Thomas the Tank Engine: The New Collection is a compilation of Christopher Awdry's books of the Railway Series, barring Thomas and his Friends. It also contains a foreword by Christopher Awdry, a brief character guide, and a story of how Wilbert Awdry "discovered" Sodor.
Foreword
DEAR FRIENDS,
Back in May 1945, back when the first of my father's books, The Three Railway Engines, was published, it certainly wouldn't have occurred to my not-quite-five-year-old mind that I would be writing a foreword for a collection of my own stories 60-plus years later.
Even a six mere years later, when, at Great Yarmouth on 31 August 1951, my father and I encountered the ex-Great Eastern Railway tram engine which became the prototype for Toby, I was no wiser. What that August evening may have done was to give me the beginnings of the idea of how and why stories are conceived and written, and perhaps it was then that the first seeds of this book were sown. But it was another five years before I announced to a schoolfriend that I wanted to write for a living, and still longer before my initial efforts turned into anything that could be published.
In 1982, busy with the research for a magazine article, I visited one of British's many heritage railways. During a conversation with an engine driver, he made the connection between my surname and Thomas.
"Why don't you carry on writing the stories?" he queried.
"One of the reasons why father gave up," I replied, "Is that he felt he was running out of ideas. Well, he's forgotten more about railways than I know, so what chance does that give me?"
"No problem," he said. "I can give you an idea - it happened here only last week."
So he did, and I went away and thought about it. Eventually I decided to see what I could do. I'd never written a Thomas story and thought it might be interesting to try. Besides, my son Richard had, over the last few months, heard all of my father's stories at bedtime three or four times over, and I felt like a change even if he didn't!
Thus Triple-Header was born. It worked fairly well, so over the next couple of months I put together another three stories, all based on ideas taken from my railway reading. Then, having concluded my writing exercise reasonably satisfactorily, I put the whole lot to one side.
The following March, my parents came to stay, and, during the lull while we awaited their taxi home, I produced the stories as a talking point.
"Do Kaye & Ward (as my father's published were then known) know about these?" my father asked.
"Good heavens no, why should they?" was my reply.
He suggested that I send them to his editor, who duly presented them at their next production meeting, where they seem to have greeted with what the popular press now calls acclaim. What they all knew, and I did not, was that Britt Allcroft's first TV series was due to air in October 1984 - for Kaye & Ward to have a brand new addition to the Series before then was most timely.
Whatever, it was certainly a breakthrough so far as I was concerned. Over the following years until 1995 there were 14 new titles, bringing the Railway Series to a total of 40. With the 2007 publication of Thomas and Victoria, it has reached 41.
I am delighted to welcome this collection of my stories. It is similar in style to the volume produced in recent years of my father's stories, but has one notable difference: his used work by four different illustrators whereas this uses only one, Clive Spong, whose work is, I think, superb and who has already 'done' more Railway Series books than anyone else. Any children's writer knows how important illustration is, and I commend his work.
Compiling the tales themselves over the years has taken me to many places and been a thoroughly enjoyable exercise. I hope that the reading of them will be just as much fun.
THE AUTHOR
Stories included
- Really Useful Engines (1983)
- Stop Thief!
- Mind that Bike
- Fish
- Triple Header
- James and the Diesel Engines (1984)
- Old Stuck-Up
- Crossed Lines
- Fire Engine
- Deep Freeze
- Great Little Engines (1985)
- Patience is a Virtue
- Peter Sam and the Prickly Problem
- Pop-Special
- Sir Handel Comes Home
- More About Thomas the Tank Engine (1986)
- Thomas, Percy and the Coal
- The Runaway
- Better Late Than Never
- Drip Tank
- Gordon the High-Speed Engine (1987)
- High-Speed Gordon
- Smokescreen
- Fire Escape
- Gordon Proves His Point
- Toby, Trucks and Trouble (1988)
- Mavis and the Lorry
- Toby's Seaside Holiday
- Bulstrode
- Toby Takes the Road
- Thomas and the Twins (1989)
- Scrambled Eggs
- What a Picture!
- Trevor Helps Out
- Down the Drain
- Jock the New Engine (1990)
- We Need Another Engine
- Sticking Power
- Jock
- Teamwork
- Thomas and the Great Railway Show (1991)
- Museum-Piece
- Not the Ticket
- Trouble on the Line
- Thomas and the Railtour
- Thomas Comes Home (1992)
- Snow Problem
- Washout
- Toby's Megatrain
- Thomas Comes Home
- Henry and the Express (1993)
- Out of Puff
- Overhaul
- Sliding Scales
- Henry Sees Red
- Wilbert the Forest Engine (1994)
- Percy's Porridge
- Cab Over Wheels
- Foaming at the Funnel
- Wired-Up
- Thomas and the Fat Controller's Engines (1995)
- Birdstrike
- Edward and the Cabbages
- Rabbits
- Golden Jubilee
- New Little Engine (1996)
- Speedkiller
- Sir Handel's Plan
- Dirty Water
- I Name this Engine...
- Thomas and Victoria (2007)
- Overloaded
- Avalanche
- Eels on Wheels
- Toby's Vintage Train
Trivia
- The final book of The Railway Series, Thomas and his Friends, was not included in this book as it was published 4 years later.
Goofs
- In the Skarloey Railway section of the character section, a photo of Skarloey is replaced with a photo of Rheneas, and a photo of Rheneas is replaced with a photo of Duncan. The same section also has no bio for Duke.
- There is no character section for the Arlesdale Railway engines.
- There is no character description for Bertie in the Off the Tracks section in Meet the Engines.