Shadowing Practice: Thomas, a tank engine, is not Thomas the Tank Engine. - Learn English Speaking with Video

I tried not to make too many videos about trains on this road trip, but the next stop is a story I couldn't resist.

I'm going to ride aboard a tank engine called Thomas.

And also, to my surprise, I'm going to understand why Victorian people might have found trains terrifying.

I parked up at the headquarters of the Neame Valley Railway in Huntingdonshire.

Thanks Boot.dev for sponsoring.

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Hello.

How you all?

Well, thank you, how are you doing?

Yeah, good, you?

Yeah, not so bad.

I appear to have arrived just as Thomas steamed off into the distance.

Yeah, he'll be back in about half an hour.

Incredible timing on my part, there.

That is Paul, the locomotive department manager at the Neen Valley Railway.

While I waited for Thomas to return, he showed me round some of the sidings at the railway.

An old Danish locomotive where they were heating up the boiler, ready for testing the next day.

A steam-powered crane that can lift 40 tonnes.

The workshop where they're restoring and refitting trains.

An old set of Pacer carriages on a turntable and a Polish tank engine from 1959.

I didn't know what a tank engine was until I looked it up.

It's a steam locomotive that carries its water, and usually its fuel, on board, instead of it being hooked up to a separate car called a tender.

Tank engines were more likely to be used for local services than big, long journeys.

Something being a tank engine isn't a name, it's just a fact.

Anyway, after that tour and a cup of tea, we were back on the platform, and Thomas was heading back.

The Neen Valley Railway is one of those branch lines

that was closed in the mid-20th century as the motor car came to dominate, and you can hear the consequences of that in the background, and see it most clearly from the air,

because the station is right next to the A1, one of the main routes from London to the north.

The A1 used to go over the level crossing, which is behind us, so that's what they call the Great North Road, Great Old North Road, so that was the A1 in its day.

And of course the A1 is just there where the footbridge is now.

Yeah, as I was driving in, there was a plume of smoke from under me.

Absolutely, so that would have been Thomas going through the tunnel.

So he's in there at the moment because you can see the smoke that was created when he went through.

Thomas is now pushing that smoke out.

Any moment a cheeky little face is going to appear through the smoke.

The tunnel in question is just over half a kilometre long.

And allegedly the tunnel is haunted as well.

Oh, and there's a face.

Oh, now.

There we go.

That's about— I'm going to have to do an extreme zoom on that from this camera.

But yes, that's face first through the steam.

Thomas' branch line runs from here to Yarwell through the tunnel and back.

And we do this about every month from April to September.

So this is his last day for this year on his branch line.

He loves his little branch line.

He poodles off up there through to Yarwell, to his little countryside station.

I think most people watching this will be familiar with some version of Thomas.

The character was created in 1946 by the Reverend Audrey as

part of his railway series of books about trains with minds of their own.

And while Thomas wasn't even in the first book in the series, he became the breakout star.

When the books were adapted for television in the 1980s, the show wasn't called The Railway Series, it was Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends.

Or in some parts of the world, just Thomas and Friends.

The rights to the series, to what became a massive, globally recognised franchise, were bought and sold over the years,

and the characters have been owned by the toy company Mattel since 2012.

And this is definitely Thomas, as illustrated by Reginald Payne in 1946.

But there is no license agreement with Mattel here.

So Thomas is going to uncouple, and he's going to go out over the river bridge and then back through Platform 3, and he'll come back and join on this side here.

Can we join him for that?

Yeah, yeah, we can go down, yeah.

There were old carriages with slam doors.

No fancy electric sliding doors or central locking here, just faith that no one's going to be reckless enough to open the door while traveling.

Some kids clearly didn't want to leave the train, but turns out that was fine.

The thing is on our branch line days, you just pay for one ticket and you can travel all day.

Oh, that's nice!

Thomas's job today was just to go up and down the branch line for about a mile.

So what they're doing now, they're just uncoupling the train.

Oh, OK.

Try and sneak past here, joining all the other folks with cameras.

So when you say uncoupling, that is physically...

It's not just some little magnetic connection.

No, absolutely not, no. There is a steel coupling that goes over, which is on a threaded bar, And then what Tony's doing there,

he's just splitting the vacuum pipe, so it's vacuum braking.

Right.

So it's got a continuous brake through it all the way through.

So they're uncoupled now, so at the moment the crossing gates will open.

Oh, yeah.

And the train, the engine will go round.

I was able to put some cameras on Thomas for this bit of the run.

