Category: History

I was inspired by reading about Rev Awdry and the first two books in the Railway Series.  How he eventually wrote the stories after telling them to Christopher, especially when he had measles etc; Thomas really first appears in the second book.  Thomas to me, was/still is a great metaphor for how we have to bide our time for our chance to get in the team, get on the road/train/plane etc. To break free  and be what we long and want to be in  an Incredible String Band Gandhi  type way

 

It’s written to the rhythm of the train in ‘From A Railway Carriage’ by R.L Stevenson (1885) which my grandmother used to read to me and which follows the poem; I’m sure you know it well).

Crispin

 

Thomas The Tank Legend

 

Thomas the legend where do we start ?

drove his blue train into the heart

Thomas the engine never will fade

how did he get here where was he made ?

the person who made him lived in this place

gave us a hero a smile on his face

to Awdry and Christopher trains were alive

characters breathing burning with life

Wilbert loved trains so did his son

when he had measles stories were spun

first there were Edward, Henry and Gordon

crowds on the platforms waiting there for them

children all waved whenever they saw them

railway enthusiasts loved and adored them

three railway engines* chugging along

pulling those coaches singing their song

huffing and puffing their smoke to the sky

rivers and fields went thundering by

Thomas was diff’rent Thomas had plans

Thomas was dreaming of racing the land

Thomas just longed to get out there one day

stuck at the station they kept him at bay

but Thomas was cheeky and painted in blue

did what they told him the way engines do

finally one day the moment arrived

Thomas the Tank Engine burst into life .,…..

2.

… endless adventures out on the tracks

off in the morning and all the way back

short stumpy boiler short stumpy funnel

six little wheels steam though the tunnel

past all the stations the guards and the porters

past all the grown ups their sons and their daughters

past all the villages past all the towns

past all the passengers waiting around

on past the trees on a long winding track

past all the places until he was back

back to the station back to his home

back to the place and the life that he’d known

when we’re all little it’s new and it’s true

longing and yearning of what we can do

there on the platform ready to go

dreaming of going to where we don’t know

to Awdry and Christopher trains were alive

characters breathing burning with life

’cause Wilbert loved trains and so did his son

when he had measles stories were spun

tales of an engine who fought to be free

longing for something like you and like me

taking his chance with his face on the train

something about him you cannot explain

smiling with joy as he climbed up the hill

and that’s why the children all love him now still

c Crispin Thomas April 2025 (*Three Railways Engines: First Thomas The Tank Engine book).

From A Railway Carriage

Faster than fairies, faster than witches,

Bridges and houses, hedges and ditches;

And charging along like troops in a battle,

All through the meadows the horses and cattle:

All of the sights of the hill and the plain

Fly as thick as the driving rain;

And ever again, in the wink of an eye,

Painted stations whistle on by.

Here is a child who clambers and scrambles,

All by himself and gathering brambles;

Here is a boy who stands and gazes;

And there is the grass all covered in daisies

Here is a cart run away in the road

Lumping along with a man and his load;

And here is a mill and there is a river:

Each a glimpse and gone for ever!

Faster than fairies, faster than witches,

Bridges and houses, hedges and ditches;

And charging along like troops in a battle,

All through the meadows the horses and cattle:

Robert Louis Stevenson

From A Child’s Garden of Verses (1885)

Rev W. Awdry 1911-97

(Jottings made from a reading of The Thomas the Tank Engine Man Brian Sibley

The Story of the Reverend W. Awdry and his Really Useful Engines 1995)

In the Beginning was the Word,

But there was also a tunnel at Box,

Where a young child christened Wilbert

Lay awake in his bedroom, dreaming

Of steam-coal railway conversations

Between sleek express and workaday tank engines.

Twenty-odd years later, in wartime,

Wilbert reprised this conceit

With stories to Christopher,

His measles-stricken son, in 1943;

Stories jotted down on odd bits of paper,

With a devoted father’s drawings too –

A format that Margaret thought worthy

Of seeking some sort of publication,

But relentless wartime austerity,

And a national shortage of paper,

Resulted in a series of rejections,

Until a new format was decided upon:

Four tales per book with the Reverend

Also providing draft illustrations

As a guide for the eventual artist:

“We should require eight illustrations, oblong in shape,

with appropriate text matter of about 80-90 words for each of the drawings.”

And so, Edward, Gordon and Henry were born:

The book sold well and then along came Thomas,

Not just in text and illustration,

But also at home in the Awdry household:

A bit of a broomstick and metal tube,

A paper-fastener, too, of course,

Finished off with some carpet pins and screws:

Lo and behold!

Thomas the Tank Engine!

Meanwhile, over in the real world,

The Railway Gazette proved invaluable –

Providing inspiration for further stories,

A branch line to Wilbert’s imagination;

But relationships with the artist,

Clarence Reginald Dalby

Finally hit the buffers in 1957,

On seen as a slightly fastidious pedant,

And one seen as slightly cavalier;

But Wilbert’s brother, George, was a God-send:

Fellow cartographer and historian

Of the mythopoeic Island of Sodor

(Sodor’s original provenance lay

In Wilbert’s mapping of the race between

Bertie the Bus and Thomas the Tank,

To show Christopher it was fair and square),

But what of devoted wife and mother, Margaret?

A busy life as a ‘railway widow …’

For Wilbert had his parish duties,

His time-consuming model railway,

His commitments to preserved railway lines,

His research for further railway stories,

And yet …

“If I hadn’t had the books to write, I should have gone crackers”

Although …

“I had no sooner finished the manuscript for one volume … than I had to start thinking about possible stories and looking for new characters for the next book. There was a gap in parish life, between the end of July and Harvest Festival, and it was then that I would start getting things down on paper.”

John Kenney took over as artist in 1957

(Dalby: “I was sorry to give up … but …my patience became exhausted”;

Awdry on Kenney: “We got on splendidly. He was as different from Dalby as chalk from cheese. He was interested in the work and used to go down to his station and draw railway engines from life.”)

And back in those still Imperial days

The books and associated merchandise –

Including an LP with the Rev’s voice –

‘Precise’ and ‘slightly singalong’ according to Sibley –

Made their way across five continents;

But, just like Steam, Empire was ending too,

And despite the famous City of Truro

Appearing in the illustrations,

With ‘The Thin Clergyman’ alongside,

So did Diesels …

“I keep thinking about the Dreadful State of the World, Sir. Is it true, Sir, what the diesels say?” “What do they say?” “They boast that they’ve abolished Steam, Sir.” “Yes, Gordon. It is true.” “What, Sir! All my Doncaster brothers, drawn the same time as me.” “All gone, except one.”

With this dystopian melancholy,

Was industry as much as imagination

Now driving the Reverend’s writing?

There was no Christopher now to test a tale upon,

But Margaret and a tape recorder helped,

But declining eyesight sadly meant

That Gallant Old Engine was Kenney’s swansong;

But the Reverend liked the new artist:

Peter Edward’s depictions of engines,

People and landscape were just the ticket,

As was an appearance on Desert Island Discs;

Choosing two records of steam trains and Johnny Morris

Recounting the Edward and Gordon story

Blew Roy Plumley’s mind in 1964.

1964 and 1965 were signal years:

First of all, retirement and then the decision

To move across the country to Stroud.

