Series 2

The second series of Thomas & Friends premiered on 24 September 1986 in the UK. Ringo Starr narrated all twenty-six episodes in the UK as well as seventeen of them on Shining Time Station, with George Carlin re-narrating all of the episodes for the US, with most of them being aired between 1991 and 1998.

Production
The majority of the episodes were based on stories written by the Reverend W. Awdry. Christopher Awdry was commissioned to write a new Railway Series book as source material for the second series. Two stories from More About Thomas the Tank Engine provided additional roles for Bertie and Harold. The episode Thomas and the Missing Christmas Tree was a one-off story written by Christopher Awdry. According to the original end credits for Thomas and Trevor, the episode is "based on the story by Christopher Awdry from original material by Britt Allcroft and David Mitton." All of Christopher Awdry's new stories were added later in production.

Percy's Promise, Gordon Goes Foreign and Double Header were originally considered but were dropped and replaced by Christopher Awdry's new stories. According to Robert Gauld-Galliers, "Gordon Goes Foreign" in particular was not filmed because its production costs' budget was too high. Additionally, The Missing Coach, based on a story from The Twin Engines, was due to be filmed. The episode was halfway through production before Britt Allcroft decided to cut the episode, citing a lack of action and a storyline which was too convoluted for young viewers to follow. Percy's Promise and Double Header, whose name would be changed to Time for Trouble, would be seen in the third series.

Characters

 * Thomas
 * Edward
 * Henry
 * Gordon
 * James
 * Percy
 * Toby
 * Annie and Clarabel
 * Henrietta
 * Troublesome Trucks
 * Terence
 * Bertie
 * Sir Topham Hatt
 * Mrs. Kyndley
 * Engine Inspector
 * The Ffarquhar Stationmaster
 * Jeremiah Jobling
 * Stephen Hatt
 * Bridget Hatt
 * Farmer Finney
 * The Ffarquhar Policeman
 * The First Butler
 * The Little Boys
 * One of the Stone-Dropping Boys
 * Earnest
 * Märklin Engine

Characters Introduced

 * Duck
 * Donald and Douglas
 * Bill and Ben
 * Diesel
 * Daisy
 * BoCo
 * The Spiteful Brake Van
 * Trevor
 * Harold
 * Jem Cole
 * The Vicar of Wellsworth
 * The Barber
 * Daisy's Fitter
 * The Ffarquhar Stationmaster's Wife
 * Three Engine Inspectors
 * Percy's Ghost Engine
 * Father Christmas
 * The Naughty Boys
 * The Lady with the Floppy Green Hat
 * The Enthusiasts
 * The Barber's Customer
 * The Firelighter
 * The Ffarquhar Stationmaster's Children
 * Harold's Pilots
 * The Careless Cleaner
 * Sam the Farmer
 * Big City Engine
 * The Foreign Gentlemen

Locations

 * Island of Sodor
 * Brendam
 * Brendam Docks
 * Upper Brendam
 * Crosby
 * Crosby Bridge
 * Crosby Road Bridge
 * C&B Barber
 * M.C. Bunn
 * Crowe's Farm Crossing
 * Elsbridge
 * Elsbridge Crossing
 * Elsbridge Engine Sheds
 * The Carriage Shed
 * Elsbridge Signal Runby
 * Ffarquhar Quarry
 * Gordon's Hill
 * Knapford
 * Knapford Yards
 * Brendam Warehouse
 * Sodor Shipping Company
 * Sir Topham Hatt's Office
 * Lower Suddery
 * New Harbour
 * New Harbour Bridges
 * Post Windmill
 * Sodor China Clay Company
 * Suddery Castle
 * Suddery Hill
 * Terence's Field
 * The Branch Line Bridge
 * The Branch Line Cutting
 * The Cow Field
 * The Dual Bends
 * The Hay Farm
 * The Quarry Tramroad
 * The Viaduct
 * The Watermill
 * Tidmouth
 * Tidmouth Sheds
 * Tidmouth Engine Works
 * Tidmouth Goods Station
 * Tidmouth Yards
 * Ffarquhar Sheds
 * The Ffarquhar Stationmaster's House
 * Wellsworth
 * Crocks Scrap Yard
 * Suddery Junction
 * Wellsworth Crossing
 * Wellsworth Vicarage Orchard
 * Trevor's Shed
 * Wellsworth Yards
 * Hackenbeck Tunnel
 * Rail Under Road Bridge and Signalbox
 * Cronk
 * Henry's Tunnel
 * The Lead Mines
 * Scotland

