History Literature / TheRailwaySeries

* AudioAdaptation: Several audiobooks of the novels have been made in the past, with narration provided by the likes of Johnny Morris, Willie Rushton, Ted Robbins, Sir John Gielgud and even an early one by Rev. W Awdry himself. The TV series narrator Michael Angelis also did multiple audiobooks of both the original novels and the show's retelling.

** In a more positive example, writing "Edward, Gordon, and Henry" (the story that establishes said engines as all being on the same railway and gets Henry out of the tunnel) was the condition the publishers set before the Reverend for getting the original book, "The Three Railway Engines" published.

** In the first five books, Thomas was the only engine with a number. This was, according to WordofGod, because his number was the easiest to draw. Everyone else only received a number later on, starting in Henry's book.

* UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist: A number of engines are arrogant and rude, and prone to getting some sort of HumiliationConga at the end of each story as a result of their delusions of grandeur. Gordon, James and Sir Handel are arguably the most notable (though occasional redeeming moments keep them in check).

* KickTheSonOfABitch: The troublesome trucks often play tricks on an engine who was being mean or arrogant to others (e.g., James in "Dirty Objects" and Diesel in "Pop Goes The Diesel"). Either way, it doesn't matter which engine they play tricks on as long as they enjoy it.

** As Awdry himself notes in ''The Island of Sodor'' reference book: ''"We [the Reverend and his brother George] would, we felt, be doing the Bishop and his successors a kindness by restoring the other half of their diocese to them!"''

* NarrativeProfanityFilter: Humorously in ''The Island of Sodor'' source book, a censored expletive laden rant from Sir Topham Hatt is included in the text as he expresses his frustrations with receiving Henry and not the Atlantic locomotive he originally wanted. Albeit censored, it marks one of the few uses of profanity in the entire series.
** It's a railway after all (one that serves many mines and shipping docks too) ''there has to be'' many SirSwearsALot characters who are being censored for the audience! Peter Sam outright says that Duncan has "strong language" for his past factory; Stepney later says the same for Captain Baxter, who worked in a quarrey.

* NotSoDifferent: For all the emphasis placed on the effects of dieselization on the Other Railway, most of the diesels resident on Sodor[[note]]Bear, [=BoCo=], Mavis, and Pip and Emma[[/note]] are from classes that were themselves approaching the end of their British Rail working lives when they made the move. Daisy is perhaps the only aversion; [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Classes_101_and_102 Class 101]] [=DMUs=] enjoyed long and successful working lives into the 2000s, long after Daisy's arrival.

** The North Western Railway's geography was inconsistent at times. In "James and the Top Hat", Edward and James overshoot the platform at a station between Tidmouth and Knapford. This station is never seen or mentioned again. Errors like these actually get [[AllThereInTheManual explained away]] in ''The Island Of Sodor'', where they’re put down to [[LiteraryAgentHypothesis simple illustrator errors]], often with complaints from “real” Sudrians!

* ExtremeOmnivore: In ''The Three Railway Engines'', a goat eats the Fat Controller's hat for its tea.

* FateWorseThanDeath: The assorted vehicles can't die unless they're scrapped. They will live as long as their bodies are intact, conscious of the passing of time, even if abandoned in caves. Case in point, Bulstrode the Barge, who was left on a beach to rot after being crushed by a truck accident. Awdry makes light of the fact that he's probably still grumbling now, years and years later.
** Then there's Stanley, a cocky American train who was punished by having his wheels taken off and being turned into a pumping engine.

* BritishStuffiness: Played with, although many characters such as Gordon or Duke meet the stereotype to the letter; many Sudrians themselves while proudly British would take great offense if they were mistaken for being ''English'' not unlike how some Welsh or Scotish citizens might view themselves in the real world.

** There was a huge presence of generic engines, particularly in 'The Three Railway Engines' in which the shed is occupied by a large red engine and two blue tender engines. In 'James the Red Engine', James is heckled by a tank engine for his incident with the bootlace. Although this tank engine is unseen in the original book, he appears in a pop-up book retelling of 'Troublesome Trucks', in which he is portrayed as a green saddle tank and looks similar to Percy.
** Henry was painted blue at the end of 'The Three Railway Engines', but following Dalby's constant illustration errors, he was repainted green at the beginning of 'Troublesome Engines'.
** The North Western Railway's geography was inconsistent at times. In 'James and the Top Hat', Edward and James overshoot the platform at a station between Tidmouth and Knapford. This station is never seen or mentioned again. Errors like these actually get [[AllThereInTheManual explained away]] in ''The Island Of Sodor'', where they’re put down to [[LiteraryAgentHypothesis simple illustrator errors]], often with complaints from “real” Sudrians!

* EnsembleCast: The series gave individual novels to many engines and even different railways, and while many appeared more so than others, there was never a definite lead character

* AlwaysFemale / AlwaysMale: All of the coaches and trucks are females and males respectively, with the exception of the Culdee Fell Railway's truck, who is a female.

