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70 years of Thomas (the Tank Engine)

mikejee

mikejee

Super Moderator
Staff member
Not sure where to post this!
Listening to the radio this morning, I was reminded/informed that this is the 70th anniversary of the first publication of the best known of the Rev. Wilbert Awdry's series of children's books. Thomas the Tank Engine. It also informed me, though I think there was a remnant of the information in my brain, that Rev Awdry was curate at Kings Norton. Further investigatiion showed that this incumbency was 1940-46. The first "telling" verbally of the story was supposedly 1942, with publication in 1945. Therefore Thomas was "born" in Kings Norton. One of the nearest centres of railway activity at that time would have been at Bournville, with all sorts of activity going on such as production of gas masks, aircraft fuel tanks and other war materials with 6 miles of track reaching both sides of the canal and connected by a bridge, and an engine house (see map below from c1955). In addition the engines were in the original Cadbury colour, red, though a darker, more subdued colour than Thomas. Though this does not seem to have been picked up by others, as an ex-Cadbury man, it is nice to think that Awdry's inspiration might have been these workings, now sadly gone.


cadbury_1.jpg


map_c1955_shoung_Bournville_rail_network.jpg
 
What an interesting thread, Mike! Do any of our family history experts know where exactly the Awdry family were living at the time?

Chris
 
He does not appear to be listed in the 1945 online electoral rolls, but the 1943 Kellys lists his address as 65 West Hill road. there seems to have been some renumbering since then, and it looks likely the house is no longer there, but then it was one of the first few houses on the west side north of wychall lane, probably the 4th from Wychall lane. Wychall lane does not appear to be on the Birmingham electoral roll then,
 
Wilbert V Awdry is on the 1945 electoral roll as living at 65 Westhill Road Kings Norton. Also listed is his wife Margaret. His surname is listed as Awdrey and hers as Awdry!

Sorry Mike your message must have come as I was typing mine. He is on Ancestry with the address transcribed as Wychall Lane but when I opened the record it was Westhill Road.

Janice
 
Janice
The number of times I've put something on and several people have replied before it actually went on the forum !!
 
There is several trains made to look like Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends over at the East Anglian Railway Museum (in Wakes Colne, Essex). Seen from my visit on 20th June 2019 (not a steam day so no faces).

Restoration Shed

0-6-0 Saddle Tank No 54 Works No 7031 / 41 - Thomas


0-4-0 Saddle Tank 'Jubilee' Works Number: 2542 / 35 - Percy



John Fowler 0-4-0DH Works No. 4220039 7 "Toby"



The Goods Shed

Replica build, four wheeled coach - Henrietta

 
ellbrown said:
There is several trains made to look like Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends over at the East Anglian Railway Museum (in Wakes Colne, Essex). Seen from my visit on 20th June 2019 (not a steam day so no faces).

Restoration Shed

0-6-0 Saddle Tank No 54 Works No 7031 / 41 - Thomas


0-4-0 Saddle Tank 'Jubilee' Works Number: 2542 / 35 - Percy



John Fowler 0-4-0DH Works No. 4220039 7 "Toby"



The Goods Shed

Replica build, four wheeled coach - Henrietta

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Really great pictures & memories!
 
Robert Ensor (bob) said:
That takes me back to my childhood going to Westheath library with my mom picking out Thomas the Tank Engine books
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My first memory of 'Thomas' books was sitting on a mat in the reception class at Mapledene Infants School with Miss Stevens. Then I would have noticed them in the windows of Munday's on the corner of Coalway Avenue and Coventry Road. Of course they were in the proper 'landscape' format then, how else could one depict a railway?
I must say I enjoyed the first TV versions with my nephews, once I stopped worrying about the three-track mainline and where exactly did those express passenger trains go to seeing as there was only one big station?
The Fat Controller must have been where the government got the idea for employing Dr. Beeching, the Island of Sodor certainly needed its railways pruned!
 
ellbrown said:
Thanks. Some more views of "Henrietta" from inside.

Was some Thomas books on the seats. You can sit in here on Steam Days.



