Thomas The Tank Engine

Thomas the Tank Engine is a fictional anthropomorphic tank locomotive created by the Rev W. Awdry in his Railway Series books, made into the British children's television series Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends and its American spin-off Shining Time Station.

In his first appearance in the television series he was described as follows:


 * "Thomas is a tank engine who lives at a big station on the Island of Sodor. He's a cheeky little engine with 6 small wheels, a short stumpy funnel, a short stumpy boiler and a short stumpy dome" -narrator Ringo Starr from the episode "Thomas & Gordon" (aka "Thomas Gets Tricked", as it was titled for the US release). He has also been described as "a little engine with a long tongue".

Thomas the Tank Engine first appeared in 1946, when stories about him were published in The Railway Series by the Reverend W.V. Awdry.

When he first appeared, in the book Thomas the Tank Engine, he was a station pilot, whose job was to shunt coaches and trucks for the bigger engines. He longed for more important jobs such as pulling the express train like Gordon, but his inexperience prevented this. Eventually he was responsible for rescuing James after an accident, and the Fat Controller (who was then known as the Fat Director) decided that he was a Really Useful Engine, and ready for his own branch line. He has remained in charge of this line ever since.

His closest friends are Annie and Clarabel, his coaches. However, he is also very good friends with Percy, (despite a lot of arguments), Toby, and his old friend and mentor Edward.

Thomas is based on the E2 Class 0-6-0T locomotives built for the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway between 1913 and 1916.

Thomas in The Railway Series
In the Railway Series he has generally been depicted with a cheeky and even self-important personality. He believes that he should be more respected by the others, and he gets annoyed when he does not receive this respect. Luckily, Percy and Toby are more than capable of standing up to him, and Annie and Clarabel often rebuke him.

He is aware of his fame in the real world, and following a visit to the National Railway Museum at York he became an honorary member of the National Collection, joining such legendary locomotives as Mallard, City of Truro and Rocket.

The Thomas of the early stories looks a little different from the one shown in later ones. Following the events of the story Thomas Comes to Breakfast, in which Thomas crashed into the Stationmaster's house and tore up his front buffer beam, it was rebuilt without the "dip" it had previously had. The Rev. Awdry had noticed that the dip had put Thomas' front buffers out of line with his back ones, hence the story. He has kept this ever since.

Thomas has been the source of some friction between Christopher Awdry and his publishers, who repeatedly asked for more books centred around the character. Although Thomas was the most popular character in the books, both Wilbert and Christopher Awdry had always treated the characters in the books as an ensemble, and so before the television series was released there had only been two books named after Thomas (Thomas the Tank Engine and Tank Engine Thomas Again). After the debut of the television series, there were five more (More About Thomas the Tank Engine, Thomas and the Twins, Thomas and the Great Railway Show, Thomas Comes Home, Thomas and the Fat Controller's Engines). Some of these are rather tenuous in their links with the character: Thomas and the Fat Controller's Engines (the 50th anniversary volume, originally to be called The Fat Controller's Engines) features only one story out of the four centered on Thomas; while in Thomas Comes Home, Thomas appears only on the last page, the rest of the book dealing with the other engines on his branch line while he was away at York.

Thomas on television
In the early series of Thomas the Tank Engine, Thomas's personality was similar to that used in the books. From Season six onwards, however, his character was modified. He became less cheeky and pompous. He is now kind to other engines, and always ready to stand up for a friend in need. He is always eager to prove himself, and has had many exciting adventures as a result. He wasn't cheeky again until Calling All Engines.

He no longer appeared to be limited to his branch line and now seemed to work all over Sodor. This change in his personality and duties is a result of his "star" status. He is the most popular character in the series, and therefore he has the largest number of appearances.

In the Japanese version he was played by Keiko Toda.

Thomas on stage
It is reported that the original intent of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Richard Stilgoe's Starlight Express was to bring the Rev. W. Awdry story to stage. However, Lloyd Webber and Stilgoe wanted to take more liberties than Awdry tolerated, and the plan was scrapped. However, aspects of the Thomas characters are still very visible in all parts of Starlight Express.

Thomas on film
Thomas's on screen appearances have all been produced by The Britt Allcroft Company, now Gullane Entertainment, and distributed in more than 120 countries to date. The TV series, first broadcast in 1984, was narrated by former Beatles member Ringo Starr, followed by Michael Angelis in later editions. (In the U.S. video releases Starr was followed by comedian George Carlin, and then actor Alec Baldwin.)

In 2000 Thomas starred in a feature film, 'Thomas and the Magic Railroad'. He was voiced by Edward Glen. He was the only engine from the television series to play a major role in the story, and he even leaves Sodor briefly. The film was not a success, but Thomas's movie career continued in the straight-to-video feature Calling All Engines and in 2008 will still continue when The Great Discovery gets released where Pierce Brosnan will debut as the New UK and US Narrator.

Thomas in toyboxes

 * Main:Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends merchandise

With the popularity of the Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends TV series among children, 'Thomas'-based merchandise has proven very lucrative. At least five different categories of trains and tracks exist: "Take Along Thomas" with grey tracks; Tomy battery-operated engines with blue tracks; Brio-type wooden engines with wooden rails and roads (by ELC and others); electric model railway (produced in O gauge by Lionel, HO/OO gauge by Hornby and Bachmann and N gauge by Tomix); and Lego engines and tracks; along with complementary videos, DVDs, books, games, puzzles, stationery, clothing and household items.

Thomas on real railways


Hit Entertainment licences several "Day Out With Thomas" events all over the world, in which visitors to heritage railways can meet and ride on a replica "Thomas".

An international tour featuring Thomas and his driver was completed in 2005 in honour of the 60th anniversary of the original stories. In America, Thomas the Tank Engine is thought to be an excellent rôle model for children. The former President George H.W. Bush dedicated the Presidential Train during a ceremony in 2005.

A "real" Thomas was used in a special play staged to celebrate the 80th birthday of Queen Elizabeth II, starring well-loved characters from children's literature. In the play, Thomas was used to convey Sophie Dahl to centre stage.

Behind the scenes
When the Rev. W. Awdry created Thomas, the engine existed only as a push-along wooden toy made for his son, Christopher. This engine looked rather different from the character in the books and television series, and carried the letters NW on its side tanks. Awdry claimed that this stood for "No Where", but later works would identify the railway Thomas and his friends worked on as the North Western Railway.

Awdry wrote four stories about Thomas, which were collected into a book called Thomas the Tank Engine. For this, the publisher hired an illustrator named Reginald Payne. Payne decided to base his version of Thomas on a real locomotive, an E2 Class of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway. Awdry was initially annoyed that Thomas in the book differed so substantially from his original visualisation, but was satisfied when Payne explained that he was taken from a real prototype. Indeed, in later books, Awdry based all his characters on real locomotive classes.

One detail of Thomas' design bothered Awdry. This was the fact that the front end of his featured a downward slope, which meant that his front and back buffers were at different levels. This was an illustrator's mistake that was perpetuated in subsequent books. The accident in 'Thomas Comes to Breakfast' was partly devised as a means of correcting this.

Unfortunately, despite creating the visual image of such an iconic character, Payne did not receive any credit for his work, and it is only since the publication of Brian Sibley's The Thomas the Tank Engine Man that he has started to receive major recognition. Indeed, it had often been erroneously assumed that C. Reginald Dalby, responsible for illustrating books 3-11 and repainting the illustrations of book 1, was the character's creator.

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