Series 2

The second series of Thomas & Friends premiered on 24th 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 later re-narrating all of the episodes for the US.

Production
The majority of the stories were originally written by the Reverend W. Awdry. However, 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 the bus and Harold the helicopter. 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".

According to Robert Gauld-Galliers, "Gordon Goes Foreign" was originally intended for production, but it was not filmed because its production costs would have gone over-budget. Another episode called The Missing Coach, based on a story from The Twin Engines was due to be filmed. The model crew had gone as far as filming scenes on the Tidmouth Station set with Thomas arriving at the station 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, so it was replaced by Thomas, Percy and The Coal. "Percy's Promise" and "Double Header" were originally considered but were dropped and replaced by Christopher Awdry's new stories.

Episodes
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Characters

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

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
 * Father Christmas
 * Percy's Ghost Engine
 * The Naughty Boys
 * The Lady with the Floppy Green Hat
 * The Enthusiasts
 * The Firelighter
 * The Ffarquhar Stationmaster's Children
 * Harold's Pilots
 * British Railways Diesels
 * The Mainland Diesels
 * The Careless Cleaner
 * Sam the Farmer
 * The Foreign Engines
 * Big City Engine

Trivia

 * This was the first series of a few things:
 * The first series filmed at Shepperton Studios.
 * The first series where trucks have resin faces.
 * The first series to use stories by Christopher Awdry.
 * The first series to have diesel locomotives.
 * The first series to have a female engine (Daisy).
 * This was the final series of several things:
 * Ringo Starr's last series as narrator.
 * Robert D. Cardona's last series as producer.
 * Britt Allcroft's last series as executive producer until the sixth series.
 * The last series made by Clearwater Features.
 * The last series in which music was composed using the Roland Jupiter 6 synthesiser.
 * The last series where the end credits would roll over the final shot of an episode.
 * The last series not to have any Music Videos.
 * The last appearance of Thomas' infamous "O" face, excluding stock footage 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 released in the 1980s.
 * The last series to use yellow transitions. However, they'll still use it for Japanese releases for the rest of the Classic Series.
 * 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.
 * 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 Ukrainian narration, Ringo Starr's voice can still be heard in the background.
 * The Norwegian and Finnish versions credit Ringo Starr as the narrator, even though they were re-dubbed in Norwegian and Finnish respectively.
 * The second series later aired in re-runs on CITV from 6th April-13thth July 1988, then re-aired with a few episodes skipped on Mondays from 6th March-22nd May 1989 at the same time TUGS aired on Tuesdays. When the first series stopped airing, fifteen episodes from the second series were broadcast every Tuesday from 21st May-27th August 1991 as separate episodes after Clearwater Features had shut down their production arm.
 * The UK's iTunes release uses the fifth series-styled remastered footage for 23 of the episodes while Old Iron, Percy and the Signal and Ghost Train are the seventh series-styled restored versions.
 * The character who has had the most screen time in Series 2 is Percy.