The Mainland

England, part of the United Kingdom, is the Mainland of Sodor.

Location
The Mainland is located across the Walney Channel from Sodor and is accessed via the Vicarstown Bridge. Barrow-in-Furness is the nearest mainland station and town to Sodor.

Named Locations
Certain locations on the Mainland have been mentioned by name in both the Railway Series and the television series. These include:

Barrow-in-Furness
Railway Series
 * The Eight Famous Engines
 * Duck and the Diesel Engine
 * Enterprising Engines
 * Gordon the High-Speed Engine
 * Henry and the Express

Television Series
 * Season 3 - Escape
 * Season 19 - Reds vs. Blues (mentioned)

Bluebell Railway
Railway Series
 * Stepney the "Bluebell" Engine (mentioned)

Television Series
 * Season 4 - Rusty to the Rescue (mentioned)

Bournemouth
Railway Series
 * Toby the Tram Engine (mentioned)
 * Thomas's Christmas Party (mentioned)

Television Series
 * Season 1 - Thomas' Christmas Party (mentioned, Ringo Starr narrations only)

Bridlington
Television Series
 * Specials - Journey Beyond Sodor

Brighton
Television Series
 * Specials - The Adventure Begins (mentioned)

Bristol
Railway Series
 * Duck and the Diesel Engine (mentioned)

Carlisle
Railway Series
 * Gordon the High-Speed Engine (mentioned)

Carnforth
Railway Series
 * Thomas and the Great Railway Show (mentioned)

Crewe
Railway Series
 * Henry the Green Engine (mentioned), Enterprising Engines (mentioned), Henry and the Express (mentioned) and Thomas and the Fat Controller's Engines (mentioned)

Television Series
 * Season 1 - The Flying Kipper (mentioned) and Whistles and Sneezes (mentioned; only in the UK version)

Doncaster
Railway Series
 * Enterprising Engines (mentioned)
 * Gordon the High-Speed Engine (mentioned)

London
Railway Series
 * The Eight Famous Engines (Euston, King's Cross, Paddington, and St. Pancras station; mentioned)

Television Series
 * Season 17 - The Thomas Way (Paddington Station)

Lydney
Railway Series
 * Wilbert the Forest Engine (mentioned)

National Railway Museum
Railway Series
 * Thomas and the Great Railway Show

Plymouth
Railway Series
 * Duck and the Diesel Engine (mentioned)

Skipton
Railway Series
 * Thomas and the Great Railway Show (mentioned)

Talyllyn Railway
Railway Series
 * The Little Old Engine (mentioned), and Great Little Engines (mentioned)

York
Railway Series
 * Thomas and the Great Railway Show

The Craneworks
Television Series
 * Season 21 - Cranky at the End of the Line (mentioned)

Engines
Many engines have been known live and work on the Mainland, such as Splatter, Dodge, Stepney, Flying Scotsman, Spencer, Connor, Caitlin, Samson, Logan, Sam, The Mainland Diesels, Lexi, Theo, Merlin, Hurricane, Frankie. A lot of the engines on the North Western Railway used to work or were built on the mainland such as Thomas or Charlie.

In the thirteenth season episode, Play Time, Charlie mentioned some other Mainland engines, which told him how fun Thomas is. They are presumably friends of Charlie.

Appearances
The Mainland has made several appearances in the Railway Series. In the television series, its first appearance was in the fourth season episode, Thomas and the Special Letter. In the CGI series, the Mainland has been mentioned several times and briefly seen whenever the Vicarstown bridge appears. Crovan's Gate was once used as a station on the mainland. The Mainland makes its first full appearance in The Great Race and appears in Journey Beyond Sodor.