Series 4

The fourth season of the television series first premiered on VHS in 1994 before airing between October and November of 1995 in the UK. It aired between 1995 and 1996 on Shining Time Station and Mr. Conductor's Thomas Tales in the US. All twenty-six episodes were narrated by Michael Angelis in the UK and George Carlin in the US.

Production
The fourth series saw the introduction of the smaller narrow gauge engines. For ease of filming, Season 5 would introduce larger-scale versions of the characters, and from Season 6-12, these larger models were used almost exclusively.

Half of the third season consisted of stories written by the show's staff, but only one original story, Rusty to the Rescue was written by Allcroft and Mitton for the fourth series. The episodes which used the Railway Series did take some liberties with the source material, in order to fill the runtime and make the stories more accessible. From the fifth season onward, all stories would be staff-written, without using the Awdrys' books as a source.

Stepney, a character based on a real-life engine and used to highlight the preservation movement in the books, was given an entirely different background when he was introduced. This decision carried on into later series, in which he was seen on either a fictionalised Bluebell Railway or as a member of The Fat Controller's railway.

Songs

 * Thomas' Anthem Grand Finale (with footage from seasons 1-4)
 * Let's Have a Race
 * Gone Fishing
 * That's What Friends Are For (no music video)
 * Rules and Regulations (no music video)
 * Toby
 * Don't Judge a Book By Its Cover
 * The Island Song
 * Really Useful Engine

Characters

 * Thomas
 * Edward
 * Henry
 * Gordon
 * James
 * Percy
 * Toby
 * Duck
 * Donald and Douglas
 * Oliver
 * Daisy
 * BoCo
 * Mavis
 * Annie and Clarabel
 * Toad
 * Harold
 * Sir Topham Hatt
 * The Little Boys
 * Diesel (not named)
 * Jeremiah Jobling (not named)
 * Jem Cole (not named)
 * Bill and Ben (do not speak)
 * Bertie (does not speak)
 * Henrietta (cameo)
 * Terence (cameo)
 * Trevor (cameo)
 * Bulgy (cameo)
 * Stephen Hatt (cameo)
 * Mrs. Kyndley (cameo)
 * The Vicar of Wellsworth (cameo)
 * Farmer Trotter (cameo)
 * Farmer Finney (cameo)
 * Bridget Hatt (music video cameo)
 * The Storyteller (music video cameo)

Characters introduced

 * Stepney
 * The Diesel
 * Skarloey
 * Rheneas
 * Sir Handel
 * Peter Sam
 * Duncan
 * Duke
 * Smudger
 * Rusty
 * S.C. Ruffey
 * George
 * Caroline
 * Bulstrode
 * Refreshment Lady
 * Nancy
 * Tom Tipper
 * The Portly Man
 * The Crovan's Gate Policeman
 * The Dryaw Policeman
 * The Important Passenger
 * The Elsbridge Cricket Club
 * The Painter
 * The Tailor
 * Queen Elizabeth II (does not speak)
 * The Elephant Caper (not named; does not speak)
 * Sir Robert Norramby (indirectly mentioned)
 * Other Mid Sodor Railway Engines (indirectly mentioned)

Trivia

 * This was the first season of several things:
 * The first season to feature the Skarloey and Mid Sodor Railways.
 * The first season to feature Callan and The Misty Valley Branch Line.
 * The first season not to end with a Christmas-themed episode.
 * The first season to add the Proteus Ultra to compose the music.
 * The first season to have episodes released on more than one VHS before airing on TV, episodes such as Granpuff, Home at Last, Special Funnel, Paint Pots and Queens, Fish and Special Attraction.
 * The first season where Bill. Ben. Terence. Bertie. Trevor and Bulgy do not speak in any of their appearances.
 * The first season to feature a speaking engine not included in the Railway Series.
 * The first season to premiere on Cartoon Network in the UK.
 * This was also the final season of a few things:
 * The final production to feature stories based on the Railway Series until The Adventure Begins, and therefore the last to have Wilbert Awdry as a technical consultant.
 * The last season up until the twentieth season to feature episodes based on the stories from the Railway Series.
 * George Carlin's final season as narrator.
 * The final production to introduce Railway Series-exclusive characters into the television series until King of the Railway, and the last to introduce a non-standard gauge railway (and engines thereof) from the Railway Series until Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure.
 * The final season shown on Shining Time Station.
 * The final season released completely on VHS in New Zealand.
 * The final season dubbed in Ukrainian until the seventeenth season.
 * The final season dubbed in Finnish until the eighth season.
 * The final season to have Daisy in an episode until the nineteenth season.
 * With a number of 24 out of 26 episodes, Season 4 holds the most episodes released directly to home video before TV, with the exceptions of Rusty to the Rescue and Thomas and Stepney as they aired on TV in the US on January 7th, 1995 before released on VHS.
 * This season contained the 100th episode of the television series.
 * To date, this season introduced the most new characters.
 * Oddly, a significant amount of sound effects and music are missing in the US versions of most Season 4 episodes, a notable example being Rusty Helps Peter Sam, which misses almost all the music in the first half of the episode. The episode also excludes most of Peter Sam's whistles, and adds an unusual high pitched whistle when he cries for help after his accident.
 * This season is unique as the first fifteen episodes focused primarily on the Skarloey Railway engines.
 * All Chinese narrations from this season credit George Carlin as the narrator and all Norwegian/Hindi narrations credit Michael Angelis, even though the episodes were redubbed.
 * In the Ukrainian narration, Michael Angelis' voice can be still heard in the background.