TheXModelRailroader
RANK AMATEURS OF THE MODEL RAILROAD FORM FOUNDER
Dear Christopher, Here is your friend Thomas the Tank Engine. He wanted to come out of his station yard and see the world. These stories tell you how he did it. I hope you will like them because you helped me to make them. Your Loving Daddy
It is has been 80 years, since The Railway Series had begun so long ago. While some of you may think of Thomas simply as "A kids show that introduces youngsters to trains", It is so much more then that.
The Rev W Awdry could tell you! (Most of this was pulled from WIKI). I wanted to take some time and talk about it. So if you want, come along, grab a cup of tea and sit down to this tale...
In 1942, Wilbert son Christopher had measles and was confined to bed. To prevent their son getting bored, Wilbert and his wife Margaret Awdry told him stories and nursery rhymes. Most of them eventually lost their entertainment value, but one that continually appealed to Christopher was the rhyme "Down by the Station". Wilbert subsequently drew a picture of several engines standing in a row based on the rhyme and for fun gave them faces with various expressions. One sad-looking engine appealed to Christopher, as it shared his mood and he asked what his name was. Wilbert replied with the first to come to his head: Edward. Through a series of questions and answers, the story of Edward's Day Out was created. Eventually, Christopher began asking for more stories and Awdry obliged him with "Edward and Gordon" and "The Sad Story of Henry", the latter being inspired by another rhyme he was fond of. Christopher would constantly ask for the stories to be retold, even after he recovered and to ensure consistency between telling's, Wilbert wrote them down on the back of old church circulars.
And so, The Railway Series was born.
The characters that would make Awdry famous and the first stories featuring them were invented in 1942 to amuse his son Christopher during a bout of measles at the age of two and a half. The Reverend Awdry did not plan to do anything with the stories; his wife, however, thought otherwise. After the war’s end, these stories were published as The Three Railway Engines. After the publication of the book, Christopher wanted a model of Gordon; but this could not be done. Instead, Awdry made a model of a tank engine from odds and ends, painted it blue and gave it to Christopher as a Christmas present. Christopher christened the model engine Thomas. Then Christopher requested stories about Thomas and these stories would be published as Awdry's second and most famous book, Thomas the Tank Engine.
After Thomas the Tank Engine, Awdry was finished with writing any more books. However, due to popular demand, Awdry pressed onward. By the time Awdry stopped writing in 1972, The Railway Series numbered 26 books. His son Christopher subsequently added sixteen more books to the series, including the later two posthumous releases. In 1979, Britt Allcroft, a British television producer, was making a five-minute documentary on the resurgence of interest in steam railways, part of which featured an interview with the Reverend Awdry at the Bluebell Railway. Prior to interviewing Awdry, Allcroft read some of The Railway Series books and had become intrigued with the characters, stories and illustrations. After dinner one evening, Allcroft told Awdry that she believed that his stories were "made to be brought to life" and that she would like to be the one to do it. Awdry, however, replied that others had previously tried and failed to bring The Railway Series stories to television. Nevertheless, in 1980, Allcroft negotiated television rights with The Railway Series publisher Kaye & Ward for £50,000, financed by getting a second mortgage on her family's Southampton home and loaning money from her local bank. And the Tv series started.
And Awdry liked things to be very realistic, as he use to work on a railway when he was young. So he made a map of the Island Railway, came up with a timeline and cannon, how it would fit into the real world, and came up with a locomotive porotype for every main character!
Thomas is a LB&SCR E2. Gordon a LNER Gresley Classes A1. Henry was rebuilt into a LMS Stanier Class 5 4-6-0 (Black five), and so on.
The illustrators could sometimes be unconsented, which led to characters not always looking the way we see them. This leads to personnel headcanons, but that's all the more fun! For me A E2 for Thomas is a bit too long, so my head cannon is, He is a prototype built much closer in comparison to a LB&SCR A1 Terrier, which allowed for better steaming, but still resembles the E2!
Almost all of the accidents in the story's are inspired by real life advents. Awdry had a binder filed with them, just so he could tell that naysayer, "It is realistic, it happened!"
The characters in the books were honest. They did not mind being rude or calling each other "Stupid!" or telling one to "Shut up!". This was there to keep both the kids as well as the readers (Parents) interested in the story's!
Now, sadly, both Awdry, as well as Britt Allcroft and others who helped with the show have passed away. Now Mattel owns Thomas, and to most of us they have ruined him!
Just look at the before https://ttte.fandom.com/wiki/Thomas_the_Tank_Engine_Wiki and After! https://thomas-and-friends-all-engines-go.fandom.com/
To spite this, Thomas fans have made their own story's with both models as well as TRAINZ that can be found all over YouTube. While the official franchise may come to a end, The memory's that were made will live on or a time more...
Thank you to 80 Years of memory's that built my childhood, and got me started in model trains!
If you are all interested, I am going to leave some links below this post to several channels on YouTube I like to watch that I feel capture the true story that is behind The Railways Series. I would also love to hear your thoughts on this story, what you think of Thomas now.