The Move to Rodborough Avenue

Stroud was ideal: on the railway line

To ageing parents in London and Worcester,

With a house big enough for a model railway;

So, with the gift of a front gate from Emneth,

A determination to clear the back garden

(“You couldn’t see out the back windows”),

The addition of LMS bridge plate number 30,

The renaming of the house as ‘Sodor’,

All meant that Rodborough Avenue became home,

And with joint involvement with Margaret

In the busy life of the local community,

And with a joint definition in text and picture

Of The Tin and The Fat Clergyman,

All was sweetness and light in Stroud …

But, alas, nothing lasts forever …

‘I felt I was getting rather stale … it was uphill work’ …

And in 1972 came the last of that wonderful series –

But we’ll now jump on a decade again,

To the era of Britt Allcroft’s drive and funding:

Here she is, speaking about a new medium:

“Television … could offer children and their grown-ups an experience that is similar to that which they have when they sit down to read a book together”,

And then, of course, along comes Ringo Starr

With that half-mythologised visit

To the Rev Awdry and Margaret in Rodborough Avenue:

 

Ringo and the Rev in Rodborough

https://radicalstroud.co.uk/ringo-and-the-rev-in-rodborough/

or at

https://sootallures.wixsite.com/topographersarms/post/ringo-and-the-rev-in-rodborough

 

 

But we jump on another decade:

What did Wilbert care for his entry in Who’s Who,

Grieving for Margaret who had died the year before,

‘I and our children are still in something of a daze at the suddenness of it’,

‘Margaret was a wonderful wife for a diffident author to have. It was entirely due to her, when The Three Railway Engines existed only in pencil on the back of old circular letters, that they ever got off the ground at all…’

Wilbert took flowers weekly to Margaret’s grave,

But Wilbert had to use a taxi,

But then fell and fractured a hip –

It was obviously a difficult time

Both for him and the wider family,

But he recovered to visit Didcot

For a ‘45^th Thomas Anniversary’

And then the National Railway Museum,

Where his work was acknowledged as having

‘Played an enormous part in arousing children’s interest in railways’;

1994 was a watershed year,

With Wilbert President of the Dean Forest Railway,

And an engine named after him as well,

Christopher writing Wilbert the Forest Engine,

Where Thomas the Tank Engine and Wilbert meet:

So, a watershed year but also one

Effecting a certain circularity.

But then, in October, George died.

The final paragraph in the book

Concludes with an interview with Wilbert:

‘How would you like to be remembered?”

‘I would like my epitaph to say,

“He helped people to see God in the ordinary things of life,

and he made children laugh.”’

I’m so glad I got the book out of the library rather than off Amazon. A previous reader had written in neat pencil beneath the above ‘Amen 23/3/97

I thought the epitaph was almost William Blake-like:

‘To see a world in a grain of sand

And a heaven in a wild flower,

Hold infinity in the palm of your hand

And eternity in an hour.’

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ringo and the Rev

 

Song to be sung roughly to the tune of Octopus’ Garden

 

It’s strange but true

In Rodborough Avenue

A big car arrived with Ringo Starr

(Big car arrived with Ringo Starr),

Church tower and steeple

Gazed upon the Beatle

As he had a drag upon his usual fag

(Drag upon his fag)

His partner, Barbara,

Looked in the Awdry’s larder,

While staring at a railway mag –

SHE couldn’t find a bite to eat,

And so, bored, she almost fell asleep;

I’d like to be with the Reverend Aw-d-ry

With Ringo in that garden in the shade

I’d ask my friends to come and see
That meeting in the garden

That changed history –

Oh, what joy for every girl and boy
With Ringo in that garden in the shade

We would be so happy, you and me
Seeing Wilbert telling Ringo what to do;

I’d like to be with the Reverend Aw-d-ry

With Ringo in that garden in the shade

With Ringo in that garden in the shade

 

My notes from Brian Sibley’s biography are quite extensive but when I get to pages 23-24 in my note-book I can’t remember which bits are from Brian Sibley’s commentary and which bits are from the Daily Mail reporting on the meeting and whenever I’ve popped into the library to have a reacquaintance with the text, the book, alas, has been out on loan … so I’m not quite sure which bits are which in the section coming up … but I think the bits in quotation marks are mostly from the Mail on Sunday.

 

Ringo arrived in Rodborough Avenue clad in a blue satin jacket; the car was equally flamboyant: a bronze Mercedes, hotfoot from some Berkshire mansion or other, and so to Stroud with ‘Its soft Cotswold features scarred and pitted by roadworks’. He was accompanied by his wife, Barbara Bach. What happened next?

Wilbert ‘began to demonstrate the first part of the timetable of the Knapford-Ffarquhar branch line … a cream-lined jacket over his spare, slightly stooping frame. Round his neck hung a small wooden control-box from which he governed the movement of his engines … “Tell me when you’re bored” … “Not yet,” said Ringo.

Mr Awdry detached a couple of trucks from a line of goods-vans at the touch of an electrode. “Cool” said Ringo.

What happened next? They went out into the back garden. Ringo pulled out a packet of fags and asked Mr Awdry if he fancied ‘a ciggy’: the Rev, of course, was a pipe-smoker. He declined. He then had to correct Ringo on something far more important: Ringo unfortunately referred to the famous engine as ‘Tommy’.

And then this tantalising meeting of two very different worlds began to draw to a close: Wilbert ‘Reminiscing … in that gentle spell-binding way of all good story-tellers, when Ringo said he was sorry, but he had to go. His wife roused herself from a state of almost catatonic boredom … Mr Awdry bade them a courteous abstracted farewell.’

 

What is about the Style of the Awdry Books?

 

Here is Brian Sibley in his biography The Thomas the Tank Engine Man:

‘So what is the reason for the success of these books? Is it their text: sharp and tightly written with sly little jokes and rhythmic sounds but, nevertheless, always true to railway lore? Or is it the illustrations: capturing the hustle and bustle of the station and shed and those trackside scenes – embankments of spring flowers, rolling meadows of summer lushness, whirling autumn leaves, brooding clouds of winter rain and frosted Christmas-card landscapes – depicted in vivid, iridescent colours? Or is it because of their size – or rather, lack of it.’

And here is Brian Sibley with Marjery Fisher who described the successful style suitable for children as artfully artless: a prose style that might seem simple to read and be enthralled by but which was by no means simple to write.

 

What did I notice on a re-reading in 2025?

 

The artfully artless conversational tone that runs through the stories. The Rev addresses the reader in an engaging companionship:

‘Have you guessed about Stuart and Falcon? Yes, you’re quite right.’

And another example: ‘But we must say no more, or we’ll spoil the next story.’

And another: ‘Now, have you remembered that in those days he was called Falcon. And painted blue? You have? Now we can begin.’

And for those of a certain age, note the Listen with Mother reference at the end of the final example above.

 

The artfully artless use of ellipsis for humour:

‘They were excited to hear that the Duke was coming to Skarloey’s and Rheneas’ 100^th birthday, but most disappointed with the Duke who actually came. For he was only a man …’

 

The artfully artless use of Alliteration:

For example: Trevor the Traction Engine

 

The artfully artless fact that these stories stand at the Interface between Oral and Textual Culture:

They are read by individuals and to individuals.

 

The artfully artless conjoining of Page of text and illustration:

Even though each story has a narrative arc whereby each page contributes to the narrative’s progression, each page is complete within itself and is embellished by the illustration opposite. Each page and illustration simultaneously both stand alone in their completeness and yet contribute to the totality. A bit like a train, on reflection …

The craft of 80-90 words per page and each page, as it were, a chapter in itself …

And Wilbert didn’t have a typewriter until 1953 – and yet he redrafted and redrafted – it was artful composition.

 

The artfully artless use of Old School vocabulary:

For example: Impudent, scallywag, impertinent, ruefully, indignantly, imperiously, sagacity, impudence, and so on and so and so on …

 

The artfully artless use of Embedded narratives:

For example: ‘Here is one of the stories that Peter Sam and Sir Handel told about Granpuff!’

And another example:

“Are you writing another book, Sir?”

“Yes,” said the Thin Clergyman, “but not about you …but, if you’re good, the artist might put you in the pictures.”

“Ooooooh! Thank you, Sir!”

 

The artfully artless use of Hats as a motif:

Bowlers and top hats run like a motif through the stories.

 

The artfully artless use of Onomatopoeia

 

The artfully artless use of Self-referentiality:

The revelation that the story is a conceit.

For example: in the introduction to Percy the Small Engine, the author appears in the text beside the characters – ‘we were afraid (The Fat Controller and I) that if he had a book to himself, it might make him cheekier than ever … But Percy has been such a Really Useful Engine that we both think he deserves a book. Here it is.

’

The artfully artless use of the self-mocking authorial voice:

See above.

It’s all a bit meta: ‘The People of England read about Us in their Books; but they do not think that we are real …”

“Shame!” squeaked Percy … ‘so … I am taking My Engines to England to show them.’

“I’m not really clever … I was just drawn like that.”

See the introduction to number 21 Main Line Engines for post-modernist self-referentiality meta etc where the characters attempt to wield the pen and become the authors – I immediately thought of Flann O’Brien and At Swim Two Birds when I read that introduction.

The author appears in both text and illustration in number 22.

