>>1664328He couldn't do it because the Mountain Engine stories are so independent of the Standard Gauge Engines that they could never organically write them in to the story. And that directly conflicts with Mattels "have Thomas in every episode" policy. The smallies railway existed for the sole purpose of giving ballast to the big engines, and so you could have the big engines like Thomas interact with them more (or at least be in the background.) Also they weren't in any promotional material like a movie like the smallies were, so they'd struggle to sell the toys to kids.
