UPDATE TO THE SEARCH: Britt's email was incorrect. After twitter user @ClickClackTrack spoke with the co-creator of Shining Time Station, it was learned that he did indeed remember the pilot, and it DID NOT include Ringo's narration. I believe that Britt had gotten certain details mixed up (it's been nearly 40yrs lol) and thus it might not have even included Mike and Junior's score. You can read more here: twitter.com/clickclacktrack/status/1346505892460576768
Thats for america (shining time station) thomas is and was british. The "pilot" was part of Original work later used for the episode later in the series.
"The Britt Allcroft Presents at the opening was part of each film because I thought of each and everyone of them as a present from me for every child watching them. Best, Britt" You're such an angel, Britt. We miss you indefinitely.
Shes no angel in my eyes but a good person that makes mistakes Well she made a mistake so fucking big it sent the franchise into the fucking ICU and that was TATMR
I’ve got so much nostalgia for Thomas and Friends. I used to collect all of the little model trains they made of the characters. It really went downhill when they switched to CGI.
it says "It is depicted as being located in the Irish Sea, just off the English mainland near Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria" when you search it on bing, "Barrow-In-Furness" is my town so yea its really close, theres this weirdly shaped island called walney that was mostly created from long shore drift so its really long and thin and basically off there is where the island was said to be, idk i just think thats pretty cool
Honestly despite me not being part of the Thomas community, I have to admit Thomas’ history is so fascinating. There are so many things to discover & learning about, I could talk about it all day.
Fun fact: Thomas is what introduced me to the concept of lost media. No, it wasn’t this pilot or The Missing Coach. It was the original version of Thomas and the Magic Railroad. Of course, the lost scenes from the original version was released on the Shout! Factory release earlier this year. But this video combined my love for Thomas and lost media. Well done! I just subscribed. I loved your past videos on lost media as well! P.S. - I wouldn’t expect you to get anything from Sodor Island Forums. It’s just a Fansite and forum for adult Thomas fans, I’m a member there, and I know site owner Ryan is in touch with people on the CGI version of the series and more recently, the... disturbing 2D version that’s coming out next year. 🤮 But I wouldn’t be surprised if Britt has a copy in her possession. She probably has a lot of unreleased gems from her time with Thomas, and a majority of the behind-the-scenes and cut footage from the Magic Railroad Blu-ray originally came from Britt Allcroft’s personal collection. I’ve talked to her before numerous times, and she really is such a kind, great person! Best of luck on your future lost media searches!!
@@maitele Yes, Thomas and the Magic Railroad was a victim of executive meddling in more ways than one! Nick Starwind put out a good video on the topic. Also note that the Shout! Factory Blu-ray has been released since his video’s upload, and it has more lost footage in it than the mentioned leaked workprint. Last I heard, Nick’s working on a part 2 after finishing The Missing Coach part 3.
Thomas and the magic railroad is such an oddity haha. I recently also rediscovered a dutch dub of that movie and found out it has never actually come out on DVD as an official dub, just broadcast once on a dutch network here so that's also a rare version of the movie. It's so fascinating going down the magic railroad rabbit hole, especially with the OG cut here on youtube to watch haha
@@Vexmybeloved_ Wow... I've been wanting to watch the Dutch version as I heard Pinchy has his own voice in the Dutch dub. I never knew it was never released on DVD! I've also been wanting to learn Dutch so I can watch Het Huis Anubis (the original version of House of Anubis that aired in the Netherlands) But yeah, I would love to hear the Dutch dub of TATMR.
When it comes to narration I think it might have been done by Britt herself as if you watch the rough cut of "Thomas and the magic railroad" she narrates the sections which are missing
Love the video, really great work! It's honestly immensely heartening seeing a complete outsider be equally as passionate about something the community's been trying to find for years lol. Couple things I wanted to mention: 1) Britt was likely misremembering and thinking of the 'final' version of Down The Mine - It's been 40 years and memories are foggy. Neither Mike nor Editor Micheal Dixon remember the pilot having music. 2) Dixion also confirmed the pilot had no intro, as it had been planned to have a 2D-animated one but it wasn't finished in time and thus not used. 3) Fuck SiF. They have everything and share nothing, and encourage crew to only talk to them. Seeing an outsider's research suffer due to their roadblocking is aggravating. We know at least two copies of the pilot exist, one with Britt, and one with her co-creator on Shining Time Station, Rick Sigglekow - the Mitton Estate junked a whole bunch of stuff a while ago so they likely don't have theirs. SiF almost certainly has a copy of at least one of these tapes though, the head admin got a whole bunch of stuff from the Mitton Estate two weeks after the man himself passed. The admin has never divulged any details about what he received, but they boasted in private that it was a lot...
They knew. They knew it all for years and kept it all to themselves in their stupid little club. Sam had the missing coach pictures, the stuff David had and the countless mirage of stuff owned by the Star Tugs Trust. Go to 24 seconds in on this video and you’ll see the missing branch line coach on the end of an express train, it’s no fucking coincidence: ua-cam.com/video/2dsOM3n-uBI/v-deo.html
@@furnessespeon Yep. It's disgusting. It's legitimately depressing seeing how that one little circlejerk has intentionally and successfully managed to sabotage even completely independent research into the show for nearly 2 decades. They have everything and give nothing.