Small Railway Engines: The fat and the thin clergyman who ‘writes books.’ “The Thin One’s writing about me in a book. He promised he’d write about you too. Think of that!”

The bantering go at the editors and how an engine becomes a sentient being who lies outside and not just inside the story’ (see introduction to 24)

 

The artfully artless use of the rule of three:

For example: ‘If you worked more and chattered less, this Yard would be a sweeter, a better, and a happier place.’

 

The artfully artless use of the Oxford Comma:

The Oxford comma is the comma placed before the final conjunction in a list of three or more items.

 

The artfully artless use of Anthropomorphization:

‘There are seven engines, one of whom …’

 

The artfully artless use of Imagery:

‘so with 7101 growling in front, and Henry growling in the middle, the long cavalcade set out for the next Big Station.’

 

The artfully artless use of an Old School outlook:

“Excuse me,” enquired Duke. “Are you a Vandal? Driver told me Vandals break in and smash things.”

The Fat Clergyman ruefully felt his bruises. “Bless you, no!” he laughed. “I’m quite respectable.”

“Pay Percy Out.”

‘The nasty smell of bad manners.’

‘The Duke smiled … Duck thinks that Dukes were Great Western engines, but Dukes are really people …

“I am a real-life Duke …”

“Thank you, your Grace …”’

 

The artfully artless use of Adverbs:

“Don’t put that silly story in,” said Thomas crossly.

Ruefully, indignantly, imperiously (see above for Old School Vocabulary)

 

The artfully artless use of Short sentences

And yet – The artfully artless use of a Varied Authorial Tone

 

The artfully artless use of Free Indirect Expression: ‘In literature, “free indirect expression,” also known as free indirect discourse or free indirect style, is a narration technique where a third-person narrator subtly conveys a character’s thoughts and feelings, blending the narrator’s voice with the character’s internal perspective.’

 

The artfully artless use of Rhythm and Repetition:

For example: ‘Rock and Roll in the railway lines.’

 

The artfully artless use of similes:

‘The passengers buzzed out like angry bees.’

‘Diesels baying and growling like hounds.’

 

The artfully artless use of Italics and Exclamation marks and Capitalisation for emphasis

 

The artfully artless use of Jokes:

“Not by the smoke of my chimney, chim, chim!”

“I’ll chuff and I’ll puff, and I’ll break your door in!”

“All ship-shape and Swindon fashion.”

Duck crashes into a barber’s shop: “that was a very close shave.”

‘Pop goes the Diesel.’

Daisy the Railcar: “I’m highly-sprung and anything smelly is bad for my nerves.”

‘Train stops play.’

“That’s one in the headlamp for old Diesel!”

“Perhaps that went to his smokebox and made him conceited.”

‘He soon got too big for his wheels.’

“I think that Duck was pulling your wheels.”

“Show us a wheel.”

‘Coughs and sneezles spread diseasels’

“Pulling your wheel”

‘Before you can say Small Contoller.’

‘boiler ache’

‘DONALD’S DUCK’

“What right has Oliver poking his funnel in here?”

 

The artfully artless Avuncular tone:

An older and wiser head speaks to his young readers in a tutelary but friendly manner. The epistolary introductions create this feeling of belonging to a club – we all know it’s a conceit but we like being taken in and want to be taken in.

 

The artfully artless use of Dickensian Repetition:

‘Duke’s story soon spread. The engines told Mr Hugh; Mr Hugh told The Thin Controller; The Thin Controller told the Owner; the Owner told His Grace; His Grace told The Small Controller; The Small Controller told The Thin Clergyman, and The Thin Clergyman told the Fat One.

That is why, one morning, the two clergymen and The Small Controller were looking at maps.’

 

The artfully artless use of semi colons:

For example: see above.

 

Conclusion

Given that the stories could appear repetitive and formulaic, the bantering conversational tone and content that runs seamlessly between writer, reader, and engines prevents that appearance of formulaic repetition becoming an obvious reality. The triumph of artful artlessness.

 

Let’s finish with some content rather than comment on form and style:

 

‘Sometimes, on Market Day, Ruth, Jemima and Lucy were so full of people that the Guard would allow third-class passengers to travel in Agnes. She didn’t like that at all, and would grumble. “First – class – coach – third – class – people.”

“That made me cross. ‘Shut up,’ I’d say and ‘or I’ll bump you!’ That soon stopped her rudeness to my friends.”’

 

Duck GWR 5741

 

“Duck, explain this behaviour.”

“Beg pardon, Sir, but I’m a Great Western Engine. We Great Western Engines do our work without Fuss; but we are not ordered about by other engines.”

 

18.Stepney, The “Bluebell” Engine 1963

The sadness of page six:

“…engines on the Other Railway aren’t safe now. Their Controllers are cruel. They don’t like engines any more. They put them on cold damp sidings, and then,” Percy nearly sobbed, “they … they c-c-cut them up.”

“Ye’re right there,” agreed Douglas. “If I hadn’t escaped, I’d have been cut up too. It’s all because of yon diesels. They’re all devils,” he added fiercely.

“Fair play, Douglas, “reminded Percy. “Some are nice. Look at Rusty and Daisy.”

“Maybe so,” answered Douglas, “I’d never trust one myself.”

 

In a prominent place in the Rodborough churchyard, the ashes of Wilbert, Margaret and Wilbert’s brother George, have been laid close to one another. Wilbert’s epitaph, cut in stone is: “He helped people see God in the ordinary things in life and he made children laugh.”

 

 

It’s strange but true

In Rodborough Avenue

A big car arrived with Ringo Starr

(big car arrived with Ringo Starr)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sir Topham Hatt

(aka The Fat Controller)

Apparently, Master T. Hatt started his railway career in 1894 at the GWR Works in Swindon as an apprentice. I imagine he was quite slim then. I also imagine that his father probably worked ‘inside’ in the factory and that Topham might well have been born a Swindonian. There’s food for thought as you ruminate upon social mobility.

My great grand-father, Charles Butler, moved to Swindon from Clerkenwell after the carriage & wagon works was opened In Swindon; in 1886, I think it was. So, there is the tantalising possibility that my great grand-father knew this fictive young cove, Master Topham Hatt. And, of course, correspondingly, Master Topham Hatt knew my great grand-father. This is almost on a par with the Great War song chanted as troops marched to the front: “Lloyd George knew my father, Father knew Lloyd George.”

I have my great grand-father’s plane. Stamped GWR and stamped with Charles Butler’s name, it sits proudly on the bookshelves in ‘the study’ upstairs that also serves as a bedroom for our grandson. I also have my gramp’s GWR Swindon Works clocking-in token. Perhaps the young Topham had something similar. ‘All ship-shape and Swindon fashion’ as Wilbert put it.

The young Topham might also have come across Alfred Williams, the ‘Hammer-Poet’ who wrote Life in a Railway Factory. Have a look at this link if you are interested in Alfred: https://radicalstroud.co.uk/life-in-a-railway-factory-alfred-williams-the-hammerman-poet/

In conclusion, I grew up with the sound of the factory hooter: morning, early afternoon and early evening. So that’s something I also share with the Fat Controller. My brother, Keith, has written about the factory hooter and you can hear it at http://www.thewheatsheaf.info/hooter2.html We hear its ghost still.

 

 

The Reverend Awdry and Desert Island Discs and the Johnny Morris Recording

 

The Rev appeared on Desert Island Discs in 1964 in ‘The Swinging Sixties’, choosing Robinson Crusoe as his book (‘apart from the Bible and Shakespeare’). Three of his chosen records involved railways and one was a reading by Johnny Morris of ‘Edward and Gordon’.

 

Here is a brief descriptor of the voices ascribed to the engines by that very accomplished versatile mimic children’s entertainer:

Thomas: ‘young, bright and full of cheeky enthusiasm’

Percy: ‘rather perky and public school’

James: ‘a lilting Welsh accent’

Henry: ‘evidently comes from the faded upper class’

Toby: ‘a soft, slow, west-country voice’

The coach, Henrietta: ‘a pathetic, despairing tone’

Gordon: ‘sounds like a pompous, northern alderman in a play by J.B. Priestly’

The trucks: bump into each other ‘with a rapid succession of startled “Oh!” sounds, each hitting an individual note on what might be described as a musical scale of surprise’

The Rev: “He was a steam buff and so was I. He was highly technical and reserved.”

