Context, because no one's ever discussed any of this on BPT (to my knowledge): after Thomas & Friends went CGI in 2009, some of the models and props that appeared in the filmed seasons began to turn up on auction sites for TV and film props. Others were either sent to a (poorly maintained) exhibit in Drayton Manor, the Hara Model Railway Museum in Japan, or Mattel has them in storage (where I assume Freddie might be). A few privileged people in the fanbase were able to acquire and preserve the ones on the auction sites, notably Twitter users ThomasTankMerch, TomsProps and Tomjedski (the aforementioned "major prop collectors") and some members of the Sodor Island Fansite.
