Mud, Glorious, Mud", which had his dub of "A Friend in Need", which would've been lost otherwise. 3. "The Green Controller" extended version. Season 10's "The Green Controller", like TATMR, has an extended version. Like "The Missing Coach", stills are available, including James at the Coaling Plant in his "Busy Bee" livery, and a crucial scene was axed: James, distracted by teasing, runs a red signal and collides with Gordon, and then gets rear ended by Toby.

I really hope that script for Adventures of Thomas will become found one of these days. Regardless of its quality, I imagine it would be pretty fascinating.

Honesty, the idea of The Adventures of Thomas sounds exactly like Magic Railroad.

At 40:33 I got Jumpscared by AEG. Thanks for that

The original DOTD could've possibly been a sequel to TATMR. I think the movie could've worked much better if Diesel 10 was after Thomas, seeking revenge on him for helping Lady, the lost engine escape. But not just after him as in "chasing after him", i mean finding ways to emotionally and maybe even mentally break him apart before going in for the kill. The dark tones of it could've been Diesel 10, Splatter and Dodge cornering Thomas in the Smelter's yard, only for Thomas to manage in escaping. Diesel 10 somehow getting his claw on a truck full of dynamite and planning to blow up Tidmouth Sheds with the engines inside using it, in hopes of killing all of them. Another dark tone could be Diesel 10 using one of Thomas's friends as hostages. Now THAT would be dark. The whole "stopping Diesel 10" part of it could start with the other diesels realising what D10's actually trying to do and going "I know we're wanting to replace those steam guys but jfc dude 💀". Quite a dark movie it would've been if it was something like that.

I really hope they do release the pilot for Thomas’ 80th anniversary in 2025. But it’s May 3, 2023 and I don’t think I can wait 2 years 😂 but just like Tug says “Only time will tell”

