The Railway Series

*"You may be looking for the episode The Railway Series (Episode)"*

***The Railway Series*** is a series of books about the railways of the fictional Island of Sodor. The books were created by the Rev. W. Awdry, who wrote the first stories in 1943. He wrote twenty-six books from 1945 to 1972. A further sixteen books were written by his son Christopher Awdry. The final book in the series, *Thomas and his Friends*, was published in 2011.

## History

### Origins:

In 1942, Wilbert Awdry's son Christopher had measles and was confined to bed. To prevent their son getting bored, Wilbert and his wife Margaret Awdry told him stories and nursery rhymes. Most of them eventually lost their entertainment value, but one that continually appealed to Christopher was the rhyme "*Down by the Station*". Wilbert subsequently drew a picture of several engines standing in a row based on the rhyme and for fun gave them faces with various expressions. One sad-looking engine appealed to Christopher, as it shared his mood and he asked what his name was. Wilbert replied with the first to come to his head: Edward. Through a series of questions and answers, the story of Edward's Day Out was created. Eventually, Christopher began asking for more stories and Awdry obliged him with "Edward and Gordon" and "The Sad Story of Henry", the latter being inspired by another rhyme he was fond of. Christopher would constantly ask for the stories to be retold, even after he recovered and to ensure consistency between tellings, Wilbert wrote them down on the back of old church circulars.

Margaret Awdry also liked the stories and told her husband to get them published, as she felt they were better than most children's books in circulation. Awdry was reluctant, but Margaret persisted and mentioned the stories in a letter to Wilbert's mother, Lucy, who replied that she knew the author Michael Barsley and asked that the stories be sent to her so she could forward them to him. At Margaret's insistence, Wilbert did so. Barsley's attempts to find a publisher were unsuccessful, so he showed the stories to his agent, Edith Ray Gregorson, who liked them and agreed to pursue the matter further. Her attempts to find a publisher were initially no more successful, as most were suffering paper shortages due to the Second World War, but in September 1943, Edmund Ward agreed to publish them, though refused to commit to a publication date, to Wilbert's annoyance. In October, Ward wrote to say that the stories would be published as one book entitled *The Three Railway Engines*, but that he required rough sketches for his illustrator to base his pictures on and a fourth story to finish off the book. While Awdry was annoyed at the requests, since Ward had already rejected his drawings, he agreed and wrote "Edward, Gordon and Henry". While it was hoped this would speed up publication, the book was not published until 12 May, 1945. The book was an immediate commercial success, quickly selling out its initial print run of 22,500 copies and going through two more by the end of the year. Awdry, while happy to see his book in print, was disappointed in the illustrations by William Middleton.

### Continuation:

After the publication of the book, Christopher wanted a model of Gordon; but this could not be done. Instead, Awdry made a model of a tank engine from odds and ends, painted it blue and gave it to Christopher as a Christmas present. Christopher christened the model engine Thomas. Christopher would then request stories about Thomas and these stories would be published as Awdry's second and most famous book, *Thomas the Tank Engine*.

After *Thomas the Tank Engine*, Awdry was finished with writing any more books. However, due to popular demand, Awdry pressed onward. By the time Awdry stopped writing in 1972, *The Railway Series* numbered twenty-six books.

### Conclusion:

Christopher subsequently added sixteen more books to the series, including the later two posthumous releases. The last book *Thomas and his Friends* was published in 2011 to commemorate Wilbert's century, particularity in the last story *Centenary*.

### Publishers:

*The Railway Series* was published by Edmund Ward from *The Three Railway Engines* in 1945 to *Main Line Engines* in 1966. Edmund Ward merged with Nicholas Kaye to become Kaye & Ward in 1952, but it was *Small Railway Engines* in 1967 that began using the new imprint. Kaye & Ward was acquired by William Heinemann in 1984, but the imprint was used up to *Toby, Trucks and Trouble* in 1988. Heinemann was acquired by Reed Children's Books in 1987, but the Heinemann imprint was used from *Thomas and the Twins* in 1989 to *New Little Engine* in 1996.

On 25 April, 1998, Reed International sold their children's books division to Egmont UK and the copyright of *The Railway Series* to The Britt Allcroft Company for £13.5 million. As a result, Christopher Awdry was unable to publish *The Railway Series* without the permission of the copyright holder, and the series were suspended. In the same year, in spite of Christopher's opposition, Egmont published new format versions of fourteen books from *The Railway Series*, which were discontinued and scrapped due to negative feedback. It was reverted to the original state in 2004.

Christopher still wanted to write stories for children, so he founded Sodor Enterprises in 2001 with his wife, Diana Awdry. He offered the publisher the reprints of *The Island of Sodor: Its People, History and Railways*, and he offered to buy the copyright of this book, but these were denied. As a result, he wrote a new information book and published it in May 2005 as *Sodor: Reading Between the Lines* to celebrate the 60th anniversary of *The Railway Series*.

Then, *Thomas and Victoria*, which was intended to be published in 1997, was published by Egmont in 2007. In 2011, *Thomas and his Friends* was published, and the series reached its conclusion with this being the final book

## **Books**:

### Wilbert Awdry:

The Three Railway EnginesThomas the Tank Engine*James the Red Engine**Tank Engine Thomas Again**Troublesome Engines**Henry the Green Engine**Toby the Tram Engine**Gordon the Big Engine**Edward the Blue Engine**Four Little Engines**Percy the Small Engine**The Eight Famous Engines**Duck and the Diesel Engine**The Little Old Engine**The Twin Engines**Branch Line Engines**Gallant Old Engine**Stepney the "Bluebell" Engine**Mountain Engines**Very Old Engines**Main Line Engines**Small Railway Engines**Enterprising Engines**Oliver the Western Engine**Duke the Lost Engine**Tramway Engines*

### Christopher Awdry:

Really Useful Engines*James and the Diesel Engines**Great Little Engines**More About Thomas the Tank Engine**Gordon the High-Speed Engine**Toby, Trucks and Trouble**Thomas and the Twins**Jock the New Engine**Thomas and the Great Railway Show**Thomas Comes Home**Henry and the Express**Wilbert the Forest Engine**Thomas and the Fat Controller's Engines**New Little Engine**Thomas and Victoria**Thomas and his Friends*
## References in the Series:

In The Fat Controller's engines, some of the books recall real life events, and some are fictional!

## Trivia:

* This list is from the Official Wikia
* Book #12 Story #4 The Fat Controller's engines shares the name with the series!