 

Willie Rushton from That Was the Week That Was and Private Eye finished the recordings a few years later. He recounted how there was nervousness about the Rev being there at the recordings but “he turned out to be a sweetie”.

 

 

 

 

(Jottings made from a reading of The Thomas the Tank Engine Man Brian Sibley

The Story of the Reverend W. Awdry and his Really Useful Engines 1995)

 

The Books

As I said before, I didn’t come across any of the series until I read the Ladybird books to my children at bedtime. I have, however, just read a boxset in the past month of January, 2025. The books in this boxset were published in 2021 by Farshore, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, and printed in China. But before I read a word, I felt compelled to deconstruct, as it were, the pictorial frontspiece.

This pictorial frontspiece is from an age of innocence before we had eaten of the apple of knowledge with the consequent discovery of irony, cynicism, and knowing post-modernism.

Town and country sit side by side in happy harmony (no scruffy ‘edgelands’ here), as do road and rail: there is little threat of a Titfield Thunderbolt argument here.

Despite the trucks of coal at the COAL & COKE depot (and the one dead tree) and the plumes of smoke from three locomotives, there is no threat of pea-soup smog or polluted air or blackened buildings in this idyll in summer in Sodor.

A porter pushes a trolley on one of the spotless platforms; passengers look to be patiently content (no-one glancing at a watch); all wear overcoats as a precaution against a change in the weather (one gentleman with an umbrella), while one man is forever frozen in time in the act of donning his coat with his right arm thrust horizontally through the sleeve: this is an Ode on a Sodor Urn.

There is a modicum of advertising: traditional railway billboards at the platform and waiting room – but there is, alas, a threat of modernity in the large hoardings by the footbridge: an advertisement for a car and aan advertisement for something NEW.

And this hints at what might become Titfield Thunderbolt trouble – lurking around the corner beyond those neatly trimmed hedgerows, the yew-lined churchyard, the sheep, the dog, the farmer and his tractor … Thomas might be puffing along with his freight train during peak passenger-travelling hours, but look at the lorries and the van motoring towards Dr Beeching, and what happens when said passengers decide to continue their journeys by car rather than leave their vehicle in  the station car park?

But for now, we can forget all that and enjoy this limned age of Edenic innocence: a madeleine moment rather than a bit of the apple of the tree of knowledge. Austerity, the Cold War, the End of Empire, Beeching: all these lie in a future far away from the Never-Never Land of Sodor.

 

The Books

Here you will find summaries of the books as written by the Rev at the front and by others on the back of my boxed edition. I’m hoping that this synopsis might encourage the (re)reading of these books for many reasons. But I’ll focus on this piece from The Guardian about contemporary reading habits and the importance of reading,

The article notes the rising popularity of audio books amongst young people and children. John Mullan, professor of English at UCL commented on this trend after saying that he and his children listened to audio books themselves: “But it’s something very different from having your parents read a book to you, which I think is a really, really good thing if at all possible. An audio book is unresponsive and implacable. There’s no possible exchange or rapport, however brilliantly read it is … Listening to an audiobook is better than not having any interest in a work of fiction at all, but I don’t think it’s a substitute.”

 

1. The Three Railway Engines 1945

The tale of ‘Edward, Gordon and Henry who lived in the same shed and who were always boasting and quarrelling amongst themselves until, after a series of adventures, they found that it best to be good friends and to help each other.’

2. Thomas the Tank Engine 1946

‘DEAR CHRISTOPHER,

Here is your friend Thomas the Tank Engine. He wanted to come out of the station-yards and to see the world. These stories tell you how he did it.

I hope you will like them because you helped me to make them.

YOUR LOVING DADDY’

And on the back: ‘Thomas is a fussy, cheeky little tank engine … He proves to be such a Really Useful Engine [however] that he is given a branch line all to himself.

He is never lonely, because there is always some engine to talk to at the Junction.’

3. James the Red Engine 1948

‘DEAR FRIENDS OF EDWARD, GORDON, HENRY AND THOMAS,

Thank you for your kind letters; here is the new book for which you asked.

James, who crashed into the story of Thomas the Tank Engine, settles down and becomes a Useful Engine. We are all nationalised now, but the same engines still work in the Region. I am glad to tell you that the Fat Director, who understands our friends’ ways, is still in charge, but is now the Fat Controller.

I hope you will enjoy this book too.

THE AUTHOR’

And on the back: ‘In these stories, James, who has been given a shining new coat of paint to cheer him up after his accident, gets hiccoughs, needs a bootlace, has trouble with his trucks and pulls the Express after Gordon loses his way.’

 

4. Tank Engine Thomas Again 1949

‘DEAR FRIENDS,

Here is news from Thomas’ Branch Line. It is clearly no ordinary line, and life on it is far from dull. Thomas asks me to say that, if you are ever in the Region, you must be sure to visit him and travel on his line. “They will never have seen anything like it,” he says proudly.

I know I haven’t.

THE AUTHOR

And on the back: ‘We meet Annie and Clarabel, the coaches: ‘Annie can only take passengers but Clarabel can take passengers, luggage and the Guard … Thomas sings them little songs, and Annie and Clarabel sing too.’

 

5. Troublesome Engines 1950

‘DEAR FRIENDS,

News from the line has not been good. The Fat Controller has been having trouble. A short while ago he gave Henry a coat of green paint, but as soon as he got his old colour back again, Henry became conceited. Gordon and James, too, have been Getting Above Themselves.

I am glad to say, however, that The Fat Controller has, quite kindly but very firmly, put them In Their Place and the trains are running as usual.

I hope you will like meeting Percy; we shall be hearing more of him later.

THE AUTHOR’

And on the back: ‘This book tells how Henry met an elephant and James spins round like a top, how The Fat Controller deals with the bigger engines who are Getting Above Themselves and being troublesome, and how a new engine called Percy comes to the rescue by running away.’

 

6. Henry the Green Engine 1951

‘DEAR FRIENDS,

Here is more news from the Region. All the engines now have numbers as well as names … I expect you were sorry for Henry who was often ill and unable to work … Now Henry has a new shape and is ready for anything. These stories tell you all about it.

THE AUTHOR’

 

And on the back: ’Henry the Green Engine has now recovered from his silly habit of staying inside tunnels when it rains. But he is still causing trouble to that strict but kind-hearted Fat Controller. All turns out well, however, and Henry has new and refreshing adventures with his fellow engines, Thomas, Gordon, Edward, James and Percy.’

 

7. Toby the Tram Engine 1952

‘DEAR FRIENDS,

Poor Thomas has been in trouble, so The Fat Controller asked Toby to                    come and help run the Branch Line. Thomas and Toby are very good friends.

Toby is a funny little engine with a queer shape. He works very hard and         we are all fond of him. We hope you will like him too.

THE AUTHOR’

 

And on the back: ’With Henrietta and some trucks rattling behind him, Toby ran along beside roads and through villages and fields with passengers and goods for the Main Line. Then suddenly his line was closed. Here you will read how he was helped.’

 

8. Gordon the Big Engine 1953

‘DEAR IAN,

You asked for a book about Gordon. Here it is. Gordon has been naughty, and The Fat Controller was stern with him.

Gordon has now learnt his lesson and is a Really Useful Engine again.

THE AUTHOR’

 

 

And on the back: ’Gordon, that proud and pompous Express Engine, appeared in all the earlier books in the series, but this is the first time he has had a book named after him.’

 

My thoughts: This book was written in the year of the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth the Second: the final story features the Queen and a Royal Train.

 

9. Edward the Blue Engine 1954

‘DEAR FRIENDS,

I think most of you are fond of Edward. His Driver and Fireman, Charley Sand and Sidney Hever, are fond of him too. They were very pleased when they knew I was giving Edward a book all to himself.

Edward is old, and some of the other engines were rude about the clanking noise he made as he did his work.

They aren’t rude now! These stories tell you why.

THE AUTHOR’

And on the back: ‘Edward, who appeared with Gordon and Henry in The Three Railway Engines (the first book in this ‘Railway Series’) here has a book all to himself. He is once more joined in his adventures by Gordon and Henry together with James the Red Engine, Bertie the Bus, and a new friend called Trevor, who is a Tractoin-engine. And, of course, The Fat Controller is here too!’

