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Down the Mine (1983)

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For other uses, see Down the Mine (disambiguation).
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"The pilot episode was a very good path finding exercise for us.... No doubt it'll be discovered in a rusting tin at some point in the future."
― Robert Gauld-Galliers

Down the Mine is the original 1983 test pilot of Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends before the first episode aired in the United Kingdom in 1984. Although it was filmed entirely, it was not officially released until 2025.

The pilot was remade as the first series episode of the same name in 1984, with many differences such as improved production value and more detailed models.

Plot

One day, while Thomas is waiting at Lower Tidmouth, Gordon - who has been in disgrace after recently falling into a ditch - pulls in with some trucks. As soon as Gordon stops, Thomas jokes about him smelling of ditch water. Before Gordon can respond, Thomas leaves with his coaches, Annie and Clarabel. Both coaches are shocked at Thomas' rudeness but he does not care. Thomas is pleased with his clever joke as he shunts his coaches, still in shock, onto a siding and heads off to collect trucks at the lead mines.

The mine has many underground tunnels dug up long ago. The tunnels' roofs are strong enough to hold up the weight of trucks but not engines. At the points, there is a board that warns engines not to enter the area. Thomas has often tried to pass the board but has always failed. This time, however, he has made a plan. When his fireman leaves the cab to change the points, Thomas bumps the trucks hard enough that he knocks his driver off the footplate, allowing him to pass the board. As he approaches the unsafe rails, refusing to believe nothing could go wrong, the ground collapses under them, leaving them hanging over a large hole. Thomas runs over the tracks which instantly give way, sending him falling into the hole.

DownTheMine(Pilot)45

"Please get me out, I won't be naughty again."

Having seen everything, the Fat Controller chastises Thomas for his naughtiness and then begins to ponder how to get him out. A crane would be too heavy for the ground to support, so he decides to call in Gordon to pull Thomas out. Thomas feels uneasy about this, given how he insulted Gordon. Arriving at the scene with a rescue cable winch attached to his buffer beam, Gordon promises to have Thomas out in no time. The cable is fastened between them and, after a lot of hard work and pulling, Gordon manages to finally free Thomas from the hole.

Thomas apologises to Gordon for his cheekiness and Gordon accepts Thomas' apology because he had actually made him laugh. Now that both engines are in disgrace, they agree to form an alliance and help each other in the future. With that, the two allies head back to the sheds.

Production

In 1980, Britt Allcroft acquired the rights to produce episodes based on The Railway Series for television. She spent over two years meeting animators and watching test reels deciding on what type of animation would be used for the series. After meeting David Mitton it was decided that live-action model animation would be used. After getting a commitment from ITV, a low budget, pre-production test pilot episode was produced to pitch the series to several networks on Spring 1983. The pilot is based on The Railway Series story Down the Mine and differs slightly from the remade version broadcast in 1984. After the series was greenlit by ITV, the story was later refilmed as part of the first series.

Differences with Remade Version

The pilot has simpler sets and flatter lighting. The models of Thomas and Gordon, including the wheels, were scratch-built by Martin Gill and are more simplistic in appearance.[1] They were made of plastic and not brass. The models of Annie and Clarabel were based on kits from Tenmille, with little vacuum-formed faces. Thomas and Gordon were never tested before being filmed in front of the camera and proved to be unreliable. For example, their chassis performed so poorly that the models had to be pulled along with fishing wire and sometimes pushed by hand.

Another example is that the models were equipped with a smoke generator based on a 12V car cigarette lighter, with conventional studio smoke-machine oil dripped on the hot element before each shot – but the heat proved to be sufficient to warp the ABS and acrylic of the engine bodies, so they could not be used for any length of time. A swift charging before a shot allowed a rather feeble smoke effect. The eye mechanisms were improved considerably for the actual series. During the pilot, they snagged repeatedly, smoke came out around them, and they were constantly being modified. Often, the eyes were set and locked in a particular direction. It was not unheard of for the static from the power coupling on the track to affect the servos and make the eyes suddenly veer wildly off.

All of the models used later in the series would use the more dependable Märklin chassis. The pilot models also lack a few features that were added later on to their finalised models. Thomas is missing his lamps and lamp irons, his splashers are missing their red lining, and his cab's side windows are missing their yellow lining. Gordon's model does not have a lamp, lamp irons, or a whistle, and the slope in his running board is much more pronounced. After filming the pilot, Christopher Noulton refurbished Gordon's model, which would later become the same model that was used in the first series using the new Märklin chassis, along with a raised front bufferbeam. Other alterations included the boiler gaining a saddle all the way to the firebox, which also meant the backs of the splashers needed to be cut to fit as well.

In terms of story, the pilot bares strong resemblance to the remade adaptation with slight differences. An explanation for Thomas’ ditch water remark is not provided by the narrator for example, and neither is Annie and Clarabel telling Thomas off for being rude to Gordon. Thomas is pulled out of the mine much quicker in the pilot. Additionally, moments such as the mine’s surface slowly crumbling until Thomas falls into the hole it creates and Thomas struggling to say the word “alliance” were not carried over to the televised episode.

Preservation

After the pilot was test-screened in 1983, it was handed to Rick Siggelkow, who showed it to his wife and then to a preschool class; the results were positive, launching Shining Time Station, with Siggelkow being the show's co-creator. According to Ian McCue, at the time, the pilot footage resided in Mattel's archive.[2]

In 2022, both the dialogue and shooting scripts for the pilot were leaked online, in addition to several other early production documents regarding the pilot. The shooting script revealed that the danger sign in the pilot said "Engines must not pass this point" and not "Engines must not pass this board." In addition, some other shots seen in the final episode were confirmed to be part of the pilot.

