Workforce:Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends

Thomas and Friends Portal

Welcome to Workforce:Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends, a project at Train Spotting World to expand and improve the coverage of all things related to Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends.

Workforce: TtTE&F

Workforce Participants

Users participating in this Workforce may add the following to their User page to identify themselves:

{{User TtTE}}

This produces the following user box:

This user is a member of Workforce Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends.

Participant list

1. Bluegoblin7
2. S.C.Ruffeyfan
3. Norm
4. DalekX
5. Shana754

(Page Under Construction)

Original WikiProject:Thomas

Page below is copied from the WP WikiProject. Needs editing down...

Template:Project This WikiProject covers articles related to Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends and The Railway Series. If you have a passion for things "Thomas-related" and wish to make Wikipedia a reliable reference on the series (both TV and book publications), like the rest of our participants, then please add your name to the list below.

Please see the new FAQ section if you have a question to which you cannot immediately find an answer.

Scope

The scope of this project includes any articles related to:

• The Railway Series book publications by the Rev. W. Awdry and Christopher Awdry
• Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends television series
• The two movies - Thomas and the Magic Railroad and Calling All Engines.

This includes:

• main pages relating to each of the above
• articles relating to characters within each series
• story and/or episode summaries (including video releases)
• articles relating to the locations in each series
• any other pages relating that fall under the umbrella of one or all of the series.

Aims

• One of the most important aims of the project is to clearly differentiate between the above topics. As many participants in this project will understand, there are very clear differences between The Railway Series, the television series, and the movies. It is, therefore, to be made clear which perspective is being viewed, either within common articles wherever practicable, or in articles specific to one angle or another where the differences are quite large.

Articles

The articles covered by the project fall into these five main sections:

• Characters in each of the three genres (The Railway Series, The TV series, and the movies)
• Locations in each of the three genres
• The Railway Lines featured in each of the three genres
• People and organisations significant to the creation of the three genres
• All miscellaneous other articles that fall under the umbrella of WP:THOMAS

Guidelines for contribution

Please read WP:THOMAS/FAQ for more information.

Make sure the article is clear

Remember that not everyone who looks at Wikipedia is a Thomas fan. Therefore, make sure that your article would be clear to someone who is a newcomer to Thomas and Friends. The opening of any article should begin by stating that the character or location appears in the television series, the books or the movie (with links to the relevant articles). The opening paragraph should be a brief introduction to the subject. Following paragraphs can go into more detail.

As an example of bad information, the following piece of information was recently deleted from an article:

"It was well received by young children at whom it was aimed and made $16 million at the box office; however, no reference to the film has ever been made in the television series, except for the new faces."

The latter part, "except for the new faces", would mean nothing to the average reader.

Style

Badly-written articles are difficult to read and look unprofessional. Make sure that your writing is properly spelt and punctuated, and that the grammar is correct. Common errors encountered in these articles are:

• relly bad speling & pnuctution posibley becos the writr is tryin to rite in a hury or mayb has just not bothred to check bfor thay put it up
• Putting Capital Letters At The Beginning Of Every Word.
• Incredibly long sentences that just meander on, touching on several different subjects, seemingly never ending, which could easily be broken up into separate sentences, this would make it far easier to read, and would make the points expressed far clearer. When you have finished writing or contributing to an article, read through it again, preferably out loud. If it sounds wrong, it probably is wrong.

You should not speak directly to the readers or to other contributors in the article itself. Use user talk or discussion pages for this.

The general style should be readable, but not too informal. Do not use unnecessary slang or abbreviations. At the same time, do not use unnecessarily complicated language, particularly if you are unfamiliar with its correct use and/or spelling. Language that is too formal can be as bad as language that is too informal, with the added disadvantage that fewer people understand it. For example, do not say "kinetic motivation" where "movement" will do.

Section titles

To allow for consistent practises, and so as not to interfere with anchored links, the following conventions are in place for naming sections within an article:

• Character pages - Character's name only. ie. "Thomas"', not "Thomas the Tank Engine, No. 1"
• Episode and book overviews - Title of the episode or book only, eg. "Tank Engine Thomas Again". Where applicable (for TV Series), US titles should NOT be included in the section titles, as they are not the original episode titles. As such, include them below the section title, marking them as " - US title". For example:

" ==Thomas and Gordon==

Thomas Gets Tricked - US title "

Should I create an article, or not?

While this project was created with the intention of building a comprehensive source of information on Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends and the Railway Series, it is not necessary to create a new article for every single place, person and concept in the stories. For instance, the Sodor Soft-Side Truck appears in the television series, but it is not necessary to write an article about it because there is very little to say. Do not create an article unless there is enough information available to write a decent amount.

If there is not enough information, but you feel the item does warrant discussion, see if it would fit into any other article. For example, Elsie the brake van is a character in the Thomas "universe", but there is very little to say about her. As she is Toby's brake van, she can be mentioned in the article on Toby the Tram Engine. Most characters can be included in the list articles mentioned above.