 

10. Four Little Engines 1955

‘DEAR FRIENDS,

Sir Handel Brown is the owner of a little Railway which goes to Skarloey and Rheneas. Skarloey means “Lake in the Woods”, and Rheneas means “Divided Waterfall”. They are beautiful places, and lots of people visit them.

The Owner is very busy, so Mr Peter Sam, The Thin Controller, manages the Railway.

The two engines, who are called Skarloey and Rheneas, grew old and tired; so the Owner bought two others.

These stories tell you what happened.

THE AUTHOR’

11. Percy the Small Engine 1956

DEAR CHRISTOPHER, AND GILES, AND PETER, AND CLIVE,

Thank you for writing to ask for a book about Percy. He is still cheeky, and we were afraid (The Fat Controller and I) that if he had a book to himself, it might make him cheekier than ever, and that would never do! But Percy has been such a Really Useful Engine that we both think he deserves a book. Here it is.

THE AUTHOR’

And on the back: ‘Percy the Small Engine is a saddle-tank with a lively personality who has many adventures. Some of them are described in these stories, in which we also meet a newcomer – the Duck; and, as usual, there is much activity on the Line, especially when Harold the Helicopter comes on the scene!’

• The Eight Famous Engines 1957

‘DEAR FRIENDS,

The Fat Controller’s engines are now quite famous. They have been on the Wireless, and many other adventures. But he had another plan too, for his engines, and this book will tell you what it was.

THE AUTHOR’

And on the back: ‘All of The Fat Controller’s eight famous engines appear in this book. Cheeky Percy is taught a lesson, Gordon takes a trip to London, and then all of the engines are shown in an exhibition. How proud they were too, especially The Fat Controller.’

 

• Duck and the Diesel Engine 1958

‘DEAR FRIENDS,

We have had two visitors to Our Railway. One of these, “City of Truro”, is a very famous engine. We were sorry when we had to say “goodbye” to him.

The other visitor as different. “I do not believe,” writes The Fat Controller, “that all Diesels are troublesome but this one upset our engines, and made Duck very unhappy.”

THE AUTHOR’

And on the back: ‘Duck, the saddle-tank [my italics: Duck is a pannier-tank] engine has appeared earlier in the series, but this is the first time he has had a whole book to himself. As usual, he has fun with other engines, and a newcomer, the Diesel Engine. Diesel is a troublemaker and soon after his arrival makes Duck unpopular with the other engines.’

 

 

• The Little Old Engine 1959

‘DEAR FRIENDS,

You remember in Four Little Engines that Sir Handel Brown, The Owner, sent Skarloey away to be mended. The stories tell you what happened when the “Little Old Engine” came home.

Skarloey is not real. You can only see him in these books. But there is a real engine just like Skarloey. He is very, very old, and has been mended. His name is Talyllyn, and he lives at Towyn in Wales. You would all enjoy going to see him at work.

THE AUTHOR

The author gratefully acknowledges the help given by fellow members of the Talyllyn Railway Preservation Society in the preparation of this book.’

 

15.The Twin Engines 1960

‘DEAR FRIENDS,

The Fat Controller has just been having a Disturbing Time! He ordered one goods engine from Scotland, and was surprised to receive two! They had both lost their numbers, and no one knew which was which so he didn’t know which engine to keep.

THE AUTHOR’

 

And on the back: ‘… called Donald and Douglas … they had lost their numbers, and they were identical twins. You can imagine the confusion they caused …’

 

16.Branch Line Engines 1961

‘DEAR FRIENDS,

We never have a dull moment on our Branch Line. Thomas was silly and got into trouble, so a Diesel Rail-car called Daisy came. She caused trouble, but has now promised to be good, so The Fat Controller has kindly given her another chance.

Meanwhile, Toby chased a bull, Percy got into a predicament and …

But you must read the stories for yourselves.

 

THE AUTHOR’

 

 

17.Gallant Old Engine 1962

‘DEAR FRIENDS,

On the second page of Four Little Engines Rheneas was taken away to be mended. He was away for a long time, but now has come home.

All the little engines are together at last. They are delighted. Rheneas is their hero. He had saved the Railway…

There is a real engine like Rheneas. His name is Dolgoch and his home is at Towyn in Wales.

Some years ago he saved the Talyllyn Railway. We are proud of our gallant old engine.

THE AUTHOR

The author gratefully acknowledges the help given by fellow members of the Talyllyn Railway Preservation Society in the preparation of this book.’

 

18.Stepney, The “Bluebell” Engine 1963

‘DEAR FRIENDS,

Percy is a kind-hearted little engine. He feels sad because many fine steam engines are cut up on the Other Railway (B.R.). Percy’s ideas, however, though natural for an engine, are a little muddled. British Railways Officials are not cruel. They are sad to lose faithful steam friends, and glad to help engines to go to places like the Bluebell Railway at Sheffield Park in Sussex, where they can be cared for, and useful, and safe.

THE AUTHOR

The author gratefully acknowledges the help given by fellow members of the Bluebell Railway Preservation Society in the preparation of this book.’

 

And on the back: ‘Duck, Edward, Thomas and all the engines on The Fat Controller’s line are all delighted when Stepney comes to visit them from the famous Bluebell Railway -a real railway where old engines can find a Use and a Happy Home. They are all soon firm friends, and before he goes Stepney shows a scornful big Diesel just what an old engine can do!’

 

19. 19. Mountain Engines 1964

‘DEAR FRIENDS,

A Railway climbs the mountain called Culdee Fell. Lord Henry Barrane is Chairman of the Railway Company. Lots of people travel on it in the summer.

Mr Walter Richards, the Manager, does not have an easy time. There are seven engines, one of whom, No. 5, is still away being mended. Another, No. 6, was named Lord Harry. This was a mistake. It made him conceited and … But you must read the stories for yourselves.

I hope you will enjoy this book about a different kind of railway.

THE AUTHOR

The author gratefully acknowledges the help cheerfully and willingly given by members of management and staff of the Snowdon Mountain Railway Co.in the preparation of this book.’

And on the back: ‘…a mountain railway, not far from Skarloey’s Line. The Mountain Line is steep, and there is trouble when Lord Harry becomes conceited and takes too many risks … But he learns his lesson and he, too, helps to prove that, whatever the weather, mountain engines Will Get Through.’

 

20. 20. Very Old Engines 1965

‘DEAR FRIENDS,

One hundred years ago, when Skarloey and Rheneas first arrived on their Railway, they were young and silly. Skarloey was sulky and bouncy. He and Rheneas quarrelled …

But they learned sense, and the Owner has just given them a lovely 100^th birthday.

Tallyllyn and Dolgoch, at Towyn, are 100 too.

How about going to wish them “Many Happy Returns”?

THE AUTHOR

The author gratefully acknowledges the help given by fellow members of the Talyllyn Railway Preservation Society in the preparation of this book.’

 

21. 21. Main Line Engines 1966

‘DEAR FRIENDS,

Bill and Ben are a shameless pair. I meant to write about Main Line Engines, and give the twins a treat by letting them into the first story, but I couldn’t keep them in order! Before I knew it they had crept into the others. They even wanted me to change the book and make it about them!

But I have been very firm. I am still calling it Main Line Engines. That will serve Bill and Ben right for ragging Gordon so disgracefully. He hasn’t got over it yet!

THE AUTHOR’

 

And on the back: ‘On The Fat Controller’s Railway trunks disappear, some bees escape and a green hat is mistaken for the Guard’s flag! Two new mischievous twin engines, Bill and Ben, are introduced to the system and BoCo the diesel is a newcomer too, but how useful he proves to be.’

 

22. 22. Small Railway Engines 1967

‘DEAR FRIENDS,

Some leadmines up in the hills have long been closed, but their waste-heaps still spoil a lovely valley.

The Fat Controller has now found that the waste is good weed-killing railway ballast. He talked to the Owner and The Thin Controller of the Skarloey Railway, and other Important People. They “went shares” and built a Small Railway to fetch it away.

The Small Engines are managed by a Controller. They call him The Small Controller, but that is only in fun! He is bigger than either of the “others”!’

THE AUTHOR

The author gratefully acknowledges the help given by fellow members of the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway Preservation Society in the preparation of this book.’

And on the back: ‘This book introduces the new Controller, called The Small Controller; a new branch line called the Small Railway; and new engines, Rex, Bert and Mike.