Trivia

 * This was the first series of several things:
 * The first series filmed at Shepperton Studios.
 * The first series where trucks have resin faces.
 * The first series to introduce Toby's shocked face.
 * The first series to use stories by Christopher Awdry.
 * The first series to have diesel locomotives.
 * The first series to not feature any episodes with Henry as the lead character.
 * The first series to have a female engine.
 * The first series in which the phrase, "Bust my buffers!" is said.
 * The first series to have Edward's new happy faces.
 * The first series to introduce an alternate shocked face for Gordon and Duck.
 * The first and only series to show two different versions of Percy's cross face (eyebrows modified).
 * The first series to feature modified eyebrows for an engine's face, as shown with Thomas' first series sad face's eyebrows modified to depict a concerned look.
 * The only series to have an engine encounter the most number of accidents in a single series.
 * The first series to show Percy's rare smug face which would later appear on-screen in the fifth series.
 * The first series to show James' smug face.
 * The first series to show Percy's smiling face with alternate eyebrows, which would later appear in the fourth/fifth series and only series to show Edward's smiling face with modified eyebrows in one episode.
 * The first series to add Sequential Circuits Prophet 2000 to compose the music. This was the timpani sample for Harold, Donald and Douglas' Theme.
 * The first series where Lady Hatt does not appear.
 * The first series to have a character that travels by air.
 * The first series video edited by Kang Hyun-gi for JEI TV in South Korea.
 * The first and only series where majority of the steam engines including the diesel BoCo (except Edward, Gordon and Henry) have laughing faces without teeth. Although, Gordon and Henry do have chuckling faces which would be used in many more episodes.
 * The first series to have an alternate recognized whistle for an engine, being Henry here who has Duck's whistle at a higher pitch, in two episodes. This trend would later be used for Thomas (who uses Edward's whistle), Gordon (using Duck's whistle) and James (using Duck's at an even much higher pitch) for the fourth to the fifth series, Peter Sam in the new series (having Emily's seventh series whistle) and Rheneas' from the fifth series (having Peter Sam's classic whistle).
 * The first series to give Diesel a very grave and oily voice. Diesel would later have this voice only in the third series episode, Tender Engines, rest of all his appearances would see him speaking in a louder nasty nasal voice.
 * The first series to introduce an engine who speaks in a dialect (the Scottish accent) different from the rest of the engines who speak in the preferred traditional English accent. This practice would later be adopted for Duncan from the fourth series onwards, who also has a similar Scottish accent like the twins.
 * This was the final series of several things:
 * Ringo Starr's last series as narrator, although he would return to voice Thomas in the The Official BBC Children in Need Medley, 23 years later on. It was also planned to have him return to voice in the cancelled Series 25 when Thomas was fantasizing about traveling through time after seeing a replica of H.G. Wells' time machine at a science fiction exhibition at Tidmouth Museum.
 * Robert D. Cardona's last series as the producer.
 * Britt Allcroft's last series as executive producer until the sixth series.
 * The last series made by Clearwater Features.
 * The last series where the end credits would roll over the final shot of an episode (not counting US VHS releases).
 * The last series not to have any music videos.
 * The last series commissioned by Central Independent Television.
 * The last series to have Norwegian translation by Beate Mulholland in the TV dub.
 * The last appearance of Thomas' original first series "O" face, excluding flashback from the first series episode, Down the Mine which was used in the fourth series episode, Paint Pots and Queens.
 * The last series until the seventeenth series to feature the same narrator for both the UK and US for the majority of the series, excluding episodes selected for New Friends for Thomas and Other Adventures which were narrated by Michael Angelis and the original recordings for the twelfth series which were narrated by Pierce Brosnan.
 * The last series in which Bertie has no eyebrows.
 * The last series where Daisy has a speaking role until the fourth series episode, Bulls Eyes.
 * The last series released in the 1980s.
 * The last series to use yellow transitions. However, they were still used for the restored versions of Japanese releases for the rest of the Classic Series.
 * The last series to feature Thomas' frightened face until the seventh series, and the last production overall until Thomas and the Magic Railroad. And the last series to feature Thomas' exhausted and his scared face until the seventh series with the triangle eyebrows.
 * The last production to feature Thomas' shocked face without a bucktooth until Thomas and the Magic Railroad.