Unnecessary information

Do not add information for the sake of it. For instance, in a description of an episode, the information "This is the third time Percy has been seen with the red coaches" is superfluous and frankly boring. Think, if you were reading this article in an encyclopaedia, is this information you would genuinely want to know?

In character articles, it is not necessary to list everything that has ever happened to that character, unless that event has had a significant impact upon him or her. Henry's accident in The Flying Kipper is worth including, because it resulted in his rebuild. His accident in Something in the Air is not, because it had no permanent or significant effect on him.

Likewise, there is no need to list items such as characters who do not appear in a series or movie. Most articles list characters and locations that are used, and therefore such non-information is redundant.

False information, rumours and bad sources

These should not appear in any Wikipedia article. Do not post information unless it is from an official source - and note that someone simply telling you that they have some information from an official source is not the same thing. Official sources include the Railway Series and Awdry-authored spin-offs, the television series and the movies. Magazines, emails from the production company, merchandise, computer games, word of mouth, websites, television spin-off books and fan fiction are not considered canon.

It is worth mentioning at this point that simply stating that information is from "sources" is insufficient. You could technically define your own imagination as a source. Unless you identify your source, you run the risk of your information being considered false.

Rumours are unhelpful unless there is very strong evidence to back them up. Writing "it has been rumoured that Duck will return in Season 10, but nothing has been confirmed yet" does not help anyone, as there is absolutely no evidence to back it up. Similarly, something along the lines of "the Mountain Engines might appear in Season 10" is pointless. A lot of things may happen in Season 10, but unless you have a strong reason to believe them, there is no point in mentioning them.

Information that is definitely made up is completely unacceptable. An example of this is the repeated claim that a character named "Endock" will be appearing in an upcoming season, and another is the false episode lists that have appeared in the article on Season 10. Invented information is usually very obvious, and will be speedily deleted. Additionally, you risk being banned from Train Spotting World.

"Fanon" is information commonly accepted by fans, but which is unofficial. As one example of this, a large crane at Brendam Docks is known as "Big Mickey", because it uses the model of a character of that name from the series 'Tugs'. While this label is undoubtedly convenient, it is misleading to claim it as truth.

Similarly, fans have dubbed certain characters with unofficial titles, e.g. "Emily the Beautiful Engine" and "Spencer the Silver Bullet Engine". These titles should not be used on Wikipedia. If you are creating a character article, a more acceptable title would be Emily (Thomas the Tank Engine), i.e. the character's official name with the clarification in parenthesis. Obviously this does not apply to official titles such as Percy the Small Engine, Henry the Green Engine etc.

Current mini-projects

Mini-projects which are currently underway are listed below. As each stage is completed, please strike through the text (by surrounding it with <s>...</s>).

Character page rationalisation

Overview: There is a need to better organise the pages for characters of both the Railway Series and the TV Series. This will involve the merging of less significant characters into existing pages, thus removing the need for individual pages for less significant characters.

This is nearing completion, redirects constantly need checking. For the complete list of character pages (individual or rationalised) see Wikipedia:WikiProject Thomas/WPThomas Links#Characters

MODEL PAGE (target for quality): Railway engines (Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends).

• 'Individual page' characters need editing to a common format, incorporating useful information and excluding superfluous content.

• Each 'railway' was going to have specific information on related engines and rolling stock. In order to separate The Railway Series and TV series perspectives, most were reorganised in specific collated articles (for example Minor characters in The Railway Series. This still needs clarification and standardisation. If the descriptions are to be found on specific 'railway' pages, a brief link and description should exist from the Major/Minor character pages for the specific genre.

With regard to The Railway Series this is nearly complete:

• The non-standard gauge engines are to be found on the specific railway page (e.g. Arlesdale Railway although this still needs applying to the Skarloey Railway. See Minor characters in The Railway Series#Narrow gauge engines for links to these.

• Note that North Western Railway (fictional) became too large for all the engines, hence the descriptions on the Major/Minor character pages.

Video page rationalisation

Overview: Having an individual page for each TV Series video release is quite inconvenient, even messy. As such, all videos will be listed on the one page.

• Creation of "Thomas and Friends - Video Releases" page
• Using the Category page, identify pages of individual videos. The content of these pages is to be transferred to "Thomas and Friends - Video releases", with a common format being used within this page
• After content has been transferred from individual videos' pages to "Thomas and Friends - Video releases", the content of individual pages can be replaced with a redirect link to Thomas and Friends - Video releases#<insert video title here>.
• Tidy up, finalise format, and create links (to applicable Season pages, for example) on "Thomas and Friends - Video releases".
• When formatting has been completed, create a link to "Thomas and Friends - Video releases" on the Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends page, and add the category to the bottom of the "Thomas and Friends - Video releases" (by adding [[Category:Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends]] to the bottom).

