The History Behind Thomas the Tank Engine

The Railway Series got off to a shaky start with three different illustrators in as many books. William Middleton was the first illustrator commissioned by Edmund Ward to illustrate The Three Railway Engines, as we know the Reverend W. Awdry was not at all happy with these illustrations. So a different illustrator was required for the second book Thomas the Tank Engine, this is where Reginald Payne comes in. 

Original cover - provided by ReproJackets.co.uk

Reginald Payne produced some of the most iconic and most frequently used illustrations of the Railway Series and essentially created the appearance of Thomas the Tank Engine. Originally the Reverend W. Awdry wanted Thomas to resemble a model he had designed for his son Chsristopher, but Reginald Payne went against this and based Thomas on an E2 0-6-0 tank engine. The Reverend W. Awdry was pleased with this so allowed him to continue; thus Thomas as we know him today was created. Reginald Payne may have changed the appearance of Thomas, but other than that he did painstakingly follow the sketches provided by the Reverend W. Awdry. This explains why some illustrations use the same angle of Thomas, the Reverend W. Awdry would often trace over previous sketches in order to re-create the engine accurately and relatively easily. 

Woman's Weekly 1985 - ThomasTankCollectables Magazine Archive

Despite Mr. Payne's significant impact on The Railway Series and the appearance of Thomas the Tank Engine in particular, he remains uncredited to this day and in fact new versions of the book credit C. Reginald Dalby, as seen below. C. Reginald Dalby was requested to "improve" the original illustrations by Reginald Payne for a new edition of the book released in 1950, although he did make some notable changes, the book was still primarily illustrated by Reginald Payne, so it is sad that he is not credited for his work. Reginald Payne was due to be asked to illustrate James the Red Engine, but sadly suffered a nervous breakdown and was unable to proceed in illustrating another book. Very little is known about Reginald Payne and he proved to be un-contactable, Britt Allcroft also tried to find his family to no avail. 

The 2015 Edition of Thomas the Tank Engine credits the illustrator as C. Reginald Dalby

In the 70th Anniversary slipcase edition of Thomas the Tank Engine it says that the book was illustrated by Reginald Payne, so it seems that Egmont are aware of this, yet they still credit C. Reginald Dalby. It seems a shame that the man who created some of the most widely recognisable illustrations remains uncredited for his work. In our latest video we compare the original illustrations by Reginald Payne to the 'improved' illustrations released in 1950. 

Please let us know what you think and if we have missed anything out in this article, leave a comment below or send us an e-mail to: thomastankcollectables@hotmail.co.uk 

You can watch the video below:

Merry Christmas from ThomasTankCollectables

We would just like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a happy new year. A big thank you to everyone that has subscribed to our channel, liked our Facebook page and followed us on Twitter this year. Your support makes our effort worthwhile!  

As with previous years we will be releasing a Christmas special and many of you will have already seen the promo picture on social media. Any guesses as to what we are releasing this year? 

This will be our final farewell to to the 70th Anniversary year of the Railway Series.

Below you can have a look at our previous Christmas videos. 

Christmas 2012

This was our first year on YouTube so we made a video montage of Series 1 and 2 footage with music from Band Aid - Do They Know It's Christmas. 

Christmas 2013

In this year we released all of the Ladybird Audios one day at a time in the lead up to Christmas with the final story being The Missing Christmas Tree which was released on Christmas day. 

Christmas 2014

Last year we released all of the illustrations from the early editions of The Three Railway Engines by William Middleton, along with narration by The Rev.W.Awdry and Johnny Morris. 

Have a good Christmas and if you have any questions or comments please feel free to comment below or send us an email: thomastankcollectables@hotmail.co.uk

St. Michael's Cassette Audio Book

In 2013 I released a series of videos showing the pages and accompanying audio of a book released by St. Michael and Octopus books in 1985. Since then I have managed to acquire, after much searching, a second book from this series and the cassette. I am not sure if there are anymore or if it was just these two.

