Captain Conroy Reviews: The Three Railway Engines (80th Anniversary Special)

Written by Captain Conroy

Alright, hello everybody, it’s me Captain Conroy once again and this time I am here to celebrate as today is a most joyous occasion for myself and many other Thomas fans alike. Today marks the 80th anniversary of Thomas and his Friends’ humble beginnings. 80 years ago today the very first book, The Three Railway Engines was published and thus began something very special which to this day means so much to so many people all over the world.

So, to mark this occasion, I thought why not look back on the very book that started it all? I mean any kind of birthday is always a good time to look right back and see how far yourself or someone has come right? So, without further ado, let’s look into The Three Railway Engines.

Backstory:

The Three Railway Engines was first written in 1943 following Christopher Awdry’s bout of measles in 1942. To keep him entertained, Rev. Wilbert Awdry, taking inspiration from Down At The Station, drew engines in a row and gave them faces. Christopher asked what the sad engine’s name was to which Awdry called him Edward – the first name that popped into his head and after a little series of questions – he told the story of how Edward had a day out after a long time of inactivity.

Subsequent stories and characters followed including Gordon (whom he named after someone who used to play with his son and described in an interview of him being a bossy type) and Henry (another name that just popped into his head) and the Fat Controller who was at the time the Fat Director. Margaret (Wilbert’s wife) liked them so much that it was even her idea to get the stories published.

And for how unsure Wilbert was – it was a good job he followed it up as after perseverance and many obstacles to overcome (like paper shortages due to World War 2) the book was finally published on the 12th of May 1945 and even before it would take until the next book for Thomas to debut – it was an instant hit from the start. And it shows too as 25 more books followed after The Three Railway Engines and Christopher added to them by writing 16 more totalling it to 42 books. Sadly Christopher’s books may be out of print but they still at least left their mark as some of them got made into TV episodes.

To think eh? How the most biggest of franchises have the humblest beginnings. Mr. Men started when Roger Hargreaves’ son asked him to draw what a tickle looks like, Harry Potter came from who was at the time a struggling J.K Rowling, Pokémon was inspired by a Japanese computer geek’s bug collecting hobby and in the case of The Railway Series, to think it all started with Awdry telling stories to amuse a sick child.

The Stories:

So naturally we begin with Edward’s Day Out – which opens up with our dear friend Edward, who lives in a shed with five other engines. Poor Edward hasn’t been out for a long time which makes him sad – especially as the other engines are bigger and stronger than him and it’s not helped by the fact they boast to his smokebox about it. However, a kindly driver and fireman take pity on him and offer to take him out for the day which of course Edward jumps at the chance and goes out to pull a passenger train.

Already this is a very strong opening – it establishes probably the most important character in Thomas history as he of course stared in the first story and having the other engines be snooty and boastful makes us feel for him and how happy we feel for him once he’s steamed up and ready to go out for the first time in a long time. It also says a lot about the other engines when they’re cross about being left behind!

We further see that Edward is a kind and polite engine too as the coaches ask him not to bump and bang them and following their request, he’s so careful with them which is not only enough for the coaches to like him – but us too. Following this, Edward takes the coaches to the station where he collects passengers, but runs into a delay as the guard appears to have disappeared. He eventually turns up, even carrying a sandwich in one hand which can leave one guessing that perhaps he just went to get himself some lunch for later and just took longer than he thought he would. Despite the delay – nothing stops Edward from having a wonderful day, puffing up and down the line and greeting old friends.

And furthermore Edward does so well that the driver and fireman decide they’ll take him out the next day too. Shows how he may be old, but he still keeps kicking which really sums up steam engines in real life – especially preserved ones who still keep kicking no matter what life throws at them. Edward even tells the other engines this but doesn’t hear what they think as he is so tired and happy he falls to sleep at once, which concludes this story and moves us right along to Edward And Gordon.

Gordon is a very big, fast and powerful engine who lives in the shed with Edward and the story starts with him boasting again showing how nothing has changed from yesterday and boasts to Edward how he’ll come through with an express train during the afternoon and that would be a splendid sight for him. Edward being content with being allowed out goes to do some shunting and has fun doing it – especially making the trucks roll into each other and coming up quietly and surprising them. He sorts all the trucks only to see more trucks as Gordon comes through like he said he would, but…

So, what was that about pulling the express Gordon? LOL. Even from the start – it shows how Awdry had his way of dealing with boasting and giving karma to anyone deserving of it eh? Edward laughs at seeing this amusing sight of an express engine pulling a goods train and goes to do some more work, but is called to help when Gordon is stuck on the hill. His driver tells him he’s not trying but Gordon is insistent he can’t do it. (I personally believe he’s protesting) So Edward backs up and helps to start him off to which Gordon is able to run on freely after the hill, but Edward gets left behind as Gordon is going so fast. He doesn’t even say thank you and is pleased with how he’d done it. Sheesh Gordon, no one likes credit stealers! But nothing stops Edward’s driver and fireman being happy with him so they replenish his water and the driver promises to repaint him – to which let’s hope he managed before the weather changes as…

…rain opens up the next story: The Sad Story Of Henry. It’s about Henry who doesn’t like the rain, as he believes the rain would spoil his lovely green paint and red stripes. So to curb the rain, he runs into a tunnel and refuses to budge much to the irritation on the rail staff and the passengers. With the Fat Director leading – they try all sorts of things from pushing, pulling and they even try using another engine to push him out but nothing works as Henry still remains stubborn, which leads the Fat Director to doing something which probably upset a lot of 40’s kids.