Y'know I just recently had this theory about how the rebecca episodes could have gone if they were in season 21 as a 3 episode arc, I say this because these Confusion Without Delay and Chucklesome Trucks along with the episodes What Rebecca Does and Gordon and Rebecca Coming Through are all written by the same writer, Davey Moore. I suspect that gordon teaching Rebecca how to do things his way from Gordon and Rebecca Coming Through was originally part of the s21 version of Confusion without Delay since in the former narrator Thomas says that Rebecca is still a new engine even though she's been on sodor for about 2 years which means that it most likely was apart of the s21 version of Confusion without Delay. I also bring up What Rebecca Does because in the Confusion without Delay that got we saw her for a bit doubting herself of being as good as the others which see something similar in the former episode, so maybe this was meant to be a thing throughout her arc with the final episode of it being a mishmash of What Rebecca Does and the rest of Gordon and Rebecca Coming Through. Also most likely throughout all three of these there would be a subplot about Gordon missing Edward who just recently moved out of Tidmouth Sheds and with Rebecca coming to help out with the express maybe this makes him paranoid about possibly being replaced so he tries to make sure Rebecca doesn't become the second express until near the end of the arc where starts to think that maybe he's been too hard on Rebecca and then in the final episode of the arc Rebecca probably saves him from an accident and stands up for him when Flying Scottsman teases Gordon where he finally accepts Rebecca as the second express engine and apologises to her for how he's treated her, and maybe we see him have a talk with Edward and says he finally accepts the Old Iron's decision to move out of the sheds. Now this is all just speculation and I could just be spouting nonsense from my rear but I just got a feeling. Of course the only way to confirm this is to get into contact with Davey Moore somehow like how ThomasFan2002 got into contact with Ian McCue. Anyways here's how I think this could've gone (this with the assumption that Nia and the Unfriendly Elephant was actually the Rosie episode). Confusion without Delay: episode starts with Gordon pulling the express but he's clearly not doing as good, The Fat Controller notices this and figures it's time to bring in a new engine to help with express from now on and that's when we get Rebecca's introduction like in the actual episode. Next morning Gordon teaches Rebecca how to pull the express but gives her bad advice, and coupled with her faulty breaks, makes here not do so well. Near the end of the episode she then gets the idea to go fast enough to make extra sure she won't be late and maybe get Gordon's respect, however she ends up arriving too early and thus gets in trouble with The Fat Controller, she admits that she was doing what Gordon told her to do and thus Gordon gets in trouble aswell with The Fat Controller deciding to have Henry teach Rebecca how to pull the express, the episode ends with Rebecca worried that she might've gotten into Gordon's bad book but Henry assures her that it just takes a while to get Gordon's respect. Chucklesome Trucks: Rebecca volunteers to take a special goods train to Vicarstown as she says she's had no trouble pulling trucks back on the Mainland (as we see in a flashback she sings with them like how Salty did in his introduction episode). The others caution Rebecca to treat the trucks right because if she doesn't then she might have an accident which makes her nervous. Gordon however says that he doubts Rebecca can handle sodor trucks which makes her determined to prove she can to Gordon and confidently states she can handle any kind of truck no problem. Next day comes Rebecca pulls the train to Vicarstown and try's to join in on the trucks' fun but ends up having too much fun with them cuasing them to take advantage of that and make her crash. Rebecca then gets sent to the steamworks and laments to herself that she might've failed the whole railway and might never be as good as the others, with Gordon passing by and overhearing this starts to think that maybe he's been too hard on Rebecca and the episode ends. Final Episode (let's call it Rebecca Coming Through): Rebecca spends the episode still depressed about the events of the previous episode a d thinks ahe's not good enough to be apart of the railway meanwhile another engine (let's use Henry since in this version he taught Rebecca how to pull the express properly) that she does deserve to be on the railway tells her about to momments from there past where they were called an enterprising engine (specifically with Henry the events of Super Rescue and the book Henry and the Express, basically saying that they happened off screen st somepoint) and says that Rebecca just needs to wait for that momment to happen. Meanwhile Gordon has a talk with Edward about how he's (Gordon) been acting since Edward left and says that he just really misses him and wishes things can go back to the way they were before with Edward giving Gordon a talk about how change is inevitable and Gordon has to accept it which leaves Gordon to think. Near the end of the episode Gordon gets into a accident and Rebecca saves him and gets him and whatever train he's pulling to Vicarstown where just like the end of the actual Confudion without Delay Rebecca stands up for Gordon by saying she thinks Gordon is bigger than Scottsman. Gordon apologises to Rebecca for being rude to her and Rebecca forgives him. On there way to Tidmouth Sheds they stop by at Wellsworth were Gordon says to Edward that he finally accepts Edwards decision to move out with Edward happy that Gordon has accepted change and the two say goodbye to one another. The episode ends with Rebecca backing into the Edwards old berth, finally earning her spot on the Steam Team. That's how I think it could've gone, it's not perfect but hey it's better than nothing, again won't know for sure if this if how it would've gone unless someone gets into contact with Davey Moore. Good luck with upload the rest of your videos tug (really want to see the Thomas Debunked videos reuploaded), see ya next time.

We now have a picture of James from The Sad Story of Henry (1953) which shows us that he was likely made with the tank engine model.

My favourites out of these are The Down The Mine Pilot and The 1953 BBC Pilot. I would love to see them both to see what happens in them, and what they are like.

I love this video, glad it’s back on RU-vid!

17:09 Aka the behind the scenes footage of the creation of All Engines GO If the general public thought that the characters from Thomas and Friends are magical because of Magic Railroad, imagine their thoughts of the series after seeing The Institute of Innovation.

This is i think my favorite video from you and im so glad you were able to re-upload it and I hope all else goes well in the process of re-uploading other videos

This is technically a Thomas and Friends iceberg.

Shane Acker has had like ten projects that all got canned, including this Thomas movie. It's like, once he had his one big success, the industry decided that no, they're done with him.

For those that want to sleep peacefully tonight, I would suggest skipping 17:05-18:27.

17:36 So that's where Shed 17 came from.

Two illusive pieces of Thomas lost media, are the Season 4 music videos of That's What Friends Are For and Rules & Regulations.

Ok who else is coming back to this video knowing that Nic was somehow right about The Adventures of Thomas being a TATMR repeat?

