Thomas the Tank Engine

[Jonny Whizz]

Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends was my favourite TV programme when I was little. I had BRIO, ERTL and TOMY toys and my favourite engine was Gordon, and it started my interest in real life railways.

I used to love watching the episodes from series 1-4. Sadly I never read the original Railway Series books but I did see the complete set of Christopher Awdry's books in Borders a while ago. I didn't get it, wish I had now.

Does anyone else on here remember the stories? The original episodes were great.

[Digifiend]

I have a couple of the VHS releases from when I was little. But the TV show nowadays has very little in common with either the early episodes or the original books, with the show now being all CGI, and with lots of new characters who never appeared in Reverend W Awdry's books. They're also about to start using a full voice cast instead of just a narrator.

As for the books, you should've got them, it was the first printing in about a decade.

Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Railway_Series
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_the_Tank_Engine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_the ... nd_Friends
http://www.thomasandfriends.com/

[Jonny Whizz]

I have a couple of the VHS releases from when I was little. But the TV show nowadays has very little in common with either the early episodes or the original books, with the show now being all CGI, and with lots of new characters who never appeared in Reverend W Awdry's books. They're also about to start using a full voice cast instead of just a narrator.

I gave most of my stuff away. I think I still have TOMY Thomas, Henry and Gordon in the loft though. I've never watched the newer episodes but I am aware that they have changed a lot from the stories I remember - the production crew have changed too, and the guys who did the original music have gone.

Also, most of the original Rev. Awdry stories were based on real life railway practice and were based on incidents that really happened (for example, Edward and Gordon was based on heavy good trains needing to be banked up hills) whereas the more recent stories have no 'proper' explanation.

I think it's a shame that they're now doing it in CGI, the models (Gauge 1, a scale of 1/32, bizarrely I think about the same as Scalextric cars) had more charm about them, particularly in the first and second series when the model work was at its best.

[brisey]

I remember watching a documentry with Christopher Awdry,where he was giving a lecture about the new material.His main complaint was that they were not based on reality and proper railway practice.His example was an episode where a train stopped in a pretty wood because it was ahead of schedule.

He was not a happy bunny.

I even bought the Thomas the Tank Engine Hornby stuff.As a child I used to love those books and they were so well illustrated

[Steve Henderson]

Thomas the Tank engine was my entire world when I was a nipper! ha ha ha

My Dads favourite (he was obviously 'forced' to watch them by an infant me!!) was when Henry got stuck in the tunnel when he was too scared to get his new coat of paint wet in the rain, so they built a wall at each end of the tunnel!

My most vivid memory is when my youngest brother was born (1989) we went to see him at the hospital, instead of running up to him i waved at my mum and run straight past and up to the telly at the other end of the room which was showing the episode with terrance the tractor. Needless to say she shouted at me!

Mine would have been any one of them! Didn't really see any of them after Ringo stopped narrating except for the magic railroad which I watched with a young cousin. Bloody terrible, ruined thanks to the yanks! Saying that a traditional episode of TTTE would not have held an audience for an hour and a half.

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

From what I remember, the Rev Awdry waited something like 22 years before he actually saw his creation in print; how's that for tenacity? It paid off in the end, though, obviously.

[bustercomic]

I caught a newer episode of Thomas and Friends (I don't think it's politically correct to call him a Tank anymore!) one morning a month or so back.

No word of a lie - it freaked me out!

I think at this point there were still using models but the faces and mouths on the engines moved with the narrator.

I remain emotionally scarred by the experience. My disabled brother still loves Thomas and of course I only watch it because he wants to....but there's no way we're going to the series with those freaky moving faces ever again!

[Jonny Whizz]

My Dads favourite (he was obviously 'forced' to watch them by an infant me!!) was when Henry got stuck in the tunnel when he was too scared to get his new coat of paint wet in the rain, so they built a wall at each end of the tunnel!

I remember that one as well. On my BRIO layout I even built a brick wall with my Dad and put in front of the tunnel to recreate the story!

I had BRIO Thomas, Edward, Henry, Gordon, James, Percy, Toby, Duck and Stepney (a real life engine but with a face) plus City of Truro which appeared in one of the stories. I also had Annie and Clarabel, Toby's coach (Henrietta) and the troublesome trucks, and some other assorted non-Thomas coaches and wagons.

I also had from the ERTL range: James, Percy, Toby, Mavis and some of the narrow gauge engines (definitely Skarloey, Sir Handel, Peter Sam and Rusty, possibly Rheanas and Duncan), as well as the trucks, mail coaches and the old coaches from the first series.

[Jonny Whizz]

Has anyone else visited this website? (I´ve not provided a link but this is the address)

http://pegnsean.net~railwayseries/ or Google ´The Real Lives of Thomas the Tank Engine´.

It´s very good, it has lots of information about the original books and the characters and stories.

[Digifiend]

Has anyone else visited this website? (I´ve not provided a link but this is the address)

http://pegnsean.net/~railwayseries/ or Google ´The Real Lives of Thomas the Tank Engine´.

It´s very good, it has lots of information about the original books and the characters and stories.

It linked automatically, but you omitted a /

Fixed

[Jonny Whizz]

Thanks for sorting that out.

[Jonny Whizz]

I thought I'd bring up this thread so people knew that today would have been the Reverend Awdry's 100th birthday.

He did a great thing by cheering up his sick son through telling him the first stories, and many children have enjoyed them since then.