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So good to see what a beautiful job has been made of "Henrietta", based I understand, on one of the vehicles on the Wisbech & Upwell tramway in East Anglia. It was there, I believe, that Wilbert Awdry was an incumbent in the parish of Emneth. This tramway was the basis of his stories of Toby the tram engine.

It's always struck me as ironic that the stories are known to all and sundry as "Thomas the tank engine" tales, when you think that the first book he published was called "The three railway engines" (Gordon, Henry and Edward) and didn't even include Thomas! He came along in the second book.
 
As a kid, Thomas wasn't my main interest in railway stores. That honour went to his 'competitor' books about "Sammy the Shunter"!
 

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Lloyd said:
As a kid, Thomas wasn't my main interest in railway stores. That honour went to his 'competitor' books about "Sammy the Shunter"!
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I've never heard of "Sammy" before, quite a revelation. Strange illustration though, why is the cow kicking the lamb over the fence and why is the lamb smiling about it?
 
jmadone said:
I've never heard of "Sammy" before, quite a revelation. Strange illustration though, why is the cow kicking the lamb over the fence and why is the lamb smiling about it?
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I think they are all dancing! More importantly, why has the distant signal got the wrong colours (it should be white with a black stripe), why aren't those irons on the front of the loco in-line with the flanges and why is it carrying a ballast train head code and not light engine? Published by Ian Allan too - he should know better!
 
Spargone said:
I think they are all dancing! More importantly, why has the distant signal got the wrong colours (it should be white with a black stripe), why aren't those irons on the front of the loco in-line with the flanges and why is it carrying a ballast train head code and not light engine? Published by Ian Allan too - he should know better!
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It’s a children’s book illustration, does not need to be factual, just entertaining!
 
jmadone said:
I've never heard of "Sammy" before, quite a revelation. Strange illustration though, why is the cow kicking the lamb over the fence and why is the lamb smiling about it?
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I must have missed both of those, Sammy and Thomas! It seems like my trains were Hornsby, Triange or were at Snow Hill or New Street. Seriously I missed them both!
 
pjmburns said:
Egbert seems to still be around.
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Would you like to elaborate on that? I thought I was the only person alive who remembered Egbert the engine!

Speaking of Sammy the Shunter, does anyone remember a smashing old boy called Harold Elliott. He had a magnificent model railway which I had the joy of seeing at Bingley Hall in the early 50s. One of the attractions was that he had a model of Sammy the shunter which caused all kinds of mischief, getting in the way of express trains and the like, and Harold used to punish him by batting him with a rolled up newspaper.

I understand that this superb railway finished up as a permanent exhibit in Scarborough, with Harold operating it in his retirement.
 
TerryD147 said:
Would you like to elaborate on that? I thought I was the only person alive who remembered Egbert the engine!

Speaking of Sammy the Shunter, does anyone remember a smashing old boy called Harold Elliott. He had a magnificent model railway which I had the joy of seeing at Bingley Hall in the early 50s. One of the attractions was that he had a model of Sammy the shunter which caused all kinds of mischief, getting in the way of express trains and the like, and Harold used to punish him by batting him with a rolled up newspaper.

I understand that this superb railway finished up as a permanent exhibit in Scarborough, with Harold operating it in his retirement.
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I remember that, it was at the Ideal Home Exhibition, I think.
 
What a lovely old boy Wilbert Awdry was. Benign and kindly, he always had an optimistically benevolent view of the world. But what was so perceptive was the way he characterised the different personalities of the engines he envisaged. Gordon was always so bumptiously proud and bossy, Thomas was cheeky and irreverent, Henry was always rather wet and a natural victim and James was over-confident. They all invariably got their come-uppance, whereas Edward was always the steady "elder statesman" who just got on with things quietly and clearly had natural wisdom. I suspect he was Wilbert Awdry's role model.

The lovely thing about him was the way he lived his faith; worldly wealth meant nothing to him, and when he was eventually persuaded to sell the rights to his book series to a media publisher, he finished up such a wealthy man, that he just asked himself "What am I going to do with all this money?" His answer was that after he had paid for some basic comforts, he gave away the bulk of the rest to charitable causes.
 
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