The unreleased archive Thomas channel might have music that would’ve been featured in the pilot. also, realistically speaking, Mattel may have the pilot somewhere in their archives along with the missing coach footage and the leaked Magic Railroad Director’s Cut workprint. Or ITV may have the pilot in their own archives, you never know - but this quest is still getting better and better!
Could you do a video on The Missing Coach as well please! I know you did talk about in this video but concerning all the information we have about from production phots to reused footage, it would be a fantastic video! Also, a video on the KING of lost media would be fantastic as well. The Doctor Who Missing Episodes
Very good video, but slight nitpick: The models weren't rebuilt out of brass until much later, being done for Thomas and the Magic Railroad as the older models (made of Perspex) were starting to show their age by that point and it was feared that age would be even more apparent on the big screen.
This was a great video! Although the chances of the pilot being released nowadays are smaller than impossible due to the reboot next year, it's amazing to get some new pieces of information of the pilot! Great job as always!
i do have some info on the pilot, not too much tho. it was about 2:30 minutes long, was NOT voiced by ringo starr and mattel has it on an archive ( the full pilot) . I hope this helps, and good luck!
I thought that someone had finally got the full pilot and uploaded it here that's what I thought this was but it turned out to be this amazingly edited video essay keep up the good stuff
On the narration front, I understand that Ringo auditioned for the series by recording himself reading Down the Mine from Gordon the Big Engine and sending that tape in. I think it's possible that that recording was used for the pilot.
Very interesting video and fantastic dedication on your part! Well done. I and others have a theory which is very possibly true. You see for the digitalisation of classic television, the restoration team would have to refer back to the original film reels and clean them up. Whenever, there would be too much damage to a film reel, alternate takes, reconstructions or poorer copies would be used to fill in the gaps. Thomas And Friends has had a digital release meaning that a lot of the actual film reels from the original series back in the 80s still exist. Now, when looking at the first 3 Seasons, there are some parts where the restoration doesn’t match up with the VHS copies (which were the ones seen on television at the time) and you can see inconsistencies like certain shots being wider, alternative takes being used and grainier VHS footage being used instead. These parts are probably the ones which are too badly damaged for use. However, when looking at both the shot used in Down The Mine that was taken from The Pilot and footage that was Reused from The Missing Coach, there are no differences with the original television edits meaning that for the restoration, they used the original footage. This means that both the footage from The Pilot and The Missing Coach are most likely still with the rest of the raw film reels and could be in a storage, as the production team needed to keep the footage in order to refer back for advertisements, restoration, further releases and music videos (which is why in a lot of the early music videos, you can see deleted scenes or alternate angles of certain shots). If you want more information about this, I suggest you check out Nick Starwinds videos concerning The Missing Coach and alternate footage. Here are the links. The third one is the one comparing the original footage and restored footage ua-cam.com/video/x2uVt8Uw9Aw/v-deo.html ua-cam.com/video/lxmbQSjXIs8/v-deo.html ua-cam.com/video/k9GbRHj1bP8/v-deo.html
In regards to the music, I think it's very possible the final episode score IS the pilot score, reused wholesale. At the time the pilot would have been made, Mike and Junior would be doing the very first recordings of themes and ideas, so the pilot could have used that. The equally/unjustly rare sizzle reel for TUGS did the same thing, basically using whatever was around in the early days. The final version of down the mine has 2 very short and simple incidental cues. The rest includes Annie and Clarabels theme, which is extremely uncommon and feels out of place, a weird version of Gordons theme which oddly fades in, and a version of the breakdown song with extra offbeat chords. That might've sounded like an alien language, basically the music feels very early to me. I'm thinking Mike not remembering the pilot is because they actually never rescored the final, so in his memory (this was nearly 40 years ago, mind you) he's only scored one version of the episode, which must be the final.
I really like that you care about the people you affect during a search. Sometimes people get so caught up in finding something they forget that these are real people.
Actually, that began with the Magic Railroad and the takeover didn’t go into effect til after S7 and Jack and the Pack’s 13 episode production were completed.
The first Thomas model can be seen outside of Tidmouth sheds as a scrap model during season 1. Gordon's can be seen in the scrapyard in episodes "Toad Stands By" "Halloween" and "Thomas, Percy, and Old Slow Coach"
Those aren’t the pilot models. They’re just casts made of the models to be used as set dressing. They did the same think with Donald and Douglas and Toad. The pilot models were actually overhauled and remade into the models the show used for the first first seasons. Unless a model is for certain never going to be used again (The Marklin Engine, Puffa, and Little Owl for examples) they’d simply keep them in storage once they were no longer used. The season 4 narrow gauge models are a good example of this actually. After season 5, they pretty much stopped being used altogether outside of the odd episode. Yet they still exist because they were simply stored away.
@@WesternOhioInterurbanHistory they may have reused the chassis for the scrap model, but the people who worked on the models for the show even said the pilot models got rebuilt into the final models. Well, except the chassis which were completely replaced with new ones that ran better.
Really lovely video! You went through way more than most of the dedicated fandom has gone through to find this stuff! Just one correction, all the engines were plastic models up to season 5/magic railroad. That's when the engines were made in brass. Budget, like you mentioned a lot! The plastic James model is actually preserved by a private owner and should (hopefully!) Be going to a train show next year to be displayed along with face masks and 4 of the narrow gauge engines that the collector owns.