* BornIntoSlavery: It's never made explicit, but it's clear that the trains are not employees of the railway, despite being sentient. Their only compensations are coal, water, and the occasional clean and polish. Fear of being scrapped is usually enough to keep them in line.
** Some fans have made the comparison that the locomotives in Thomas are very similar to the toys in ''Franchise/ToyStory'', since although a locomotives' life seems very limited by human standards; the characters in the books simply ''want'' to be useful and do work, much like how the toys in ''Toy Story'' want simply to be played with and be used. Indeed, the engines' motivations and morals are shown to be different from humans; Rex once considers clothing to be "those things people wear instead of paint".

* PoliceAreUseless: A humorous example, but ''The Island of Sodor'' book makes it clear the constable who threatened Thomas was extremely heavy handed and hated in Ffarquhar for his zealous enforcement of the law. The local pub "The Toby's Jug" renamed itself to just "The Toby" after the locomotive of the same name startled said constable with his whistle once, and the pub in the engine's honor painted the locomotive onto their signage ''just to continue taunting the constable'' about how he was scared by a train! The constable ultimately got his come-uppance when he ticketed a group of cars parked outside a church on Sunday, not realizing that one of the cars he ticketed was of his ''[[DaChief own Sergeant]]''.

* NoPronunciationGuide: The books never said how to pronounce 'Rheneas' and 'Ffarquhar'. The narration records have them as "Rin-e-as" and "Focker", respectively. However, Ffarquhar was sometimes pronounced "Far-kwar", like in the TV series. The TV series also pronounces Rheneas as "Ren-ay-us".

The books have become beloved for not only their witty writing, utterly gorgeous artwork and the memorable cast of characters, but for how mundane and grounded they are in spite of the talking engines, with Wilbert and Christopher Awdry taking great measures to [[ShownTheirWork ensure everything about the engines and the railways they ran on are as accurate and close to real life as possible]]. They have even gone as far as to use [[RippedFromTheHeadlines real life train incidents as the basis for several stories]], with later books by Wilbert even [[RealLifeWritesThePlot commenting on the railway privatization and subsequent dieselisation that was rapidly occurring on railways across the UK at the time of their writing.]] Thus, the books have gathered a large following amongst railway fans and adult readers, on top of children.

-->-- '''The Rev. Creator/WilbertAwdry''' on the inspiration for the series

->''"There was no doubt that steam engines all had definite personalities. I would hear them snorting up the grade and little imagination was needed to hear in the puffings and pantings of the two engines the conversations they were having with each other": "I can't do it! I can't do it!" "Yes you can! Yes you can!"''
-->-- '''Rev. W. Awdry on the inspiration for the series.'''

''The Railway Series'' is a series of British children's books that started in the mid [[TheForties 1940s]] by the late Reverend Wilbert Vere Awdry (or Rev. W. Awdry as he’s titled on the books). Originally starting off as small stories to entertain his son Christopher, thanks to a little convincing by his wife, he would go on to publish these stories in a short children’s book called ''The Three Railway Engines'' in 1945, kickstarting the series.

However, what the series is undeniably most famous for, and arguably the reason why most today are even remotely familiar with the books at all, is that they would become the basis for the hugely popular and successful television show by Britt Allcroft, ''WesternAnimation/ThomasAndFriends'', which began airing in 1984. While the books and the show shared a relatively close relationship early on, with Christopher even writing at least one novel for the show to adapt stories from, due to displeasure with the show’s increasing detachment from the novel’s grounded roots in favor of more outlandish scenarios after season 3, the Awdry family began to distance themselves from the show and the two would ultimately split and go [[{{Pun}} down their own separate tracks]] after the early 1990s.

[[caption-width-right:350:What ''WesternAnimation/ThomasAndFriends'' is based on]]

* CastHerd: The standard gauge Main and Branch lines, Skarloey engines, the Culdee Fell engines, the Small railway engines etc.

* EmergencyTransformation: Henry in ''The Flying Kipper''.

--> '''Policeman:''' Where is your cow-catcher?
--> '''Thomas:''' But I don't catch cows, sir.
--> '''Policeman:''' Don't be funny! (Looks at Thomas's wheels) No side plates, either! Engines going on public roads must have their wheels covered, and a cow-catcher in front. You haven't, so you are Dangerous to the Public.
--> '''Thomas's Driver:''' Rubbish. We've been along here hundreds of times, and there's never been an accident.
--> '''Policeman:''' That makes it worse. (Writes "Regular Law-Breaker" in his notebook)

* RefuseToRescueTheDisliked:

* FiveManBand: The engines on Thomas' branch line: [[TheLeader Thomas]], [[TheLancer Percy]], [[TheSmartGuy Toby]], [[TheBigGuy Mavis]], and [[TheChick Daisy]].