Thomas the Tank Engine Wikia
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ThomasAndTheMagicRailroad241

These are the guidelines by which we form our articles. They will help explain how and why the Wikia has its own particular style.

Language, Grammar and Spelling

This Wikia uses British spellings, grammar and terminology in keeping with the original Railway Series and television show being originally British. Words such as "favorite" and "humor" are spelt with an extra "u" to be "favourite" and "humour". The term "trucks" is used instead of "freight cars". A car's "license plate" would be a "registration plate" or a "number plate", etc. Episode infoboxes should only have the UK episode title.

The Wikia also uses the standard "school paper" form by not using contractions (don't, isn't, etc.), exclamation points (!), or the word "you" in articles. Instead, please use "does not", "is not", and the like, and simply end sentences with a period and questions with a question mark. This does not apply to quotations or titles, where the actual phrasing should be used.

Do not put a comma before "and"/"or" in a sequence (for example, "Percy collected metal, coal, flour, rocks and fuel and delivered them to the Docks") unless required to prevent ambiguity.

Titles

All English titles, including section headings and titles in file or image names, should follow title case capitalisation rules. The first and last words of a title are always capitalised. Nouns, pronouns (including "Her", "His", "My", "It" and "Who"), adjectives, verbs (including "Be" and "Is") and adverbs are capitalised. Articles, coordinate conjunctions and most prepositions of four or fewer letters are not capitalised, although prepositions which refer to directions such as "Up" and "Down" are capitalised. The first word of a subtitle following a colon is capitalised. Common words which are not capitalised (except when the first or last word of a title or following a colon) include: a, an, and, as, at, but, by, for, from, in, into, nor, of, on, onto, or, than, that, the, to and with.

The ampersand, "&", is always spelled "and" in episode, book and media titles. However, in the show's title, "Thomas & Friends", and some stylised special titles, such as "Digs & Discoveries", it is preserved as "&" as a form of stylisation.

Titles with a possessive following a name ending with "s" should only use one "s" followed by an apostrophe (as in Thomas' Train and Thomas' New Trucks).

Other Language Titles

Episode and media titles in other languages should follow the rules of that language. In most modern European languages (except English and French), capitalisation of the titles of episodes, media, etc. follows the rules of capitalisation in normal prose. That is, the first word and all proper nouns (all nouns in German) take an initial capital, and all other words take a lower case initial.[1]

Home Video Releases released in other languages should include the title and description of the release and the title of each episode in the original language alongside English.

Date Formatting

In compliance with British grammar rules, dates should use the Day Month Year format (as in 9 October 1984, no leading zeroes are needed for single digit days and the month should be fully spelled out). No ordinal suffix is needed after the day number[2] (9 October, not 9th October), except when prefaced by the word "the" as in an incomplete reference[3] (for example, "this episode was originally released on VHS in the UK on 5 October 1998 before it was first aired on the 15th").

Character Infobox Images

We like to have a complete profile picture of all the characters, where images are available. Preferably all characters who have appeared in the Television Series, must have images screen shot from an episode. If a complete profile from an episode is not available, a promotional image will suffice.

Please contact the Staff if you feel you can provide a better image than what is already on the page.

Establishing Roles

After a list of characters on the episode page, some are followed by either, "(does not speak)", "(cameo)", "(mentioned)", or "(not seen)". In the past, there has been some confusion as to what this means. A "cameo" appearance is a minor appearance where a character is seen, but doesn't speak nor is it referred to. A "does not speak" role is where a character appears and is referred to by name by either the narrator or another character. When a character does not physically appear, but is mentioned by a character or the narrator, that is classified as a "mentioned" role. The "not seen" tag is most often used for books. This is when a character speaks, but isn't seen in any of the illustrations. A speaking role is, obviously, when a character actually speaks. In the CGI television series, anything that requires a voice actor is generally viewed as a speaking role, however there are some exceptions to this rule (Alicia Botti's role in James in the Dark for example). If any other confusions occur, please notify an admin or leave a message to the relevant talk pages.

Additionally, there is an order in which we list the characters. This goes as follows:

  • Standard gauge steam engines
  • Standard gauge diesels
  • Other standard gauge vehicles
  • Skarloey Railway steam engines
  • Skarloey Railway diesels
  • Culdee Fell Railway engines
  • Arlesdale Railway steam engines
  • Arlesdale Railway diesels
  • Non-rail vehicles
  • Rolling stock
  • Humans

Galleries

Galleries should have no borders and should be in the "center" position. When adding images, make sure "File:" goes in front of each image name.

No more than four images from each season should be included in a character's gallery. This applies mainly to characters that have appeared in most seasons. Minor characters, one-offs, or characters that were absent for several seasons are an exception. Images that look similar should not be included in a character gallery.

Galleries with 20 or more images are now separated from main pages to keep things tidy. It is not essential for a page to have a seperate gallery if there is little information on the main page; Arlesburgh Maritime Museum is an example of this.

Character galleries are now laid out as follows when applicable:

The Railway Series

Main Series

Miscellaneous

Thomas & Friends

Model Series

CGI Series

Miscellaneous

Promotional Images

Others

Merchandise Gallery

Obviously, if a character has not appeared in the Television Series or the Railway Series, those sections would be omitted.

Episodes

Episodes are ordered by their original UK broadcast date.

Trivia and Goofs

The trivia section is strictly for unique information about the episode. This may include fun facts about episode production, cultural significance, or relation to the Railway Series. The trivia section is NOT for differences in narrations among different dubs. 

The goofs section is mainly for production errors. Do NOT add plot holes, such as "Thomas' driver should not have let him take Emily's trucks". It is a children's program and there will be some flaws in the storytelling. If there is a major plot hole you think should be added, please consult an admin.

Edit Summaries

Providing an edit summary is not essential, but it does make an admin's job easier to review your changes. Some things you may think are right which an admin does not, so use the edit summary to explain why you changed an article. If an edit is reverted multiple times by an admin, don't keep adding it back as that could earn you one or more "strikes". What you should do is explain, in detail, the changes on the relevant talk pages. Please make an effort to read edit summaries as well, because an admin may be giving you warning and telling you to stop making a particular edit.

The Stub Template

If a page is just a few lines of text and some images, then it's a stub. If the page has five or more lines of text, images, and another template, then it's NOT a stub.

Categories

All pages need categories, but not every category goes on every page. Also, "Image" categories only go on image pages.

Biographies

In character biographies, only state significant events the character is involved in. Also, avoid phrasing events in character biographies in a manner such as "In the sixth season, Thomas...". If possible, use the year instead, "In 1954, Thomas...". This helps make biographies look less cluttered.

See Also

References

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