This episode premiered in the UK on the same day that the US DVD release Salty's Secret and Other Thomas Adventures was released. Even Thomas The Tank Engine Was A Digital Fake In Ant-Man". Gizmodo Australia. 6 July 2018 . Retrieved 27 December 2022. a tank engine who lived at a Big Station. He had six small wheels, a short stumpy funnel, a short stumpy boiler and a short stumpy dome. He was a fussy little engine, always pulling coaches about. [...] He was cheeky, too. When Awdry based Thomas on a wooden toy made for his son Christopher. This toy looked rather different from the character in the books and television series, and carried the letters NW on its side tanks, which stood for "No Where" according to Awdry. [5] Thomas the Tank Engine is an anthropomorphised fictional tank locomotive in the British Railway Series books by Wilbert Awdry and his son, Christopher, published from 1945. He became the most popular and famous character in the series, and is the titular protagonist in the accompanying television adaptation series Thomas & Friends [2] and its reboot Thomas & Friends: All Engines Go.

All of the vehicles in The Railway Series were based on prototypical engines; Thomas's basis is the LB&SCR E2 class. [3] Thomas first appeared in 1946 in the second book in the series, Thomas the Tank Engine, and was the focus of the four short stories contained within. In The Railway Series and early episodes of Thomas & Friends, Thomas's best friends are Percy and Toby, though he is also close friends with Edward. Later episodes of Thomas & Friends have Thomas in a trio with James and Percy, and Percy is known as his best friend. In 1996, the Thomas stories were segments for Mr. Conductor's Thomas Tales, again featuring George Carlin. Alec Baldwin portrayed Mr. Conductor in the first theatrical film, Thomas and the Magic Railroad (2000), and narrated the series for the US from 1998 to 2003. Michael Angelis narrated the series from 1991 to 2012 in the UK, while Michael Brandon narrated the series from 2004 to 2012 in the US. From 2013 to 2017, the series was narrated by Mark Moraghan. From 2018, the episodes were told from Thomas's point of view.Thomas was the only fictional character included in The Independent on Sunday's 2009 " Happy List", recognised alongside 98 real-life adults and a therapy dog for making Britain a better and happier place. [16] In 2011, Thomas the Tank Engine featured on a series of 1st class UK postage stamps issued by the Royal Mail to mark the centenary of the birth of its creator, Reverend Wilbert Awdry. [17] In popular culture A Thomas the Tank Engine themed JNR Class C11 train in Japan, 2014 In The Adventure Begins which is a retelling of Thomas's early days on Sodor, he is a bluish-green colour when he first arrives on Sodor, his tanks are lettered "LBSC" (for the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway) with the number 70 on his bunker. The 70 is a reference to 2015 being the 70th anniversary for The Railway Series, while the LB&SCR E2 class were actually numbered from 100–109. The real life LBSC no. 70 is an A1 class. How Thomas the Tank Engine ended up in Ant-Man". Digital Spy. 27 July 2015 . Retrieved 27 December 2022.

Thomas Mk1 was retired with its coaches in 1979, Thomas Mk2 having been produced the year before using a Tri-ang 'Jinty' 3F 0-6-0T. After the British model railways manufacturing company Hornby produced the LBSC E2 tank, Awdry gladly adapted one in 1980 to take the role of Thomas Mk3 on his layout, the Ffarquhar branch. The first episode not directed by David Mitton. However, he worked as model consultant for this episode. The first Thomas model was not based on a prototype. [6] After Awdry's wife encouraged him to publish the stories, [7] the publisher of the second book in The Railway Series ( Thomas the Tank Engine) hired illustrator Reginald Payne. Awdry selected a real locomotive for Payne to work from to create authenticity: a Billinton designed 0-6-0 E2 Class of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway. [8] This may have been chosen simply because Awdry had a photograph to hand. [6] I bought Thomas in 1948 when I was writing Tank Engine Thomas Again, and wanted to start modelling once more after a lapse of some twenty years. Thomas was one of Stewart Reidpath's standard models with a heavy, cast white metal body, and was fitted with his "Essar" chassis and motor. Stewart Reidpath is now dead, and his motors, let alone spare parts for them, have been unobtainable for years; but Thomas still keeps going! He is, as you might expect from his age, a temperamental old gentleman, and has to be driven very carefully indeed.Awdry's requested models, to which Lines Bros. subsidiary, Meccano Ltd, responded with Percy and wagons in 1967. [14] Hornby Hobbies launched their 'The World of Thomas the Tank Engine' in the 1985. This was a 00 gauge range of model railway train sets and models which they made for the next 30 years. For Thomas they used their 1979 model of a LB&SCR model of a Class E2 tank engine which they suitably altered with a face and extended tanks to look like Thomas. Many of the characters in the 'Railway Series' books were thus modelled (with faces) by Hornby, including characters added for the television series. They also supplied suitable coaches, wagons and lineside buildings within the series.