I've been watching Thomas since Shining Time Station. I think it's fair to say he is timeless. It's so cool to learn this history about both the original attempt and ultimately the showcase. That you could get the info from the creator herself makes it more special, because she really has given people a gift.
There’s a few discrepancies I’d like to point out. 1. The Pilot Models for Thomas and Gordon were indeed made of Acrylic sheets for the main bodyshells, but they didn’t make brass models for Thomas and Percy till magic railroad, and Gordon, Henry, James, Edward till series 10. And Toby in series 12. Series 1-5 all the models of engines 1-10 bill,ben, diesel, were constructed of acrylic sheeting 2. The Pilot models for Thomas and Gordon were actually made into the Thomas and Gordon we see in the actual show, with new Marklin chassis and modified shells from the pilot. Changes were made but they still are mostly the pilot shells 3. Any scrap dressing you see of Thomas and Gordon’s bodyshells are actually resin casts taken of the models, but you can see some of Gordon’s wheels off his original pilot chassis as scrap dressing.
In response to the question about music, back when those pilot episodes were shot, British media and television companies often employed the use of a tape library, where large amounts of public domain music was stored for use on programs without the budget for their own music, an example of this is in the film Monty Python and the holy grail, the soundtrack to that film is made up of public domain music because their budget was too tight for original composition.
4:09 The pilot models of Thomas and Gordon were actually modified into the final models used in the show with a more reliable Marklin chassis. All the models in the first two seasons were all made of plastic, and they only started making models out of brass during the third season. The main characters did eventually get brass models made to replace them, as the original plastic models were most likely tired out from years of wear and tear, starting with the Magic Railroad and into the HiT era of the show.
I'm having a huge deja vu right now, so I probably already commented this, haha, but. When I was little I was so scared of Thomas? I mean, I was fourteen, idk what was wrong with me I just had nightmares and it was awul, haha. Some years after that, the interrnet suddenly started loving to meme Thomas the tank engine and making horror games with the setting and, yes, exactly. My irrational thoughts coming true, awesome. But this video kinda makes me want to see it for reals. I'm, like, an adult now, so I shouldn't be scared anymore haha.
Very good vid! Love how much dedicated research you did for this. I reckon one day in the future we'll see this footage, though I reckon Missing Coach will be more likely than the pilot. When? Who knows. Maybe when ownership falls from Mattel which, judging by the reaction of the new series of Thomas from fans, may not be that long... :D I'm still hoping, though, for more missing Dr. Who to be located.
Fun fact, the models were actually all made of plastic until the year 1999 when “Thomas And The Magic Railroad” had started filming. Also the model that you showed while comparing the pilot model was actually the brass model used in season 6 to season 12 (2002 to 2009.) the plastic model for Thomas was used almost 20 years, his EXACT same model was used from (1984 until 1998.) his model had no backups so they had to keep refurbishing it every time a crazy scene happened
@@SewerReviewer there were multiple brass props made for the show, sadly the ones at Drayton were used in production... the park just fails to take care of them and doesn’t fix them when they need to be fixed
@@SewerReviewer the Drayton models are the real props from the show unfortunately. They aren’t taken care of at all and are slowly deteriorating as we speak. Some have even been lost or stolen.
There is a theory about the pilot that the scenes of the fat controller were scenes from the pilot i mean just look at him and look at him from the rest of season 1
I know I’m late, but if you can, Also cover The Missing Coach and the fact that The Flying Scotsman was supposed to make his first appearence in Tenders For Henry. He acually has his tenders shown on screen, but the rest of his incomplete model was not.
I did a little searching today and I found a video on UA-cam called "Thomas' Train Syncro-Vox Test" which seems to indicate that at some point they were considering using human mouths akin to the ones on "Clutch Cargo" for the human models such as Sir Topham Hatt or the workmen Edit: take it with a grain of salt, some people are saying it's fanmade
Here's some more information I think you'd like to know. The Thomas and Gordon models from the Pilot would later be rebuilt into the S1 Models (The Thomas model would actually survive way up till the near end of Series 11.) According to @TomProps on Twitter.
Willie Rushton's first narration was *Edward the Blue Engine,* the next book in the series after *Gordon the Big Engine,* where _Down the Mine_ takes place.
i have a suggestion for one video how about you take a look at The All New Captain Kangaroo & it's Spinoff Mister Moose's Fun Time one was a 1997 reboot of the original Captain Kangaroo which most people didn't enjoy and the other was a spinoff to the reboot which also features Thomas the Tank Engine & The Wiggles both have been lost to time with the exception of various episodes uploaded by me
Fun Fact: The models of Thomas and Gordon from the pilot are the exact same ones as the final models. And the final models weren’t made out of brass and were made of plastic, Thomas didn’t get a brass model until ‘Thomas & The Magic Railroad’, while Gordon got 2 brass models for Season 10 of the show.
If itv did have the pilot on tape, it would be more then likely recorded over, as is common practice by the beeb to recycle older tapes and record over them. Case in point, most of the early dr who recordings.
I like how the Reverend never mentioned God or Christ or anything religious in his stories, even if he was a man of the lord. It shows his dedication to the stories and characters!
