Wikipedia:WikiProject Animation/Thomas & Friends task force

This WikiProject covers articles related to Thomas & Friends, The Railway Series and All Engines Go. 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 & Friends television series
 * Thomas & Friends: All Engines Go reboot series
 * All of the films from Thomas and the Magic Railroad up to the upcoming film being directed by Marc Forster.

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.

Prose style guide

 * Use the format ...the Rev. W. Awdry ... to produce ...Rev. W. Awdry.... After the first use, simply use Awdry, unless it causes confusion with Christopher. When using the honorific title (Rev), it must be preceded by "the" and followed by a full stop "the Rev."
 * N.B. There are several redirects to point to Rev. W. Awdry. The article is at Wilbert Awdry so try to link to this rather than the redirects.
 * When referring to the books, use "The Railway Series" (including the definite article with an uppercase T. You can also say "The Railway Series books", but not "The Railway Series of books".
 * When referring to characters, use the full name ("Henry the Green Engine"), once, at the start of the article about that character. When linking to other articles, the short name "Henry" with a piped link Henry is sufficient.
 * The hierarchy of Series, books and stories is formatted in the following way;
 * The Railway Series, The Three Railway Engines, "Edward's Day Out". (The series is in italics, the book title in italics, and the story title in inverted commas. When a link to the book/story is desired, use the formats
 * ... The Three Railway Engines ... (The Three Railway Engines)
 * ... "Edward's Day Out" ... ("Edward's Day Out")
 * A suggested opening sentence for the "top 10" character articles is:
 * "Henry the Green Engine is a fictional anthropomorphic steam locomotive from The Railway Series books by the Rev. W. Awdry and his son, Christopher; he also appears in the spin-off television series, Thomas and Friends. Henry, a green 4-6-0 tender locomotive, is owned by the North Western Railway and carries the running number 3."
 * note the linking of fictional anthropomorphic ...

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. i.e. ''"Thomas"', not "Thomas the Tank Engine, No. 1"
 * Episode and book overviews - Title of the episode or book only, e.g. "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 luggage van is a character in the Thomas "universe", but there is very little to say about her. As she is Toby's luggage 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 encyclopedia, is this information you would genuinely want to know? This sort of information belongs on the Thomas Wiki.

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 Neville will return in Season 20, 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 20" is pointless. A lot of things may happen in Season 20, 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 Wikipedia.

"Fanon" is information commonly accepted by fans, but which is unofficial.

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 ... ).

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 WikiProject Thomas/WPThomas Links

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.  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.


 * 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#.
 * 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 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:
 * 3) *Existing loco table should remain
 * 4) **col 1 links should send readers further down the page or to the TV series pages, according to location of main information for character
 * 5) **extra column needed for link to railway line of prototype (no longer just Talyllyn)
 * 6) **second extra column needed for link to loco builder (as per prototype)??
 * 7) **most of the notes should remain as a 'quick reference' for readers (rationalise this column last!);
 * 8) *Add new sections for each engine, whether major, minor, or unfeatured. Do not add TV Series -only characters – they are mentioned in the table!
 * 9) *Use book covers for the character images:
 * 10) ** Peter Sam - Four Little Engines (original chimney)
 * 11) **Skarloey - Little Old Engine
 * 12) **Rheneas - Gallant Old Engine
 * 13) **Sir Handel - Great Little Engines
 * 14) **Ivo Hugh - New Little Engine – note that this shows Duncan too
 * 15) *For each engine that has appeared on TV, link to TV series articles as per major/minor
 * 16) *'Minor' information about carriages needs separate merge – seems to contain a quantity of OR or TV-series fancruft, which will need attention.
 * 17) 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)
 * 18) Make character pages into redirects to 'Skarloey Railway' (anchored, as per usual practice)
 * 19) '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
 * 20) 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
 * 21) 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.)
 * 22) *create Duncan (Skarloey Railway) for consistency, as the existing redirect name is wholly inappropriate.
 * 23) *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 available 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: Oliver the Western Engine

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

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 & Friends

Result:

Project notice
This is the project notice, designed to be placed in the talk page of any article that has been edited as part of this WikiProject.

Code: WikiProject Thomas

Result:

Note: Template was originally named Thomas-project-page. Please update any pages that still use the old name when you edit them. Thank you.

User pages
Users wishing to be identified as part of the Project may use these User Boxes on their User page (after adding their name to the Participants list).

Code: user WP-THOMAS
 * Standard User Box

Result:

''The 'original' WP:THOMAS user box. (Note: This is not a "Userbox", so will not fit alongside other userboxes in a standard wikitable)''
 * Alternative User Box

Code: Thomas-project-member

Result:

Barnstar
Users who make excellent contributions to Thomas-related articles can be rewarded with The Troublesome Tank Engine Barnstar:

Resources

 * Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Thomas/Character list lists characters, and the correct place to which they should be linked.

Article categories
The following hierarchy shows the categories appropriate for articles that come under the banner of Wikiproject Thomas:


 * Category:The Railway Series – top-level (parent) category
 * Category:The Railway Series characters
 * Category:Railways of Sodor – has multiple parent categories within project
 * Category:Railway Series illustrators
 * Category:The Railway Series images – parent category, to include non-book cover and non-map images!
 * Category:The Railway Series book covers – the 40 Series book cover images
 * Category:The Railway Series maps – planned: for all the map images, if worth splitting off
 * Category:The Railway Stories album covers – planned: for images relating to The Railway Stories
 * Category:The Railway Series locations
 * Category:Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends – parent category for TV Series articles
 * Category:Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends characters
 * Category:Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends images – groups all TV Series images
 * Category:Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends locations
 * Category:Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends merchandise
 * Category:Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends videos

Project categories

 * Category:WikiProject Thomas – top-level category, for Project pages, or those with the attached
 * Category:WikiProject Thomas articles – automatically added by the Thomas-project-page template
 * Category:WikiProject Thomas participants – automatically added by the Thomas-project-member template

Related links

 * The founders of this WikiProject (User:HonestTom, User:Gonzerelli, and User:Thehalford) are all members of the Sodor Island Forums, where this project was unofficially initiated in January 2006.


 * An exemplary fansite, which can be used as a great information resource, can be found here.


 * Knowing that Fan Fiction has absolutely no place on Wikipedia, and yet that there is a community of souls who wish to read or write fan fiction and try to do it on Wikipedia, Train Spotting World (a companion wiki) has created a home for material of this nature, and is happy to be its "home".
 * This wiki includes similar coverage to Wikipedia on 'all things Thomas', but with fewer restrictions on content. A kind of WikiProject, known as | Workforce:Thomas, exists there to fulfil a similar role to WikiProject:Thomas.