Thomas the Tank Engine

Thomas the Tank Engine is a fictional engine. He is blue, and has an 0-6-0 wheel arrangement based on a LBSCR E2 Steam Engine. He lives on the fictional Island of Sodor, and is locomotive number 1 on the Sodor Railways. He is the star of his own television series . The blue engine first appeared in the 1940s, when stories about him were published in The Railway Series by Reverend W.V. Awdry. Now he is the most well known fictional locomotive in the world.

Other fun Information

• He has two coaches, Annie and Clarabel, and his own branch line.
• His favorite saying is "Bust my Buffers" and when he is really angry, "Bust my Boiler".
• Sir Topham Hatt calls him a "Really useful engine".
• The #1 blue engine hates snowplows.

Adventures

The first episode of the television series and features a cheeky tank engine. He teases Gordon for being too slow and lazy. Gordon plots to revenge on the cheeky blue locomotive. On a morning when cheeky locomotive was ill, Gordon takes revenge and the famous blue locomotive is forced to go the journey at high speed and at the end of the line Gordon laughs. The #1 blue locomotive is faced with a long slow ride home for his foolishness.

• Have trouble with trucks.
  
• Rescue James
  
• Get fish in his boiler.
  
• Get stuck in snowdrifts.
  
• Race with Bertie the Bus. Fall down a mine.
  
• Rescue Mrs Kyndley.
  
• Go on a runaway.
  
• Get covered in coal.
  
• "Go to breakfast" at the stationmaster's house
  
• Get scared by a "Ghost".
  
• Get caught in a snowdrift again while bringing the christmas tree.
  
• Help with the post train.
  
• Get "bumped".
  
• Meet the "bluebell" engine, Stepney.
  
• Go faster than Gordon, with the help of a jet engine.
  
• Help deliver items to the ice cream factory instead of taking children to the beach.
  
• And many other adventures...

The Reverend W. V. Awdry OBE (15 June 1911 – 21 March 1997) was a clergyman, railway enthusiast and children's author.

Wilbert Vere Awdry was born in Romsey, Hampshire in 1911. The son of a clergyman, he was himself ordained to the Anglican priesthood in 1936. In 1938 he married Margaret Wale, and two years later took a parish in King's Norton, Birmingham.

The characters that would make Awdry famous, and the first stories featuring them, were invented in 1942 to amuse his son Christopher during a bout of measles. The first book (The Three Railway Engines) was published in 1945, and by the time Wilbert stopped writing in 1972, The Railway Series numbered 26 books. Christopher subsequently added a further 14 books to the series.

Wilbert's enthusiasm for railways did not stop at his publications. He was involved in railway preservation, and built model railways which he took to exhibitions around the country. He retired from the clergy in 1965, and moved to Stroud, Gloucestershire. In 1996 he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire. He died peacefully at his home on 21 March 1997, at the age of 85.