 ©ThomasTankCollectables Archive 2015

I will be releasing all six stories from this book one day after another starting from today. They will be released in the same format as the previous book, complete with illustrations and text. The narration is again by Ringo Starr and as many viewers pointed out last time, is in a higher pitch than that of the TV series. Nonetheless the rare pictures and narration proved successful last time, which prompted me to release the second book. The previous series of videos collectively gained almost 67,000 views and over 100 likes, check it out below. Head over to our Youtube channel for the latest episode tonight.

 ©ThomasTankCollectables Archive 2013

The Story Behind The Thomas the Tank Engine Man

Written by: Nicholas Jones

The Thomas the Tank Engine Man Documentary Producer

As a child I was born into the very last years of a steam-powered world.  The famous engines of the 1930s and 1940s left London  each day with long trains as I slept there in my cot.  I soon became aware of them, because at two I demanded to be taken to see Sir Nigel Gresley, the streamlined beauty, roar through Potters Bar, having been captivated by the first time I saw this very engine.  I even drew it on paper, so I'm told.

Sadly, I don't remember a thing from that wonderful era.

Doubtless it was easy to understand why I quickly became captivated by something I do still remember - the books of The Railway Series.  My postcard of Henry bricked up never left me.  The title 'by the Rev. W.V.Awdry' was integral to an early 1960s childhood.  Yet I grew out of the books at some point and did not return.

Illustrated by C.Reginald Dalby, 1949

In 1993 my mother was in a train at Swindon when a guard outside blew a whistle.  A litttle boy in the carriage shouted "Look! There's the Fat Controller" and everyone laughed.  She decided to contact a magazine called The Oldie to ask if they would like a profile of Wilbert Awdry for its STILL WITH US column.  The magazine said yes, so it was time to call the Reverend, who was not far away from us, in Stroud.

I did not visit with my mother as I was away in London but the piece duly appeared and then we suddenly noticed - this was late 1993 - that soon, Thomas the Tank Engine would be 50, in 1995.  Or, rather, The Three Railway Engines would be 50.  With this in mind, my mother and I went along to meet Wilbert to float the idea of a TV documentary.

From childhood I recall how the illustrations of the books matched to some extent the world as it still existed, except for the oddity that the locomotives all had faces.  I used to note the similarity between some of the engines in the books and those you could still see.  Mr. Awdry had been around a lot in the 1960s, occasionally appearing on TV. 

By 1993 the world was rather different. I was vaguely aware of a children's TV series that looked rather well done.  Yet as we knocked on the door of Sodor, the Awdry home in Stroud, I felt I was going back to that world of the 1960s. Inside, Mr Awdry was with his daughter Hilary, his wife having passed away.  There was a deep silence and a sense of times past.  Yet Wilbert had strong blue eyes and a presence, even in his chair in the corner where he stayed, largely immobile. His health was clearly fading. In the hallway a poignant picture recalled his days as a rower at Oxford.

My mother introduced me to Wilbert and soon, we were talking about the books.  I said that when I picked up one for the first time in decades, it was eerie how I could remember what picture was coming on the next page.  Wilbert seemed rather pleased by this and I sensed he liked me.  Invariably we got on to the subject of the Britt Allcroft series and here, he became animated, showing us Henry's  Forest.  Wilbert spelled out to me how it abused the principle of his books, that they must follow proper railway procedure.

It was that, he said, which endeared him to the many railwaymen he met in his travels who also read the stories to their children.  They could do so, they told him, without wincing at the usual liberties authors of children's railway books took.

It dawned on me that what gave Wilbert the greatest satisfaction was to earn the praise of engine drivers.  He had been born into a divided world of gentlefolk and workers - and was securely in the former.  Yet engine drivers were heroes then, often known as the aristocracy of labour.  There was great respect for them - and decades later, Wilbert still basked in their respect being returned to him.  It was all rather touching to see how steam trains brought everyone together.

