Question about the world of "Thomas the Train"

[Orrex]

What purpose to to the engineers serve? I mean, the trains seem reasonably autonomous, to the point of expressing worry that the cranky railroad baron Sir Topham Hatt might decommission them for failing to be "really useful," so what's the point of having a flesh-and-blood driver hanging onto the throttle?

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

1. Boiler explosions are never funny.

That big goofy smiling face might seem amusing when it's on the train, but not when it's hurtling towards an orphanage at half the speed of sound.

[Orrex]

3. That's another thing!

Every week a bridge is collapsing or a train is rattling off the tracks or a crane is dropping pipes onto a siding or an engine is getting lost. Who's running this slapdash operation?

And how do you get lost on a track? That would be like the water getting lost between the spigot and the end of the hose!

[skygazer]

4. Ah, but tracks have points

And people change those points to send trains down different routes. Which once again brings up the subject of how useful people are in the whole scheme of things.

I think you should apply for a grant to study this in more detail. :hi:

[redqueen]

2. Atonomous yes, but I suspect they have no soul / conscience.

I bet the engineers serve in that capacity.

[Orrex]

7. So, without the engineers...

We'd have powerful, soulless machines rampaging around Sodor?

Good grief! What a nightmarish vision of railroad Hell!

[underpants]

5. The entire Thomas operation is an outdated paradigm

and much like the capital heavy government contract reliant Bob the Builder both will soon be obsolete when dynamic and flexible low-cost-to-taxpayers options like Handy Manny present themselves into the global marketplace

[baldguy]

9. I thought it was an anarcho-syndicalist commune?

[1monster]

6. The engineers serve the purpose of the wiser person who advises or gently

scolds the engines for going to fast, of being impolite, or gets help when the engine's uppitiness gets it into trouble. He also moderates arguments such as those between the steam engines and the diseasals.

And he is someone for the engine to talk to when there are no other engines around.

[Burma Jones]

8. The Engineers report any seditious activity to Topham Hatt

and then, well, all I can say is Scrap.......