Standard Tankers (T&F)

The Railway Series

Thomas & Friends

All Engines Go

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Standard Tankers
Background Information
First appearance	Thomas and Gordon (1984)
Last appearance	Yong Bao and the Tiger (2021)
Character Overview
Country	Island of Sodor England Mauritania Kenya Tanzania Brazil United States Canada India China Australia Italy
Technical Details
Basis	14 Ton Fuel Tanker
Gauge	4'8½" (1,435 mm; standard gauge)
Vehicle	Rolling stock
Type	Tanker
Wheels	4
Builder(s)	Hurst Nelson, Motherwell
Railway	North Western Railway East African Railways China Railway Indian Railway South Australian Railways
Owner(s)	Sir Topham Hatt Charubala

Standard tankers are rolling stock used for transporting any type of liquid, rather than a specific type. These tankers feature no logos from other companies.

Personalities

Standard tankers on Sodor fall into the category of Troublesome Trucks, although the ones in African countries are quite the opposite; somewhat silly, polite, helpful and enjoy singing peaceful and uplifting songs.

Types of sentient tankers

Troublesome Trucks (faceless)

Troublesome Trucks (narrow gauge square faces)

Troublesome Trucks (narrow gauge square faces with large nostrils)

Troublesome Trucks (narrow gauge square faces with buck teeth)

Troublesome Trucks (narrow gauge vertical rectangular faces)

Troublesome Trucks (narrow gauge vertical rectangular faces with pointed nose)

African tankers

Technical Details

Basis

These tankers are based on standard 14-ton pre-war tankers common across most of regions.

A tanker in real life

Liveries

Standard tankers typically come in black, grey, silver and white liveries. Sentient tankers in African countries are painted purple maroon.

Appearances

• Television Series
• Other Media

Thomas & Friends Series 1 - Thomas and Gordon, Edward and Gordon, The Sad Story of Henry, Edward, Gordon and Henry, Thomas' Train, Thomas and the Trucks, Thomas and the Breakdown Train, James and the Coaches, Troublesome Trucks, James and the Express, Thomas, Terence and the Snow, Trouble in the Shed, Coal, Off the Rails, Down the Mine and Thomas' Christmas Party Series 2 - Thomas, Percy and the Coal, Cows, Saved from Scrap, Old Iron, Thomas and Trevor, Percy and the Signal, Duck Takes Charge, The Runaway, Percy Takes the Plunge, Pop Goes the Diesel, Dirty Work, Better Late Than Never, Break Van, The Deputation, Thomas Comes to Breakfast, Daisy, The Diseasel, Ghost Train, Woolly Bear and Thomas and the Missing Christmas Tree Series 3 - A Scarf for Percy, Gordon and the Famous Visitor, Donald's Duck, Thomas Gets Bumped, Thomas, Percy and the Dragon, Diesel Does it Again, Henry's Forest, The Trouble with Mud, No Joke for James, Thomas, Percy and the Post Train, Trust Thomas, All at Sea, One Good Turn, Tender Engines, Escape, Oliver Owns Up, Percy, James and the Fruitful Day and Thomas and Percy's Christmas Adventure Series 4 - Four Little Engines, A Bad Day for Sir Handel, Peter Sam and the Refreshment Lady, Trucks, Rock 'n' Roll, Steam Roller, Passengers and Polish, Gallant Old Engine, Rusty to the Rescue, Thomas and Stepney, Train Stops Play, Bowled Out, Toad Stands By, Bulls Eyes, Thomas and the Special Letter, Paint Pots and Queens, Special Attraction and Mind that Bike Series 5 - Cranky Bugs, Horrid Lorry, A Better View for Gordon (deleted scene), James and the Trouble with Trees, Gordon and the Gremlin, Bye George!, Put Upon Percy, Double Teething Troubles, Thomas, Percy and Old Slow Coach, Thomas and the Rumours, Oliver's Find, Happy Ever After, Sir Topham Hatt's Holiday, A Surprise for Percy, Busy Going Backwards and Snow (stock footage) Series 22 - Tiger Trouble Series 23 - Batucada, Thomas Makes a Mistake, Rangers of the Rails (fantasy), Wish You Were Here and Lorenzo's Solo and Too Loud, Thomas! Series 24 - Thomas and the Forest Engines, Shankar's Makeover, Thomas' Not-So-Lucky Day and Yong Bao and the Tiger Specials 2000 - Thomas and the Magic Railroad 2018 - Big World! Big Adventures!

Magazine Stories

• 1993 - Keeping Cool!

Trivia

• Some plain tankers appear with faces in the fourth series episode, Toad Stands By and reappear in Big World! Big Adventures! In the former, some of the faces were sourced from the narrow gauge slate trucks.
  • Two faces used for tankers in Toad Stands By are owned by Twitter users TomsProps and ThomasTankMerch.
• The tankers would later be repainted into oil tankers in Series 6.

Merchandise

• Motor Road and Rail
• TrackMaster (discontinued)
• Wooden Railway (Unpainted tanker; discontinued)
• Bachmann
• Motorized

North Western Railway

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--- Dropped | * 1991-1994 maps only | ** 2014 map only

United Kingdom

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Brazil

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United States

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India

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China

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Australia

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Italy

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