It occurs to me that some information may lay in the National Science and Media Museum or the BFI National Archive - have you tried both places as it is possible that, when entries were made in the archives for TTEAF, records and paperwork for the pilot was thrown in too
As far as I know Ringo Starr DID narrate the pilot, Britt Alcroft said in an interview that when she first met him and tried to get him to be the narrator he offered to narrate a few of the stories to see if she still wanted him. One of the stories Ringo did was 'Down the Mine' and so that became the pilot.
ight yes he is a tank engine but you aren't a real fan if you didn't listen to the classic songs calling the engines trains. And stop acting like engines and trains are different races 🙄
If you mean the first shot episode after the test pilot? Yes, it probably is. Well, some of it anyway. They way they filmed Thomas was since each set took up so much space, they’d film all the sequences for the season that used a particular set before tearing it down and doing it with another set, only rebuilding sets occasionally for pickups or retakes after most of shooting had been completed. So it’s likely a lot of the parts of Thomas Goes Fishing that stand out as “rudimentary” were likely the first stuff filmed, seeing as those sets weren’t used in a lot of other episodes if at all
UPDATE TO THE SEARCH:
Britt's email was incorrect. After twitter user @ClickClackTrack spoke with the co-creator of Shining Time Station, it was learned that he did indeed remember the pilot, and it DID NOT include Ringo's narration. I believe that Britt had gotten certain details mixed up (it's been nearly 40yrs lol) and thus it might not have even included Mike and Junior's score. You can read more here:
twitter.com/clickclacktrack/status/1346505892460576768
Thats for america (shining time station) thomas is and was british. The "pilot" was part of Original work later used for the episode later in the series.
There’s a picture floating around of a camcorder with the pilot on it. I’ll find it
@@Kasey1776 found it yet? Srry if I sound rude
@Thenewdangerzone334
Where can we find it?
I just want to say thanks to the Thomas and Friends community for being so supportive of this video! You guys rock!
Let us know of any updates
If You Manage To Find New Clues We Would Be Happy To Hear Them
Wait wait wait, you have contact with Britt Alcroft and you haven't asked her about the Director's Cut of the Magic Railroad
Thanks!
You rock too!
"The Britt Allcroft Presents at the opening was part of each film because I thought of each and everyone of them as a present from me for every child watching them. Best, Britt"
You're such an angel, Britt. We miss you indefinitely.
@JamesInferno I think they mean they miss her involvement in the show
She is still alive!
@@the4tierbridge someone doesn't have to be dead for you to miss them. Smh my smh
@@wii-u-enjoyer But he’s acting as if she IS dead.
Shes no angel in my eyes but a good person that makes mistakes
Well she made a mistake so fucking big it sent the franchise into the fucking ICU and that was TATMR
I’ve got so much nostalgia for Thomas and Friends. I used to collect all of the little model trains they made of the characters. It really went downhill when they switched to CGI.
Trust me when I say it went downhill well before the switch to cgi...
It got good again during S17-21 but went bad again after BWBA came along.
Yeah cgi f up the show
Season 20 of Thomas And Friends was very good though...
Holy crap, I have those small little thomas models too! I remember carrying them around in a big case that was literally Thomas.
People that has not seen either Teletubbies, Classic Thomas and Friends, or the classic Bob the Builder are not cultured.
As a somebody who seen all three of them I can agree
Indeed
And don't forget the classic postman Pat
And Boobah
Thomas: 👍
Bob the Builder: 👍
Teletubbies: AW HELL NO!
i actually can see from my house where the "island of sodor" was imagined to be, its a fictional island near my house, i think that's cool
You’re off the east coast of England? That’s gotta be pretty cool.
That’s awesome.
it says "It is depicted as being located in the Irish Sea, just off the English mainland near Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria" when you search it on bing, "Barrow-In-Furness" is my town so yea its really close, theres this weirdly shaped island called walney that was mostly created from long shore drift so its really long and thin and basically off there is where the island was said to be, idk i just think thats pretty cool
@@chronon8782 it also says the name was based on the Diocese of Sodor and Man, because the Isle of Man existed but no island called Sodor
If we're ever able to evolve to the point of creating man-made islands, we must create the Island of Sodor
You have now gained the attention of the UA-cam Thomas fandom. Treat them well, and you will have a strong ally.
Wait, aren't you that guy who was in the cyber's hell comments telling me jokingly that he wasn't cybershell?
@@lysander.o.c.3580 Yeah.
@@Legoluigi26 it is neat to see you here
Yup
Unless he makes a tiny mistake in which case they will try to lynch him. The twitter thomas fandom is insane
Finally a video my pfp can approve of.
Edit: changed it after about 5 months, probably gonna go back to it soon.
Yes!
Percy
High Percy
you got 100 likes man
lol
Honestly despite me not being part of the Thomas community, I have to admit Thomas’ history is so fascinating. There are so many things to discover & learning about, I could talk about it all day.
Same
Thomas community lmao is that a thing?
@@jayandjlps8022Yes, there's an entire fandom.
I loved this series. I was never scared of the dark moments. I always was blown away by them! Especially Duncan gets spooked!
There isn't dark parts Henry never died smudger could of been made up scrap its just real life
Fun fact: Thomas is what introduced me to the concept of lost media. No, it wasn’t this pilot or The Missing Coach. It was the original version of Thomas and the Magic Railroad. Of course, the lost scenes from the original version was released on the Shout! Factory release earlier this year. But this video combined my love for Thomas and lost media. Well done! I just subscribed. I loved your past videos on lost media as well!
