Yong Bao and the Tiger

"Remember, we all grow from something smaller into what we are today."

- Yong Bao

Yong Bao and the Tiger is the sixteenth episode of the twenty-fourth series. It is the televised adaptation of an original short from the Chinese release of The Great Race.

Plot
Thomas is shunting Lei in the yard when he becomes curious about the tiger on Yong Bao's tender. He asks Yong Bao about it and he tells Thomas the story of how he became the pride of China.

Yong Bao was stuck working in the yards while the mean engines got to go out and pull coaches. He was always teased by the other engines who would come to the yard. One day, Yong Bao spots a tiger, but the tiger is frightened away by the mean engines' whistles. Yong Bao looks for the tiger but he cannot find him anywhere. Many months pass until Yong Bao finally decides to venture out of the yard and into the mountains. Up in the mountains, he spots the same tiger and he follow him down the mountains where he sees one of the mean engines about to fall off the mountain. Yong Bao races to the rescue and pulls everyone to safety. For his bravery, he is repainted red and green with a tiger on his tender.

Characters

 * Thomas
 * Yong Bao
 * The Mean Engines
 * Lei
 * Railway Inspector

Locations

 * China
 * Chinese Railway Shunting Yard
 * The Chinese Railway Bridge
 * Himalayas

UK

 * John Hasler as Thomas
 * Chris Lew Kum Hoi as Yong Bao and The Mean Engines
 * Windson Liong as Lei
 * Dan Li as a Railway Inspector

US

 * Joseph May as Thomas
 * Chris Lew Kum Hoi as Yong Bao and The Mean Engines
 * Windson Liong as Lei
 * Dan Li as a Railway Inspector

Trivia

 * Going by production order, this is the fourteenth episode of the twenty-fourth series.
 * This episode marks last with many things:
 * The final appearance of Lei.
 * The final appearance of Yong Bao in the original series.
 * The last episode to take place off of the Island of Sodor.
 * The last episode to feature The Journey Never Ends song at the end.
 * The last episode written by David Stoten.
 * The last episode to feature an engine wearing a snowplow.
 * The last episode where all characters that appear also have a speaking role in the original series,
 * This marks the only with several things:
 * The only episode to have Yong Bao as a main character in the original series.
 * The only episode set in China in which Hong-Mei, An An and Yin-Long do not appear since their debuts.
 * The only appearance of China in the twenty-fourth series, and the final appearance of China overall.
 * The only episode to have Yong Bao be voiced by Chris Lew Kum Hoi.
 * The only episode since the fourteenth series episode, Henry's Magic Box, to be written by a producer and the last episode it was written by a producer.
 * The only episode written by Ian McCue, who previously wrote Thomas & Friends in 4-D: Bubbling Boilers.
 * The events of this episode are later mentioned by Percy in the All Engines Go episode, The Tiger Train.
 * Music from the original 2D short is reused throughout the episode, most notably Yong Bao's theme.
 * This episode was never aired in Germany and South Korea.
 * In the Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian and Baltic Russian dubs, the UK dub can be heard in the background as a dubbing track was not used.

Goofs

 * When Yong Bao looks for the tiger the day after he first sees it, one of the 1-Plank Trucks is clipping into two flatbeds.

Merchandise

 * Magazine Stories - Yong Bao and the Tiger

UK/IRL/AUS

 * Animal Adventures