Release and Restoration

On 8 May 2025, it was announced the pilot would be released on the official Thomas & Friends YouTube channel the following day in honor of the 80th Anniversary of The Railway Series.[3] The episode was then uploaded with subtitles from other languages in different Thomas & Friends YouTube channels including the Japanese version released on 14 May 2025.

The original footage was restored in UHD by Silver Salt Restoration, and to make as close to a full episode as possible, some shots were repurposed from the remade episode, including one shot originally from the pilot itself. These shots were upscaled to fit with the rest of the restored footage. The full pilot, which was edited on film, was not found in Mattel's archives. Mike O'Donnell composed an original score for the restoration, as the original music was not found in Mattel's archives.[4] A dedication to the late Britt Allcroft was also added at the end of the credits.

Characters

Locations

Trivia

  • According to the film slates, the pilot was filmed in the last week of April, and the first week of May.
  • Britt Allcroft mortgaged her house to fund this episode's production.
  • The pilot was filmed on C-stage at Clearwater's Battersea studio.
  • The pilot took three weeks (fifteen business days) to film between March and April 1983. Out of the fifteen business days it took to film it, only ten were used to film the actual pilot.
    • The dialogue script for the pilot was completed on 8 March 1983.
  • David Mitton originally specified during the early pre-production of the pilot that Thomas "is coupled to a number of carriages. Clarabel and Annie are two of them." This was revised to just Annie and Clarabel by the time of filming.
  • Unlike the series, which used Märklin track, the pilot used Tenmille track. The brass Tenmille rails tarnished just before the first series began filming, causing a poor electrical connection to the engines, so it had to all be replaced with steel Märklin track.
  • There were plans to have an animated intro with steam puffs, but this never materialised, and no intro for the pilot was made.
  • According to a post by the X user TomsProps, Martin Gill wanted to make a Henry model for the pilot.[5]
  • Until 2025, it was largely unknown whether or not the pilot was narrated by Ringo Starr. Contrary to Britt Allcroft's statement that the pilot was narrated by Starr, Rick Siggelkow stated there was no Starr narration in the pilot. Early production documents also seem to corroborate with Allcroft's recollection of the pilot.[6] When the pilot was released in 2025, it was revealed that Starr had indeed narrated it.
  • Mike O'Donnell stated in an interview that he does not remember composing any music for the pilot.[7] When the pilot was released to the public for the first time in 2025, he was brought in to compose the music for it. This marked the first time that Mike O'Donnell had been involved in a Thomas & Friends production since the seventh series.
  • Unlike the series, the pilot was filmed without Clearwater's Periscope Lens System, and instead with a standard rostrum based 35mm Mitchell camera. After the series was funded, the periscope lens with the overhead gantry were commissioned. Consequently, the video quality is rather inconsistent in the aired episode due to some footage being re-used from the pilot.
  • The shot of the large scale models rear coupling hook being tensioned by the cable is a different take to the one used in the final episode. There, the cable tensions very quickly, while here, a take of it being tensioned slower was used. This gives the impression that the cable is straining with how heavy Thomas is, making it look more realistic compared to the take used in the final episode.
  • The sound effect used for Thomas' whistle in the pilot is a recording of the Talyllyn Railway's No.6, Douglas.
  • When Thomas arrives at the Lead Mines, his pupils change from being vinyl circles to painted on, where they also gain a white dot near the top of the pupils. This is due to the scenes at Lower Tidmouth being shot after the scenes at The Lead Mines (confirmed by the film slates), where the model was evidently modified in-between shoots.
    • Gordon's pupils also change to vinyl circles for a single scene, just after Thomas says "it's ditch water".
  • The official Japanese upload of the episode is the only version not to use the shot of Thomas in the mine as the thumbnail image, instead using one of him at Lower Tidmouth.
  • Starr takes a breath before he says "No one noticed it till you did," which is absent from the final episode.

Goofs

  • Thomas' face is not correctly fitted in the first shot of him at Lower Tidmouth and the shot directly after he falls into the hole. As such, there are gaps between his eyes in both shots.
  • Gordon's left buffer is slightly crooked from when he arrives at Lower Tidmouth up until Thomas leaves with Annie and Clarabel.
  • The goods train that Gordon is pulling has no brake van.
  • Between the scenes of Gordon arriving at Lower Tidmouth and Thomas joking about ditch water, Gordon gains a brakepipe.
  • During the initial shot of the danger sign, the inside body on one of the trucks is slightly peeling off.
  • Thomas' large scale model is seen to not have a face when he bumps the trucks at the mine.
  • When Thomas falls in the hole he is seen derailing, however in the next shot, he is still on the tracks.
  • Steam can be seen leaking through Thomas' eyes and around his face after he falls into the hole.
  • The onomatopoeia for Gordon's whistle is misread as "poof poof" instead of "poop poop".

Episode

Other Languages (translated subtitles)

External Links

References

  1. ↑ Robert Gauld-Galliers (Sodor Island Fansite)
  2. ↑ Nick Starwind's email exchanges with Ian McCue
  3. ↑ Thomas & Friends Marks 80th Anniversary with Lost Pilot Episode and Charity Auction - License Global
  4. ↑ https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/thomas-and-friends-pilot-1.7535283
  5. ↑ @TomsProps on X
  6. ↑ Early production documents
  7. ↑ Q&A with Thomas & Friends Composer - Mike O'Donnell Part 1 (11:49)
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