P.S. - I wouldn’t expect you to get anything from Sodor Island Forums. It’s just a Fansite and forum for adult Thomas fans, I’m a member there, and I know site owner Ryan is in touch with people on the CGI version of the series and more recently, the... disturbing 2D version that’s coming out next year. 🤮 But I wouldn’t be surprised if Britt has a copy in her possession. She probably has a lot of unreleased gems from her time with Thomas, and a majority of the behind-the-scenes and cut footage from the Magic Railroad Blu-ray originally came from Britt Allcroft’s personal collection. I’ve talked to her before numerous times, and she really is such a kind, great person! Best of luck on your future lost media searches!!
lol same
Wait, there's a *lost* version of Thomas and the Magic Railroad? Gonna jump down a mine today, it seems.
@@maitele Yes, Thomas and the Magic Railroad was a victim of executive meddling in more ways than one! Nick Starwind put out a good video on the topic. Also note that the Shout! Factory Blu-ray has been released since his video’s upload, and it has more lost footage in it than the mentioned leaked workprint. Last I heard, Nick’s working on a part 2 after finishing The Missing Coach part 3.
Thomas and the magic railroad is such an oddity haha. I recently also rediscovered a dutch dub of that movie and found out it has never actually come out on DVD as an official dub, just broadcast once on a dutch network here so that's also a rare version of the movie. It's so fascinating going down the magic railroad rabbit hole, especially with the OG cut here on youtube to watch haha
@@Vexmybeloved_ Wow... I've been wanting to watch the Dutch version as I heard Pinchy has his own voice in the Dutch dub. I never knew it was never released on DVD! I've also been wanting to learn Dutch so I can watch Het Huis Anubis (the original version of House of Anubis that aired in the Netherlands) But yeah, I would love to hear the Dutch dub of TATMR.
When it comes to narration I think it might have been done by Britt herself as if you watch the rough cut of "Thomas and the magic railroad" she narrates the sections which are missing
Love the video, really great work! It's honestly immensely heartening seeing a complete outsider be equally as passionate about something the community's been trying to find for years lol. Couple things I wanted to mention:
1) Britt was likely misremembering and thinking of the 'final' version of Down The Mine - It's been 40 years and memories are foggy. Neither Mike nor Editor Micheal Dixon remember the pilot having music.
2) Dixion also confirmed the pilot had no intro, as it had been planned to have a 2D-animated one but it wasn't finished in time and thus not used.
3) Fuck SiF. They have everything and share nothing, and encourage crew to only talk to them. Seeing an outsider's research suffer due to their roadblocking is aggravating. We know at least two copies of the pilot exist, one with Britt, and one with her co-creator on Shining Time Station, Rick Sigglekow - the Mitton Estate junked a whole bunch of stuff a while ago so they likely don't have theirs. SiF almost certainly has a copy of at least one of these tapes though, the head admin got a whole bunch of stuff from the Mitton Estate two weeks after the man himself passed. The admin has never divulged any details about what he received, but they boasted in private that it was a lot...
They knew. They knew it all for years and kept it all to themselves in their stupid little club. Sam had the missing coach pictures, the stuff David had and the countless mirage of stuff owned by the Star Tugs Trust. Go to 24 seconds in on this video and you’ll see the missing branch line coach on the end of an express train, it’s no fucking coincidence: ua-cam.com/video/2dsOM3n-uBI/v-deo.html
@@furnessespeon Yep. It's disgusting. It's legitimately depressing seeing how that one little circlejerk has intentionally and successfully managed to sabotage even completely independent research into the show for nearly 2 decades. They have everything and give nothing.
The unreleased archive Thomas channel might have music that would’ve been featured in the pilot. also, realistically speaking, Mattel may have the pilot somewhere in their archives along with the missing coach footage and the leaked Magic Railroad Director’s Cut workprint. Or ITV may have the pilot in their own archives, you never know - but this quest is still getting better and better!
I know the channel you're talking about, but I believe the channel is making fun of another unreleased archive channel based on Mario 64.
That channel is fake
Could you do a video on The Missing Coach as well please! I know you did talk about in this video but concerning all the information we have about from production phots to reused footage, it would be a fantastic video!
Also, a video on the KING of lost media would be fantastic as well.
The Doctor Who Missing Episodes
Yes finally a Thomas lost media video
Very good video, but slight nitpick: The models weren't rebuilt out of brass until much later, being done for Thomas and the Magic Railroad as the older models (made of Perspex) were starting to show their age by that point and it was feared that age would be even more apparent on the big screen.
This was a great video! Although the chances of the pilot being released nowadays are smaller than impossible due to the reboot next year, it's amazing to get some new pieces of information of the pilot! Great job as always!
I love these videos that, while we don’t quite get the clip, they tend to be a massive step forward
i do have some info on the pilot, not too much tho. it was about 2:30 minutes long, was NOT voiced by ringo starr and mattel has it on an archive ( the full pilot) . I hope this helps, and good luck!
Yeah! You can just ask Ringo! He’s super easy to contact!
I thought that someone had finally got the full pilot and uploaded it here that's what I thought this was but it turned out to be this amazingly edited video essay keep up the good stuff
woah I wonder who kingmrharvey is
must be someone cool
he sure sounds cool
I hope I can be his friend one day
Ikr
This getting covered makes me happy. Get ready for the Thomas community to bombard the comments section. It's not a bad thing.
