These are the changes that were in the original extended director's cut version. A major character, 'Petey Tiberius Boomer' (short nickname as P.T. Boomer, Boomer or Pete Boom), portrayed by Canadian actor Doug Joseph Lennox was originally portrayed as the main villain/antagonist, he was a dark evil motorcyclist and Burnett's enemy who wanted to buy Shining Time Station. but Boomer was said that he was too frightening for younger children from a complaint from the test audience and therefore was entirely cut out from the final theatrical cut film before its release. Because of P.T. Boomer's absence from the final film, the plot elements that had been driven by him went unexplained.
there were also scenes in the future that revealed that Lily and Patch 20 years later as adults, were married and had children. and Lily was originally the narrator of the film and was telling the story to her children, later the scenes were cut from the film and future Lily was replaced with Mr Conductor as the narrator. adult Patch was portrayed by Robert Tinker, but it's unknown who played adult Lily and her kids 'cause their actors and actresses were never credited.
P.T. Boomer is described in the original cut of the script as being "a drifter through choice" and was intended to be Burnett Stone's adversary, the real culprit responsible for why Lady went too fast and crashed, instead of Diesel 10 as altered in the final theatrical version. Jealous of the relationship that Burnett had with Tasha (Lily's grandmother), Boomer bullied Burnett into allowing him to take Lady for a run and crashing her as a form of revenge. After the accident, Boomer fled Indian Valley and Burnett spent years trying to restore her but,to no success. He returns now a good forty years later a bitter and dark character, hell-bent on completing his revenge by finding and destroying Lady for good.[3]
When test audiences complained about him being "too scary" (a weird claim when the secondary villain is literally a Diesel with a giant mechanical claw) he was cut out at the last minute, explaining the laziness of the movie's final cut and Diesel 10 was rewritten as the main villain. This cut was so close to the release, that one of the previews even contained Boomer briefly, falling off the viaduct along with Diesel 10. Colouring books contained references to him by name as well.
Boomer was seen in the movie in the form of two cameos, part of his confrontation with Burnett is seen by a distance as Stacy and Lily arrive in their car. Audibly the scene is re-dubbed so that Burnett is giving directions to a lost biker. The biker clad in an overcoat presents a dark contrast and appears somewhat menacing. Boomer is also visible on the back of Diesel 10's cab during the chase scene toward the end (the original ending had Boomer land on the back of Diesel 10 through the magic buffers).
Because of the cuts, many key scenes that gave Britney Mary Allcroft's original story substance and were filmed with Peter Henry Fonda as Burnett Stone and Russell Means as Billy Twofeathers plus Cody McMains as Patch, were not in the released version because of the references to P.T. Boomer. The movie scenes with these cuts were either edited out or altered. In addition, the test audience made the response that Means' role was hard to understand, Britt Allcroft found this shocking as he hardly was, and he "spoke with the voice of his history".[4] Thomas and the Magic Railroad - Original UK Trailer (1999) Thomas and the Magic Railroad - Original UK Trailer (1999)
VHS trailer for the film, containing original voices.
Various theatrical and home media trailers of the movie had depicted characters with voices largely differing from their voices in the original cuts. During Production, it was widely publicized online that an Isle of Mann cab driver and Volunteer Firefighter named John Bellis was to be the voice of Thomas. Having only heard him utter a meager few words, Britt knew that John was the right man to voice Thomas himself, turning to tell her colleagues "I have just heard the voice of Thomas. The man is exactly how Thomas would sound!" A few days later, she offered John the role, and he accepted.[5]
Despite being flown out to Toronto record all of Thomas' dialogue, American test audiences however thought Bellis' voice made Thomas sound too old and thus John Bellis was canned. Thomas' voice was performed in the final cut by Canadian voice actor Eddie Glenn. Bellis was apparently disappointed by this, and to the point where he refuses to really discuss the matter with fans who have contacted him to ask him about it.
The same trailers depicted Diesel 10 with a gruff English upper class accent, as opposed to the New Jersey accent he had in the theatrical release. Sodor Island Forums ended up digging up the information that Diesel 10 was originally voiced by Australian voice actor Keith Scott. But this voice was deemed too frightening by the American test audiences. Canadian actor Neil Crone was then brought in to do the voice of Diesel 10, where he gave him a Russian accent. This too would fall in the hands when the audiences made the wild claim that it would somehow be "offensive" and Crone revised his voice to a New Jersey accent.
Britt Allcroft revealed that the original voice intended for James and Percy was Michael Angelis, narrator for the UK series from 1991-2012. English actor Patrick Breen originally also provided the voices for Dodge and Splatter. Both of them were canned by the test audiences, with Angelis replaced for the same reason as Bellis. Susan Roman and Linda Ballantyne replaced Angelis as James and Percy respectively, whilst Neil Crone and Kevin Frank replaced Breen.
What was also revealed is that Lily, 20 years later, was originally meant to be the narrator, as opposed to Mr. Conductor (Alec Baldwin) in the final cut. The whole movie was meant to be told by an Adult Lily and Patch (played by Robert Tinkler) to their child, and Baldwin was likely put in as the narrator since he was narrating the US dub of the television series at the time. A scene toward the end shows the family in a panning shot of the Pennsylvania fields. The movie also contained several flashback scenes of Young Burnett (Jared Wall) and Tasha (Laura Bower) which ended up being cut due to some involving P.T. Boomer, such as the dance they have. The scenes are only audibly heard in the movie through Burnett's imagination.