 

23. 23. Enterprising Engines 1968

‘DEAR RICHARD,

Do you remember the photographs you took of what happened to your train on the way to Waterloo in April 1967?

Your Mother, very kindly, gave me a set, and they helped our artist to draw at least two of the pictures for “Super Rescue”.

Anyway, “Super Rescue” is the story which your pictures told me. I hope you will enjoy it, and the other three stories as well.

THE AUTHOR

The author gratefully acknowledges the ready help given by the Flying Scotsman’s owner, Mr. A.F. Pegler, and his assistant, Mr. E. Hoyle, in the preparation of this book.’

And on the back: ‘Flying Scotsman visits The Fat Controller’s Railway and Henry is jealous because he has two tenders. Duck makes Henry look silly, but it is Henry who rescues the passengers when the diesels break down. Douglas helps Oliver escape from the Other Railway, and Duck’s branch line gets a new name.’

 

The next book’s title followed the request from the publishers that the title, once more, should involve a name as in the old days. The M at the beginning is Margaret.

24. 24. Oliver the Great Western Engine 1969

‘DEAR M,

We both wanted to call this book Little Western Engines; but Publishers are stern men. They did not approve. They, of course, don’t know the trouble we’ve had with Oliver. We hope he has learnt sense, but goodness knows what will happen when he finds he has a book all to himself …

I know! If Oliver gets uppish, we’ll set Messrs. Kay & Ward on to him. That’ll teach him!

W

And on the back: ‘The Fat Controller has re-opened a Branch Line, on which Duck works, and is joined by Oliver, a Great Western Engine who is saved from the scrap heap.’

‘READERS may like to know that “Olivers” and “Ducks” still work on the Dart Valley Railway in Devonshire and “Small Railway Engines” are at Ravenglass in Cumberland.’

 

25. 25. Duke the Lost Engine 1970

‘DEAR FRIENDS,

An engine lost in the South American jungle was found after 30 years. A tree had grown through its chimney and hornets nested in its firebox. When mended it gave good service for 30 more years. “The Duke” was lost too; not in the jungle but in his own Shed which a landslide had buried. Not long ago he was dug out and mended. His own Railway had been pulled up, so he is now at The Thin Controller’s.

THE AUTHOR

‘“Duke” looks like a real engine called PRINCE. You can see PRINCE running on his own railway at Portmadoc in Wales.

“Small Railway Engines” can be seen at Ravenglass in Cumberland.’

 

And on the back: ‘Introducing the engine called Duke, who was lost in his own shed for twenty-two years because of a landslide. He looks like a real engine called Prince which runs at Portmadoc in Wales.”

 

26. 26. Tramway Engines 1972

‘DEAR FRIENDS,

Thomas has been pestering me to write about his Branch Line. “After all,” he said, “we are the important part of the whole Railway.”

“What can I write about?” I asked.

“Oh, lots of things – Percy’s Woolly Bear, Toby’s Tightrope and…”

“ … your Ghost,” I added.

“Don’t put that silly story in,” said Thomas crossly.

I will all the same. Thomas has been much too cocky lately. It will serve him right.

THE AUTHOR’

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Memories of the Reverend Awdry

 

A Lifetime in Rodborough Avenue

Oliver Wicks 1999

LOVELL (earlier Devonia – later Sodor)

The author (who lived next-door to the Rev and Margaret) said that Wilbert’s move to Rodborough constituted more semi-retirement than absolute retirement:  with his ‘many trips to various parts of the country in support … of the days of steam. He was chairman of the Rodborough Endowed School Management Committee and had much to do with the Silver Jubilee Celebration in 1977 and the Rodborough Carnivals of 1978 and 1979.’

Mr Wicks went on to say that ‘He had a great gift as a preacher and often led the services at Rodborough Parish Church as well as those of other denominations. When at Rodborough he could no longer climb the steps to the pulpit, he would preach to the congregation from his wheeled chair.’

The chapter continues with Mr Wicks recounting a family member spotting one of the Rev’s books in Tokyo: ‘She saw copies in Japanese of “Oliver, the Western Engine” and “Tramway Engines”, in which Mavis appears. Assuming, correctly, the author had taken our names for the purpose, she brought a copy of each and presented them to us … Wilbert was happy to sign them for us.’

Mr Wicks paints a warm picture of neighbourly life: he ‘always received a warm welcome from Margaret and Wilbur’ when he brought books round for signing for friends and family.

But the Rev then had a good idea: why not charge a half-crown for each signing, with the funds going to the Tal-y-Llyn Railway? Oliver suggested, after decimalisation, that ‘perhaps £1 would not be out of place.’ Yet, Oliver added, ‘On one occasion three Avenue girls aged about eight or nine knocked on my door, each holding a book in their hand … too shy to knock on Mr Awdry’s door directly … When I took them next door, Wilbert welcomed them with a smile and not only signed each book without mention of any sort of charge but gave each girl a small gift.’

Oliver wrote more of Wilbert’s ‘many endearing qualities’, such as his generosity, which went way beyond the personal: ‘Among his favourite charities were: the Children’s Society, Barnardo’s, the Red Cross and Cancer Relief.’

Mr Wicks described Margaret as ‘a very pleasant person’ and ‘a good and helpful neighbour’ – ‘For instance, during the years when we had the one or the other of our elderly mothers living with us, she would readily come in and keep them company thus enabling Mavis and me to go out together for a time. It was a sad loss when Margaret died in 1989.’

But back to the railways: ‘As might be expected, the house contained many relics and memorabilia of the days of steam. I remember one of these which casual visitors would not normally have seen, it was placed prominently on the wall above the upstairs toilet. It read: Cheshire Lines Ltd These closets are intended for the convenience of passengers only. Workmen, Cabmen, Fishporters and Idlers are not permitted to use them.’

In 1996, Wilbert was awarded an O.B.E. for services to children’s literature. But ‘By this time he rarely left his bedroom. In spite of his declining health he never once complained about it when I visited him. He continued to be looked after at home until his death at 6.15 a.m. on Friday, 21^st March 1997.’ A funeral service at Rodborough Church was followed six months later when ‘Gloucester Cathedral was filled to capacity for a commemoration service and exactly one year after his death … relatives and friends filled Rodborough Church again for the dedication, by the Bishop of Gloucester, of a memorial window to Wilbert and Margaret. The stained glass window in strikingly brilliant colours was commissioned and paid for by Wilbert in memory of his wife Margaret. The window is the work of Alfred Fisher, a stained glass adviser to the National Trust, who designed it and did the drawing for it in consultation with Wilbert himself. The figures pictured are predominantly of children and in the bottom right-hand corner is Thomas the Tank Engine in the engine-shed, whose doors Wilbert stands ready to close.

In a prominent place in the Rodborough churchyard, the ashes of Wilbert, Margaret and Wilbert’s brother George, have been laid close to one another. Wilbert’s epitaph, cut in stone is: “He helped people see God in the ordinary things in life and he made children laugh.” Margaret’s epitaph is: * “Her children rise up and call her blessed.” and George’s: “Uncle George was a simple man and kindly. None ever sought his help in vain.”

*A quotation from the Bible. Proverbs 31.28.’

Having read this book and The Thomas the Tank Engine Man (Brian Sibley), what makes them both even more compelling at their ending is that the authors didn’t meet. So, Mr Wicks comments on Wilbert’s epitaph: ‘(I am told that this was his response when someone asked him what he would like his epitaph to be).’ Not only did the authors not meet, it doesn’t seem as though Mr Wicks knew of the biography of the Rev Awdry. And that, I think, is a wonderful thing – an indication of the modesty of the Rev Awdry: his next-door neighbour never even knew …

 

Rev Awdry at Emneth, and true tales of Toby the Tram Engine on the Wisbech and Upwell Tramway

 

My father, William Budd, was born in 1927, spending his childhood frequently moving from one low standard rented house to another around Hackney and Dalston, being brought up by his father who had casual work at the London Docks. Like any working-class person in the 1930s my Dad was living in abject poverty, and to add to his personal challenges his mother had died from cancer when he was a young child.

With the Second World War underway, Dad was evacuated to the country, to a distant Fenland village called Upwell on the Cambridgeshire/Norfolk border. His standard of living instantly improved as he settled in with a kind family who had a smallholding in the austerely named Pius Drove, Upwell. He enjoyed the best food and freshest air of his life in this windswept corner of pancake-flat rich-soiled farmland.

