THOMAS the Tank Engine will not be making his usual appearance at a Bank Holiday family event after bosses were refused a licence to use him.

East Lancashire Railway has been refused permission to use the family favourite because not enough staff have had checks with the Criminal Record Bureau.

It will be the first time in 20 years that the traditional Bank Holiday celebration will be without Thomas the Tank Engine.

HITT Entertainment, which owns the Thomas franchise, requested that every member of the ELR volunteer team, which amounts to over 300, should undertake checks with the Criminal Records Bureau.

Railway bosses refused to make every volunteer pay for the costly checks when only a few of them would be directly involved with members of the public during the event.

General manager Andy Coward said: “There are some roles like the station manager or the Fat Controller that we positively CRB check for the event because of their positions.

“But to force hundreds of volunteers, many of whom work behind the scenes on technical aspects, would not be fair.

“How can we tell unpaid staff that for 51 weeks of the year they can work with us, but when Thomas the Tank Engine turns up, they cannot be involved unless they get CRB checked.

“The work they do does not require a CRB check so it would be illegal for us to force them to undertake one.”

Though the Home Office states that only volunteers working with children and vulnerable groups need to be CRB checked, HITT refused to negotiate the contract with ELR.

A spokeswoman from HITT said that bosses at the company did not want to comment on the CRB issue.

ELR bosses have vowed the show will go on though and a new series of engine characters have been invented for this weekend’s events.Hank, Edgar, Basil, Jimmy, Lanky, Dotty and Sammy are now looking to stand in for Thomas.

The family fun day will take place at stations in Heywood, Ramsbottom and Rawtenstall over the weekend.

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