Thomas and the Magic Railroad (2000)

Thomas and the Magic Railroad is a 2000 children's fantasy adventure film written and directed by Britt Allcroft and produced by Allcroft and Phil Fehrle; the cast includes Alec Baldwin, Peter Fonda, Mara Wilson, Didi Conn, Russell Means, Cody McMains, Michael E. Rodgers, and the voices of Eddie Glen and Neil Crone. The film is based on the British children's book series The Railway Series by the Reverend W. Awdry, its televised adaptation Thomas & Friends by Allcroft, and the American television series Shining Time Station by Allcroft and Rick Siggelkow; it is the only theatrical live-action/animated film in the Thomas & Friends franchise.

The plot is centred on Lily Stone (Wilson), the granddaughter of the caretaker (Fonda) of an enchanted steam engine who is lacking an appropriate supply of coal, and Mr. Conductor (Baldwin) of Shining Time Station, whose provisions of magical gold dust are at a critical low. Lily and Mr. Conductor enlist the help of Thomas the Tank Engine (Glen), who confronts the ruthless, steam engine-hating Diesel 10 (Crone) along the way.

Thomas and the Magic Railroad premiered on 9 July 2000. It received unfavourable reviews from critics for the acting, plot, special effects, and lack of fidelity to the source material, and was a box-office bomb, grossing $19.7 million worldwide against a production budget of $19 million; as a result of the film's poor performance, Allcroft resigned from her company, The Britt Allcroft Company, in September 2000. HIT Entertainment acquired the company two years later, including the television rights to Thomas. As of October 2020, a second theatrical live-action animated Thomas & Friends film is in development at Mattel Films, a division of Mattel, the current owner of HiT Entertainment, with Marc Forster serving as director.