Out of this unusual, unforgettable meeting was born The Thomas The Tank Engine Man.  

Seventy Years of The Railway Series

Today marks 70 years since 22,500 copies of the first book of what was to become the Railway Series were released into the world. That first book, 'The Three Railway Engines', introduced us to Edward, Gordon, and Henry.

Although Thomas the Tank Engine may be the main character of today's stories he didn't join the team until a year later in 1946. Today is a very special day for the Railway Series, the Rev.W.Awdry and his son Christopher. 

Keep an eye on our blog for a post written by the Thomas the Tank Engine Man documentary producer Nicholas Jones. 

Until then you can enjoy our videos showing the original William Middleton illustrations alongside narration by the Rev.W.Awdry released in 1957. 

You can also head over to our Magazine Archive and read about the 50th Anniversary back in 1995. 

ThomasTankCollectables Magazine Archive

ThomasTankCollectables Magazine Archive

Over the years there have been a number of different articles about the Railway Series and Thomas the Tank Engine in various magazines, we want to bring these together in one place. Over the past few months we have been scanning our collection of magazines and converting them into PDF documents. These will be made available via our Magazine Archive page which will link you to OneDrive. We will be releasing the articles we have one at a time every Sunday. 

 © ThomasTankCollectables Magazine Archive 2015

If you have an article that you could provide to the archive please get in touch. It would be best if you could provide them in Microsoft Word format so that we can add our title page and credit you there. In addition to this, if you are aware of any articles that feature interesting Railway Series etc articles let us know and we will try and buy them and add them to our archive.

Our first magazine article was first published in a Woman's Weekly magazine in 1985. Twitter user Thomas Stansfield (@TommyStans1991) has a copy and notified us of the article, we purchased a copy shortly after and have made it available via our Magazine Archive page. We recommend downloading the PDF and zooming in for best quality.  

If you have any articles or would like to ask a question, please feel free to send us an email: thomastankcollectables@hotmail.co.uk

The Three Railway Engines - William Middleton

The Three Railway Engines - William Middleton

The Three Railway Engines is where it all began, seventy years ago the first book of what was to become the Railway Series was published. Although the book was ready for publishing in 1943 owing to war time conditions it was not published until 12th May 1945, just four days after VE-day. The small oblong book, designed for children's hands, had a print-run of 22,500 copies from the publishers Edmund Ward. There was one major difference between the first print-run and the book you will be familiar with today and that was of course the illustrations. 

©ThomasTankCollectables Archives 2014

The first illustrator of the Railway Series was William Middleton, known to Edmund Ward through his printing connections. Middleton was a lithographic artist who had little experience as an illustrator. The engines appeared toy-like and their faces looked as though they had been traced around a coin. The Rev.W.Awdry was very disappointed with the illustrations as he had explicitly requested for them to be technically accurate to steam locomotives and scale. Although William Middleton only illustrated one book that was later re-illustrated by C.Reginald Dalby, his legacy remained through the troubles he caused. The William Middleton illustrated book was only available for a short period between 1945 and October 1949, by which point a new edition with illustrations by Dalby had been produced. Dalby went on to provide the illustrations for a further ten books for the Railway Series. Wilbert Awdry was not impressed with Dalby's illustrations either as he felt Dalby perceived all engines as being the same and had little regard for real locomotives, despite this Dalby produced some beautiful illustrations with vivid colours and idyllic countryside. The illustrations of Dalby and Reginald Payne are some of the best remembered and most recognised of the entire railway series. 

This image shows the inside cover of a new edition Three Railway Engines book. There were seven editions of the original copy of the book as shown. 

The illustrations of William Middleton remained lost to the public until they were discovered in 2014. We released them in a series of four videos, one for each story, with narration from the Rev.W.Awdry himself and Johnny Morris. We felt this was a great way to begin celebrations for the seventieth year of the Railway Series. You can see the videos for yourself via the link below. In addition to the story videos we released a video comparing the illustrations of William Middleton and C.Reginald Dalby. Furthermore we cropped the images in half and attached both sides together, to comical effect! Most of them didn't work as nicely as the one below but we will be releasing all of these alongside this blog post. 

