Being a pretty grounded and realistic series about railways, the series can be filled with plenty of very dark and outright terrifying moments. Especially for train lovers.
For examples related to Thomas & Friends, go here.
- Donald and Douglas' backstory was pretty horrifying. They were twin engines. Sir Topham Hatt arranged to import one of them to Sodor, but, unwilling to be parted, they both came down and pretended to be each other until the railway staff caught on. Sir Topham Hatt decided to see which one of them was more useful, then send the other one back, most likely to be scrapped. They had that hanging over their heads for two or three episodes before he decided to keep them both. The incident with Donald threatening the Spiteful Brake Van after it bullied Douglas, for instance, seem heroic until one realizes that he's fully aware of what Hatt intended to do and must know that if he saves his brother, he's going to be the one that gets scrapped. It's a miracle neither of them went insane.
- In the story, Bluebells of England, from the book Stepney the "Bluebell" Engine, Percy tells Douglas about the suffering of steam engines on the Other Railway getting scrapped. The second illustration
◊ in the book really drives home the point of how morbid the experience is, showing two engines in the foreground from the Other Railway on cold, damp, and dark sidings, waiting for their fate from a blow torch with horrified expressions on their faces, while in the background, one has already lost its face, with a gaping hole remaining."Engines on the Other Railway aren't safe now. Their controllers are cruel. They don't like engines any more. They put them on cold damp sidings, and then," Percy nearly sobbed, "they...they c-c-cut them up." - Godred was an unruly mountain engine who wouldn't apply his auto-brakes and eventually had an accident. He fell halfway down a mountain. Godred was still alive. Not scary enough? They said "We can't afford to mend you again" so they took him to the shop where he got smaller and smaller... They took him apart and used his parts to repair the other engines.
- Even worse, the crash is among very few to actually use a Gory Discretion Shot, just a panel of a crowd looking down the mountain horrified as smoke flies from below. They mercifully don't even try to depict his fate in the shop. Despite the morbid condition of most accidents shown in the series, Godred's was apparently brutal enough that they decided not to depict it.
- Culdee made that story up to keep unruly engines well behaved; though perhaps Wilbert Awdry only included that line as to not frighten the younger readers…
- Word of God states that was his concern, yes. Oddly enough, some Thomas And Friends media and toys also use Godred, despite not appearing once in the TV series and being a minor character in the books anyway. Perhaps showing a present day Godred, alive and happy, was their way of easing concerns of traumatised kids happening upon the books and reading about an engine being slowly hacked to death.
- The opening of 'Duck and Dukes' leaves a lot of nightmare fuel. When Duck and Peter Sam are talking about the Duke of Sodor being scrapped, Peter Sam's facial expression isn't just saying 'Oh no, the birthday celebration is going to be ruined', it looks like he’s guilty for something. Five books later when we learn about his and Sir Handel's past (as Stuart and Falcon) with Duke (Named after the Duke of Sodor), we realize that isn't just a throwaway gag and Peter Sam and Sir Handel could have lost one of their closest friends for good, had they not spoken up about him.
- Edward's breakdown in the novel version of "Edward's Exploit" is far more brutal, where, with his crank pin broken, his side rod spirals out of control and slashes through his bottom frame and impales it, with Edward having a really pained reaction. The fact that he pulled through despite this is a testament to the old engine's willpower and tenacity.
- It's even worse when you realize that this is essentially a train equivalent to a compound fracture! If Edward was a human instead of a train, he would be bleeding! No wonder the TV version had his breakdown toned down, so as not to damage the model (not to mention the costs to modify the model for a single episode).
- Let's not forget how dangerous the Mid Sodor Railway could be, particularly the heights of the Mountain Road, with Falcon derailing and coming close to falling off the edge.
- Truth in Television, Falcon's accident is based on an incident on the real life Ffestiniog Railway with a double headed train where the lead engine Linda derailed off the tracks and Prince (Duke's basis) had to work to pull Linda back onto the rails while Linda was dangling over a slope on a hillside. Again the classic Railway Series in a nutshell, if it happened in the books it probably happened in real life as well!
- The final illustration of "Toad Stands By" is a seemingly happy karmic ending with Oliver and the Fat Controller chatting....with S.C. Ruffey dismantled and in several pieces next to them, with his disembodied face glaring right up in fright as a claw readies to finish him off....
- Plenty of clickbait articles have focused on how terrifying it was that Henry was placed into a tunnel and bricked up. But at most Henry couldn't have been in the tunnel for more than a few months, and even then he isn't totally alone as the stories make it clear that he still talks to the other engines passing him in the opposite tunnel. Ignored by those clickbait articles is Duke's time in his shed which is nearly two decades alone... and most of that buried under a landslide. Not to mention what remains of Stanley as well, which as far as we know is still there at the MSR engine shed...
- Where the engines' faces are is on their smokebox doors... and although the series doesn't often mention it there is at least one mention of Henry's smokebox door being opened up. So yes... if the doors behave anything like their real life counterparts the faces can hinge to reveal their smokebox interior. Played for laughs by fans such as in a YouTube video by The Unlucky Tug, but still very unsettling.[1]
- It gets worse though. Toby's smokebox doors on his real life basis split in two on a hinge, meaning if Toby's smokebox opens like the real thing does his face has to split in half to open them.
- Like nearly everything in the Railway Series, its happened in real life as well. The Thomas replica owned by the Strasburg Railroad in the US (made from the heavily modified BEDT 15 locomotive) is one of the few Thomas replicas made from an actual steam locomotive, and well... it needs its smokebox door opened to clean out the ash regularly. Cue the absurdity of behind the scenes photos showing Thomas's face hinged open for cleaning [2]
- The audiobooks narrated by Willie Rushton begin and end with the sound of a steam engine chuffing and whistling or the whirring and honking of a diesel. However, some stories have different intros and outros depending on the context of the story. "Ghost Train" does away with the locomotive sounds and instead gives us the sounds of howling and wind blowing. An owl hooting is also audible throughout the recording. It adds so much ambience to an already unsettling story.