When he was old enough he was called up by the Services to play his part in the war effort, and he joined the Royal Air Force.  He trained as a mechanic, repairing fighter planes that had been damaged in aerial battles with the Luftwaffe.

His father stayed in London as he was an essential worker, at the docks, and sometimes at the Ordnance depot at Enfield. Travelling home from work one day, he was on the top deck of a London bus that got caught in the blitz. William’s father and several others died in this explosion, so William was orphaned as a teenager.

When the War was over William had no reason to return to London. He liked the Fens, had settled there, and, as a digger and dreamer, he tried to make a simple independent living by working on the fertile farmland. His ambition was to find security and stability in life by buying a house of his own. He realised he wasn’t going to achieve this as a labourer so he gave up farming and chose to work at desk jobs in Upwell village businesses. He studied finance and accounting to gain qualifications.

The nearest big town was Wisbech and in due course, around 1950, he found work at the local paper, The Wisbech Advertiser, as a clerk. He walked from his digs in Pius Drove to the nearest bus stop in Town Street, on the main road through Upwell to Wisbech. The bus stop was outside the Police House, and at the bus stop he met the Village Policeman’s daughter, and their destiny unfolded as they got married and she became my mother, Janet Osland.

The morning bus was full of commuters from Fenland villages, bound for employment in Wisbech. For over twenty five years the buses had been the main artery for travel to Wisbech. Before the bus era people could travel to Wisbech on the Wisbech and Upwell Tramway, opened in 1883, mainly as a six-miles long freight line to take local produce from the fen farms to the markets at Wisbech, and further on to the big cities by the national railway network from the mainline station.

The railway also took passengers for forty-four years, but they could no longer compete with the convenience of the newly introduced motorbuses. The trams were very slow, partly because they had a 12 mph speed limit, as much of the railway ran unprotected alongside public roads. The railway was closed to passengers in 1927 but remained open for freight until closure in 1966.

Being an observant chap, my Dad looked out of the the bus windows and had been fascinated by the Trams trundling along, pulling a string of railway trucks.

 

But my father was not the only person who had been curious about this strange railway running by the road, with its odd looking box-shaped steam tram locomotives. In the next village beyond Upwell and Outwell was a newly arrived vicar of Emneth, the Rev Wilbert Awdry, who served the parish from 1953 until his retirement in 1965, when he moved to Rodborough, in Gloucestershire. By the time Rev Awdry arrived at Emneth, the characterful steam trams with side plates enclosing the wheels and brakes had been withdrawn, but he had seen these distinct locomotives in use at other locations in East Anglia. For the enthusiast, I can inform you that Toby the Tram Engine was based on the Great Eastern Railway Class G15 0-4-0T standard gauge tram engines formerly used on this line. The Emneth Vicarage was only a mile from the Wisbech and Upwell tramway, and the Rev Awdry must have closely observed the trains for the last thirteen years of the railway’s life.

Rev Awdry had invented the first Thomas the Tank Engine series of stories in 1942, to tell them to his son Christopher. His first book was published in 1945, with the last of his 26 books in 1972. His seventh book was “Toby the Tram Engine” published in 1952, just before his arrival in Emneth, though Awdry had served in other Cambridgeshire parishes from 1946.

 

Over a decade ago I asked my father if he had any recollection of Rev Awdry. William had enjoyed sharing the Thomas the Tank Engine stories with me as a young child, and it contributed to my lifelong interest in being a railway enthusiast. When I found out that Rev Awdry and my Dad had a common interest in the Wisbech and Upwell tramway, I wondered how the Vicar was received in his village, for his successful children’s books about railways. My father’s possibly unreliable recollection was that some local people thought Rev Awdry, from the next village, was a bit of a haughty character, and that his persistence with writing all this children’s literature was a bit frivolous for a man of the cloth. Clearly, the worldwide popularity and pleasure of his books across the generations has vindicated the Rev Awdry’s choices!

 

The Church of All Saints Odiham Hants Curate 1936

Holy Trinity Elsworth Cambs Rector 1946

St Edmunds Church Emneth Cambs 1953

 

‘My father and my uncle were both christened by the Rev W Awdry in 1947 at the church in Elsworth, Cambridgeshire. The Rectory was to the left of the church when viewed from the front, while the house that my dad and uncle grew up in was to the right. I remember having a friend who lived in the Rectory when I was young, and we spent many happy hours playing in there. This was obviously long after the Rev Awdry had left Elsworth but I do remember there being a collection of the Railway Series on the book shelves in the Rectory,

All photos taken by myself while on a nostalgia visit in 2023.’

(Kevin Rault)

This Facebook post on a Thomas the Tank Engine group includes a photo of a blue plaque:

The Rev W Awdry

1911-1997

Creator of

Thomas the Tank Engine book

Lived and wrote at this rectory

1946-1952

 

 

 

 

Thomas the Tank Engine Social Context

Ye Prologue

My childhood – and that of my older sister and brother – roughly straddles that of the children of the Rev Awdry and Margaret. We were born in Swindon, the home of the GWR and, once upon a time, the town’s railway works were the largest engineering site in western Europe. So, I grew up with steam. I may not have read any of the Rev Awdry’s books as a child but steam was my chapter and verse text in Swindon and occupied my mind and every one of the five senses every day and night.

I was born at home in a pre-fab in a street shared with families whose dads had seen service in WW2 (my dad had been in north Africa and in Burma behind Japanese lines in the Chindits); our home was regarded as a model council-house and even though we could not afford any of the Rev Awdry’s books, we had ten volumes of Arthur Mee’s The Children’s Encyclopaedia to enhance my early education. But I didn’t possess any of the Thomas the Tank Engine tales until I read the Ladybird series to my children as bedtime stories.

Yet even though I had none of the books as a child, if you were born, as I said, where I was and when I was, then steam was in your blood. And to illustrate this, here’s a piece I penned about thirty years ago about when I first went train-spotting with my brother.

 

Do you remember that lazy afternoon?

Back in August 1958?

Well, I bloody well do mate.

We were sitting on the bunker

At the end of platform four,

Just by the giant semaphore signal,

When 5050 ‘The Earl of St Germans’

Came steaming, Brunswick green and brass dome gleaming,

To a shrieking, whistling halt;

And you showed me how to record the numbers,

In a three-penny red memo book

(Weights and measures on the back),

And how to underline name and number

In my half-crown Ian Allan train book,

And you opened the door to magic:

Happy years at the Iron Bridge, the Greenbridge,

And the Bunky Bridge on the Highworth line,

And on Vickers Armstrong outings with our badges,

After you trapped your thumb in the leather strapped door,

And the milepost says it’s seventy-eight miles and a furlong

From Swindon Junction to Paddington;

Or sneaking on to the station

When you couldn’t afford a platform ticket,

Staring at the Five Boys Chocolate,

And the machine that stamped your name for a penny,

Or watching the trains from the Milk-bank,

Or a signal box with its clunking, clanking levers,

Then taking me inside the Railway Works

On a school holiday Wednesday afternoon,

Queuing to walk through that hallowed entrance,

Then along the tunnel into a Wonderworld

Of mechanics, machines, girders, cranes and grease,

And odd bits of steam engines, with the numbers

Chalked on steam-pipe, or funnel, or wheel,

And it counted as a cop –

You told me it wasn’t wagging and so it wasn’t!

And do you remember the men pouring out

From the Works and Pressed Steel at lunch time,

A river of men on bikes in full flood

In a frantic rush for grub and a fag;

And do you remember seeing 70030,

‘William Wordsworth’, strain and slide

In snorting steam on ice cold winter days?

Or seeing sunlight’s shimmer, gleaming

On endless heat-hot railway lines,

Until they at last disappeared

In far off main line vanishing point;

Or waiting for the Cheltenham Flyer,

Studying the semaphore signal

In the sun haze squinting distance;

And you showed me all of this Ian Allan

ABC world of names and numbers,

This alphabet of railway alchemy:

You showed me the right way: the rail-way,

The Permanent Way –

So, you’ll always be sitting beside me

On that wooden fence near Standish Junction,

As Jubilee Class 45609,

‘Gilbert and Ellice Islands’ steams into sight:

Railway Time,

Keith and Stuart Time,

Brother Time.

