October 9th

Today in 1984, Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends first hit the air on the BBC's ITV network. This show is about a magic island filled with talking trains. From what I know about Thomas & Friends Lore, the island is like a magic talking train sanctuary but also one that's British to a fault. Anyway the show itself is one I remember fondly as a kid. I can't remember what narrator track I listened to but there's like 3-4 and two of them are done by Ringo Starr and Alec Baldwin. Make of this what you will.

Also, I don't think the series is actually known as Thomas the Train in any official capacity. Anything I can see listing it either calls it "Thomas The Tank Engine '' or " Thomas & Friends." ''Thomas & Friends'' is such a vague name I could literally call this website that and it would be more descriptive here than it would be for the talking train island adventures. I guess they don't call him Thomas the Train because he lives in a train society where I imagine the difference between "the Tank Engine" vs "the Train" would be comparable to "The Athlete" vs " The Guy". That's my food for thought for today.

[EDITOR’S NOTE: The popular misconception that the series is called Thomas the Train is one of those “mandela effects” that just make me roll my eyes. It’s not cosmic interference. You just didn’t know what a tank engine was when you were 5, you called him Thomas the Train. I never had a train phase, I still couldn’t tell you what makes a tank engine different from, like, a steam engine.]

[ASSOCIATE NOTE: "Train" refers to the combined structure of the individual cars, engine to caboose, so it's actually like calling "The Athlete" the entire baseball team]