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Engine Stories is a book released exclusively by WHSmith, and features five books from The Railway Series, first released in 1982 with additional anthology volumes in 1983 to 1985. It was later rereleased by Treasure Press as Thomas the Tank Engine and Other Railway Stories.
Introduction
In the filing cabinet in my study there is a large bundle of letters. They are all the letters which boys and girls, and grown-ups too, have sent me ever since the first of my little books was published. It always amazes me to think that when my son Christopher caught measles, and we made up our first story, we were starting a series of books which boys and girls would like so much. It began quite simply. We had a little rhyme:
Early in the morning, down at the station,
All the little engines standing in a row.
Along comes the driver, turns a little handle.
Puff, Puff, Chuff, Chuff, off we go.
"What was the engine's name, Daddy?" asked Christopher.
"Edward," I told him. It was the first name that came into my head.
"Why was he sad, Daddy?"
"Because he was old, and hadn't been out for a long time."
And so, with Christopher asking questions, and me thinking up answers, we made up the story which became the first story in the series about an engine called Edward. It hadn't got a title then, but you know it as "Edward's Day Out".
"The Sad Story of Henry" happened in the same way. We started with the rhyme and made up the story. When we had settled the words of both stories as Christopher liked them, I wrote them down to help me remember the "right" words to use in telling the story every time.
A third story came next about Edward and a bossy engine called Gordon. Christopher was well again by the time this one was finished, but he still wanted the stories told over and over again. Though he liked the, I doubted whether anyone else would, but Mrs. Awdry thought that they ought to be published. At last a friend showed them to Mr. Edmund Ward. He liked them, and said that if I wrote another story bringing Henry out of his tunnel, and making the three engines friends again, he would make the four stories into a book. We did this, and the first book, "The Three Railway Engines" came out in 1945.
I made Christopher a wooden push-along model of Edward. I made him a wooden tank-engine which he called Thomas, so before long we had to have stories about Thomas. We sent these to Mr. Ward, and "Thomas the Tank Engine" came out in 1946.
There are now twenty-six books in the Railway Series, and boys and girls still like them even though no steam engines are left on British Rail, and you have to go to preserved lines like Bluebell, the Severn Valley, or the Talyllyn Railway to see them.
So far, all books have been made separately, but now that 7,000,000 have been sold, we are celebrating this by making an "Omnibus" edition in which several books appear together. I think this is a splendid idea. I hope you will like it.
W Awdry
Books
- Thomas the Tank Engine
- Tank Engine Thomas Again
- Gallant Old Engine
- Stepney the "Bluebell" Engine
- Tramway Engines
Gallery