The Thomas fans have already found a BTS photo of a Signal box from the pilot xD
Thomas is what introduced and got me into trains.
On the narration front, I understand that Ringo auditioned for the series by recording himself reading Down the Mine from Gordon the Big Engine and sending that tape in. I think it's possible that that recording was used for the pilot.
Very interesting video and fantastic dedication on your part! Well done. I and others have a theory which is very possibly true. You see for the digitalisation of classic television, the restoration team would have to refer back to the original film reels and clean them up. Whenever, there would be too much damage to a film reel, alternate takes, reconstructions or poorer copies would be used to fill in the gaps. Thomas And Friends has had a digital release meaning that a lot of the actual film reels from the original series back in the 80s still exist. Now, when looking at the first 3 Seasons, there are some parts where the restoration doesn’t match up with the VHS copies (which were the ones seen on television at the time) and you can see inconsistencies like certain shots being wider, alternative takes being used and grainier VHS footage being used instead. These parts are probably the ones which are too badly damaged for use. However, when looking at both the shot used in Down The Mine that was taken from The Pilot and footage that was Reused from The Missing Coach, there are no differences with the original television edits meaning that for the restoration, they used the original footage. This means that both the footage from The Pilot and The Missing Coach are most likely still with the rest of the raw film reels and could be in a storage, as the production team needed to keep the footage in order to refer back for advertisements, restoration, further releases and music videos (which is why in a lot of the early music videos, you can see deleted scenes or alternate angles of certain shots). If you want more information about this, I suggest you check out Nick Starwinds videos concerning The Missing Coach and alternate footage. Here are the links. The third one is the one comparing the original footage and restored footage
ua-cam.com/video/x2uVt8Uw9Aw/v-deo.html
ua-cam.com/video/lxmbQSjXIs8/v-deo.html
ua-cam.com/video/k9GbRHj1bP8/v-deo.html
This is amazing its just one tiny step closer into finding this lost footage!!
Here before the algorithm makes its popular
Same
Me as well
I feel like lost media ain't that popular on the algorithm but ya never know what could happen in time. It's a weird system..
In regards to the music, I think it's very possible the final episode score IS the pilot score, reused wholesale. At the time the pilot would have been made, Mike and Junior would be doing the very first recordings of themes and ideas, so the pilot could have used that. The equally/unjustly rare sizzle reel for TUGS did the same thing, basically using whatever was around in the early days. The final version of down the mine has 2 very short and simple incidental cues. The rest includes Annie and Clarabels theme, which is extremely uncommon and feels out of place, a weird version of Gordons theme which oddly fades in, and a version of the breakdown song with extra offbeat chords. That might've sounded like an alien language, basically the music feels very early to me. I'm thinking Mike not remembering the pilot is because they actually never rescored the final, so in his memory (this was nearly 40 years ago, mind you) he's only scored one version of the episode, which must be the final.
Wow! Honestly it's awesome to me that you received any contact back whatsoever. Best to you, and great work!
I really like that you care about the people you affect during a search. Sometimes people get so caught up in finding something they forget that these are real people.
The Missing Coach may have been completed filming wise minus the narration.
Thomas and friends use plastic until hit took over and that is when the models became brass models
Actually, that began with the Magic Railroad and the takeover didn’t go into effect til after S7 and Jack and the Pack’s 13 episode production were completed.
The first Thomas model can be seen outside of Tidmouth sheds as a scrap model during season 1. Gordon's can be seen in the scrapyard in episodes "Toad Stands By" "Halloween" and "Thomas, Percy, and Old Slow Coach"
Those aren’t the pilot models. They’re just casts made of the models to be used as set dressing. They did the same think with Donald and Douglas and Toad. The pilot models were actually overhauled and remade into the models the show used for the first first seasons. Unless a model is for certain never going to be used again (The Marklin Engine, Puffa, and Little Owl for examples) they’d simply keep them in storage once they were no longer used. The season 4 narrow gauge models are a good example of this actually. After season 5, they pretty much stopped being used altogether outside of the odd episode. Yet they still exist because they were simply stored away.
@@darthknuxward3220 You can tell it's the pilot model because of the chassis and siderods. They did use the pilot model.
(at least the Gordon one)
@@WesternOhioInterurbanHistory they may have reused the chassis for the scrap model, but the people who worked on the models for the show even said the pilot models got rebuilt into the final models. Well, except the chassis which were completely replaced with new ones that ran better.
I remember watching that episode in particular as a kid, the old tomas episodes had hidden gems in them.
Really lovely video! You went through way more than most of the dedicated fandom has gone through to find this stuff! Just one correction, all the engines were plastic models up to season 5/magic railroad. That's when the engines were made in brass. Budget, like you mentioned a lot! The plastic James model is actually preserved by a private owner and should (hopefully!) Be going to a train show next year to be displayed along with face masks and 4 of the narrow gauge engines that the collector owns.
I remember watching the story of Tomas passing the sign and Gordon saving him
The model series will always be the best.
I am very confident I have the pilot somewhere on a vhs, over xmas I will raid my parents loft to see what I can find.
Anything new?
