Series 3

The third season of the television series first premiered on VHS in 1991 in the UK before airing on television. It first aired in the US in 1991 on Shining Time Station, with the last 10 episodes following in 1993. The whole season first aired in the UK from February to July 1992. All twenty-six episodes were narrated by Michael Angelis in the UK and by George Carlin in the US and New Zealand.

Production
Before production of the third season, Clearwater Features closed down, with The Britt Allcroft Company becoming the sole producer. Producer Robert D. Cardona left before the third season and Britt Allcroft took his place as co-producer alongside David Mitton. According to Robert Gauld-Galliers, "Gordon Goes Foreign" was originally planned to be filmed into an episode, but it was not filmed because of high budgets.

The series was a combination of episodes derived from the Railway Series, magazines stories (written by the series' current head writer, Andrew Brenner) and a couple of original stories by Allcroft and Mitton. One of the primary reasons for diverging from the original books was that many of the stories not yet used featured large numbers of new characters, which would be expensive to produce. Another reason was that the producers wanted more stories about Thomas, the nominal main character. The Rev. W. Awdry noticed the more loose adaptations and disapproved of the new stories citing they were unrealistic.

Songs

 * Thomas' Anthem
 * I'm Thomas the Tank Engine (Japan only)

Characters

 * Thomas
 * Edward
 * Henry
 * Gordon
 * James
 * Percy
 * Toby
 * Duck
 * Donald and Douglas
 * Bill and Ben
 * Diesel
 * BoCo
 * Annie and Clarabel
 * Terence
 * Bertie
 * Trevor
 * Harold
 * Sir Topham Hatt
 * Jem Cole
 * The Vicar of Wellsworth
 * The Little Boys
 * Lady Hatt (not named)
 * Stephen Hatt (not named)
 * Jeremiah Jobling (not named)
 * Mrs. Kyndley (not named)
 * The Ffarquhar Stationmaster's Wife (not named)
 * Henrietta (speaks only in Finnish dub; does not speak in English dubs)
 * Bridget Hatt (cameo)
 * Farmer Finney (cameo)
 * Percy's Ghost Engine (mentioned)
 * The Firelighter (mentioned)
 * Father Christmas (mentioned in the UK version)
 * Daisy (mentioned in music video)

Characters introduced

 * Oliver
 * Mavis
 * Bulgy
 * The Chinese Dragon
 * The New Signalman
 * The Railway Foreman
 * The Quarry-master
 * Toad (does not speak)
 * The Railway Society (do not speak)
 * The Injured Sailor (does not speak)
 * City of Truro (not named; does not speak)
 * Flying Scotsman (not named; tender, water tanker and cab only; does not speak)
 * Farmer Trotter (cameo)
 * Bulgy's Friend (mentioned)
 * The Photographer (mentioned)
 * Big City Engine (dropped)

Trivia

 * This was the first season of several things:
 * The first season narrated by Michael Angelis in the UK and George Carlin in the US and the first narrated by the former that had not been previously released with Ringo Starr's narrations.
 * The first season to have episodes not based on material by either Awdry.
 * Britt Allcroft's first season as producer.
 * Angus Wright's first season as executive producer.
 * The first season to use Rockwell font.
 * The first season to feature TUGS models and props.
 * This season was the first to use the EMU Proteus 2 Orchestral to create the music. However, some of the music made with the Roland Jupiter 6 synthesiser for the first and second season was used.
 * The first season dubbed in Finnish.
 * The first season to introduce music videos.
 * The first season to have slow motion effects.
 * From this season on, characters would angrily say "Be quiet!" instead of "Shut up!" presumably due to the production teams and script writers being accused of using a vulgar/offensive phrase.
 * The first season to have episodes released on home video before it was broadcast on television.
 * In the US, this is the first season to not have a Christmas themed season finale.
 * The biggest space of time between two seasons airing is between the second and third seasons. The second season first aired back in 1986 and the third season in 1992.
 * Gordon Goes Foreign was originally going to be an episode in this season, but it was cancelled for being too high budget. It is unknown if any of the other episodes made for this season replaced it.
 * In the Ukrainian version, Michael Angelis and George Carlin's voices can be heard in the background, as a dubbing track was not used. The first thirteen episodes have George Carlin's voice while the last thirteen episodes have Michael Angelis' voice. Angelis is also credited as narrator in the first 13 third season episodes despite Carlin's narration in the background and the episode being re-dubbed.
 * For much of the season, Tidmouth Sheds appears to be much larger on the inside than usual. While all the exterior scenes depict the shed with the usual six berths, there are nine tracks seen in most interior views.
 * This is the only season that has George Carlin's narration on VHS in New Zealand. However when the third season episodes were aired in New Zealand, Michael Angelis' narration was used instead. This is also the case when The Complete Third Series was released on DVD in New Zealand.
 * Model maker John Holmes did not receive credit for working on this season until 1992.
 * At the very end of Michael Angelis' early narrations, the credits were shown with a still of the final shot of each episode. When shown on television and in future video and DVD releases, the credits were shown alongside a still of Thomas.
 * This was the last season to be shown on CITV until 2003 when the sixth season was shown.
 * From Thomas Gets Bumped to Buzz, Buzz, each CITV broadcast featured two episodes compiled into one 10 minute block. The difference here was that only the title card for the second episode was shown after the first episode.
 * This season was produced in association with Fuji Television Network, Inc. as indicated by a message at the end of each episode. In 1991 airings, the message is in white, while in 1992 airings, it is yellow.
 * According to The Thomas the Tank Engine Man, it cost £1.3 million to produce all 26 episodes.
 * It was during this season that footage of Tidmouth Sheds was shot uniquely for the Japanese-exclusive special Thomas and the U.K. Trip.
 * All at Sea and Thomas and Percy's Mountain Adventure were the only episodes in this season not based on The Railway Series or a magazine story.
 * The Flying Scotsman makes an obscured appearance once in this season. He is not fully shown until 24 years later with the release of the special, The Great Race.