Me coming back to Thomas the Tank Engine after a decade be like...

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[Fireheart 1945]

I've felt that, ever since Thomas was sent onto CGI, it became something that it shouldn't be. I loved the original models (the ones with only moving eyes, without moving faces) and I can appreciate after the fact how well those stories stuck with the books by the Reverend W. Awdry; there was a religious undertone, with things like pride and having to learn a lesson being themes brought up multiple times. Now... now it feels like a show made just to please children, without loyalty to the original books or desires of the author.

[TheAncientPolitzanian]

On a barely related note, the fact that saying "I watched Thomas as a kid" could make you anywhere between 50 and 5 years old absolutely blows my mind. Heck, that range gets even wider if you include the original Railway Series books.

[Jade Dawn]

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It's right there in my profile. "Old enough to be alive and young enough to not be dead."

[The Blue EM2]

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"Thomas was so sad he nearly cried."

Sadly, the decline of the show goes back a long way, as this extract from an SiF essay shows;

Christopher made the series very much his own, taking different approaches to the happenings on the Railway to his father. He chose to take a more informative view in some of his stories, with much more railway technicality in the stories. Examples of this include fire bars collapsing, cooling systems and injectors failing! However, the success of his books meant that by the time he had written his fifth - Gordon the High Speed Engine - he was able to retire from his own job at the Inland Revenue and pursue writing full time. However, the series by now was being heavily influenced by the publishers who wished to see the character of Thomas pushed into the limelight much more, using the Railway Series as a front for the acclaimed TV series. One such book that suffered as a result of this pig-headedness was the unreleased Barry the Rescue Engine due to be book 39. This was overthrown in favour of another Thomas related book and the fact that the publishers didn't want to bring in a new character to the books.

Healy, Ryan, 'The Changing Face of Thomas the Tank Engine'.

This has been taken to extremes in the TV series as episodes focus solely on Thomas and who he happens to run into on a given day. And don't get me started on 'bwuhba'.

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Awdry's writing was so full of meaning, symbolism, and mythos that I believe he deserves to remembered up there with authors like Tolkien, as he put a similar amount of effort into creating a living, breathing world in which the characters lived; he even invented an entire language for the show!

Nowadays, random stuff happens to try and justify the nonsensical plot, which usually has no research done. 'Thomas had a job on the Indian Railway'. There are at least 30 railway companies in India, and the railway systems are all built to different track gauges.

Having said that, Awdry didn't let morals get in the way of telling a good story, often drawn straight from railway history.