Thomas the Tank Engine book

Ever since Thomas the Tank Engine came to America in 1989 I have always been a fan. My son Harrison is the same way, and has learned his numbers by referencing the engine numbers (Thomas = 1, Edward = 2, etc.).

One idea I have always had was to find a book showing all of the engines of the Island of Sodor along with prototype information for the actual steam or diesel locomotives they were based on. Sadly, such a book doesn't exist. Until now...

I imagine one difficulty is that the company which owns the rights to Thomas the Tank Engine doesn't want to pay the necessary licensing fees to use pictures of all of the prototype engines. I understand that. But they could still do a book with at least a bit of a blurb about the real thing and splash pictures of the Thomas models all over the page. But they haven't. So, for Christmas this year I decided to put together such a book myself.

I should point out that we did find this on Amazon and ordered it for Harrison too, but it isn't the same. It does have a lot of engines but not all of them, and the amount of prototype information is lacking. However, unlike my amateur efforts it definitely looks much more professional. See below. It is probably perfect for the casual train fan, but for true die-hard Thomas buffs like myself and Harrison it just wouldn't do.

Getting back to my book, over the course of about 30+ hours I searched the internet for lists of all of the engines and vehicles (here), and then went to the many Thomas fan pages online for more detailed information on the characters. When I was a kid there were about a dozen engines total, plus another half-dozen vehicles, so the list was small. I had no idea the universe of characters had ballooned to over 100 different named entities! 

I had a firm cut off where I stopped exploring new engines at the newer series that is completely computer-graphics and very toy-like, as this did not appeal to me at all. There are also many Thomas movies that introduce new characters, especially foreign engines, and I tried to get them all but I didn't sweat it if I missed some.

Then, I had to use the internet to put together a couple of sentences for each that described their prototype engine counterparts. I mostly looked for information such as when they were built and retired, how many were in the class, whether any are preserved, and what made that engine unique or special. I didn't try and dumb down the text because I am hoping that this book will be a useful vocabulary teaching tool as Harrison grows older ("Dad, what is a pilot truck" and "Dad, what does courageous mean") but I also excluded information that I didn't find useful (such as the name of the builder, the horsepower, cylinder size, etc.) All of this had to fit in about three sentences, so I was limited.

Then, picture time. The internet is full of pictures but a search for a specific engine also pulls up toys, books, animated cartoon images, scale model images, and lots of other stuff. I have about 400 pictures saved that I used. For the prototype engines it was a bit easier, especially if at least one of the class of engines made it into preservation. But for some of the older engines, I only could find grainy black and white shots. Thankfully, I found something for every engine.

It all came together nicely, though due to its extreme size (nearly 100 pages) it cost a lot more than I expected. A lot more! Thank goodness for Black Friday sales. And the first one they sent was damaged so they replaced it for free, allowing me to have two copies. 

I know he/we will enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Peep Peep!