图书作者与内容简介

Brian Sibley is an English writer and expert in children’s literature, whose works include radio program writing and broadcasting. He is also known for his books detailing the production of various fantasy films. 

The genesis of this book originated in the 1980s when Sibley wrote and narrated a BBC Radio program, which was adapted into a television documentary in 1995. Sibley compiled his research and interviews with Wilbert Awdry into the first edition of this book.

我的观点

After hearing about the news of a brand-new TV show, you turned on the TV on the fateful day of October 9th, 1984. What greeted you was a cheerful-looking blue train, wearing a smile and eyes spinning with delight, it was then the narrator spoke those magical words, 「Thomas is a tank engine, who lives in 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….」 How do you feel about it? To me, it has been a charm that led me to the fantastic world of Sodor.

These profound lines define the childhood of many generations. Ever since its airing in the 1980s, the television series 「Thomas the Tank Engine amp; Friends」 (Later shortened to 「Thomas amp; Friends」) has taken the globe by storm. Many children immerse themselves in the imaginary world of Thomas and his smiley-faced engine companions, who work hard shunting trucks and hauling freight. He tries to get along with each other under the guidance of the stern but kind Fat Controller. Even after many rebrands and redesigns in its 39-year-long runtime, Thomas and his friends are still being enjoyed by millions around the world.

However, when people think of these colorful and cartoonish trains, few recall 「The Railway Series,」 the set of children’s books on which the television show was based. Even fewer understand the heart and soul poured into these characters by the series creator, the Reverend Wilbert Awdry, who started out the series as simple bedtime stories over 80 years from today. Through the course of many more stories and publications, he turned those simple fables into a passionate love for steam locomotives and railway history. 

The Thomas the Tank Engine Man illustrates a full picture of the life and legacy of Wilbert Awdry, a man who led people to experience God in the ordinary things of life, and made children laugh through his works. This book is written in excruciating detail, taking readers back to the era of Edwardian England as if the readers grew up with young Wilbert and experienced many events together, along with making connections and comparisons to contemporary figures of the period.

The most fascinating part of the story, I believe, comes from Wilbert’s passion and dedication to his craft. When his son, Christopher, caught measles in 1942, Wilbert told him stories and nursery rhymes of railway engines to entertain his mind and distract his pains. Because of the moments of family affection, engine characters like Edward, Henry, Gordon, and Thomas were born. While the stories increased in quantity, Wilbert spent much of his time refining the quality of the world where these talking engines live. Such quality was enriched in two aspects: innovatively and authentically. Together with his brother George, Wilbert created the Island of Sodor, fabricating hundreds of pages of history, languages, maps, and folklore that go back centuries, before Thomas and his engine friends even existed. Wilbert wanted to make Sodor 「as real as possible can be」 by basing his stories on actual incidents happening in the real world, such as train crashes, labor strikes, and even the appearance of real-life engines and celebrities. This made the Railway Series stood out from many of its contemporary children’s book rivals, which often contained elements of magic and mythical creatures. Sodor is as real as it can be. Besides the fact that its engines are alive, of course.

Besides quality, the book mentions the fountains of inspiration for various characters and railways in The Railway Series: Intriguing railways from across Britain, such as the Talyllyn Railway in Wales. After a family holiday in 1951, Wilbert fell in love with the charming little line with a heart of gold. The Talyllyn eventually saw their very own fictitious counterparts on Sodor, the Skarloey Railway. Its fleet of ancient little engines was immortalized as Skarloey, Rheneas, Sir Handel, and many more. Incidents that happened on the Talyllyn (some saw Wilbert himself as the main character!) found their way into Wilbert’s writing and the hands of many children. The Skarloey Railway has been described as 「the heart and soul of The Railway Series」 and the Talyllyn Railway in return cherishes its fame and association with Awdry’s literature works. What’s more, those children who grew up reading Awdry’s stories often ended up as volunteers and workers on the Talyllyn. In recent years, they even repainted their engines to resemble their Sodor counterparts on special weekends. This is not only an experience of reliving Thomas’s story but the faith in passing down the legend.   

Another crucial perspective that makes this book so enchanting lies in how imperfection makes perfection. The book honestly highlighted Wilbert’s flaws in personality. Stubbornness has always been a characteristic of his ever since he was a child, and many conflicts throughout his life could find their roots in his persistence on quality and realism. For instance, some illustrators oftentimes did not share the same knowledge or passion for railways as he did .Sometimes a component had the wrong shape, sometimes an extra wheel had been drawn. When they didn’t draw the engines consistently, Wilbert would write 「strong-worded letters」 to the illustrators to complain and lecture them about proper railways. Later on, when the series were televised, and the production crew began to write their own stories, Wilbert would often criticize the realism of the script, and how Thomas was 「crane-shunted」 into as many stories as possible. He could not stand how they could think they wrote better stories than him. 

