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Thomas the Tank Engine

Thomas the Tank Engine is a steam locomotive in The Railway Series books by the Reverend Wilbert Awdry and his son, Christopher. Thomas's eagerness to please despite the odds assured his place as the most popular character in the series.

Thomas is a tank engine, painted blue with red lining, and displays the running number one. All of the locomotives in The Railway Series were based on prototypical engines; Thomas has his origins in the LB&SCR's E2 class designed by Lawson Billinton in 1913.

Thomas first appeared in 1946 in the second book in the series, Thomas the Tank Engine, and was the focus of the four short stories contained within.

Prototype and back-story[]

When Awdry created Thomas, the engine existed only as a 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"; as the Railway Series and its lore developed, the railway Thomas and his friends worked on became officialised as the North Western Railway. Despite becoming the most popular character in The Railway Series, Thomas did not actually feature in the first book, The Three Railway Engines (namely Edward, Henry and Gordon).

Thomas wasn't originally based on a prototype; rather, the initial stories were an accompaniment to the toy made for Christopher. Thomas's introductory description in the first story in book 2 (aptly titled Thomas the Tank Engine), was intended by the author to reflect the appearance of the toy model, which differed substantially from the final result. "Thomas was tank engine who lived at a Big Station. He had six small wheels, a short stumpy funnel, a short stumpy boiler and a short stumpy dome. He was a fussy little engine, always pulling coaches about. [...] He was a cheeky little engine, too."

The publisher of the second book in The Railway Series, Thomas the Tank Engine, hired an illustrator named Reginald Payne. Payne decided to work with something other than the sketches Awdry provided of his toy engine, settling on a Lawson Billinton designed 0-6-0 E2 Class of the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway. Thomas is one of the examples fitted with an extension to the front of the water tanks. Awdry was initially annoyed that Thomas ended up being different from his original model, but changed his mind when he learnt Payne was inspired by a real prototype. This possibly inspired Awdry to base all his characters on real locomotive classes.

One technical detail of the illustrations bothered Awdry however. The front end of his footplate featured a downward slope, which meant that his front and back buffers were at different levels. This 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, and it is only since the publication of Brian Sibley's The Thomas the Tank Engine Man that he has started to receive recognition. 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.

Although Thomas is seen today on various heritage railways, the last of the LB&SCR E2 class was scrapped in 1963.

Thomas in The Railway Series[]

Thomas arrived on Sodor circa 1915. The newly-inaugurated NWR required a robust shunting engine during a period of Government control of the railways (World War 1). This underlies why it was fairly easy to receive an engine from the South of England rather than neighbouring northern territory. After proving himself, The Fat Controller found that the LB&SCR had written Thomas off as "lost on war service", and to settle the matter, bought him outright in 1920. Taking on his NWR identity, he came to be the permanent pilot engine at Vicarstown.

Five years later, after rescuing James in Thomas and the Breakdown Train, he was rewarded for his efforts with being put in charge of his own Branch Line. He has remained in charge of it ever since, handling 'push-pull' passenger duties with his two faithful coaches Annie and Clarabel, and accepted help from Percy and Toby.

Personality[]

Thomas is generally cheeky and ready to push his worth. He is of the view he should always be respected by his superiors, and gets dismayed or annoyed when someone who believes otherwise puts him down. However Percy and Toby are more than capable of standing up to him, and Annie and Clarabel often correct or tease him when he misanalyses something. He has also occasionally expressed envy, but always makes up for it.

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. He took immense pleasure from the experience despite worrying if he would be a credit to Sodor whilst away, but was nevertheless glad to be among familiar faces upon his return.

Controversy[]

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 the Reverend Wilbert and Christopher Awdry had always treated the characters in the books as an ensemble, and so before the television series there had been only ten stories with Thomas named in the title, the four in each of Thomas the Tank Engine and Tank Engine Thomas Again, plus "Thomas in Trouble" (in Toby the Tram Engine) and "Thomas Comes to Breakfast" (in Branch Line Engines).

After the debut of the television series, there were five books explicitly named after Thomas: (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) has only one story out of the four centred on Thomas; in Thomas Comes Home however, 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.

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