Games - Thomas the Tank Engine

Home > Listing Index > Games > Thomas the Tank Engine

	Games - Thomas the Tank Engine

Thomas the Tank Engine is a fictional anthropomorphic locomotive featured on the British children's television series Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends
and its American spinoff Shining Time Station
, and earlier in The Railway Series books by the Rev. W. V. Awdry. In his first appearance he was described as follows:

"Thomas is a tank engine who lives at a big station on the Island of Sodor
. He's a cheeky little engine with 6 small wheels, a short stumpy funnel, a short stumpy boiler and a short stumpy dome." -Narrator Ringo Starr from the episode "Thomas & Gordon" (aka "Thomas Gets Tricked"). He has also been described as "a cheeky little engine" and "a little engine with a long tongue."

He is the star of the television series Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends
. Thomas the tank engine first appeared in 1946, when stories about him were published in The Railway Series
by Reverend W.V. Awdry. He is the most well known fictional locomotive in the world.

When he first appeared in the book 'Thomas the Tank Engine', he was a station pilot, used to shunt coaches and trucks for the bigger engines. He longed for more important jobs, but his inexperience prevented this. Eventually he was responsible for rescuing James after an accident, and the Fat Controller (who was then known as the Fat Director in the Railway Series) decided that he was ready for his own branch line. He has remained in charge of this line ever since.

His closest friends are Annie and Clarabel, his coaches. However, he is also very good friends with Percy the Small Engine, despite a lot of arguments.

Thomas in the Railway Series

Thomas' character differs strongly between the Railway Series and recent seasons of television series. In the Railway Series, he has generally been depicted with a cheeky and even self-important personality. He believes that he should be more respected by the others, and he gets annoyed when he does not receive this respect. Luckily, Percy and Toby are more than capable of standing up to him, and Annie and Clarabel often rebuke him.

He is aware of his fame in the real world, and following a visit to the National Railway Museum at York he became an honorary member of the National Collection, joining such legendary locomotives as Mallard, City of Truro and Rocket.

It should be noted that the Thomas of the early stories looks a little different from the one shown in later ones. Following the events of the story 'Thomas Comes to Breakfast', in which Thomas crashed into the Stationmaster's house, his front end was rebuilt without the "dip" in his footplate. He has kept this ever since. For the reasons behind this, see 'Origins of Thomas'.

Thomas has been the source of some friction between Christopher Awdry and his publishers, who repeatedly asked for more books centring around the character. Although Thomas was the most popular character in the books, both Wilbert and Christopher Awdry had always treated the characters in the books as an ensemble, and so before the television series was released there had only been two books named after Thomas ('Thomas the Tank Engine' and 'Tank Engine Thomas Again'). After the television series, there were five more ('More About Thomas the Tank Engine', 'Thomas and the Twins', 'Thomas and the Great Railway Show', 'Thomas Comes Home', 'Thomas and the Fat Controller's Engines'). Some of these are rather tenuous in their links with the character. 'Thomas and the Fat Controller's Engines' (the 50th anniversary volume, originally to be called 'The Fat Controller's Engines') only features one story out of the four centring on Thomas. In 'Thomas Comes Home', Thomas only appears on the last page, the rest of the book dealing with the other engines on his branch line while he was away at York.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Thomas the Tank Engine ]

Games - Thomas the Tank Engine

Thomas in the Railway Series

Searches on eBay

Related searches on eBay