season 4 thomas is so nothing happens mumblecore (whistlecore? cuz engines? haha) lore dump shit about the world's tiniest trains and then season 5 comes in almost quite literally with a wrecking ball like "time to capititalize on the 90s disaster movie craze".
I know the thomas canon timeline is absolutely insane but if this all happened within the same year could you just imagine the expenses.... Sir topham hatt talks a lot of shit w/ threatening to scrap his engines, but from an economic standpoint i think series 5 would've absolutely ruined him (tbh he would've been ruined LONG before that because the preceding seasons are also full of derailments and accidents). If Sodor was in the united states, president Bill Clinton would've visited like 10 fucking times that year. Sir Topham hatt likely would've resigned in disgrace and held on trial.