The crossing gates opened, you can see the signaller cranking the heavy control wheel up in the box there, and when all was safe,

the signal dropped and Thomas steamed forward as many, many people took photos.

And I'll say this, that train goes surprisingly fast.

Thomas braked at one end, and after a quick whistle, headed back the other way on the other track, again, going much faster than I would have expected.

Beep beep beep beep beep!

At which point I realized I needed to be at the other end of the platform for this.

It actually took about five minutes in total, I needn't have rushed.

Thomas changed direction again, switched tracks again, and pulled in to be coupled to the other side of the carriages.

I've been very careful with wording so far.

I have called the locomotive Thomas, and I can accurately describe it as a tank engine.

But I have not described it as Thomas the Tank Engine.

Thomas was named Thomas.

By the Reverend W.

Audrey.

Yep.

Author of the famous Thomas the Tank Engine books.

Absolutely, on the 26th of June 1971 and

that was at the British Sugar Factory in Peterborough which is now long since gone.

But the reason why Thomas was called Thomas is

because in his working day in the British Sugar Factory he was painted blue.

100

Right, simple as that.

101

So when Reverend Daughey found out that the engine was blue and he looked exactly the same as Thomas, he came down and named him Thomas.

102

Yep, far before there was a TV series.

103

Absolutely, absolutely.

104

So this is the original Thomas.

105

The only one, the only one that's named.

106

The Thomas character is licensed by Mattel to a lot of heritage railways around the world.

107

They'll take an engine that looks the same, paint it up, put a face on it, and sell tickets to a day out with Thomas.

108

And Mattel will get a cut of that.

109

Or they might use a whole dummy unit with no engine

110

at all to put on the front of a diesel locomotive that's actually doing the pushing.

111

Some of them even speak.

112

There is a lot of money in brand licensing.

113

Luckily, because we have the history and the provenance and the photographs of Reverend Audry naming him Thomas,

114

we seem to be left alone at the moment, because we don't breach any of the copyrights out there, because he is the original Thomas,

115

and that's why we only refer to him by his first name.

116

Is that legally sound?

117

Here's the thing about copyright and trademarks almost always.

118

The answer is, eh, it depends has been some challenges but

119

because of the history we've got and the proven history we've got

120

and the documentation we seem to be okay just by having him as Thomas.

121

Also it would be such a terrible publicity job for the company to come back.

122

Well it is and is

123

that we you know we haven't had a challenge for some time now

124

but we do also get positive out of being challenged.

125

People support us that way and it's good oh leave them alone they're a charity and things like that so So, it also highlights our Thomas as well,

126

because it puts Thomas into the news, you know.

127

If some other railway set up their own Thomas day, you can bet that Mattel's lawyers would come down on them like a ton of bricks or a ton of coal.

128

But the Neen Valley Railway has a very fair argument

129

that the author himself gave the name to Thomas years before there was any trademark of it.

130

And if Mattel did argue, there would be so much bad publicity that it just wouldn't be worth it.

131

Anyway, Thomas had been recoupled, and it was time for me to take a ride.

132

Which end up being a lot more scary than I expected it to be, because now I understand why trains used to be terrifying.

133

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152

Welcome back.

153

It's time to get on board Thomas.

154

The first part of the trip wasn't the scary part.

155

So, um, today was always going to be a little bit chaotic, I didn't quite know what was happening,

156

but I just got invited to run round when we changed and we've gone there, so I'm gonna get on board Thomas.

157

And specifically, just Thomas.

158

Full stop.

159

I didn't explain what was about to happen very well, did I?

160

Thomas was going for a run down the branch line about a mile, where he'd have to change ends again for the trip back.

161

And I'd been invited to be in the cab, on the footplate, for that change of ends.

162

I wasn't going to turn that down.

163

But for the first bit, I had to be a regular passenger.

164

Away we go.

165

Now, I've deliberately sat just up in a quiet corner, or at least as quiet as I can reasonably make it.

166

because a lot of families on this train come for a ride on Tops.

167

I don't really want to get kids in the background, the shot if I could avoid it.

168

While we're setting off, let me give you a quick tour of Thomas.

169

It's on the inside.

170

I kept my camera to the quieter parts of the train, but there was a choice of seating, from the more modern facing seats with tables through to a buffet car with a full bar.

171

Side note, you generally don't need a license to sell booze in England if you're on a journey on a train, or plane, or hovercraft.

172

And in the carriage after that, if you preferred some privacy as a passenger, there were old-school compartments.

173

Caution, do not lean out the window.

174

It's very, very good advice because the clearance is very small.

