Hi Tom.
Actually the original thomas books were written by Reverend Raymand audry a
vicar who was also a railway inthusiast in the late 60's, using trains from
his model rail way and the rules of the actual 1932 south eastern British
rail company that existed at the time.
it was first created in book form in the very early 80's, with the original
series, (still based on Reverend Audry's books), narated by Ringo star from
the beatles.
Then of course, like everything else, The series got taken up by the big
cooperations who demanded more books than were written, and started writing
their own episodes in a third series originally started in the late 1990's,
first with Michael angeleis as narator, then with other naraters going on to
peers brosnan.
One of the sad things, is that Audry himself fell out severely with the
company who licensed thomas, when their stories started losing all the
historical background. For instance, one story "henry's forest" involved
Henry sitting around and looking at the forest mid trip, but Audry stated
(quite rightly), that this would not be possible under the behaviour of a
steam train at that time. This was why the name was changed to "thomas and
friends" rather than the original "thomas the tank engine" as it had been in
the early 80's, when still based on audry's work.
That was really the thing about the original Thomas, it was hugely
historically based. Each of the engines is modeled on a real make of
locomotive, Percy for instance is a welsh saddle tanker, and it is
distinctly set in a period of pre second world war british history, just at
the end of the use of steam trains, when the country still had it's very
large railway companies (actually one of the best examples of companies I've
ever seen).
My mum often says it was Thomas that stopped me being autistic. i'd been
extremely ill when I was 1-3 due to birth complications, and was apparently
losing a lot of interest in things, until! I was introduced to Thomas. Our
local rail preservation society even had thomas days when they'd dress up an
actual steam engine as one of the Thomas trains, ---- which as you can
imagine is quite an experience for a child.
indeed, I still am a share holder of some of the stock of the butterly steam
museum, because when it was threatened with closing it was privatized, and
my parents bought me some shares because I'd got such a lot out of it (I
still remember my mum trying to explain to me at the age of four what owning
shares in a company meant).
So yes, thomas has been around for a good long while, it's just such a shame
that it's completely lost it's realism, ----- not to mention Ringo star of
coourse, who for me is as much a part of Thomas as any of the engines :D.
all the best,
Dark.
---
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