What happened to thomas the tank engine

[moogle]

Well if they bought out Polar Express and Chuggington characters in N gauge you could make a very interesting layout!
Certainly be a crowd pleaser at exhibitions. 
Well, maybe not for the rivet counter brigade...

[Gnep]

I can see them going past toys as in the program the sections of track look and are laid like toy track, almost designed with toy marketing from the start,,,

Those were my thoughts exactly when I first saw it... but then was so disappointed with the actual toys and what limited potential they had to begin with as they launched plastic rail in a couple of different gauges that was incompatible with anything else. More recently it does seem that they've seen sense and you can get them in brio/bigjigs wooden railway gauge I think... still, I very much doubt my dream of someone doing really mass market franchises in n gauge that we can strip for chassis/working parts on the cheap will ever be fulfilled