175

Now, I have checked with the team here.

176

This little bit of camera work is fine.

177

It's a very small camera.

178

But you don't stick your head out of windows on trains.

179

Right.

180

Into the tunnels.

181

The tunnel was obviously pitch black, and Thomas's first pass through filled it with steam and smoke.

182

That will be important shortly.

183

But after a minute or two, we were out the other side, and arriving into Yarwell Station.

184

I quickly got out and joined the folks in the cab.

185

Because, of course, Thomas is not a magical, sentient train.

186

He did not drive off.

187

It did not drive off by itself.

188

In the cab were Andy, Tom, and Tony, and they were actually driving the thing.

189

We're going to run round to get onto the front of Thomas again and go back into one space.

190

Right.

191

You might as well come on for that as well.

192

Oh blimey, alright, thank you very much, folks.

193

Right.

194

Don't trip over the coal and go flying, Tom, that would be a bad idea.

195

So, more coal needed.

196

Well, if you took in, there's holes in the fire, where we've gone through.

197

Oh, right.

198

You plug all the boats.

199

Oh, so you're not just shovelling coal in your Amy.

200

Oh, gotcha.

201

If I just threw it on willy-nilly, it'd be all completely uneven and you wouldn't get complete combustion.

202

Right.

203

So there's a lot of visitors and art form to it.

204

Tom undid the handbrake.

205

Tony, who was out checking the track switch, waved his handkerchief, and Andy set us off for the turnaround.

206

If it was Doug, he'd have a green torch.

207

Right.

208

We stopped before the buffer, Tony switched the points, and away we went past the carriages.

209

Is that some rain coming down?

210

Is that just...

211

No, that's steam condensing, isn't it?

212

Yeah, well, sometimes the water's a little bit too high, and carry on over and it fits on out.

213

Right.

214

I'm all right.

215

We stopped at the other side, and this time Tom changed the points.

216

It was a well-practised routine, this.

217

They knew what they were doing.

218

Get them out of your way.

219

There we go, start on board, stick together.

220

Thank you, Walter.

221

This is...

222

I was coming here to film a nice little light thing about a train with a history.

223

Did not expect to be on the footplate!

224

Thomas arrived back in the station, Tony got to work coupling it up, and I was making ready to go back to the carriages behind,

225

but the folks in the cab asked me if I wanted to stay on the footplate for the full journey back, and of course I did, I just didn't expect it to be scary.

226

That's sucking air in, isn't it?

227

You can see it!

228

So I've got the blower on, which is essentially creating a vacuum in the smoke box, controlling air through the boiling tubes, so it's pulling air across the fire.

229

All right.

230

And bike off.

231

It's a lot of heavy physical work to drive a steam train.

232

They'd start getting everything ready at about 5am, and it'd be a 12-hour shift.

233

Paul, earlier, had told me that every shovelful of coal that Tom puts into the boiler, that costs about three pounds, maybe five US dollars.

234

Steam trains are not cheap to run.

235

You've really got to enjoy doing this, don't you?

236

I've really got to buy trains to want to do this.

237

And off we went, Thomas belching out steam and smoke.

238

Driving a steam train is not like pushing an accelerator and off you go.

239

They do sort of have an accelerator, the big red bar is called a regulator, and that's kind of like a throttle.

240

But managing the power that the throttle has needs some planning.

241

So if you start holding the fire, or something like that, or a very thin fire, after a while that pressure will start coming down.

242

Right.

243

Because it's not making enough steam.

244

It's not a direct thing of chuck more coal in, more power.

245

Chuck Will Collins, wait for the fire to build up, manage 10 to fire, and then you might have it.

246

You have to do everything ten minutes in advance of what you want it to happen.

247

Right.

248

So like a diesel, put your button and off you go.

249

Yeah.

250

It's a living, breathing machine.

251

And after a couple of minutes, we were headed into the tunnel.

252

And all of a sudden...

253

WHOOOOOO!

254

That team's got nowhere to go.

255

Yeah.

256

Thomas had already filled that tunnel with steam and smoke on the way out.

257

A lot of it was still in there, and while I was prepared for that in theory, the actual reality, it was almost pitch black.

258

No light at the end of the tunnel because the smoke was in the way.

259

The only light was coming from the screen on my camera and the faint glow of the fire, occasional burning embers sparking out.

260

All the noise from the engine was being reflected back off the walls towards us, so suddenly it was dark and smoky and intensely loud, and the train was still accelerating, so the noise was getting louder and faster,

261

and what seemed like small movements out in the light suddenly felt like big pitching

262

and rocking motions that could send me off the footlight to be crushed under the wheels.