Truly an interesting video, while not impressive or that big, it’s a personal favorite of mine since I’ve always been interested in lost media in general, so Thomas lost media is the perfect combination for me, definitely a video to remember

Here's something you probably didn't know Unlucky tug Fearless Freddie and Duncan were meant to return in blue mountain mystery but they were dropped for unknown reasons

2022 was a great year for lost media

As someone who loves both this series and mysteries, very glad to see this one back. Wonder if Tug would ever consider doing a Jack and the Pack film as per Tugs. That would be quite interesting to watch.

It may not have been as originally intended but the U.S still got “proper” season 7 dubs as they were officially released.

Well at least we found the scripts for both the Missing Coach and the sad story of Henry.

Drinking Game: Take a shot every time Tug uses the warehouse scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark.

fun fact with the missing dubs: the original plan in latin america was to dub shining time station into spanish in mexico, is believed that the dub was finished, but due to the close of the channel that originally was planned to air shining time, they didn't released the dub, later on the first seasons of thomas were dubbed in argentina, and that dub stayed until series 12

30:51 - 33:01 Sheesh. Looking back on this part of the video, the latter was definitely what would have happened. I honestly think we dodged a missile. I know we all hate AEG, but at least that included humans on Sodor. This canceled movie would have basically been Magic Railroad meets Bayverse Transformers with WWII and no humans on Sodor. We all thought we were robbed, when we were really dodging whatever disaster the film would have been.

In the 1953 pilot their is a photo of the James model that has surfaced.

I could be honest. Andrew Lloyd Webber would’ve done a great job at this Thomas cartoon he had planned. Although the designs on James, Gordon and Henry’s faces sort of remind me of Jimmy Durante or perhaps Larry Fine of the Three Stooges. I don’t if it’s the nose or anything. But that’s kinda what it reminds me of.

Would loved if Pirece Pronsne narrated Season 12 of Thomas it would've been even better

Glad to have this video return agian

Keep Reuploading Your Great Videos and Keep up The Good Work!

30:19 this is the *ONLY* actual publicly available production of Diesel 10 being violent. He literally is talking about murder.

Good god I didn’t even realize how much of the show’s preservation is completely lost, though thankfully it at least means Mattel just owns the majority in the archives

There's actually a lost Tagalog dub of the show, it was said to air in 2012 on GMA 7 (the 5th oldest television network in the country) the only footage found was a clip from Bust My Buffers. However, the dub could be illegal, GMA is notorious for stealing films from America, and dubbing them in Tagalog.

Its weird because I could have sworn I have seen a full episode of Pierce Brosnan's narration, but that is just from what I can remember.

The person who voiced palpatine should have played diesel 10

It's pretty interesting of pieces of lost media of Thomas, and I enjoyed it back in 2022, just learning and knowing what things could have expected.

18:10 Company: Hi we want to sell Thomas products. Mattel: Cool, cool. But do you want to see some crazy shit first?

12:25 & 19:50: I'm pretty sure those shots were added to the film of the released episodes, which were scanned for restoration. It's very much possible that the original footage might be lost, and it might be possible that there was never a version of season 7 with Michael Brandon's narration with Mike and Junior's music beyond what was made for the Thomas & the Jet Engine DVD, although sources confirm that the former two do still exist.

So I don’t know if this has been mentioned in a comment section, but back in 1995, while writing for the magic railroad, paramount studios was intended to work on the movie, (The original title being ‘The rainbow railroad’) and it was intended to be filmed with large scale models, similar size to the pack scale. However the company owner who accepted it was replaced by a new owner. The new owner deemed it to be too expensive. So yeah, that’s cool. Not lost media but just something that could have happened

I remember when I saw the boulder getting stopped by a man appearing out of nowhere I jumped 😂

39:53 I WOULD HAVE LOOOOOOVVVVVED TO SEE THIS MASTERPIECE!!!!!