Yeah, that. I agree with some people in the sense that yes this was a harsh punishment, but all the same Henry did bring it on himself for being so silly and stubborn. As far as first impressions go – this admittedly isn’t the best first impression of Henry that we could have got. Here he was shown to be quite vain caring for only his paintwork (which funnily enough became James’ shtick later on) and not caring once for his passengers. But naturally we can’t hate Henry, heck even I can’t as he’s my favourite engine other than Thomas. But we certainly can’t hate him after he more than redeems himself in the next story: Edward, Gordon And Henry.

Henry had now long since begun to see the error of his ways and wistfully hopes for a chance of redemption, especially watching Edward and Gordon go in and out of the tunnel willy-nilly while he’s stuck in there. We also get the establishment that Gordon is not only an express engine – but he’s the railway’s premiere express engine and is the only one strong enough to do it for which he is proud of – but his pride quickly fades as while he was hoping to taunt Henry on his way – he bursts his safety valve which creates a rather large problem.

The express is very heavy and Edward was the only engine available at the time. He tries his hardest but that doesn’t work – but Gordon, who clearly isn’t completely heartless, suggests letting Henry try to which the Fat Director agrees – so they let him out of the tunnel and Henry who is more than happy for his chance at redemption double heads the train with Edward and the two put on a marvellous show to which Henry is rewarded with new paint (choosing blue) so he can be like Edward and Gordon and the three engines are not great friends.

To which that concludes the entire book and what more can I say other than what a delightfully charming yet simple story arc this is? Three out of the five engines are established and later went on to be three of the lead characters in this series and the TV series that followed and for now all we need to know is that they work on this railway and the Fat Director is in charge as that’s enough. Especially as more characters and locations get introduced later on and even so – there’s nothing too complex to it, nor does there need to be a complex establishment – it’s just a railway somewhere with a British setting and it’s a very charming railway as we’ll go into a bit more detail in the next category.

The Artwork:

The artwork of the book is always an interesting subject to cover – forgive the pun as I’m currently show the covers of the book. It went through a few iterations before we got what would make up many people’s definitive versions for the characters today.

The first edition of the book was illustrated by one William Middleton. He didn’t put much effort into his drawings as he was delusional enough to believe the book wouldn’t be a success and it shows too. The scale between engines and people is way off and there’s not a whole lot of detail into the drawings and the engines themselves look more like toys, and I don’t mean that in a good way.

I mean just look at Edward here – does that look more like a toy than a real engine or what? Even in some illustrations – there is no visible gap between the locomotive and tender making them look like all one piece similar to the ERTL engines. No offence to the man, but I just do not like this look at all and I’m glad it didn’t stick. And of course I love the ERTL engines and they actually are toys so they get the free pass here. If I can say one good thing about Middleton’s illustrations is that the colours are at least nice.

Whereas if we look at the same scene in the far superior illustrations y C. Reginald Dalby – how much better does this look? You get a better sense of scale – case in point how massive the engines look compared to the people, the engines look far more like real locomotives and far less like toys and for how good the colours were in Middleton’s illustrations – that’s how much better they look here. Here you get lavish colours and a wealth of detail and scenery. Especially the English countrysides and general setting really gives one a sense of nostalgia for an England that’s passed. Heck some people may even feel nostalgic for a time they weren’t born in by looking at these illustrations – I certainly know I feel that way.

In Conclusion:

What else is there to say? It’s so easy to see how this kickstarted a very special franchise which has really stood the test of time and still endures even to this day – despite some franchise ruining decisions along the way but I shan’t be talking about those as I want to end things positively as today is a day of celebration.

The stories are simple yet delightful and this is one of those classic examples of how a story comes full circle and this was done by four short stories – each a few pages long and that was all we needed. Not a complex novel or anything like that – just four short, charming simple stories to put together in one book. Especially the later illustrations are delightful to look at and each character is their own unique character. But for all the simplicity – there is still so much of real life into it as the engines are based on real life engines and there’s nothing too overly whimsical about the stories despite the fact that the engines have faces and can talk.

Mind you, it helps that Awdry always had the mindset that he wasn’t merely writing for children – he was writing for a whole lot of people including the poor parents who would have to read them again and again. Furthermore – Narnia author C.S Lewis said how a children’s book was not a good one if it could only be enjoyed by children and he’s right for a whole lot of adults love these series too. They are entertaining and have the sort of repetition where it can’t loose it’s charm and all of these factors are why it is my great pleasure to award this book with a very strong 10 out of 10.

Well deserved too as naturally you could say I’m biased because of my love for Thomas, but that aside, if I was to think of anything wrong with this book or even a lot of The Railway Series as a whole – I think I would have to resort to nit-picking.

So, that’s that one from me – I hope you enjoyed my review on the very first book and if you would like to see me review more of The Railway Series books – please do say below as I would love to hear your input and I’m sure my dear brother would be more than happy to oblige with allowing me to do so. And until the next time – it is my great joy to wish the GOAT of my childhood a very, very Happy 80th Birthday.