In the fictional town of Chuggington are young novice anthropomorphic railway locomotives, called "Trainees", Koko, Wilson, Brewster, Hoot, Toot and Piper.

Side-by-side railway tunnels coloured red, blue, yellow and green run under the town centre, leading to the outside world.

The creative core behind Chuggington is Sarah Ball, a producer and director who worked on Bob the Builder, and Don Toht, who designed the characters and sets.

[15] The first series of 52 episodes was sold to broadcasters including the BBC, ABC (Australia), TF1 (France), ⁣Super RTL (Germany), and Fuji TV (Japan) in a deal announced in February 2008.

Aimed at children between the ages of 3 and 6, Chuggington made its UK debut as a "soft launch" on BBC Two on 29 September 2008.

Emily Ashby of Common Sense Media gave the show four stars out of five, saying that "Young 'trainees' teach preschoolers important social skills.

[18] RC2 contributed to half of the series' production budget in exchange for long-term global toy licensing rights.

[11] DVDs from Anchor Bay Entertainment include the first, entitled Chuggington: Let's Ride the Rails, was released in March 2009 containing six episodes.

In the UK, several children's books are in the works, including Koko on Call: A Nightlight Adventure, based on an early episode.

The Chuggington Wooden Railway was released in September 2010 to Canada, and on 1 March 2011 to specialty retailers in the United States.

[citation needed] According to Okayama Electric Tramway press report on 12 January 2018, it will be operated in 2 cars and 1 train with its own decorated appearance that reproduced Wilson and Brewster in Japan.