A Brief History of Thomas the Tank Engine andFriends
By Jared Winston
Thomas the Tank Engine gained the hearts of many children since the Railway Series of books first came out back in 1945, which isn't surprising considering Thomas the Tank Engine books have sold about eighty million copies all around the globe. As a celebration of the series' 60th anniversary, here is some history about Thomas the Tank Engine.
Back
in 1943, little Christopher Awdry, a three years-old son of an Anglican
clergyman named Wilbert Awdry, was suffering from scarlet fever. Due to the
nature of the disease he was forced to remain in isolation. As a way to keep
him entertained, his father started telling him several stories about a group
of trains living out adventures and having fun together, and thus, Thomas the
Tank engine was born.
As is
to be expected with any child, he demanded his father to tell him the stories
over again and again, and of course corrected him each and every time an
inconsistency took place. To "protect" himself from his son's corrections,
Reverend Awdry started writing down the stories onto pieces of paper to
remember every detail.
To add
to the storytelling, the Reverend made small sketches and drawings of cute
small steam locomotives on the paper, along with the train stories. He drew a
set of steam locomotives in an engine shed and added a human face to each of
them, thus showing a "human" expression for each one.
One
night, while his father was telling him one of the stories, little Christopher
noticed a sketch of a small train with a sad face on the paper from which the
Reverend was reading. Naturally, he asked his dad why that little train was so
unhappy, and inquired what his name was. The Reverend then said the first name
that came to his mind: Edward. That was when the first tale came to life. Since
then, about a hundred small moral Thomas the Tank Engine tales came out.
The
Reverend's wife thought that those stories were good enough to be published, so
they started looking for an editor. Soon, Mr. Edmund Ward (a retired businessman)
showed his interest in those stories, and since then there has been a Thomas
the Tank Engine book released almost every year.
Surprisingly,
Thomas the Tank Engine himself did not appear in the Railway Series until the
second book came out in 1946!
The
books came with colorful designs that were attractive to children. With a size
appropriate to fit a little kid's hand, the books contained three stories and
the stories were written on the left page, while an illustration of a certain
part of the narrated events was on the right page. The first illustrator for
the first dozen of Thomas the Tank Engine books was a man named C. Reginald
Dalby, who established the appearance of all the characters based on the
Reverend Awdry's sketches and the aspect of real steam locomotives.
Many
of the stories are based on real happenings and people. For instance, one of
Reverend's Awdry colleagues was a steam collector and is known to have inspired
the character of the Vicar who saves "Trevor the Traction Engine" from
the scrap heap. Being the most famous train of all times, Thomas the Tank
Engine continues bringing healthy entertainment and marvelous, timeless magic
stories to children around the world.
Copyright
© Jared Winston, 2006. All Rights Reserved.
For decades Thomas the Tank Engine has fascinated children,
leading to the release of everything from the original book series to Thomas the Train clothes. Stop by Thomas Fans to
read more about Thomas, his friends, their history and their adventures. http://www.thomasfans.com
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