I've been watching Thomas since Shining Time Station. I think it's fair to say he is timeless. It's so cool to learn this history about both the original attempt and ultimately the showcase. That you could get the info from the creator herself makes it more special, because she really has given people a gift.
Glad to see that we got more info on this! Great work!
Great job, keep it up!
Wat
starwind is here-
I just found your channel and I love lost media youtubers. Definitely going to binge your channel, love the vids man!!
These videos are kinda scary when you watch them at night
We’ve found bob the builder‘s pilot. We might be in luck.
There’s a few discrepancies I’d like to point out.
1. The Pilot Models for Thomas and Gordon were indeed made of Acrylic sheets for the main bodyshells, but they didn’t make brass models for Thomas and Percy till magic railroad, and Gordon, Henry, James, Edward till series 10. And Toby in series 12.
Series 1-5 all the models of engines 1-10 bill,ben, diesel, were constructed of acrylic sheeting
2. The Pilot models for Thomas and Gordon were actually made into the Thomas and Gordon we see in the actual show, with new Marklin chassis and modified shells from the pilot. Changes were made but they still are mostly the pilot shells
3. Any scrap dressing you see of Thomas and Gordon’s bodyshells are actually resin casts taken of the models, but you can see some of Gordon’s wheels off his original pilot chassis as scrap dressing.
Someone stole all my thomas VHS tapes as a kid at a garage sale when they weren’t even put out to be sold :( I miss em
Nice video. I'm the same a true corner stone of my childhood
👍🇬🇧
I remembered Thomas and Friends Season 2 but I never knew there's an extra missing episode that was never released like :The Missing Coach.
Keep up the content PLEASE! I’ve fallen in love with your videos!
In response to the question about music, back when those pilot episodes were shot, British media and television companies often employed the use of a tape library, where large amounts of public domain music was stored for use on programs without the budget for their own music, an example of this is in the film Monty Python and the holy grail, the soundtrack to that film is made up of public domain music because their budget was too tight for original composition.
Holy jeez, I didn't know that! That's really cool!!!!
I grew up watching the original Thomas the Tank Engine series and I never realized that the narrator was Ringo Starr The Beatles™️ until today.
Honestly gotta love the thomas Fandom we are all fans and care about thomas and dont judge how old we are and still enjoy the series
Absolutely!!!
Holy shit my man even named dropped the boobahs, you've gained my utter attention
Even though I was born way after the original series I still grew up watching
Thomas And Friends Is Flawless
Except seasons 13-16
And BWBA and SEASON 25
BWBA: am i a joke to you?
Now this is epic
Great video! Those details were definitely needed and now I finally found them. Thx for the information!
4:09 The pilot models of Thomas and Gordon were actually modified into the final models used in the show with a more reliable Marklin chassis. All the models in the first two seasons were all made of plastic, and they only started making models out of brass during the third season. The main characters did eventually get brass models made to replace them, as the original plastic models were most likely tired out from years of wear and tear, starting with the Magic Railroad and into the HiT era of the show.
imagine if the pilot releases on exactly the 23rd of april 2025 😳
I'm having a huge deja vu right now, so I probably already commented this, haha, but. When I was little I was so scared of Thomas? I mean, I was fourteen, idk what was wrong with me I just had nightmares and it was awul, haha. Some years after that, the interrnet suddenly started loving to meme Thomas the tank engine and making horror games with the setting and, yes, exactly. My irrational thoughts coming true, awesome.
But this video kinda makes me want to see it for reals. I'm, like, an adult now, so I shouldn't be scared anymore haha.
We will watch your career with great interest
“Little blue train”
Like, that is accurate but...
just really? Thomas is not a “train”
Youre gonna be "that" guy
@@gigaxacku ok
Seriously? Who cares?
@@Ethan52108 just...
Thomas is not a train, ok?
Very good vid! Love how much dedicated research you did for this. I reckon one day in the future we'll see this footage, though I reckon Missing Coach will be more likely than the pilot. When? Who knows. Maybe when ownership falls from Mattel which, judging by the reaction of the new series of Thomas from fans, may not be that long... :D
I'm still hoping, though, for more missing Dr. Who to be located.
Fun fact, the models were actually all made of plastic until the year 1999 when “Thomas And The Magic Railroad” had started filming. Also the model that you showed while comparing the pilot model was actually the brass model used in season 6 to season 12 (2002 to 2009.) the plastic model for Thomas was used almost 20 years, his EXACT same model was used from (1984 until 1998.) his model had no backups so they had to keep refurbishing it every time a crazy scene happened
Do you know what's up with the models at Drayton Manor? or are they just average little props unrelated to the show's production?
@@SewerReviewer there were multiple brass props made for the show, sadly the ones at Drayton were used in production... the park just fails to take care of them and doesn’t fix them when they need to be fixed
@@SewerReviewer ando also, how exactly did you get in contact with Britt? I have a few questions of my own related to the series
@@SewerReviewer the Drayton models are the real props from the show unfortunately. They aren’t taken care of at all and are slowly deteriorating as we speak. Some have even been lost or stolen.
4:26 so that's why all the scrap looks like the caricatures
There is a theory about the pilot that the scenes of the fat controller were scenes from the pilot i mean just look at him and look at him from the rest of season 1
I know I’m late, but if you can, Also cover The Missing Coach and the fact that The Flying Scotsman was supposed to make his first appearence in Tenders For Henry. He acually has his tenders shown on screen, but the rest of his incomplete model was not.
