Thomas the £1billion Tank Engine
By Deborah Sherwood; Dennis Ellam 24/01/2010
How a bedtime story dreamt up by a vicar 65 years ago became
He started as a simple story for a sick child... now, 65 years later, he's a global superstar. Thomas the Tank Engine - actually, he's so famous now, just call him Thomas - is adored by children in 121countries.
His adventures have sold 80million books and the Thomas industry from toys to clothes and even pasta shapes makes more than £1billion a year.
"No fortune teller could ever have predicted how Thomas would come to be loved by so many all around the world," says Britt Allcroft, 60, the producer who gave him his first TV series and went on to make millions. "He's grown into a phenomenon. I feel rather like I'm Thomas's mum, and to be honest it has all been quite overwhelming."
And every four years she says a new generation comes along to discover Thomas and his friends in the adventures first created by the Rev W. Awdry.
The first child to hear them was his two-year-old son Christopher when he was confined to bed with measles and bored.
His father entertained him with stories, about a group of steam engines working the railway on a make-believe island called Sodor.
There was James, the moody one, and Percy, the cheerful one, sad Edward and a cheeky one with puffed-out cheeks called Thomas, who all worked for a large gentleman in a frock coat and top hat, the Fat Controller.
He began writing them down as Christopher corrected him if he made any mistakes. Then he sketched pictures to go with them on scraps of paper.
The stories kept Christopher enthralled and his mother Margaret felt a wider audience might feel the same. She persuaded her husband to send his notes to a relative who knew the owner of a small publishing firm.
In 1945 the first book in the series, The Three Railway Engines, appeared.
The gentle Reverend Wilbert Awdry, who never thought of himself as a writer, was amazed at his success since he was simply recalling his own childhood in Wiltshire when he used to listen to the steam trains of the Great Western Railway passing by and imagine they were talking to each other.
In all he wrote 25 more books with the last published in 1972. Eleven years later Christopher, now 70, took over, after he ran out of Thomas books to read to his own son. With the Reverend's blessing he wrote another 14, updating them slightly for the children of the Eighties, with brighter and bolder illustrations.
Despite his fame the Rev Awdry lived a modest life up to his death aged 85 in 1997 as he appeared to have handed over the rights to the books for very little money. Yet the books generate over £1million a year in sales. But it was his move into television that turned Thomas into a true global superstar.
Britt was a struggling freelance film producer in 1978 when she was hired to make an information film about steam trains. Her research led her to the Rev Awdry's books. And like everyone else she was captivated.
"I told Wilbert I loved this whole little world he had created," she says. "I asked if anyone had thought of bringing the stories to life and he said there had been talk, but nothing had happened.So I told him I'd love to do it."
The move into TV was a big gamble.To secure a £50,000 bank loan, Britt had to put up the four-bedroom home in Southampton, where she lived with husband Angus Wright and their children Ben and Holly.
Her masterstroke was persuading ex-Beatle Ringo Starr to narrate the films. She realised his mellow Liverpool accent was perfect for storytelling.
"When we met he assumed I wanted him because of his Beatles connection, but it was nothing to do with that," Britt says. "He agreed to take away a book, put it on tape and if we thought he was right, he would do it."
Thomas and Gordon, first of the Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends series, aired on September 4, 1984, and was an instant hit with an audience in months of 8.5million.
From the front room of their home, Britt and Angus began to build the Thomas empire, licensing the first basic Thomas toys, and a Marks and Spencer range of Thomas clothing.
And Britt took on the task of writing more Thomas stories - 130 of them in total, not always with the Rev Awdry's approval. He grumbled about scenes in Henry and the Forest, for instance. With his eye for detail, he pointed out trees would never be so close to the railway tracks.
The Britt Allcroft Company was floated on the Stock Exchange in 1996 for £30million, then sold in 2002 to HIT Entertainment, owners of Bob the Builder and Barney the Dinosaur.
And the TV producer who called herself Thomas's mum was a millionaire at the age of 40, and listed as one of the country's richest businesswomen.
But the personal price was heavy. "I was having to do so many things, flying to Toronto, then LA, then New York," Britt says. "In the middle of it, my marriage broke up. It came to a point where I was having a terrible time and I couldn't go on.
"In the end I walked away with shares and some money. It was extremely hard to leave. Thomas was my friend. I still miss being involved with him."
Today Britt lives in a California beachfront mansion - once the home of silent movie star Mary Pickford - and spends her time working on theatre projects and with her children and grandchildren.
Every day she thanks Thomas - "for the chance he gave me to change, and be here by the ocean. "
She adds: "Thomas's is a magical world and my one wish is to meet every child, for whom the stories have meant so much."
