Is thomas the tank engine real?

Question

i mean, is he real in our world???

Answer 1

There are some smaller train lines who occasionally have days where they put faces on the steam locos and have them as the characters.

http://www.watercressline.co.uk/mhrttte.... for Hampshire

http://www.ticketweb.co.uk/INFO/THOMAS/T... for all over the UK

http://www.thomasandfriends.com/usa/pare... for the USA

(Sorry, I couldn't work out where you were from)

If they're no help, type 'thomas the tank engine event' into Google and something should come up.

In short, yes he is, sometimes.

Answer 2

Sort of, yes.  Rev. Awdry was a huge rail fan.  As a result, he wanted the trains drawn to look like specific real prototypes.  So Thomas was based on a real locomotive in the looks department, and all the other vehicles were too.  The reverend just added the idea that he can talk, and have a personality.

He's also real in that there are more than one 'Thomas' locomotives that work on the "day out with Thomas" events.  I know of two in the US - there's a narrow gauge thomas that is not self-propelled, and there is a standard gauge Porter dressed up like Thomas that is coal fired.  It has outside cylinders, so it doesn't look right, but it's live steam.

Answer 3

The Thomas the Tank Engine stories are about real engines. The Rev W. Awdry collected stories from railwaymen he knew and all the events in the Thomas books actually happened. The engines speak to each other and have personalities because that is exactly how engines are. Every engine is different, and when an engine is steaming its driver has to get to know it and how it talks so that the engine and the driver can work together.

The artist who illustrated the books put faces on the fronts of the engines because when you look at an engine's front it looks just like a face. It doesn't take much imagination to see eyes, nose and a mouth and to see the engine smiling, frowning, looking surprised, etc.

The Heritage Railways started in 1960 and they began to collect engines like Thomas, and the other engines in the stories, when British Railways (as it then was) had no further use for them. These engines they restored and repaired and kept running. There is one Heritage Railway called the Dean Forest Railway which Rev. Awdry himself was involved in.

With so many engines at work it wasn't long before Thomas himself began to appear, and so things have come full circle. When you visit 'Day out with Thomes' at a Heritage Railway you see real engines, doing exactly the sort of things that are described in the Thomas books and the videos, etc.

Answer 4

yes,kinda.He was actually modelled after an actual British switcher locomotive.

Answer 5

Yes I have seen Him:

Look here

http://www.thomasandfriends.com/uk/thoma...