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A Bit of history

Thomas the Tank Engine is Sixty Three years old!

Happy Birthday Thomas! First written by an Anglican clergyman, the Reverend Wilbert Awdry, as a way of entertaining his young son Christopher as he recovered, in isolation, from scarlet fever.

To add to the story telling, the Rev. Awdry drew simple pictures of steam locomotives on the paper along with the stories. A head on view being the easiest to draw, he drew a row of locomotives standing in an engine shed with a human face and expression on each locomotive's smokebox door.

His first story was based on an old steam engine who looked sad. The story was called "Edward's day out"

This began the first of many tales of excitement and moral worth. Thomas the Tank Engine had yet to appear in the stories but In 1945 the first of the Railway series of books "The Three Railway Engines" appeared. Published by a distant cousin the pages were laid out with pictures on a full page and text on the other whilst the whole book was kept small enough for small hands.

Thomas the Tank Engine appeared in the second book. This was published a year later in 1946. The engines appearance was based on actual working locomotives of the time.

Thomas himself was based on the Brighton and South Coast 0-6-0T Class E2 shunting engine.  Gordon is probably the most recognisable being based on a Gresley A3 Pacific locomotive, Flying Scotsman being the most famous real locomotive of this class. Henry looks similar to a 'Black five' 4-6-0.

The actual location of the stories has evolved along with the stories, some of the early stories make the events seem to be on the Mainland of Britain, notably Gordon's discussions regarding London's stations and the visit London by all the trains to see the children. In fact Audrey saw his engines based on the magical island of Sodor, which lay between the British mainland and the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea.

Even the Queen makes a visit to the trains. As the story develops the island of Sodor emerges as a safe haven from the then Modernisation of British rail. Anyone who has been to the Isle of Man might feel a strange resemblance more than compounded by the introduction of the narrow gauge railway locomotives of later stories. Strangely the Isle of Man was also used as the filming location for a large part of the "Thomas the Tank Engine" movie. Characters also emerge who are based on the real 'Bluebell' Railway.  A ferry connects Brendan Docks with the Isle of Man, and a bridge connects the East of the island with the mainland allowing the Engines to return to Crewe for maintenance.

After the Rev. Awdry laid down his pen,  his son Christopher took over to write stories for his own son. Ten more books of the Railway Series have now appeared so far under Christopher's name.

Toy Thomas trains.

Thomas the Tank Engine stories make the ideal basis for constructive and educational play. Thomas the Tank Engine toys have been around nearly as long as Thomas himself. The Rev Audrey himself built a layout complete with locos and showed it at train shows throughout the country. When the TV shows started Gauge 1 (37mm) models based on Marklin mechanisms were used. O Gauge for comparison is 32mm and G Gauge 43mm.

Wooden toys were not long in following and it is these, compatible with Early Learning Curve and Brio wooden track which many will remember from childhood. On a more accurate level 3 main manufacturers have mass produced models.

Hornby make a HO / OO range of trains including a clockwork and now a battery driven Thomas. They do have an excellent range and are readily available. Thomas is however disappointing in appearing "stretched" and a long way from the TV series loco. Hornby's Thomas is in fact very close to the original loco on which Thomas is based.

Bachmann have a smaller range of trains comprising of just Thomas, James, Percy, Annie ,Clarabel and troublesome trucks. They have a much higher build quality and are more child resistant but are less readily available. New in 2006 will be Henry the green engine and Gordon the big express from Bachmann.

In the USA Lionel were granted rights to make Thomas and produced a G Gauge (or Garden /Large Scale) Thomas the Tank Engine. James followed and Percy prototypes also exist. Now out of production since 1998 which is a shame. Lionel now make a O Gauge 3 rail Thomas the Tank Engine set for the US market only. Of course here at Thomas the tank engine specialist - Thomasrocks we try to get you every Thomas the Tank Engine toy so we bring these in specially. Thomasrocks is the only official UK dealer for Lionel's Thomas range and we keep Lionel's full O gauge range in stock.

In Japan TOMY released a N Gauge series of trains under the Tomica Brand name. We can get these at thomasrocks but they are all got to order and take up to 2 weeks to have imported. They are very detailed and include all the main characters in incredible detail including moving eyes.

Away from the Scale models the wooden range were joined by ERTL Thomas which ran on plastic tracks but were replaced in 2005 by Take Along Thomas from RC2 (Panasonic) TOMY also produced a huge range of battery driven trains to complement the TOMY Motor Road and Rail range. The TOMY motor road and rail range is being replaced in 2008 with the new trackmaster range. This is very similar to the old TMRR range but the road going vehicles are being completely discontinued. Conversion sections will be avilable to convert TMRR to the new Thomas and Friends Trackmaster range. Of course there are hundreds more Thomas toys and I can't list them all here. If there is any particular toy you would like regardless of it's being discontinued, please e-mail us at

sales@thomasrocks.com

Thomas The Tank Engine Toys

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