263

I found myself holding on for my life.

264

I wasn't in any actual danger, provided I kept my grip, but to be suddenly in that environment.

265

And then there was the light at the end of the tunnel.

266

And the good thing about not having a license from a toy company is that I can give you a PG-rated reaction, even if it is still very British.

267

Bloody hell!

268

We slowed down and started to brake for the station.

269

And you'll know how rattled I was, because you're about to see the only time I flinched at that loud whistle.

270

I can now see why when steam trains first came along, folks were terrified of them.

271

Pig splashed, loud, rattly, screaming.

272

That was a tiny tunnel at 25 mile an hour.

273

That was 25?

274

Imagine being in those tunnels going down the London on East Coast Main Line.

275

Woo!

276

That's so, so much different to being back there with a bit of light on.

277

Yeah, tumbling along.

278

Woo!

279

You're like Hank Raikers on!

280

No, no, no, no!

281

Come on, man.

282

Absolute pleasure.

283

Tom, thank you so, so much.

284

Bloody hell.

285

Next time, or right now, on Nebula, I try to learn the squop and the penhaligon, and realize that a childhood game was far more complicated than I thought.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This video has 285 sentences and 3421 words to shadow. The speech runs for 17:53. The speaker talks fast, about 191 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 83% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
tunnel noun	/ˈtʌn(ə)l/	An underground or underwater passage.
railway noun	/ˈɹeɪlˌweɪ/	A transport system using rails used to move passengers or goods.
boot noun	/but/	A heavy shoe that covers part of the leg.
locomotive noun	/ˌloʊkəˈmoʊtɪv/	The power unit of a train that pulls the coaches or wagons.
pitch noun	/pɪt͡ʃ/	A throw; a toss; a cast, as of something from the hand.
scary adjective	/ˈskɛə.ɹi/	Causing fear or anxiety
vacuum noun	/ˈvæ.kjuːm/	A region of space that contains no matter.
gate noun	/ˈɡeɪ̯t/	A doorlike structure outside a house.
passenger noun	/ˈpæs.ɪn.d͡ʒɚ/	One who rides or travels in a vehicle, but who does not operate it and is not a member of the crew.
copyright noun	/ˈkɑpiˌɹaɪt/	The right by law to be the entity which determines who may publish, copy and distribute a piece of writing, music, picture or other work of authorship.
magical adjective	/ˈmæd͡ʒ.ɪ.kəl/	Of, relating to, or by means of magic.
chuck verb	/t͡ʃʌk/	To playfully give a light touch, stroke, tap, etc., to someone, especially under the chin.
diesel noun	/ˈdisəl/	A fuel derived from petroleum (or other oils) but heavier than gasoline/petrol. Used to power diesel engines which burn this fuel using the heat produced when…
publicity noun	/pʌbˈlɪsɪti/	Advertising or other activity designed to rouse public interest in something.
brake noun	/bɹeɪk/	A device used to slow or stop the motion of a wheel, or of a vehicle, usually by friction (although other resistive forces, such as electromagnetic fields or…

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Meaning
come down verb	To descend, fall down, collapse.
come back verb	To return to a place.
drive off verb	To force to leave or go away.
go down verb	To descend; to move from a higher place to a lower one.
go over verb	To look at carefully; to scrutinize; to analyze.
go through verb	To travel from one end of something to the other.
back off verb	To move backwards away from something.
build up verb	To erect; to construct.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result	if Mattel did argue, there would be · if you understand that format, you will definitely · If it was Doug, he'd have
“Used to” used to + verb — a past habit or state that is no longer true	used to go · used to be
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	have been owned · have rushed · I've been
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	being hooked · was closed · was created

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 71 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, you're, didn't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: thin /ˈθɪn/, breathe /bɹiːð/, throttle /ˈθɹɔ.tl̩/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: rush /ɹʌʃ/, shortly /ˈʃɔɹtli/, essentially /ɪˈsɛnʃəli/, crush /kɹʌʃ/, workshop /ˈwɝk.ʃɑp/
Long words — get the stress right: locomotive /ˌloʊkəˈmoʊtɪv/, publicity /pʌbˈlɪsɪti/, complicated /ˈkɑm.plɪˌkeɪ.tɪd/, essentially /ɪˈsɛnʃəli/, continuous /kənˈtɪn.juː.əs/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like tunnel, railway, boot.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: Thomas, a tank engine, is not Thomas the Tank Engine. - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Grammar in this video

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?