Skarloey Railway character rationalisation

The Skarloey Railway is the only narrow-gauge line that features in both books and TV series. As such, its characters have a greater significance and have been described accordingly. However, this has left a gaping inconsistency in the character coverage, with five of the engines having their own pages. Since these pages are pretty much at the limit of available information, they should be rationalised into line with the other railway articles.

The character articles affected are:

• Skarloey
• Rheneas
• Sir Handel
• Peter Sam
• Rusty the Diesel

The following tasks have been identified:

1. Merge any encyclopedic content regarding TV series characters into the appropriate TV Series page.
2. Move and rationalise remaining (books) content to Skarloey Railway:
   • Existing loco table should remain
     • col 1 links should send readers further down the page or to the TV series pages, according to location of main information for character
     • extra column needed for link to railway line of prototype (no longer just Talyllyn)
     • second extra column needed for link to loco builder (as per prototype)??
     • most of the notes should remain as a 'quick reference' for readers (rationalise this column last!);
   • Add new sections for each engine, whether major, minor, or unfeatured. Do not add TV Series -only characters – they are mentioned in the table!
   • Use book covers for the character images:
     • Peter Sam - Four Little Engines (original chimney)
     • Skarloey - Little Old Engine
     • Rheneas - Gallant Old Engine
     • Sir Handel - Great Little Engines
     • Ivo Hugh - New Little Engine – note that this shows Duncan too
   • For each engine that has appeared on TV, link to TV series articles as per major/minor
   • 'Minor' information about carriages needs separate merge – seems to contain a quantity of OR or TV-series fancruft, which will need attention.
3. Duke, Falcon, Stuart information should be merged to characters in Mid Sodor Railway; Skarloey Railway to concentrate on their history post-move (summary prior history only)
4. Make character pages into redirects to 'Skarloey Railway' (anchored, as per usual practice)
5. 'Major' page characters need 'longer' summary; minor page characters can now be a simple link – may be possible to say that Minor/Unfeatured now ONLY deals with Standard Gauge stock, all Narrow Gauge stock being described on the railway's own page
6. Sort out all the links (BIG JOB!!) – TV series articles to link to TV Series character page; books and general articles to link to Skarloey Railway page
7. Character redirect pages to be added to RS Char category: Skarloey, Rheneas, Peter Sam, Sir Handel, Rusty, Duncan (see below), Ivo Hugh, Duke. (NB 'Fred', 'Mark V' , Falcon and Stuart are unlikely to be sought 'by category', so no need to add them here.)
   • create Duncan (Skarloey Railway) for consistency, as the existing redirect name is wholly inappropriate.
   • Modify category page to indicate that many of the characters are actually listed by railway (and add link to Railways of Sodor cat until individual redirects are added to char cat – not a very direct route for navigation but best availble for now)

Proposed mini-projects

Generally, it is expected that participants who discover any minor issues which can easily be resolved will do so themselves. "If you see something wrong, fix it!" However, any propositions for restructure which either require the participation of a number of people, take many steps to complete, or affect quite a number of pages, should be put forward here.

Categorisation

A check on the various categories should be undertaken regularly, some overhaul should be taken as not every article is in its correct pigeon-hole with a suitable hierarchy.

List of Railway Series Books

The List of Railway Series Books exists in a good format, containing sections on all the Railway Series books and related literature. Links to and from it are present, but lots more can be made. Proof-reading of the 'list' is also important. A progress chart/table has also been suggested, possibly with copyable links to speed up the process.

• for example: [[List of Railway Series Books#Oliver the Western Engine|''Oliver the Western Engine'']]

See also User:EdJogg/List of The Railway Series articles for copyable links for characters, redirects and 'name pages'.

Merchandise

The pages on various items of Thomas merchandise could do with some serious work and overhaul:

• Many of the articles read like adverts rather than encyclopaedia articles
• Several of them are little more than lists
• They often tend to be quite badly written generally
• There is very little on the subject of, for example, the histories of the various ranges
• There is a lot of crystal ball-gazing concerning future releases, much of it unsubstantiated in any way

Merchandise should be collated, detailed yet not superfluous. It may be possible to move everything onto one page, if it gets to large it could then be split in a more constructive way. One option may be to remove all the lists, replacing them with external links to manufacturers' websites (although this may be advertising), or to merge all the toy ranges into a single article with encyclopaedic information about each range in suitable sections.

• Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends merchandise exists for starters, which contains links to other suitable pages. A trawl of Category:Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends may be a place to start!

Participants

See Wikipedia:WikiProject Thomas/Participants for participants of the project. Feel free to add yourself to the list.

Templates

Link template

This navibox is to be placed at the bottom of every article, above any categories. (Note: This eliminates the need for many "See also" sections)

Code: {{Thomas}}

Result: