Thomas the Tank Engine

Thomas the Tank Engine
Thomas & Friends character
A tank engine customised to look like Thomas at a Day Out With Thomas event
First appearanceThomas the Tank Engine (1946)
Created byWilbert Awdry
Christopher Awdry
Designed byL. B. Billinton (in-universe)
Reginald Payne
Voiced by
  • Ben Small (2009–2015)
  • John Hasler (2015–2021)
  • Aaron Barashi (All Engines Go, 2021-2023)
  • Shaun Jemmett (All Engines Go, 2023-present)
  • Martin Sherman (2009–2015)
  • Joseph May (2015–2021)
  • Meesha Contreras (All Engines Go, 2021–2023)[1]
  • David Kohlsmith (All Engines Go, 2023)
  • Kai Harris (All Engines Go, 2023–present)
  • Keiko Toda (series 1-8, 1990-2007)
  • Kumiko Higa (series 9-24, 2008-2021)
Other
NumberNWR 1 (formerly, L.B.S.C. 70 in Thomas & Friends)
Information
SpeciesSteam locomotive
GenderMale
NationalityEnglish (formerly)
Sudric

Thomas the Tank Engine is a fictional steam locomotive in The Railway Series books by the Reverend Wilbert Awdry and his son, Christopher.[2] He became the most popular character in the series. He is the title character in the television series, Thomas and Friends.[3]

Origins

On Christmas 1942, Wilbert Awdry gave his son Christopher a wooden model of a blue steam engine. Christopher named it Thomas.[4][5] Wilbert would later write the second Railway Series book focused on Thomas. He published the book after his wife Margaret encouraged him to do so.[5] Illustrated by Reginald Payne, Thomas was based on an LB&SCR E2 class tank engine.[6][7]

Characteristics

Thomas is introduced as being very cheeky and fussy. He thinks his job is the most important one,[8] and thus looks down on everyone else despite being the smallest at the time. He also tends to ignore advice and prefer doing jobs on his own. These two flaws cause him to get into accidents a lot. As the series goes on, Thomas became less selfish and got more mature over time.

Reception

Awards

Thomas was the only fictional character included in The Independent on Sunday's 2009 "Happy List". He was listed alongside 98 real-life adults and a therapy dog for making Britain a better and happier place.[9] In 2011, Thomas appeared on a series of 1st class UK postage stamps handed out by the Royal Mail. The postal service company did this to mark the centenary of the birth of Wilbert Awdry.[10]

Legacy

From 2014, the Ōigawa Railway in Japan dressed up five of their locomotives to look like characters from Thomas and Friends. These characters are Thomas, Hiro, Percy, James, and Rusty. The locomotives are based at Shin-Kanaya Station. Train rides operate between Shin-Kanaya Station and Ieyama Station.[11]

The 2015 Marvel superhero movie Ant-Man features a model of Thomas. Director Peyton Reed and his production team had made sure not to make Thomas seen as evil by children. They achieved this by writing Thomas as neutral during the fighting sequence and rendering him using computer graphics to make production simpler.[12][13][14]

Video game players have frequently modified released games to include Thomas and other characters. One of the first popular efforts was replacing dragons with Thomas and Friends characters in the game The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim in 2013. Since then, Thomas has been incorporated into other games like Grand Theft Auto V, Sonic the Hedgehog and the 2019 Resident Evil 2 remake.[15]

  • The Little Engine That Could – an American short story featuring a similar blue locomotive character
  • Hatsune Miku – a Japanese vocal synthesiser mascot with similar characteristics and cultural influence as Thomas

References

  1. ↑ "Thomas' Promise". Thomas & Friends: All Engines Go. Season 1. Episode 1. 13 September 2021. Cartoon Network.
  2. ↑ "Full Steam Ahead: Thomas The Tank Engine Turns 65". NPR. 24 September 2010. Retrieved 9 February 2015.
  3. ↑ "From Universal Pictures Home Entertainment: Thomas & Friends: Dinos & Discoveries". MarketWatch, Inc. 21 January 2015. Archived from the original on 16 February 2015. Retrieved 9 February 2015.
  4. ↑ Sibley 2015, p. 121.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Awdry 2005, p. 1.
  6. ↑ "Characters of the Railway Series: Thomas the Tank Engine". PegnSean. Archived from the original on 13 December 2017.
  7. ↑ Sibley 2015, p. 133.
  8. ↑ The Rev. W. Awdry (1946). Thomas the Tank Engine. Edmund Ward. p. 4. ISBN 0-434-92779-1. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
  9. ↑ "The IoS Happy List 2009 – the 100". The Independent. 18 April 2009. Archived from the original on 7 May 2022. Retrieved 11 May 2025.
  10. ↑ "Thomas the Tank Engine stamps launched on East Lancs Railway". Lancashire Telegraph. 14 June 2011. Retrieved 21 September 2022.
  11. ↑ Imada, Kaila (1 May 2023). "You can now ride a real Thomas the Tank Engine train in Japan". Time Out Tokyo. Retrieved 9 May 2024.
  12. ↑ Hooton, Christopher (30 July 2015). "Ant-Man granted Thomas the Tank Engine cameo as long as the train didn't do anything evil or homicidal". The Independent. Retrieved 27 December 2022.
  13. ↑ Armitage, Hugh (27 July 2015). "How Thomas the Tank Engine ended up in Ant-Man". Digital Spy. Retrieved 27 December 2022.
  14. ↑ Liszewski, Andrew (6 July 2018). "Even Thomas The Tank Engine Was A Digital Fake In Ant-Man". Gizmodo Australia. Archived from the original on 26 November 2020. Retrieved 27 December 2022.
  15. ↑ Evans-Thirlwell, Edwin (9 May 2019). "Why are people modding Thomas the Tank Engine into video games?". The Face. Retrieved 15 May 2019.

Sources

Other websites

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