A Brief History of Thomas and Friends
The Beginning
Thomas and his Friends have been "Making Tracks To Great Destinations" ever since 1943, when Wilbert Awdry's 3-year-old son Christopher was sick in bed with the measles. Wilbert believed his son needed entertaining, so he called upon his childhood memories of railways to improvise stories of imaginary steam trains that could talk, and could have many different personalities. The first engine that came to life in his imagination was an old blue engine named Edward, followed by a big, strong, (and also blue), engine called Gordon. Then came a big, green engine named Henry. He told the stories of these three engines over and over again until Christopher pushed to have all the details written down. So, as a result, Wilbert scribbled them down on scraps of paper, with no intention of publishing them. It was only after much persistence by his wife, Margaret, that he offered the stories to a publisher. The stories were published as a compilation of four stories in one book, entitled "The Three Railway Engines," in 1945.
The Main Series
In the Christmas of 1945, Wilbert created a wooden toy engine for his son Christopher to play with. The toy was later named Thomas, and Thomas The Tank Engine was born. Wilbert now had four different engines to tell stories of. So he kept writing new stories for the world to read, and as time went on, more engines were added to the series. Thomas was the main character of the 2nd book in the series, titled Thomas the Tank Engine, in 1946. Ever since then, Wilbert published a new book of four stories every year until his 26th and final book, "Tramway Engines," was released in 1972. Throughout the series, Wilbert had introduced plenty of new characters for the railway, including James, Percy, Toby, Duck, Bill, Ben, Skarloey, Rheaneas, and many others. They would all interact with eachother and would be really useful engines on an island called Sodor.
The Christopher Awdry Era
After Wilbert had published his last book, he had been responding to thousands of fan letters from all over the world. While he was doing that, his now 43-year-old son, Christopher, decided that he would continue the series. Christopher's first book, "Really Useful Engines", was published in 1983- the first Railway Series book to be published in 11 years! The series is still being published, and is slated to contain 14 books.
Britt Allcroft's Television Series
While Christopher was writing his series, a television producer by the name of Britt Allcroft was filming a documentary on trains, when she came up with the idea that she would make a children's television series based on her favorite children's book series. As a result, the Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends television series began production. The show premiered in Britain during the month of October, 1984, and became an instant hit, garnering an average of about 8.5 million viewers per episode. For more Information, visit the Thomas On Television link on the top of this page.
The Future
To date, the series has spawned numerous computer games, board games, silverware, a movie, children's toys, Day Out With Thomas events, and much more! So what more can Thomas and Friends do? Only time will tell...