Thomas & Friends series 1

On the Island of Sodor's North Western Railway, Thomas the Tank Engine works as a station pilot at Knapford Station. He believes himself to be the hardest-working engine on the railway and frequently annoys Gordon the Big Engine, the railway's express passenger engine, by calling him lazy. Frustrated, Gordon plots revenge against Thomas; the next morning, Gordon begins his journey just as Thomas gives him his coaches, preventing him from being uncoupled from the back of the train. Gordon forces Thomas along his route at high speed. Afterwards, Thomas travels home slowly and regrets his past actions.

Edward is a blue mixed-traffic tender engine. He is one of the smaller engines on the railway and has not been used recently, prompting the bigger engines to mock him. Feeling sympathetic, Edward's driver and fireman allow Edward to shunt in the train yard and take a passenger train. The next day, Gordon stalls on a steep hill and Edward is called to push him up. Gordon does not thank Edward, but his crew rewards him with a new paintjob.

Henry the Green Engine hauls a passenger train during a rainstorm. Fearing the rain will ruin his paint, he abruptly stops inside a tunnel and refuses to leave. After multiple failed attempts to force him out, the head of the railway, Sir Topham Hatt, leaves Henry inside the tunnel behind a brick wall with no rails. The soot and dust from the tunnel ruins his paint regardless.

Henry regrets his decisions that led to him being left in the tunnel. Gordon, who planned to mock Henry on his way through the tunnel, bursts his safety valve and breaks down before entering, which Henry laughs at. With Gordon out of commission, Sir Topham orders Edward to pull the train instead, but he is too weak. Henry is selected to pull the train and is freed from the tunnel. He and Edward pull the train together and Henry returns to the railway.

Thomas becomes bored of his usual work and longs to see the world. One morning, Henry falls ill when he is supposed to haul a passenger train. With no other engine available, Sir Topham reluctantly allows Thomas to pull the train. Excited and impatient, Thomas inexplicably starts his journey before being coupled to the coaches and mistakes the workers' alerts for greetings. He is stopped at a railway signal, where a signalman informs him he has no coaches. Thomas solemnly returns to the station and tries again, but is later mocked by the other engines for his mistake.

Thomas remains bored of working in the yard. Edward offers to swap his goods train for Thomas' work. Thomas gets his chance, but ignores Edward's advice about the trucks. When going downhill, the train pushes Thomas too fast and he overruns the station platform. Sir Topham, having witnessed the events, confines Thomas to the yard until he is properly educated on trucks.

Thomas notices a type of train he finds strange; his driver identifies it as a breakdown crane. A new red mixed-traffic engine named James the Red Engine speeds through the yard at dangerous speed; his wooden brake blocks are on fire. Upon hearing that James has derailed, Thomas immediately takes the breakdown crane to the scene of the accident. He spends all day clearing up the mess and rescuing James. Sir Topham rewards Thomas for his act by granting him a new job as a passenger train on his own branch line.

James is enjoying his new life on the Island of Sodor, but still has a lot to learn. He accidentally ruins Sir Topham's new top hat and blows a hole in the brake pipe of one of his coaches.

James is stuck in the sheds after the incident with the coaches, but soon he gets let out to pull some trucks. James is more than happy, even though he does get teased by the other engines about his incident. The trucks try to make James give up, but he manages to pull them to their station.

Gordon ends up going down a different track with the express, ironically after boasting to James that he knows the right line. James serves as Gordon's replacement for the day and Sir Topham allows him to take the express occasionally. Gordon gains respect for James and finds joy out of shunting.

Thomas, who successfully runs his branch line with his new passenger coaches Annie and Clarabel, becomes so impatient with Henry being late that he accidentally leaves his guard behind on a platform.

Thomas wants to fish after seeing people fishing, but is told that engines never go fishing. The next day, Thomas needs a drink of water. But when the water tower is out of order, Thomas' crew decides to get water from the river, only to face a consequence with fish in Thomas' boiler.

Thomas meets a tractor called Terence. Thomas mocks Terence's caterpillar tracks and Terence boasts that he is not confined to a pair of rails like Thomas. During the winter, Thomas refuses to wear a snowplow and gets stuck in a snow pile. He is rescued by Terence, after which he thanks Terence and takes back his insults.

