80th Anniversary of Thomas the Tank Engine

I know the 80th Anniversary of the original Railway Series by Rev. W. Awdry was last year, but the most iconic character of them all in this franchise, Thomas the Tank Engine, are actually having his 80th Anniversary today! The Railway Series was first published May 12th 1945 and was entitled The Three Railway Engines and was about Edward, Henry and Gordon.

Thomas the Tank Engine didn't actually appear before the second The Railway Series book, 'Thomas the Tank Engine', which was published September 14th 1946. Actually Thomas is older than that, as he was created by Rev. W. Awdry as a wooden toy for his son for Christmas 1942. He initially planned to make a wooden toy of either Henry or Gordon, but due to wartime shortages he was only able to make a (new) smaller engine, which would be 'Thomas'. His 'No. 1' is not because he was first in this franchise, on the contrary,  but because it was simpler to write. After 'The Three Railway Engines' was published in 1945 it was decided that the next book was to be about 'Thomas'. In the foreword to the book Rev. W. Awdry wrote:

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

The Second book in The Railway Series, which was about Thomas the Tank Engine, was published September the 14th 1946, so I'll think this would be the right date for Thomas the Tank Engine's 80th Anniversary.

The wooden toy of the original 'Thomas the Tank Engine' by Rev. W. Awdry was initially made as a Class J50 engine, but the illustrator for the second Railway Series book, Reginald Payne, was living in the south illustrated the 0-6-0 'Thomas the Tank Engine' as a Class E2 0-6-0 engine, and gave him his iconic appearance.

The very original model of 'Thomas' made by Rev. W. Awdry 

One of the first illustrations of Thomas from the book were he first appears in 1946

Thomas the Tank Engine in my, or our, collection

So why dedicate a blogpost entirely to this Jubilant on this blog? Over the years we have collected some different Thomas the Tank Engine models at home and in different scales.

Thomas for wood trains

OO gauge Thomas by Hornby

G-scale Thomas by Bachman and N scale Thomas by Tomix

Although we got all these different Thomas-models for our sons when they were kids as they were fan of him and the tv-series, it was actually 'Thomas' that got me into garden railways in the first place (I just didn't know it back then). The reason for this was that several members in my model railway club who also had small kids back then, thought we could make an overseas order together (to save shipping costs) for Bachman Thomas the Tank Engine starter sets in G-scale to have running around our Christmas trees as it would be fun for our kids. This was my first ever G-scale model, and soon an interest for that scale and gauge was developed. Even if our sons are grown now, the large scale Thomas on a circular circuit of tracks underneath the Christmas tree has become a tradition and I got heavy involved in a 'G-scale'.

Thomas at the Norwegian Constitution Day at 17th of May on my small Garden Railway

There is a prototype for every thing. This photo was taken during a 'Day out with Thomas' arrangement at the Danish Railway museum in Odense back in 2018 when I visited it with my youngest son. 

Thomas the Tank Engine has spread joy and inspiration for generations the last 80 years, and I hope he continues to do so for the next 80 too!

Happy Birthday Thomas!!