Kevin Hibbs and Railway Recollections From My Life

 

I was born in 1958 in Bournemouth and from an early age can remember sitting with my parents and grandparents being read and later reading for myself, the wonderful stories written by Rev W Awdry. This magic was later shared with my own children, who in their childhood, like me, loved an adventure on a railway.

I have never been a locomotive buff, but have a huge love and appreciation for all of the engineering and architecture, which probably contributed to my career in civil and structural engineering.

My earliest recollections of riding on railways include family holidays to the Isle Of Wight. We travelled by train to Southampton or Lymington. Then the Red Funnel ferry would take us to the island, where I believe we disembarked at Ryde. The travelling across the island to Sandown, where we always stayed, was a delight. The small tank engines used to pull a few carriages loaded with holidaymakers and luggage across the island, where we were met at the station by lots of boys with porters trolleys, who for a the price of some pocket money, would take your cases to your destination. In our case this was the Heathlands Hotel, which was run by some old friends of my parents. Travel around the island was often via train, again very fond memories.

At home, my interest was fuelled by Ian Allen’s books coupled with visits to Bournemouth Central or Bournemouth West Station to watch the trains. I think Dad enjoyed it as much as I did as we witnessed the final days of mainline steam. We used to have a treat too, which was for Dad a cup of tea from the station buffet and for me, a box of Poppets from the sweet vending machine. When at the Central Station, our going home point was watching the Bournemouth Belle depart for Waterloo and from West Station trains on the Somerset and Dorset line.

Family holidays also took the form of having a railway rover ticket for a week, which saw us travel to places such as Southampton and Portsmouth (to see the ships), Dorchester and Wimborne(for the cattle markets), Weymouth (for a day on a different beach) and London to see the sights and visit an Aunt of my Father who lived in Wallington, Surrey.

In Bournemouth, an entrepreneurial gentleman called Mr Stone used to charter trains a couple of times a year for the Lord Mayor’s Show and Christmas shopping. These trains were always rammed and involved a rush to book, including taking our postal order to the gent’s house to pay for our tickets.

Train travel seemed to be much cheaper and affordable back then, as was attending music gigs and as youngsters we thought nothing of going to Southampton and London to see our favourite bands ie Pink Floyd, Yes, ELP, Alice Cooper and the like perform. The ride home was always tedious, long and inevitably on the mail train, which stopped literally everywhere. Train travel also took me to Southampton College, where I studied for the last five of my seven years working towards my qualifications.

As I mentioned above, my own children, all thanks to the wonderful world of Thomas The Tank Engine, loved a railway adventure and in that, nothing more than camping next to a railway, which we often did on the Severn Valley Railway, where I was a member for many years, at Hampton Loade. We used to have a weekend rover and the children would ride tirelessly on the trains hopping from one station to another as well as the thrill of riding along the whole line, frequently!

We also visited many other railways closer by including Bristol Docks, Avon Valley, East Somerset, West Somerset, Gloucestershire and Warwickshire and while visiting family and friend as in Bournemouth, the Swanage and Mid Hants Railways.

As my children grew up and now have their own families, their children in turn have also dearly loved the stories of Rev W Awdry and so, the whole cycle of railway enjoyment is starting once again for these young people.

Across the years, my love of visiting preserved railways and riding on trains in general, along with the appreciation of the engineering has never faded and having retired five years ago and moved to Hebden Bridge in West Yorkshire two years ago, I’m now embarking on another railway adventure as a volunteer on the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway. It’s a great line to be involved with and has been running since 1968. There are around 700 volunteers currently covering all duties. Mine so far have included being a Ticket Clerk and I am now training to be a Tour Guide and Station Foreman. The days I spend there are a joy and I often think I should be paying for the privilege! The overall atmosphere is great an although everyone knows what they are doing, there’s a lot of room for fun and my days there often feel like being in the middle of a sitcom, Oh Dr Beeching springs to mind!

So in closing, my mind rewinds with immeasurable gratitude to where this interest and love all started, with the beautiful and evocative stories of Rev W Awdry and the dear family who read them to me.

 

 

The Railway Series and Me

 

It is 1959. The newly opened public library stands before me. I enter through the glazed double doors to the right. The library is one large oblong room with several floor to ceiling sets of windows bringing light onto the bookshelves assembled on three of the four walls. The librarian and her assistants are situated in a wooden island-cum-counter to the front of the library. For the next seven years the library will be a second home.

 

Before continuing the library visit to Rev Awdry’s Railway Series, I have, first, to pay homage to Tootles the Taxi. My pre-school years saw me learn to read before I entered full-time education. Of the books which helped me to make that modest achievement the aforementioned Tootles stands out. It was a Ladybird book featuring a range of urban vehicles each gloriously illustrated going about their duties on one page faced with simple verse describing their activities on the other. How I loved that book.

 

Back in the library I walk to the back wall where the children’s books are located. Over the following years I read all sorts but have a particular affinity with the antics of Gordon, James Henry and Awdry’s other creations. The first two have a further significance as they are my Dad’s two forenames. Although the books are smaller in size, the layout is not dissimilar to Tootles the Taxi. Wonderfully descriptive illustrations are faced with matching text. I am transported to the Island of Sodor albeit somewhat irritated by the juvenile behaviour of the future star that is Thomas the Tank engine.*

 

At the time I was able to relate the Railway Series to my own life. Not far away was a level crossing where I occasionally caught sight of an engine crossing the road en route to Bristol or Bath. It is difficult to imagine the road coping with a level crossing today. Additionally, we used to spend summer holidays visiting, by train, my grandmother on the Isle of Wight. The island is smaller than Sodor but back then had its own railway network which we travelled on. It brought the Railway Series to life.

 

In the 1980s, Thomas the Tank Engine and friends became a very popular animation series on children’s television narrated by, among others, Ringo Starr and Michael Angelis. My children loved watching the series and I enjoyed sitting with them while they did. We invested in the books published, ironically, by Ladybird in conjunction with the television series and revisited the stories of my own childhood. For reasons which will become apparent Trevor the Traction Engine was a favourite. We laughed and laughed when Trevor was rescued from the scrap heap with the Vicar uttering the immortal lines, “I got him cheap Jem, cheap”.

 

The funny thing is that I thought Trevor the Traction Engine was a new creation for the purposes of the burgeoning television series. It was only years later I discovered Trevor had first appeared in book 9, “Edward the Blue Engine”. Somehow that had passed me by or, perhaps, I never borrowed book 9 from the library. Trevor’s debut occurred in 1954, the year I was born.

 

Trevor Simpson

*Interestingly, Brian Sibley in his biography thinks that the reason for Thomas’ popularity is that he is the most child-like in his manner and personality and therefore the one that children most readily relate to.

 

But I’m getting beyond myself here. I need to go back to the time when the Rev first read a story to Christopher. Here is some railway childhood context from my brother-in-law.

 

Trainspotting in the 1940s

As boys, we spent hours in the summer holidays sitting between Green Bridge and Ermin Street Bridge jotting down names and numbers as Kings, Castles and Halls steamed past us. Some of the early Castles had huge name plates to hold all the lettering: ‘The Somerset Light Infantry (Prince Albert’s)’ is one that sticks in my mind.

Sometimes, we’d go to Swindon where for a penny we could spend all day on the platforms and on one memorable day a kindly driver invited two of us on to the footplate to see the firebox and watch the oil gauges while the boiler simmered ahead of us. The loco was ‘King William 1V’; unforgettable.

A special treat was to get a return ticket to Old Town Station – cost fourpence on a route known as ‘The Loop’ which went past the GWR Works where all newly repaired and re-painted locos stood. The train was usually of two coaches hauled by a class 27 pannier tank engine and on one occasion at Old Town, a driver took two of us onto the footplate while he moved the loco from the coaches and took it round to hook on at the other end for the run back to Swindon Junction. Back in the coach with notebooks ready, there would be frantic scribbling as we tried to jot down the names and numbers of everything outside the Works.

The hobby really took off in 1943 when Ian Allan’s first ABC of GWR names and numbers came out. It cost one shilling and sixpence and had to be ordered by post which had us all begging our mums for postal orders.

At home with our haul of names and numbers, out came the treasured ABC so that all could be neatly underlined, with F.P. added to ‘King William 1V’.