Cheers!
It is has been 80 years, since The Railway Series had begun so long ago. While some of you may think of Thomas simply as "A kids show that introduces youngsters to trains", It is so much more then that.
The Rev W Awdry could tell you! (Most of this was pulled from WIKI). I wanted to take some time and talk about it. So if you want, come along, grab a cup of tea and sit down to this tale...
In 1942, Wilbert son Christopher had measles and was confined to bed. To prevent their son getting bored, Wilbert and his wife Margaret Awdry told him stories and nursery rhymes. Most of them eventually lost their entertainment value, but one that continually appealed to Christopher was the rhyme "Down by the Station". Wilbert subsequently drew a picture of several engines standing in a row based on the rhyme and for fun gave them faces with various expressions. One sad-looking engine appealed to Christopher, as it shared his mood and he asked what his name was. Wilbert replied with the first to come to his head: Edward. Through a series of questions and answers, the story of Edward's Day Out was created. Eventually, Christopher began asking for more stories and Awdry obliged him with "Edward and Gordon" and "The Sad Story of Henry", the latter being inspired by another rhyme he was fond of. Christopher would constantly ask for the stories to be retold, even after he recovered and to ensure consistency between telling's, Wilbert wrote them down on the back of old church circulars.
And so, The Railway Series was born.
The characters that would make Awdry famous and the first stories featuring them were invented in 1942 to amuse his son Christopher during a bout of measles at the age of two and a half. The Reverend Awdry did not plan to do anything with the stories; his wife, however, thought otherwise. After the war’s end, these stories were published as The Three Railway Engines. After the publication of the book, Christopher wanted a model of Gordon; but this could not be done. Instead, Awdry made a model of a tank engine from odds and ends, painted it blue and gave it to Christopher as a Christmas present. Christopher christened the model engine Thomas. Then Christopher requested stories about Thomas and these stories would be published as Awdry's second and most famous book, Thomas the Tank Engine.
After Thomas the Tank Engine, Awdry was finished with writing any more books. However, due to popular demand, Awdry pressed onward. By the time Awdry stopped writing in 1972, The Railway Series numbered 26 books. His son Christopher subsequently added sixteen more books to the series, including the later two posthumous releases. In 1979, Britt Allcroft, a British television producer, was making a five-minute documentary on the resurgence of interest in steam railways, part of which featured an interview with the Reverend Awdry at the Bluebell Railway. Prior to interviewing Awdry, Allcroft read some of The Railway Series books and had become intrigued with the characters, stories and illustrations. After dinner one evening, Allcroft told Awdry that she believed that his stories were "made to be brought to life" and that she would like to be the one to do it. Awdry, however, replied that others had previously tried and failed to bring The Railway Series stories to television. Nevertheless, in 1980, Allcroft negotiated television rights with The Railway Series publisher Kaye & Ward for £50,000, financed by getting a second mortgage on her family's Southampton home and loaning money from her local bank. And the Tv series started.
And Awdry liked things to be very realistic, as he use to work on a railway when he was young. So he made a map of the Island Railway, came up with a timeline and cannon, how it would fit into the real world, and came up with a locomotive porotype for every main character!
Thomas is a LB&SCR E2. Gordon a LNER Gresley Classes A1. Henry was rebuilt into a LMS Stanier Class 5 4-6-0 (Black five), and so on.
The illustrators could sometimes be unconsented, which led to characters not always looking the way we see them. This leads to personnel headcanons, but that's all the more fun! For me A E2 for Thomas is a bit too long, so my head cannon is, He is a prototype built much closer in comparison to a LB&SCR A1 Terrier, which allowed for better steaming, but still resembles the E2!
Almost all of the accidents in the story's are inspired by real life advents. Awdry had a binder filed with them, just so he could tell that naysayer, "It is realistic, it happened!"
The characters in the books were honest. They did not mind being rude or calling each other "Stupid!" or telling one to "Shut up!". This was there to keep both the kids as well as the readers (Parents) interested in the story's!
Now, sadly, both Awdry, as well as Britt Allcroft and others who helped with the show have passed away. Now Mattel owns Thomas, and to most of us they have ruined him!
Just look at the before https://ttte.fandom.com/wiki/Thomas_the_Tank_Engine_Wiki and After! https://thomas-and-friends-all-engines-go.fandom.com/
To spite this, Thomas fans have made their own story's with both models as well as TRAINZ that can be found all over YouTube. While the official franchise may come to a end, The memory's that were made will live on or a time more...
Thank you to 80 Years of memory's that built my childhood, and got me started in model trains!
If you are all interested, I am going to leave some links below this post to several channels on YouTube I like to watch that I feel capture the true story that is behind The Railways Series. I would also love to hear your thoughts on this story, what you think of Thomas now.
Cheers!
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Humor is top notch!
I plan on making some custom models this year.
I hope they enjoy it as much as me and my siblings do. I have even been writing my own story's.