The Rev Awdry inherited his passion for railways from his father, the Rev Vere Awdry, who built a model layout in his vicarage garden.
The first book in the series featured Gordon, Henry and James. It was a year later when Thomas was introduced.
The Rev Awdry wrote a message to his son Christopher to explain why Thomas had so many adventures: "He wanted to come out of his station yard and see the world."
The first model Thomas was a wooden toy that the Rev Awdry made for his son out of a piece of broomstick for Christmas in 1945.
Currently there are 17,100 Thomas-related items for sale on e-Bay. The most expensive is a vintage wooden play set, for £1,200.
Thomas merchandise has appeared in almost every conceivable form -models and toys to curtains, cushions, duvet covers, cutlery, clothing, wallpaper, soft drinks and even toilet paper.
The Rev Terry Boston, a clerical colleague of the Rev Awdry, was a wellknown collector of steamrollers and became the inspiration for the vicar who saves Trevor the Traction Engine from the scrap heap.
Former James Bond actor Pierce Brosnan narrated the DVD special, The Great Discovery. He seized the chance as he had been reading Thomas stories to his sons.
Down the Mine is based on a real event in 1892 when a train fell into an old mineshaft at Lindal-in-Furness.
Ex-BEATLE Ringo Starr made a smart career move when he opted to take shares in Britt Allcroft's fledging company, rather than a fee. The 26 films that he voiced have gone to make him millions more.
Outraged feminists in the 1990s complained that Annie and Clarabel, the carriages, were "nothing more than chatterboxes".
In a special children's show to celebrate the Queen's 80th
birthday, held in Buckingham Palace gardens, a life-sized Thomas carried Sophie Dahl on stage to meet The Fat Controller, who was played by TV star Jonathan Ross.
Among 65th anniversary items now on sale are a Thomas birthday set with the model station decked out for a party and a train loaded with presents. It costs £14.99.
An internet-based fan club, mainly for grown-ups, debates questions such as "Who is Thomas's best friend?" and "Which of the girls would be best for Thomas?"
In the story Bertie's Chase in The Railway Series, about a bus called Bertie, his license plate reads CRD54. CRD no doubt stands for C. Reginald Dalby, the illustrator at the time. 54 refers to the fact the story was published in 1954.
The name "Fat Controller" has also been given to a monthly student magazine and a pub in Harrow, Middlesex.
The 65th anniversary is being celebrated by Day Out With Thomas events throughout the UK featuring real steam engines made to look like the books' characters. But legislation means every Fat Controller now has to be checked to ensure he has been cleared to work with children.
The letters NW appeared on Thomas's side in one early design. The Rev Awdry claimed they stood for No Where. Later books referred to North Western Railway.
In his first appearance in the elevision series Thomas was described as a "tank engine who lives at a big station on the Island of Sodor. He's a cheeky little engine with six small wheels, a short stumpy funnel, a short stumpy boiler and a short stumpy dome"
Visitors to the first Thomas Land in Japan, which was launched in 1998 within the Fuji-Q Highland To bed with Thomas amusement park, can stay in Thomas-themed hotel suites, which are decorated with Thomas sheets and pillows. The park is visited by 1.7m people a year.
Thomas is modelled on the 0-6-0T Class E2 shunting engine, built for the London, Brighton South Coast Railway in Victorian times.
In 1989 Thomas arrived on American TV. The "troublesome trucks" became "freight cars" and The Fat Controller was given his full name, Sir Topham Hatt.
Hit Entertainment took over for the eighth series of Thomas The Tank Engine in 2004 in a £139 million deal. They brought in digital video cameras that gave the show a different look.
A survey in 2007 showed Thomas was the children's character most enjoyed by youngsters under 10 with autism. The engines' facial expressions and easy-to-read stories mde them feel secure.
Thomas led the children's parade in Bill Clinton's inaugural celebrations when he became US President in 1993.
The Reverend Awdry built his own working model of Thomas's branch line and took it around model railway exhibitions in the 1960s.
At least 10 theme parks around the world feature Thomas the Tank Engine rides. In the UK, Drayton Manor Park in Tamworth, Staffs, opened its own Thomas Land in 2008.
Prince Harry took a Thomas the Tank Engine lunchbox with him on his first day at school.
The first TV series was filmed in a studio close to London's Clapham Junction, one of the busiest sections of railway in the world.
There is no such island as Sodor. The Rev Awdry remembered the name from a visit to the Isle of Man in 1950 where the bishop officially had the title Sodor and Man. Sodor was an old name for the Hebrides and other Scots islands.
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