I did a little searching today and I found a video on UA-cam called "Thomas' Train Syncro-Vox Test" which seems to indicate that at some point they were considering using human mouths akin to the ones on "Clutch Cargo" for the human models such as Sir Topham Hatt or the workmen
Edit: take it with a grain of salt, some people are saying it's fanmade
if it's this one:
ua-cam.com/video/Q0tN3_zM_Ag/v-deo.html
then it's not real, the channel is an ARG fan project.
@@SewerReviewer yes, thats the one, just figured out it was an ARG, my bad
@@Kaisersaurus admittedly, when I had found that channel a few months back, I thought it was legit because all they had were music tracks lol
@@SewerReviewer yeah, the music tracks are throwing me off because I can't tell if they are real or also part of the ARG
Here's some more information I think you'd like to know. The Thomas and Gordon models from the Pilot would later be rebuilt into the S1 Models (The Thomas model would actually survive way up till the near end of Series 11.) According to @TomProps on Twitter.
Willie Rushton's first narration was *Edward the Blue Engine,* the next book in the series after *Gordon the Big Engine,* where _Down the Mine_ takes place.
You have earned my subscription my friend!!!!
new info on the pilot? nice
i have a suggestion for one video how about you take a look at The All New Captain Kangaroo & it's Spinoff Mister Moose's Fun Time
one was a 1997 reboot of the original Captain Kangaroo which most people didn't enjoy and the other was a spinoff to the reboot which also features Thomas the Tank Engine & The Wiggles both have been lost to time with the exception of various episodes uploaded by me
I love all this research, keep it up!
Fun Fact: The models of Thomas and Gordon from the pilot are the exact same ones as the final models. And the final models weren’t made out of brass and were made of plastic, Thomas didn’t get a brass model until ‘Thomas & The Magic Railroad’, while Gordon got 2 brass models for Season 10 of the show.
This Is Epic.
Fun fact: This video is older than most of the people playing Roblox.
4 year veteran, kind of stupid to think that most of the people playing roblox have joined today...
@Republic of England 2.0 well it was started in 1960 something close to that
@@notaslav 4 years is impressive, but I created my account nine years ago.
@@Legoluigi26 Made my account back in 09, old man now B(
@@Legoluigi26 damn youre old
The internet is an amazing place! We are able to find lost pieces of lost media like never before.
Obscure comment I wish Thomas was getting the same attention by the new school that Spider-Man is getting
All the old models season 1-5 were Perspex. From tatmr until season 12 was made out of brass
you and super sonic q upload on the same day? it must be a miracle! -ActuallyJeremyPheonix
Cool video. I’ve always wanted to find out if there was any hidden footage of Wilt Chamberlain’s 100 point game in 1962.
Your amazing and thank you!
Ur amazing
It's like asking why Kermit the Frog is a muppet.
2:22 2:25
Ok that would have been awesome Andrew Lloyd Webber adapting the books he read as a kid into a 2D musical tv show
Do you plan on doing lost media videos on TUGS or Bob the builder?
That would be good
mann I remember watching the lost pilot episode on a vhs but that was more than 10 years ago
If itv did have the pilot on tape, it would be more then likely recorded over, as is common practice by the beeb to recycle older tapes and record over them. Case in point, most of the early dr who recordings.
That’s true, up to a point. By the 80’s this practice had mostly ceased, so it’s not super likely it would’ve been taped over
Toby's theme was the theme used in the pilot, so I do think Mike and Junior still did the music.
I like how the Reverend never mentioned God or Christ or anything religious in his stories, even if he was a man of the lord. It shows his dedication to the stories and characters!
There were actually pre-internet shows that used royalty-free music, like Donkey Kong Country or Ren & Stimpy.
It's nice that Britt answered you :)
It occurs to me that some information may lay in the National Science and Media Museum
or the BFI National Archive - have you tried both places as it is possible that, when entries were made in the archives for TTEAF, records and paperwork for the pilot was thrown in too
my childhood in a nutshell
As far as I know Ringo Starr DID narrate the pilot, Britt Alcroft said in an interview that when she first met him and tried to get him to be the narrator he offered to narrate a few of the stories to see if she still wanted him. One of the stories Ringo did was 'Down the Mine' and so that became the pilot.
Skip to 3:09 in the link below
ua-cam.com/video/fzaB-YYl5TA/v-deo.html
You mean, Thomas the T A N K engine! GODDAMMIT GET IT RIGHT
I have come back to report, he ended the stream abruptly and I died
ight yes he is a tank engine but you aren't a real fan if you didn't listen to the classic songs calling the engines trains. And stop acting like engines and trains are different races 🙄
Nice!
I like the theory that “Thomas Goes Fishing” is the pilot, especially since it looks so rudimentary compared to the rest of the season
If you mean the first shot episode after the test pilot? Yes, it probably is. Well, some of it anyway. They way they filmed Thomas was since each set took up so much space, they’d film all the sequences for the season that used a particular set before tearing it down and doing it with another set, only rebuilding sets occasionally for pickups or retakes after most of shooting had been completed. So it’s likely a lot of the parts of Thomas Goes Fishing that stand out as “rudimentary” were likely the first stuff filmed, seeing as those sets weren’t used in a lot of other episodes if at all