Nevertheless, Wilbert had his reason. He believed that children were not as ignorant as parents who gave them credit for. Instead, children could easily spot mistakes and errors in the illustrations. Indeed, many letters from curious young readers has been written to Wilbert about 「Why do the coaches not have couplings?」 or 「Why did the engine not wear headlamps?」 This was where Wilbert’s peculiar quality shines, he took incorrect things, and worked them into their stories, crafting deep lore for his characters and railways in the process. Perhaps the most famous case was that of Henry the Green Engine. Henry was repainted blue just like the rest of the engines in one story. But because of an error on the artist’s part, he looked almost indistinguishable from another engine, Gordon. Wilbert’s first thought was to abolish Henry, but he soon changed his mind and wrote a proper backstory to make Henry 「fit in.」 Henry was built from a flawed design very similar to Gordon’s, and as such often had performance issues and bouts of illnesses. After a severe crash, Henry was sent away to be rebuilt into a different shape, and came back much stronger and happier, even helping other engines in need in the later books. This 「fit-in」 attempt brought an unpredictable impact. Many readers with physical disabilities often relate to Henry’s struggles, as well as being inspired by his eventual triumph. Wilbert’s careful adaptation of a simple illustration error resulted in one of the series’ most iconic and beloved characters.
    
When Wilbert Awdry passed away in 1997, his son Christopher had already taken over the mantle of The Railway Series for 14 years, and the television adaptation 「Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends」 had begun production on its fifth season. By then, Thomas had already departed far from those simple bedtime stories over 50 years ago and become a global icon. Children from across the world would watch the little blue tank engine working with his two faithful coaches, as well as helping and interacting with his friends. Little did people know that those children would one day become the spiritual inheritors to Wilbert’s passion and profundity.

To an outsider, the idea of a Thomas the Tank Engine fan base, consisting of teenagers and young ***s, would seem bizarre to the extreme. After all, the target audience of the stories had always been young children or even preschoolers. But these older fans have dedicated themselves to the world of Sodor, much like Wilbert had done, and built upon what the Awdrys had created, into something no one would have imagined. The Railway Series, and the television show, became a canvas of creativity, some retold and breathed new life into the classic stories, some recreated them with 1:1 hand-crafted models and computer animation of cinematic quality, and some even wrote their very own stories and created brand-new characters. Engines from real life, obscure sentences of the island’s history, and even those introduced later into the TV show just to sell toys are now bursting with personality or potentials that were never realized. Meanwhile, other fans would create video essays, detailing the history and geography of Sodor, as well as appreciating the underlying brilliance of Wilbert’s literary work. Many of these people would upload their own creations on online platforms like YouTube, where they would be watched by a brand-new generation of kids and teens, passing on the torch of Thomas into a new era.In the age where Thomas and his friends are often reduced to cartoony caricatures of their original portrayals, singing and bouncing around off the tracks. These contents made by passionate fans are a heartfelt callback to the dedication and attention that Wilbert Awdry put into the series all those decades ago. 
 
I was once one of those new generations of young children, watching videos online not only from the official TV show, but those made by older fans as well. In fact, watching these Thomas contents in English, actually had its hands in improving my language capability, which eventually led me to here writing this reading reflection. As I grew older, I started to appreciate the immense lore laid in-between these stories, understanding the heart and soul Wilbert had once poured into them, as well as developing an interest for the fascinating history of real life railways. Not to mention the plethora of Thomas fans I have met online who share the same passion, becoming good friends with many of them in the process. Now, I myself have also become one of these content creators, making my own stories and engine characters. I am playing my part in the future of Thomas, and inspiring the next generation to do the very same.

The impact of Thomas' story is beyond imagination. First, it presents the legendary world of Sodor. Wilbert’s dedication and persistence to the world that he created is what made Sodor so real, instead of just a land of make-believe. It is a place where even struggles of the real world would play a huge part in its history, people and engines. Second, these books have served as a gateway for those who crave to learn more about real railways. Readers of the books got to experience these accidents and incidents, and those who read the series well after its completion developed a curiosity for the events that drove the stories. Many railway enthusiasts will tell you that they grew up watching and reading Thomas, and the interest just developed from there, eventually finding themselves becoming engine drivers, fitters, and station staff on museum railways. Wilbert, in his own small ways, created many generations of young railfans, who would become an invaluable driving force to keep the memory of steam alive for years to come.