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Background Information
Thomas is a fictional standard gauge tank locomotive created by the Reverend W. Awdry with the help from his son Christopher Awdry. He is the No. 1 engine on the North Western Railway.
He first appeared in The Railway Series book, Thomas the Tank Engine, which was published in 1946. His last appearance was in Thomas and his Friends, published in 2011.
Front of Thomas:
The rear of Thomas:
Creation
The Original Thomas
In 1942, Wilbert made Christopher a wooden model of Edward. However, Christopher apparently 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.
For the illustrations of Thomas the Tank Engine, Edmund Ward, then-publisher of The Railway Series, paid illustrator Reginald Payne £94 10s in November 1945 to illustrate the book. Payne was provided sketches by Awdry as a guide for the illustrations, and he slavishly followed them in order to complete the quota. Instead of illustrating Thomas as the engine Awdry intended, Payne illustrated Thomas as an E2 0-6-0 tank engine, as Payne was a southern man, and thus based Thomas off a southern engine. Although initially annoyed, Awdry was content after finding out the design was based off a real locomotive, and he allowed it to stay in the series. Payne did not receive any credit for his work; it is only since the publication of Brian Sibley's The Thomas the Tank Engine Man that he has received recognition.
Running Plate Problems
Thomas with his flat footplate
Thomas' running plate was allegedly a source of contention for the Rev. W. Awdry during The Railway Series. As originally drawn, Thomas had a distinctive dip at the front of his running plate, but not on the back. The story goes that to Awdry's eyes, this meant that Thomas's buffers would be at different levels and have operational inaccuracy and impossibility. This seems curious on Awdry's part, as all the artists had drawn Thomas as having an extra-deep rear buffer beam to compensate, this putting the front and rear buffers at the same level.
Be it a matter of taste or inaccuracy, the issue of the running plate had to be settled: thus Thomas's excursion into the stationmaster's house at Ffarquhar was arranged. After his repairs at Crovan's Gate, Thomas returned with a new modified running plate that was flat and level from smokebox to bunker. In the Thomas & Friends television series, Thomas' running plate was never changed, even after the events of Thomas Comes to Breakfast were adapted. However, his buffers at his front and rear end are measured at the same level, regardless of the dip on his front buffer beam.
Too Much Thomas?
While he may seem innocent enough, poor Thomas created a fair bit of trouble for Christopher Awdry and Egmont Books, publishers of The Railway Series, when the latter started asking for more books about the happy little tank engine. Granted, Thomas was the most popular character in the original books of The Railway Series, but Egmont went too far and thus the problem continues. With the advent of the television series, Egmont started asking for more Thomas and to this day, Thomas has eight volumes of The Railway Series under his undercarriage. Two of the titles have very little to do with Thomas - Thomas Comes Home focuses on the adventures of the branch line engines during Thomas' visit to York, while Thomas and the Fat Controller's Engines only featured one story about Thomas, although he did appear in two of the other three stories. As a result of Thomas' fame, other characters became largely neglected like Duck and the Scottish twins, Donald and Douglas.
Behind the Scenes
The Original Thomas
A wooden push-along toy from the early 1940s is the original Thomas made by the Reverend Awdry out of a piece of broomstick for his son Christopher. This engine looked rather different from the character known today and had side tanks which sloped to the front of the smokebox. He was painted teal-green with yellow lining and carried the letters "NW" on his side tanks. Awdry claimed that this stood for "No Where", but later works would identify the railway Thomas and his friends worked on as the fictional North Western Railway.
Christopher Awdry lost this model when he was in the US, although replicas of this toy were made by Michael White for different promotional events, including a sizzling promo for the 70th Anniversary.
Awdry's models
In total, the Reverend made three models of Thomas, all of which were used on his Ffarquhar Branch Layout.
The Reverend's original model from Stewart Reidpath lacked extended tanks unlike Payne's illustrations. In the 1979 Thomas Annual, Awdry wrote:
"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".
.jpg "AwdryThomasMk1(1979-Annual).jpg (132 KB)")
The Reverend's second model of Thomas was created from a LMS Fowler class 3F 'Jinty'.
After Hornby produced the E2 tank engine in the late 1970s, Awdry gladly adapted one to take the role of Thomas on Ffarquhar Branch. In addition to being repainted into Thomas' livery, Awdry's Mk3 model of Thomas has a number of additional modifications from its Hornby base model to make it appear closer to Thomas' appearances in illustrations prior to his 1960 rebuild:
- The running board has been flattened at the back.
- The rear bufferbeam is now taller to account for the new running board height.
- Extensions were crafted for the model's side tanks.
- Splashers were added underneath the extended tanks.
- The original wheels were replaced with 18-spoke 21mm diameter wheels by Romfords, likely to justify the splashers.
Seemingly, the model's bodyshell sat too high on its chassis after its modifications, as the bufferbeams at both the front and back were given extensions and the buffers lowered to match other rolling stock. The original intended height of the bufferbeams at each end can be seen in the valences, which were not modified when the model's buffers were lowered.
All three models are currently preserved at the Narrow Gauge Railway Museum in Tywyn.
As of 2023, Thomas Mk3, alongside Annie, Clarabel and Edward's models, have been put on display at Drayton Manor Theme Park under loan from the Talyllyn Railway.
P.R.Wickham's model
Edmund Ward had commissioned P.R. Wickham to produce models based on Engines 1-6 around the early 1950s, which were featured in an article titled "The Locomotive Family" featured in the March 1953 issue of Model Maker Magazine. These models were made in 7mm scale and were unpowered due to the lack of motors, although they did prove to be guides for the illustrators to work with, and the designs were based on C. Reginald Dalby's original illustrations.