Thomas meets a single-deck bus called Bertie, who reminds Thomas of the time he took his passengers after he got stuck in the snowdrift, and Terence came to pull him out. Bertie challenges Thomas to a race to the next station.

Since Thomas has to work on his branch line, Henry, Gordon, and James must shunt their own coaches, which makes them angry as they believe tender engines should not shunt. In additionally, Gordon and James both have issues with their turntable: Gordon is unable to get perfectly balanced and is forced to pull his next train facing backwards, and James is spun round at high speed by strong winds, leaving him dizzy and completely humiliated when Gordon witnesses it. Fed up, the tender engines go on strike.

When Sir Topham learns of the strike, he brings in Edward to end it. But when he sees Edward being treated poorly, he buys a new saddle tank engine he names Percy to help and shuts the three tender engines up in the sheds as punishment for their mutiny. Percy soon gets to work shunting coaches and handling Thomas' branch, while Edward and Thomas work together to run the main line.

Sir Topham allows Henry, James, and Gordon to end their strike now that they no longer have to shunt their own trains. While taking a break, Percy stops at a junction on the main line and forgets Edward's instructions on altering the signalman. He almost collides with Gordon and reverses backwards, quickly becoming a runaway. Percy travels far and is eventually stopped by a bank of dirt. Gordon pulls him out and congratulates him on preventing an accident.

Henry has been sick for some time and Sir Topham is concerned about him. He finds Henry's small firebox is unable to take the heat from the Island's coal and requires an expensive but special Welsh load. By using the Welsh coal, Henry's performance improves dramatically.

Henry is chosen to pull an early morning fish train, dubbed "the Flying Kipper". Everything goes well until ice freezes the points from the main line into a siding and snow forces down a signal set at "Danger", leading Henry to collide with another goods train in the siding. Sir Topham sends Henry to Crewe to get a new shape and a larger firebox, allowing him to use regular coal again and making him the engine he always deserved to be.

Gordon is jealous that Henry has been rebuilt and complains that he whistles too much. Ironically, Gordon's whistle jams later on and he is unable to stop from whistling. The next day, some boys throw stones at Henry and break the coaches' windows. Henry's driver and fireman decide to pay the boys out by making Henry sneeze at them.

Toby is a square tram engine who works on his own little line. He is happy there with his faithful coach Henrietta, who has seen better days, but soon he is quickly running out of work, being replaced by cars, lorries and buses. In the meantime, he is only carrying a few passengers and shunting a few trucks. Toby's line is about to be closed down for good when a letter comes for him.

Thomas gets in trouble with a police constable for not having a cowcatcher or sideplates. When Sir Topham hears about it, he buys Toby, who has both and brings Henrietta with him.

Toby and Henrietta are enjoying their new life on the Island of Sodor, but James calls them "dirty objects" as they look old fashioned and need new paint. Later, James takes a goods train, but the trucks push him down Gordon's Hill so fast, that he crashes into some tar wagons. James is more dirty than hurt, but when Toby and Percy arrive to help him, Toby says that he looks more like the so-called "dirty object" now.

One morning, Gordon is very difficult. He becomes the butt of Henry and Percy's jokes and refuses to pull a goods train. His plan to jam the turntable ends in failure when he slithers into a ditch. When Sir Topham hears about this, he leaves Gordon there until later. At night, Gordon is finally pulled out of the ditch by James and Henry, but is now miserable and humiliated because of his actions.

After his ditch incident, Gordon is forced to pull trucks as his punishment. Thomas enjoys teasing him about it much to Annie and Clarabel's dismay, but while working at the lead mines shunting trucks, he falls into one after he takes no notice of a danger sign. Gordon, now feeling sorry for Thomas, pulls him out. The two relate over their embarrassment from prior incidents and form an alliance

Christmas arrives on the Island of Sodor. All the engines are busy with passengers and parcels, especially Thomas and Toby. Thomas likes it when he passes Mrs. Kyndley's house while working and she always waves to him. Thomas then goes to the shed to talk with the other engines about throwing a Christmas party for Mrs. Kyndley to thank her for saving them from an accident a year earlier.