Thomas the Jet Engine

"Hi Gordon! Bye Gordon!"

- Thomas

Thomas the Jet Engine, retitled Thomas and the Jet Engine in American releases, is the twenty-second episode of the sixth season.

Plot
Gordon is boasting about how fast he can go, when Thomas is given the job of delivering a jet engine to Dryaw. Thomas now wishes he could go faster than Gordon.

Thomas is very excited when he arrives at the docks and is soon ready to leave, but Cranky is taking his time. Thomas tells him to hurry up and Cranky gets cross because he does not like to be told what to do by an engine. Suddenly, Cranky carelessly turns the jet engine on with his hook. The jet engine is soon rocketing Thomas along the track. Thomas' driver tries to apply the brakes, but Thomas can not stop.

Signals were changed and points were switched for the runaway Thomas. Thomas is very excited and soon flies by James, Henry, and Percy, who were all very amazed. When Bertie sees Thomas, he asks Thomas to have a race, but when Thomas whooshes past him, he quickly changes his mind. Gordon, who is pulling the express, does not know Thomas is racing on the main line. Soon Thomas whooshes past Gordon, who is very surprised.

At last the jet engine runs out of fuel and Thomas is back to his normal speed. Thomas steams gently into Knapford and teases Gordon by saying he is the fastest engine. Henry and James agree, Percy feels sorry for Gordon and tells him that do does not have to go as fast as a jet engine even though James says that Gordon is full of hot air. Gordon fumes away.

Characters

 * Thomas
 * Henry
 * Gordon
 * James
 * Percy
 * Bertie
 * Cranky
 * Sir Topham Hatt
 * Donald (cameo)
 * Tiger Moth (cameo)
 * Dowager Hatt (cameo)
 * Jeremiah Jobling (cameo)
 * Cyril the Fogman (cameo)
 * Farmer Trotter (cameo)

Locations

 * Knapford
 * Maron
 * Dryaw
 * Lower Tidmouth
 * Brendam
 * Sodor Shipping Company
 * The Viaduct
 * The Watermill
 * Gordon's Hill

Trivia

 * Stock footage from Bye George! and Gordon Takes a Tumble is used.
 * Dowager Hatt is one of the passengers at Lower Tidmouth.
 * This is the first time that Knapford Stations's real name is mentioned in the TV Series.
 * Inspiration for this episode could have come from the jet-powered rail-sleds used by the United States Air Force.
 * This is the second episode to have a rendition of William Tell's Overture, the first being Busy Going Backwards.
 * In the episode, Thomas is smiling when he races past Lower Tidmouth, but in a promotional photo, he is shocked instead.
 * In Japan, this episode is called, "Jet Engine of Thomas".
 * Three posters at Knapford read "Alicia Botti in concert tonight at the Castle".
 * Toad's scrap model from Escape can be seen in one of the shots of Thomas racing out of the Docks.

Goofs

 * When James says "Speed isn't everything" his brakepipe is severely damaged. Later, when he says "But he's still full of hot air!", the pipe appears to have been cut off, with only a small bit still attached. Also his tender is off-balance in one of the close-ups.
 * When Thomas says "But being reliable and really useful is" the track he is on simply ends behind him.
 * When the Fat Controller tells Thomas to collect the Jet Engine, and Percy asks what a jet engine is, look at his hat and shoulder and you can see fingerprints.
 * When Gordon is talking at Knapford, some wires are visible in Percy's cab window.
 * When Thomas puffs into Brendam, he is on the middle line, but he is coupled to the jet engine impossibly fast, and when Cranky knocks the switch the chain holding the jet engine disappears.
 * The jet engine's switch is already on before Cranky hits it with his hook.
 * When the jet engine starts some barrels and crates are beside it, but after Cranky says "Uh-oh" they have moved.
 * When Thomas rushes through Lower Tidmouth, the people are huddled close together, but in the next shot some have disappeared and the rest are spaced further apart.
 * In the shot of the girder bridge, the left-most track leads to the background shrubbery.
 * Just after Bertie says "Want a race, Thomas?" the lines where Thomas came from lead to the bushes; when Thomas runs alongside Gordon the tracks up ahead lead to the bushes.
 * When Gordon's brake coach reveals Thomas, Thomas is not moving.
 * The noise of a rocket engine is up into the 150-decibel range, so it should be impossible for Gordon to have heard Thomas against the noise of the jet engine.
 * The jet engine is hollow: in the close-up of it running out of fuel, you can see the red tank through the nozzle.
 * In the last close-up of Percy, his left buffer has excess on the bottom and a girl in pink looks like she's boarding Percy's train of vans.
 * The jet engine should not have been transported with fuel in it or have already been on a truck; it could have fallen off.
 * At such speeds, especially at corners, Thomas would surely have derailed.
 * Thomas' wheels should have melted due from the heat of friction.
 * Thomas claims he always wanted to go as fast as Gordon, but in Thomas and Gordon, he went just as fast as Gordon and hated it.
 * The Fat Controller asks Thomas to take the Jet Engine to the airfield, but Thomas takes it back to Knapford.
 * Gordon claims that none of the other engines at Knapford have gone as fast as him before, but Thomas has.
 * Because of stock footage, Gordon looks angry when the narrator says "He loves speeding across his line with the wind blowing across his funnel".

Quotes

 * Thomas: Whoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooa!


 * Bertie: Want a race, Thomas? (Thomas whooshes by) ... Never mind.
 * Cranky: (after he accidently starts the Jet Engine) "Uh oh!"

Merchandise

 * Wooden Railway
 * Take-Along (discontinued)
 * Motor Road and Rail (discontinued)
 * TrackMaster (UK only; discontinued)