There are 2 additional pieces of lost media to be discussed, what Thomas 1st theatrical film would've been like when it was originally supposed to be released in 1997, not what we got Magic Railroad, and would've it been something based on the RWS only if Awdry had lived a bit? Also if Awdry lived a bit longer, would've Season 5 been another season with RWS adaptions only? Would've the Culdee Fell and Peel Godred railroad be adapted into the show? Also the other source of lost media would be Season 25 onwards if the original show got proper marketing and exposure and wasn't cancelled and replaced with the s****y AEF reboot! Would Thomas finally go to Japan to visit Hiro just like he promised all the way back in HOTR? Would this been an additional season of BWBA or the start of another new era? Would've Michael White or any professional writer try hard to retcon everything wrong about BWBA? And would've they've given more unnecessary international characters more lead roles to prove that they're not just marketing tools just like Yong Bao? Again, we can only speculate.

What if Tug made a video about cancelled characters

The institute of Innovation looks/feels like something from Sodor Fallout tbh

What's funny about the 53' pilot, is that shortly after this videos original release, we got a BOMBSHELL reveal of official photos from an old magazine/newspaper of James the red engine's prop *from* the actual pilot. Bet you wished you'd waited on uploading the original video when ya did, huh Tug?😅

In the late 90s my parents sold the wooden Thomas toys as a small retail business. We did a premiere day for the magic rallroad at a local theater and there was a ton of promotional material (Posters, pamphlets, decor and some limited/early run toys) that I imagine got trashed after. As a kid I never really liked that movie but it was fun to spend a whole day in a theater unattended.

ngl derek fits him so well like his full name might as well be sir derek topham hat!

Oh. My. God. I think I know what was lost in D. O. T. D' original script from what I've watched. The reason why Diesel 10 and the diesels tried to destroy the SteamWorks was so they can try to kill the steam engines and the reason why Percy was forced not to leave was because If he left, he would be scrapped. And the reason why they are doing this is because of Thomas in the previous movie.

Hey Tug, to your question at 25:25 , i am german and i own a Special DVD with all of the Jack and the Pack episodes in German dub. Jusg ask if u need more details😀

The rarest track by the Beatles is “supposedly” them doing the Thomas theme song.

I can't believe your Magic Railroad analysis video is blocked in the US.

The fact that the musical Thomas from the early 70s was carried over to AEG is wild and tragic

shoutout for using 3kliksphilip music

Ok I actually have an update on The Adventures of Thomas. One day I was listening to the radio on the way home from school earlier this year. I heard that the director (I think) of the live action Barbie movie was planning to help make other movies of other things. One of the things in the list they mentioned was Thomas the Tank Engine. Maybe we’re going to get a live action Thomas movie after all?

28:24 If you compare the WR prototype to the snow machine we saw, the shape doesn't quite match. I mean, the toy looks like a square steam engine with a rotary blade instead of a face or smoke box door.

I love the way he keeps saying somewhere in Mattel's hardrive

When missing coach footage is found, I can rest easy

i am pretty much the only person who desperately wants the darker cut of day of the diesels with the original voice for D10

Jack and the Pack had introduced a new steamroller, yet George was introduced way before that, makes sense, since George wasn't owned by any construction company.

def had to subscribe. you taught me lots very intereting. im 28 grew up on this stuff. (canada). After seeing the old intros def brings back memories. Escp with the pink text. I always used to call him thomas the tank engine and thats why aswell. Been watching the classic series on prime and they def replaced that with the thomas and friends logo, man i feel old lol. i have yet to watch one cgi version... was not around back in the day and well i grew out o the show. but ive been watching for shits and giggkes.... learnt alot alright

A few season 7 episodes were told by Michael Angelis on a video tape and DVD as well in the us

A few face molds of Hero were actually made, and I think Thomas Tank Merch has them

Here's my theory for The Snow Machine: it was a one off prop. There hasn't been evidence of the show planning to reuse The Machine, and the prop itself looking rather incomplete compared to other rolling stock characters (we can see there doesn't seem to be anything on the front in the front view of it half buried next to Thomas.) The Snow Machine Prototype Toy doesn't look like it used the machine as a reference either, as it doesn't match the original props body shape. although that last one could be a stretch considering they also sometimes stretched out other characters.