Thomas the Tank Engine

Awdry based Thomas on a wooden toy made for his son Christopher. This toy looked rather different from the character in the books and television series, and carried the letters NW on its side tanks, which stood for "No Where" according to Awdry.^[1]

The first Thomas model was not based on a prototype.^[2] After Awdry's wife encouraged him to publish the stories,^[3] the publisher of the second book Thomas the Tank Engine hired illustrator Reginald Payne. Awdry selected a real locomotive for Payne to work from to create authenticity: a Billinton designed 0-6-0T E2 Class of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway.^[4] This may have been chosen because Awdry had a photograph to hand.^[2]

The models of Thomas used in the Thomas & Friends television series and produced by Hornby are based on the E2 locomotives fitted with an extension to the front of the water tanks.^[5] Awdry was unsatisfied with one detail of the illustration; the front end of his running board sloped downward, which meant that his front and back buffers were at different heights. This was an illustrator's mistake that was perpetuated in subsequent books. The crash seen in Thomas Comes to Breakfast was partly devised as a means of correcting this.^{[citation needed]}

Payne was not credited for his illustrations at the time, and it is only since the publication of Brian Sibley's The Thomas the Tank Engine Man that he has received recognition. It had often been erroneously assumed that C. Reginald Dalby created the character, as he was responsible for illustrating books 3–11 and repainting the illustrations of the first two books.^{[citation needed]}

All of the prototype LB&SCR E2 class locomotives were scrapped between 1961 and 1963. Thomas locomotives used on Day Out with Thomas days on heritage railways are either unpowered replicas or converted from other locomotives.^[6]

Like the rest of the cast, Thomas did not initially have an individual voice in the English dub of the television series; the voice acting consisted entirely of narration by various actors, including Ringo Starr and Michael Angelis.^[7][8][9] During production of the film adaptation Thomas and the Magic Railroad (2000), director and series creator Britt Allcroft was impressed by the voice of John Bellis—a firefighter and part-time taxi driver—when he picked up Allcroft via taxi.^[10] Allcroft subsequently cast Bellis as the voice of Thomas, commenting to her colleagues that she "just heard the voice of Thomas" and that Bellis "is exactly how Thomas would sound". However, criticism from a test screening resulted in Bellis being replaced with voice actor Edward Glen, credited under Eddie Glen.^[11][12]

The television series would continue to be fully narrated until the release of the feature-length special Thomas & Friends: Hero of the Rails (2009), in which all of the characters had individual voice actors once more. Martin Sherman was cast as Thomas in the American dub, with Ben Small being cast in the British dub.^[7][13] These two would continue to voice Thomas in the television series and subsequent specials until Thomas & Friends: Tale of the Brave (2014), after which the former quit due to payment disputes with the film and TV series' production company HIT Entertainment.^[14] The role was relegated to John Hasler in the British dub and Joseph May in the American dub.^{[citation needed]}

For the animated reboot Thomas & Friends: All Engines Go, child actors were hired for the main cast including Meesha Contreras as Thomas.^{[‡ 1]} Contreras was later replaced by David Kohlsmith and later Kai Harris in later episodes.^{[citation needed]} In the UK, Thomas was redubbed by Aaron Barashi, and later Shaun Jemmett.^{[citation needed]}

Despite becoming the most popular character in The Railway Series, Thomas was not featured in the first book, The Three Railway Engines.^{[citation needed]}

Thomas was described in the opening to "Thomas and Gordon", the first story in the book Thomas the Tank Engine, as "a 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 cheeky, too."^{[‡ 4]}

Thomas arrived on Sodor shortly after he was built in 1915, when The Fat Controller bought the locomotive for a nominal sum to be a pilot engine at Vicarstown. Thomas initially worked as a station pilot engine in the first three stories in the second book, but longed for more important jobs such as pulling the express train like Gordon the Big Engine; his inexperience prevented this. In the fourth story, "Thomas and the Breakdown Train", Thomas rescues James and is rewarded with his own branch line.^[15]

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Thomas's on-screen appearance in the television series was developed by Britt Allcroft. The first series of twenty-six episodes premiered in October 1984 on ITV in the United Kingdom. The stories appeared as segments in Shining Time Station in the United States beginning in 1989.^{[citation needed]}

In 1996, the Thomas stories were a segment of Mr. Conductor's Thomas Tales. The franchise's first theatrical film, Thomas and the Magic Railroad was released in 2000.^{[citation needed]}

In Thomas & Friends: The Adventure Begins, a retelling of many of the first episodes of series 1, Thomas is painted green when he arrives on Sodor, and his tanks are lettered "LBSC" (for the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway) with the number 70 on his bunker.^{[citation needed]}