©ThomasTankCollectables Archives 2014
Watch the videos here

Watch the comparison here

If you have any comments, please feel free to comment below or send us an email: thomastankcollectables@hotmail.co.uk 

The Thomas the Tank Engine Man Documentary DVD

The Thomas the Tank Engine Man Documentary DVD 

A big thank you to everyone that ordered a copy of the Thomas the Tank Engine Man documentary DVD. Nicholas Jones, the producer, was both delighted and surprised with the amount or orders he received. Nicholas has contacted me to say that he is very busy this week and expects to have the DVDs in production by early next week by this Nicholas means "checking source material and doing some tests and then seeking an outfit that can do the copies." At this stage no promises can be made in terms of the release date however Nicholas says: "I want everyone to have their film as soon as I practically can get them out.". 

Those of you that have ordered will be receiving a confirmation email soon and will receive further updates via email. If you have any questions feel free to contact myself or Nicholas. 

ThomasTankCollectables: thomastankcollectables@hotmail.co.uk

Nicholas Jones: nicholas.jones@quantafilms.com 

In the meantime check out Nicholas's excellent article for the Daily Mail: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1241203/Why-grumpy-vicar-created-Thomas-The-Tank-Engine-ended-HATING-him.html
He would like to make it clear that he did not write the title! 

The Thomas the Tank Engine Man Available to Pre-order

The Thomas the Tank Engine Man Available to Pre-order

In less than 24 hours the petition far exceeded the target requested by the producer Nicholas Jones, therefore the DVD is now available to pre-order. To make it worthwhile for Nicholas payments must be made upfront via PayPal or by direct bank transfer. As this is a private release you will just receive the DVD, it won't have a cover or any extras. This is a rare opportunity to own a documentary that has not been shown on TV since 1997 and has not been made available to the public. 

In order to get your copy of the Thomas the Tank Engine Man DVD, payments must be made to Nicholas Jones, via the email provided below before Monday 13th April 2015. The DVDs will be produced once all payments have been received and will be posted shortly after this. We will keep you informed of all developments via our Facebook and Twitter pages. Please try and pay sooner rather than later, Nicholas doesn't want all of the payments coming in on or just before the deadline! 

UK
£17.00
Overseas
£19.50
Payments to be made to nicholas.jones@quantafilms.com via PayPal. If you do not have a PayPal account you can pay via bank transfer, please email Nicholas via the email above if you wish to do this. If you have any questions please feel free to contact myself or Nicholas Jones of Quantafilms. Email: thomastankcollectables@hotmail.co.uk

Please share and re-tweet any posts we make in relation to the DVD, we need plenty of people to purchase the DVD! Thank you for your support. 

Update from Nicholas Jones: "After this offer closes on 13th I doubt I'll be able to do any more copies at all, because they will be requests for singles and they are too time-consuming." So order now before it is too late! 

BBC Bookmark Documentary: The Thomas the Tank Engine Man

BBC Bookmark Documentary: The Thomas the Tank Engine Man 

In 1995 to celebrate 50 years of the Railway Series a 48 minute documentary was produced by Nicholas Jones and directed by John Mair of Quantafilms. The documentary gave viewers a captivating insight into the life of the author: The Rev.W.Awdry.

It was shown on BBC 2 in 1995 and once again in 1997 to commemorate the Reverend's passing, but never shown again since. The documentary has since become very rare and has not been formerly released as a DVD, however Nicholas Jones has given us a rare chance to own this documentary for ourselves. We have been in contact with Nicholas and he has said that if we can get enough people interested in purchasing this DVD then the price will be around £15 plus £2 for postage. So please show your support for bringing this documentary to DVD. 

If you are interested in this rare opportunity to buy the DVD please sign the petition via the link below to register your interest.

Sign the petition here