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Discover the wholesome legacy of Thomas & Friends.
The Thomas & Friends™ story began over 60 years ago in the sleepy countryside village of Box in Whiltshire, England. It is here, in a village nestled beside the Great Western Railway main line, that a young boy discovered his love of trains. That boy would become the Reverend W. Awdry, the creator of Thomas & Friends and the most famous tank engine in the world, Thomas.
Many years later in 1940, when Wilbert was married, he found himself passing on his love of the railways to his son Christopher. It was in King’s Norton, Birmingham, in 1943 when Christopher was confined to his bed with measles that Wilbert decided he needed entertaining. Drawing on his childhood memories, he improvised stories about steam engines to amuse his son.
And so Thomas and his friends came to life. The stories were told to his son over and over again until, at the encouragement of his son, the Rev. W. Awdry finally wrote them down. Initially scribbled on scraps of paper for family storytelling, he eventually offered the scribbles to a publisher at the insistence of his wife Margaret. His first book, “The Three Railway Engines” was published in 1945.
In the Christmas of that year, the Rev. Awdry made his son Christopher a simple wooden toy engine that was later christened Thomas. And so Thomas the Tank Engine was born. At Christopher’s urging, his father began to make up stories about Thomas too.
“Thomas the Tank Engine” was published in 1946 and steamed onwards. The Rev. W. Awdry invented a fictional setting for the stories – the island of Sodor – and wrote a new book every year
until his twenty-sixth and final story, “Tramway Engines,” came out in 1972.
It wasn’t until 1983 that the next book was published – this time by his son Christopher. Following in his father’s footsteps, Christopher wrote the stories for the amusement of himself and his son Richard. “Really Useful Engines” was the first of 14 books by Christopher that entertained a second generation of Thomas fans.
At Thomas Wooden Railway, we’re proud to carry on the tradition of Thomas & Friends, and even prouder to do so in a way Rev. W. Awdry would wholeheartedly embrace.
If you’d like more information about Thomas & Friends, visit the Thomas & Friends website.
