Thomas the Train - The Lion of Sodor

In the second episode of the 13th season, Thomas is given a task to do. It is to deliver the Lion of Sodor to the little town of Knapford. Thomas didn't know about the Lion of Sodor, but the older engines in the series did.

The Lion of Sodor is a famous statue that was broken and the older engines remember it. Years later when Thomas showed up in the series, Thomas was sent to get and transport a new version of the Lion of Sodor statue.

Thomas had mistaken it for a real lion and wanted to take special care of it. Despite advice from his friends not to worry about the Lion, Thomas went ahead with plans to care for the lion. In trying to take care of this precious cargo, Thomas tried to make sure the Lion was well fed and comfortable.

He collected food from his friends Henry and Edward, and some straw for comfort from Toby. He had it all placed inside the crate with the lion to assure the lion had a comfortable journey to the Knapford Station.

When Thomas with his cargo the lion, arrive at the Knapford station, the crate is opened. To everyone's shock the lion is a horrible mess of syrup, fish and hay, the food and hay that Thomas had given to the lion for a comfortable journey.

Thomas told everyone what he had done, because he thought the lion was real. One of Thomas' friends, Henry, explained to Thomas that the Lion of Sodor was a special statue that had once been broken, and this was its replacement.

Thomas took the statue to the train wash-down to get it cleaned and later to the steam works to be polished. When Thomas returned with the cleaned statue back to Knapford, the Mayor of Sodor gave a speech about the statue.

This episode is the second episode in the 13th season, which from this season onward, was created using CGI, or Computer Generated Imagery. All the previous seasons and episodes were made using model trains and filmed using 35 mm film.

Many model railroad and train enthusiasts were upset about the company's decision to create the series using CGI. Many train buffs liked watching the series for the models and attention to model detail. These model railroad enthusiasts were not always children either, many were full grown adults, who were raised with Thomas the Tank Engine, and used to seeing the show in real model railway form, not CGI.


Larry writes about many topics, some of which include Thomas the Train Videos. Larry has a website where he lists many of the Thomas The Train Videos and articles on Thomas the Tank Engine
His site can be found here: http://www.thomasthetrainvideos.net