Thomas the Tank Engine: The Railway Series: Thomas the Tank Engine (Classic Thomas the Tank Engine)

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Unusually for children's books of the austerity period, The Railway Series was printed in full colour from the start, which is cited by many critics [ who?] as one of its major selling points in the early days.

When Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends began broadcasting in Japan on 4th October 1990, the Railway Series became even more popular. In 1992, 2005-06, 2013-15 and 2020-21, exhibitions of original artwork of The Railway Series, many sketches by Wilbert Awdry and the original television series models were held in Japan.Neil is a dark green 0-4-0 box tank locomotive who appears in the book Very Old Engines. It is mentioned by Christopher Awdry in Sodor: Reading Between the Lines that Neil is still around but is not known where. [8] Bill and Ben (SCC 1 and 2) [ edit ] The first large-scale celebration of an anniversary of the Railway Series was the Thomas the Tank Engine 45th Birthday at the National Railway Museum in 1990. James the Red Engine was notable as the first book to be illustrated by C. Reginald Dalby, perhaps the most famous of the Railway Series artists, and certainly the most controversial due to the criticism later aimed at him by Awdry. [ citation needed] Dalby illustrated every volume up to Percy the Small Engine (1956), and also produced new illustrations for The Three Railway Engines and made changes to those of Thomas the Tank Engine. These volumes were later compiled into Thomas the Tank Engine: The Complete Collection. The Complete Collection compilations were released by various publishers in different years and countries, all containing the same 26 volumes.

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 twenty-six books. Trevor is a traction engine who was introduced and rescued by Edward in Saved from Scrap. He is based on the William Foster & Co. Traction Engine No. 14593. Fergus Duncan, known as The Small Controller, is the owner of the Arlesdale Railway. Despite being known as the Small Controller, he is taller than both the Fat Controller and the Thin Controller. Henry was originally a 4-6-2 designed by Sir Nigel Gresley. He was built circa 1919 and arrived on Sodor in 1922 when Sir Topham Hatt was swindled into buying him. [2] There have been two Railway Series books devoted to him: Henry the Green Engine and Henry and the Express. Henry is a green mixed-traffic 4-6-0 ex- LMS Stanier Class 5 locomotive and is the railway's #3 engine. Thomas has an accident and a lazy diesel railcar named Daisy comes to Sodor to fill in for him, but only causes more trouble and Percy gets into a predicament.Percy is the little green number 6 0-4-0 ST engine and is Thomas' best friend. [5] He was first brought to the North Western Railway to help out the work while Henry, Gordon and James went on strike and later became station pilot at Tidmouth. Following the construction of Knapford Harbour in 1955, Percy was moved permanently to the Ffarquhar Branch Line, where he works as a general goods engine. Sir Handel (originally Falcon) is named after Sir Handel Brown, the owner of the Skarloey Railway. He is an 0-4-2 ST (originally an 0-4-0 ST), who worked on the Mid Sodor Railway. Sir Handel is based on the Talyllyn Railway locomotive, Sir Haydn. In the 1980s, he was invited to the Talyllyn Railway. The real Talyllyn Railway had paid tribute to The Railway Series by repainting their locomotive Sir Haydn to resemble Sir Handel. Sir Handel first appeared in Four Little Engines. In making the stories as real as possible, Awdry took a lot of inspiration from a number of sources in his extensive library and found the Railway Gazette 's "Scrapheap" column particularly useful as a source of unusual railway incidents that were recreated for The Railway Series characters.