In the early 1940s, Wilbert Awdry built a wooden push-along model of Thomas from a broomstick for his son Christopher. This model was significantly different from the character in the books and television series, and was based on an LNER Class J50, with small side tanks and splashers.^[16] It was painted blue with yellow lining and carried the letters NW on the side tanks. Christopher lost this model, which was recreated for the 70th anniversary. Awdry happily endorsed Payne's account that the locomotive was an LBSC E2, although the first Thomas on Awdry's model railway lacked extended tanks. In the 1979 Thomas the Tank Engine annual, he wrote the following:

I bought Thomas in 1948 when I was writing Tank Engine Thomas Again, and wanted to start modelling once more after a lapse of some twenty years. Thomas was one of Stewart Reidpath's standard models with a heavy, cast white metal body, and was fitted with his "Essar" chassis and motor. Stewart Reidpath is now dead, and his motors, let alone spare parts for them, have been unobtainable for years; but Thomas still keeps going! He is, as you might expect from his age, a temperamental old gentleman, and has to be driven very carefully indeed.

The first Thomas model was retired with its passenger coaches in 1979. A second model had been produced the previous year, using a Tri-ang 'Jinty' 3F 0-6-0T. After Hornby Railways produced the LBSC E2 tank engine, Awdry adapted one in 1980 as the third Thomas model on his layout of the Ffarquhar branch.^{[citation needed]}

In 1967 Meccano Ltd, built models of Percy and wagons in 1967.^[16] Hornby launched their OO gauge "The World of Thomas the Tank Engine" range in 1985. They produced the range for the next 30 years. When designing their Thomas model, Hornby reused their 1979 model of a LB&SCR model of a class E2 tank engine, which they altered with a face and extended tanks. Many of the other characters in the Railway Series were also modelled by Hornby, including characters added for the television series. Hornby also supplied coaches, wagons and lineside buildings.

Thomas was the only fictional character included in The Independent on Sunday's 2009 "Happy List", recognised alongside 98 real-life adults and a therapy dog for making Britain a better and happier place.^[17] In 2011, Thomas the Tank Engine featured on a series of 1st class UK postage stamps issued by the Royal Mail to mark the centenary of the birth of its creator, Reverend Wilbert Awdry.^[18]

Japanese Ōigawa Railway's locomotives include five characters from the Thomas & Friends series: Thomas, Hiro, Percy, James, and Rusty. The locomotives are based at Shin-Kanaya Station.^[19] Thomas runs between Shin-Kanaya Station and Kawaneonsen-Sasamado Station.^{[citation needed]}

Thomas has been referenced, featured and parodied in popular culture. In 1988, he was parodied on ITV's Spitting Image where he was portrayed as a drunk who "went completely off the rails."^{[‡ 6]} In 2009, he appeared in "The Official BBC Children in Need Medley" where he was voiced by Ringo Starr, who narrated the first two series of Thomas & Friends.^[20] In the British comedy show Bobby Davro's TV Weekly, a spoof was created titled "Thomas the Tanked Up Engine" involving Jeremy, a pink recolour of James. Bobby Davro provided the narration by impersonating Ringo Starr.

In Cartoon Network's MAD, Thomas the Tank Engine appears in "Thomas the Unstoppable Tank Engine", a crossover between Thomas & Friends and Unstoppable.^{[‡ 7]} A parody of Thomas & Friends was in Robot Chicken, entitled "Blow Some Steam". In the skit, Thomas was voiced by Daniel Radcliffe.^{[‡ 8]}

The Marvel Cinematic Universe film Ant-Man features a Bachmann HO scale model of Thomas. In the film's climactic battle, Ant-Man and Yellowjacket fight atop a model train pulled by the Thomas model while in their insect sizes, until Yellowjacket derails the model train and throws Thomas at Ant-Man, who knocks him onto a windowsill. An accident during the fight results in Thomas suddenly growing to the size of a real train and demolishing a large portion of Scott Langs daughter, Casandra's house before landing on top of a police car.^[21][22][23]

Video game players have frequently modified released games to include Thomas and other characters, typically by replacing a boss character with Thomas and using sounds and music from the show. One of the first popular efforts was replacing dragons with engines and trucks in the game The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim in 2013, and Thomas has since been incorporated into other games like Grand Theft Auto V, Sonic the Hedgehog and the 2019 Resident Evil 2 remake.^[24]

• List of characters in The Railway Series
• List of Thomas & Friends characters
• The Little Engine That Could