Railway Series

The Railway Series is a series of children's books on which Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends is based.

The books were written by the Reverend W. Awdry as a way to cheer up his son Christopher, who was ill with measles at age 3. The series had twenty-six books.

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Books                           Year Published

• The Three Railway Engines - 1945
• Thomas The Tank Engine - 1946
• James The Red Engine - 1948
• Tank Engine Thomas Again - 1949
• Troublesome Engines - 1950
• Henry The Green Engine - 1951
• Toby The Tram Engine - 1952
• Gordon The Big Engine - 1953
• Edward The Blue Engine - 1954
• Four Little Engines - 1955
• Percy The Small Engine - 1956
• The Eight Famous Engines - 1957
• Duck And The Diesel Engine - 1958
• The Little Old Engine - 1959
• The Twin Engines - 1960
• Branch Line Engines - 1961
• Gallant Old Engine - 1962
• Stepney The Bluebell Engine - 1963
• Mountain Engines - 1964
• Very Old Engines - 1965
• Main Line Engines - 1966
• Small Railway Engines - 1967
• Enterprising Engines - 1968
• Oliver The Western Engine - 1969
• Duke The Lost Engine - 1970
• Tramway Engines - 1972

All were later compiled into Thomas The Tank Engine: The Complete Collection

In 1983, Christopher Awdry, took over as author and wrote 15 more books bringing the total number of books to 42.

Books by Christopher

• Really Useful Engines - 1983
• James & the Diesel Engines - 1984
• Great Little Engines - 1985
• More About Thomas The Tank Engine - 1986
• Gordon the High-Speed Engine - 1987
• Toby, Trucks, and Trouble - 1988
• Thomas & The Twins - 1989
• Jock the New Engine - 1990
• Thomas & The Great Railway Show - 1991
• Thomas Comes Home - 1992
• Henry And The Express - 1993
• Wilbert the Forest Engine - 1994
• Thomas And The Fat Controller's Engines - 1995
• The New Little Engine - 1996
• Thomas and Victoria - 2007
• Thomas and His Friends - 2011

All were later compiled into Thomas The Tank Engine: The New Collection

Other books written by these authors

• Thomas' Christmas Party (Rev. Awdry)
• Thomas Comes To Breakfast (Rev. Awdry)
• Thomas And The Missing Christmas Tree (C. Awdry)
• Thomas And The Naughty Diesel (C. Awdry)
• Thomas and Gordon Off the Rails (Rev. Awdry)
• Thomas And The Hurricane (C. Awdry)

Trivia

• Christopher stated that he wished he hadn't named his fourth book the name it is.
• After a 10 year hiatus, the 41st book, 'Thomas and Victoria', was published in 2007.
• Most of the titles of the stories in the book actually are different than the TV series episode, but the TV series episode name is what I put on the page.
• In 2013, the first four books were released in digital format for Apple products.