 * The last appearance of Gordon's shocked face until the fifth series episode, Cranky Bugs.
 * The last series to create the score with the Roland Jupiter 6 synthesizer from original material.
 * The last series dubbed in Romansh.
 * The last series that not released completely on VHS in South Korea.
 * The last series to have two dubs in Sweden.
 * The last series aired by TV4 until the eighth series in Sweden.
 * The last series entirely dubbed in French until the twelfth series.
 * The episodes Daisy and Percy's Predicament were the only ones not to be featured on Shining Time Station at all, due to co-creator Rick Siggelkow's disapproval of Daisy's design. As a result, both episodes would become VHS-exclusives on the release, Daisy and Other Thomas Stories, as part of a compromise with Britt Allcroft, along with merchandise of her being sold in the United States and they were released on Mister Moose's Fun Time from 1998 - 2000.
 * This is the only series to feature Hackenbeck Tunnel via stock footage.
 * Percy's Promise and Time for Trouble were originally going to be part of this series, but were pushed back to the third series to make way for the adaptations of More About Thomas the Tank Engine. The scripts for these planned episodes would be leaked in 2022.
 * Despite this, the events of Percy's Promise were still mentioned in Percy Takes the Plunge.
 * This series began production in September 1985 and completed filming in June 1986.
 * This is the only production where a character angrily says "Shut up!" until Thomas and the Magic Railroad. This is likely due to broadcasting concerns after this series.
 * Starting from the episode, Pop Goes the Diesel, the laughing sound effect from the trucks was heard. That sound effect was later reused in the following series.
 * From this series until the third series, Toby has a different bell sound.
 * Henry regains his wheel arches, which were removed when he received his new shape after his accident with The Flying Kipper.
 * The biggest space of time between two series airing is between this series, which aired in 1986 and the third series, which did not air until 1992, six years later.
 * When first broadcast on ITV, two episodes were compiled into one ten minute block with the nameboard sequence featured in between. For broadcasts in 1991, the stories were shown individually.
 * In the original Polish and Ukrainian dubs, Ringo Starr' narration can be heard in the background as a dubbing track was not used.
 * In the Korean dub of DVD Acadamy, George Carlin' narration can be heard in the background as a dubbing track was not used.
 * In the Italian, Romanian, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Finnish, Hungarian, Slovenian, Croatian, Serbian, Czech, Polish, Russian, Greek, Turkish, Korean DVDs of C4U Media, Chinese Mandarin and Cantonese dubs, credit Ringo Starr as the narrator, even though they were re-dubbed in their respective languages.
 * The Korean DVDs of DVD Acadamy credit George Carlin as the narrator, even though they were voiced over in their respective language.
 * Doubles of the second series later aired in re-runs on Children's ITV from 6th April-13th July 1988 as a complete series, then re-aired with twenty episodes on Mondays in 1989, beginning with Bertie's Chase and Saved from Scrap on 6th March before ending with The Diseasel and Wrong Road on 22nd May, at the same time TUGS aired on Tuesdays.
 * When ITV dropped the first series, fifteen episodes from the second series were broadcast every Tuesday starting with Thomas, Percy and the Coal on 21st May 1991 and aired the episodes out of order, Bertie's Chase and Saved From Scrap were the next episodes to air and continued with Thomas and Trevor, Duck Takes Charge, Percy Takes The Plunge and the Duck and the Diesel Engine saga until 23rd July and then went on to air Thomas Comes to Breakfast, The Diseasel and Edward's Exploit, finally airing Ghost Train on 27th August 1991 . These episodes were all separate soon after Clearwater Features had shut down their production arm, this series used a Central Television logo and were all introduced by Tommy Boyd and Glenn Kinsey.
 * The first three VHS releases from this series, released on 23rd March 1987 under Screen Legends and repeated under Pickwick Video in 1989 alongside The Very Best of Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends on 6th May 1991. The Video Collection released of this series on VHS first on 25th May 1992 and later repeated on 22nd November 1993 to tie in with other VHS tapes from the previous season and the next series.
 * Some episodes had been trimmed down for both the 1989 and 1991 airings. Woolly Bear was the last episode aired in 1991, whilst Wrong Road was the last episode aired in 1989. Additionally, The Runaway did not air in 1991.
 * Matthew Kelly was the presenter responsible for the first debut on 24th September 1986. Further repeats of ten minute blocks were introduced by Gary Terzza, Debbie Shore, Mark Granger, Jerry Foulkes and Scally the Dog. The individual episodes in 1991 were introduced by Tommy Boyd and Glenn Kinsey.