Thomas the Tank Engine

History the Tank Engine

Thomas the Tank Engine and his friends are based on the Railway Series of books written by the Reverend W. Awdry (1911–1997). The stories were created in 1942 to entertain the Reverend's son, Christopher, who was confined to bed with the measles. That Christmas, a simple wooden train named Thomas was made for Christopher. This led to the creation of even more stories about Thomas Train and his railway friends. Eventually, at his wife's encouragement, The Reverend found a publisher for the stories and in 1945 The Three Railway Engines was published. The stories in this book featured Edward, Gordon and Henry. (Thomas isn't featured until the second book,Thomas the Tank Engine.)

Owen has a pretty large Thomas and Friends collection. He has about 30 trains, and he knows EACH of their names! Listed below are pictures of his top ten favorite trains. Click on the picture to learn more about each one!