Thomas the Tank Engine is a beloved character and recognized all over the world. When it comes to “geeking out” it is one of this writer’s favorite subjects. There is so much most people don’t know about the engines and storylines. So let’s get to it…

Did you know…

In 1945 a clergyman named Reverend Wilbert Awdry told some stories to his sick son Christopher. The first story was about an old locomotive called Edward (that’s right, Thomas wasn’t the first character created.)  The other stories starred three engines, Edward, Gordon, and Henry. 

Wilbert eventually turned the stories into one big book. It was named The Railway Series, and it was about talking locomotives on a fictional island which held a railway called the NWR. The first book was based on the stories Wilbert told to his son. It wasn’t until the next year in 1946 when Wilbert created Thomas the star of the second book.  

Wilbert came up with most of his characters from his OWN model railway. For example on Wilbert’s model railway he owned an GWR 27xx locomotive that was a bit faulty. It would run rocky on the tracks almost like it was waddling which, eventually Wilbert would make this model a character in his own series and thus in the 11th book Percy the small engine a new character called Montage was introduced. In his first introduction he claims that people call him Duck because he waddles on the track. 

While the idea was to write books for children, Wilbert never made the stories too babyish. The moral of the stories were never said out loud and you had to look deeper in the story to find it. The books never got too childish. Wilbert loved to make the books as realistic as possible. The engines in the books acted like engines, they never jumped off the tracks and broke any laws of physics and things never got out of hand. The characters were given their own personalities and dreams as well as arcs if they needed.

The books were never about Thomas. It was more so an ensemble series with each story being about a different character, however, most people today have realized that out of all the characters Gordon was most likely the one who was meant to be the main character. 

Wilbert continued writing about the engines of Sodor until he retired in 1972, writing a total of 26 books. Wilbert’s son Christopher then followed in his father’s footsteps and wrote thirteen more stories about the engines until the series finally ended in 2011 with a total of 42 books. 

The Many, Many Pilots

The idea of a television series about the railway series was originally brought to life in 1953. It was broadcast live on the BBC June 14, 1953. It was filmed with models; however, something went VERY wrong during the show. The BBC made the mistake of broadcasting this live on television and during the show one of the models derailed LIVE on camera and a hand was shown on screen lifting the derailed engine back on the track. The show was a total bust and was canceled. Wilbert then forbid anyone from adapting the Railway Series but we all know how that went. We have little to no information about the pilot. The only reason we know of it’s existence is because of a newspaper that documented the incident, for all we know the pilot could be locked away in BBC’s vault preventing anyone from seeing it. Another reason we know of its existence is because recently photos of the models have been rediscovered and posted on the internet. 

Years later, another idea for a television show was brought up. Instead of using models it would be a cartoon and would be more of a musical. It was created by Andrew Lloyd Webber in 1973. A pilot was presented in 1977 however America had little interest in producing the series so it was canceled in 1978. Like the 1953 pilot we have no footage of the pilot, only images that have been found online.  Funnily enough about 40 years later in 2020 the show would actually change into a cartoon musical which is now the current (and worse) state the franchise has been. 

In 1979 Wilbert was interviewed on the Bluebell railway by Britt Allcroft who had the idea of doing another Television show with models. Wilbert decided to try to give the idea of a show another run considering that technology has now evolved since the 50s. This is what eventually brought us to the show we know today. It took a lot of time, a pilot was made and by 1984 the first season of Thomas the Tank Engine arrived in October.  

They used double “oo” models. The staff consisted of director David Mitton, musicians Mike O’Donnell and Junior Campbell, and the narrator of the show was Ringo Starr the Beatle member himself. They didn’t have a big enough studio to fit the models so Britt Mortgaged her own home to get the funds.   

They decided to call the show Thomas and Friends. The reason why they didn’t call it the Railway Series was because they didn’t know what people would think, another reason was because they needed a main character…now you may be thinking why not Gordon you said he was the main character in the books, so why did they choose Thomas? Two reasons: one, Thomas was the most popular in the books, and two they needed a young main character who the young children audience could relate to. 

History of the Show 

As mentioned earlier the first season came out in 1984, there were 26 episodes. They were able to adapt the first eight books of the series and it was a big hit. People all over Britain loved the show and a second season was greenlit which came out two years later in 1986. This added more characters and adapted more stories. The show was a massive success and soon they started airing it all around the world. America got the show much more differently than others, while other countries just got voice dubs of the show. America got an entirely different show. It was called Shining Time Station and it was a sitcom styled show which starred residents/employees of a station called Shining Time. A magical man called Mr. Conductor who was played by George Carlin would tell the stories of Thomas and his friends. The story would have something to do with the lesson of the episode, while the show was good this would eventually spell failure for the show. 

 There was a clear gap between the second and third season, while season 2 came out in 1986 the third season wouldn’t come out until 1992. The reason for this was because the director David Mitton went off to create his own show. Once that show was over he joined back and used his new knowledge from that show to make the third season the best it could be.

All the equipment got updated from cameras to models. The stories while some were still adaptations there was a clear problem. They were running out of stories so the crew then decided to adapt Magazine  stories which did work. Season four came out in 1994 and introduced us to the Narrow gauge engines who were in the books as well there was another four year gap between season 4 and season five however this time the reason was because during this time Wilbert Awdry had passed away and they were really starting to have less and less stories to adapt to the point where they had basically adapted the whole series by this point so with no other choice Britt and her team decided they would make their own stories about Thomas and his friends and for the rest of the show every episode would be written by a writing team and no RWS stories have been adapted since season four.