The first episode of Thomas and Friends first aired in 1984 on British TV.  The name “Thomas and Friends” was changed to “Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends” in 2003 and was shot in Shepperton Studios. 

The show is based on the book written by Reverend W.V. Awdry, The Railway Series, which highlight talking trains and other vehicles.  SinceEver since the 1980s to the present, British and American celebrities have been featured as narrators and a few famous ones among them were Ringo Starr, Pierce Brosnan, George Carlin and Alec Baldwin.

Thomas and Friends have made itself known around the world via television export, publishing and merchandising.  From shirts, mugs, blankets, bed sheets, and of course, model trains.

The Heritage Railways has even made locomotives with the very identical rendering as those of the characters from Thomas and Friends and they held special events that highlight these locomotives.  ”Day out with Thomas” is the name given for these occasions and these were created to draw visitors and tourists.  The added revenues Heritage railways acquire and passengers and their kids riding on their favorite characters gives everyone joy.  Thanks to Thomas and Friends, model trains have become inspiration on making real life-sized and functioning locomotives.

When the show was still on its early years, every episode was created in a studio using uncomplicated live animation techniques.  In contrast to stop-motion animation that was the usual way during the time, Thomas and Friends used stationary characters and the method of animation given to these characters is by radio controllers and simple facial changes on the character trains.  Voices and dialogues of each character always differ since guest storytellers are the one providing them. 

By the time HIT Entertainment got holdof show rights to Thomas and Friends, they settled on to transform the animation process.  CGI changed the show in a big way by making distinctive and effective facial expressions, lip movements and moving characters but even with all this, the use of real model trains is still crucial for the show. 

Even with this kind of enhancement to the show, there are a lot of people, especially those who grew-up watching it, are reminiscing to watch 80’s episodes of the show due to its distinctive and plain style of animation.

One of the factors that enable Thomas and Friends to have enjoyable stories and superb scenery is through its extensive model railway layout.  Thomas the tank engine and his train friends were originally made by German Toy maker Marklin and the scale size of the locomotives is at 1:32 or Gauge 1 with a track gauge of 44.45 mm.  The model locomotives were also specially made with movable eyes and smoke generators.

There is no denying that the popularity of Thomas and Friends has become a worldwide culture spanning more than 20 years.  Children and children-at-heart have always stay tuned when it was originally broadcast in 1984 and millions of young audiences of today are still fascinated by Thomas the Tank Engine. 

Model trains afficionados and kids alike will like Thomas and his friends as gifts or as part of their collection and Hornby is able to give this satisfaction with its Hornby R9071 Thomas the Tank Engine Train Set.

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