Thomas and the Special Letter

"Dear Thomas and all the engines, please, can I meet you? My friends say they would like to meet you, too. You can come to my house for tea, but my mummy says there aren't any railway tracks to my house. Can you come to the station instead? Thank you very much!"

- The letter

Thomas and the Special Letter is the twenty-third episode of the fourth season.

Plot
Thomas is surprised to see the engines traveling to Tidmouth Sheds, and follows to get to the bottom of the matter. It turns out the first eight engines have been invited to London by a little girl eager to meet the engines, and the others are to do their work. Thomas is paired with Oliver to show him his branchline. Thomas is feeling excited and boasts about his race with Bertie, unluckily crashing through the buffers and into a wall. The workmen race to repair Thomas in time for the trip, and manage to do so just in time.

Featured characters

 * Thomas
 * Percy
 * Toby
 * Donald
 * Annie and Clarabel
 * Sir Topham Hatt
 * Edward (does not speak)
 * Henry (does not speak)
 * Gordon (does not speak)
 * James (does not speak)
 * Duck (does not speak)
 * Douglas (does not speak)
 * Oliver (does not speak)
 * Bill and Ben (do not speak)
 * BoCo (does not speak)
 * Mavis (does not speak)
 * Henrietta (cameo)
 * Bertie (mentioned)
 * Dyson Lorry (cameo)

Goofs

 * When Thomas says "I think something is up" a door can be heard closing.
 * Steam is venting from the line that Mavis and BoCo take through Elsbridge.
 * When Oliver goes through Elsbridge he has Bill's whistle sound.
 * Douglas is seen when the narrator says Donald spoke.
 * In Toby's third close-up his face is loose.
 * Annie is facing backwards during the close-up of Thomas' driver.
 * When Thomas and Percy first leave Elsbridge Toby isn't in his siding, but Henrietta is still there.
 * The Fat Controller says that "engines from the other railway" are to come and run the railway, but all the engines that do come actually all belong to his railway.
 * In Thomas and Bertie Thomas remembers stopping "an inch from the buffers" after his race with Bertie. Though he may be exaggerating for effect, there are no buffers seen when Thomas stops at Ffarquhar after his race with Bertie.
 * The wall that Thomas crashes had cracks in it before the collision.
 * It should have been impossible to repair Thomas' buffers in the space of a day with the damage he took.
 * As Henry leaves Elsbridge, one of his wheels is loose.
 * In the Big City shed, Percy's cab roof is lifted slightly.
 * On the Thomas and the Special Letter and other Thomas Stories VHS release, just before the music video Don't Judge a Book by its Cover, as the screen turns black, look at the bottom left corner of the screen. For a split second the words "Gone Fishing by Mike O'Donnell and Junior Campbell" are visible.