History Trivia / TheRailwaySeries

** Ironically, the model of Henry on the Awdrys' model railway layout was just as temperamental as pre-rebuild Henry, likely adding to Wilbert Awdry's frustrations.

** Due to a distaste towards the character, Awdry originally wanted to have Henry KilledOffForReal, however due to finding out that kids loved the character, he decided to keep him around, but have him radically redesigned InUniverse to be a Black 5 instead.

** The original text of "Henry's Sneeze" stated that Henry's "sneeze" of coal dust and soot, over some schoolboys dropping rocks on trains, left the boys running away "black as [n-word]s". In 1972 this sentence was reworded for future editions, for obvious reasons.

* PopCultureUrbanLegends: ''The Guardian'' has spread false rumors that Christopher Awdry assisted in the murder of a transgender woman named Christine Chappel, who allegedly wrote ''Thomas and Victoria'' while Chris was busy. It's also alleged that Awdry had an affair with her, despite being married to Diana Scott at the time.

** On the mainland, the diesels are always shown as largely arrogant and think themselves immune to scrapping, from newer, more powerful, more reliable, cheaper-to-run diesels or electric engines. Indeed, it seems the series never acknowledges they are neither immune to time or corrupt heartless controllers (though some trial runners are sent away for bad behavior). Save for Pip and Emma, the High Speed Train engines, none of the other diesels shown in the books have counterparts still in revenue service on the Other Railway by the series' end - and the High Speed Trains aren't far behind. [=BoCo=], Bear, and Mavis similarly arrived on Sodor as their Other Railway counterparts were approaching (a sometimes premature) retirement.

** On the mainland, the diesels are always shown as largely arrogant and think themselves immune to scrapping, from newer, more powerful, more reliable, cheaper-to-run diesels or electric engines. Indeed, it seems the series never acknowledges they are neither immune to time or corrupt heartless controllers (though some trial runners are sent away for bad behavior). Save for Pip and Emma, the High Speed Train engines, none of the other diesels shown in the books have counterparts still in revenue service on the Other Railway by the series' end - and the High Speed Trains aren't far behind.

** Reginald Payne, the illustrator for ''Thomas the Tank Engine'', was to continue as illustrator for the series, but suffered a mental breakdown before he could start on ''James the Red Engine''.

** Ironically, the model of Henry on the Awdrys' model railway layout was just as temperamental as pre-rebuild Henry, likely adding to Wilbert Awdry's frustrations.

** Downplayed with Reginald Dalby, but still present. While he certainly put more effort into his illustrations than Middleton, he wasn't particularly invested in Awdry's desire to keep the engines up to technical scale and only [[https://www.sodor-island.com/cr-dalby saw the job as one of many commissions that he had to do]], seeing it as a way to fund family trips. The reason this is downplayed is because Dalby was still a professional, and thus did his job on that level.

*** A 1953 adaptation made using model trains was planned for BBC Children's Hour, and even got as far as airing the pilot, ''The Sad Story of Henry''. Due to being broadcast live and the BBC evidently [[AnimationAgeGhetto treating the model railway they needed as a child's toy rather than a serious hobby requiring actual skill]], the execution was sloppy, with an engine even derailing after points were set incorrectly. Awdry was critical of the poor handling as well as the "freely adapted" script, leading to the series being cancelled.

*** A 1953 adaptation made using model trains was planned for BBC Children's Hour, and even got as far as airing the pilot, ''The Sad Story of Henry''. Due to being broadcast live, the execution was sloppy, with an engine even derailing after points were set incorrectly. Awdry was critical of the poor handling as well as the "freely adapted" script, leading to the series being cancelled.

** ''Barry the Rescue Engine'', first pitched by Christopher Awdry in the '80s, has yet to see the light of day (it was going to be released in 1986/95, but the publishers wanted even more stories starring Thomas). With Christopher now retired from writing the books, it seems likely to stay that way.

* ExecutiveMeddling: The success of ''WesternAnimation/ThomasAndFriends'' led requests from the publishers for more "Thomas" volumes. Christopher occasionally worked around this by including Thomas in the title but only featuring him in one of the four stories.

** ''Sodor: Reading Between the Lines'' was created and published in honor of the 60th anniversary of ''The Railway Series'' after Christopher's attempts to get ''The Island of Sodor: Its People, History and Railways'' reprinted have all failed.

** Christopher Awdry was unsatisfied with the novel ''More About Thomas the Tank Engine''. The Awdrys had been pushed to publish more stories starring Thomas to coincide with the TV show and give it more adaptation material. Christopher Awdry found the final result rushed and disliked the final story "Drip Tank" due to the use of now outdated slang as a plot pivot. Noticeably "Drip Tank" is the only story of the book not adapted into a TV episode.
** To a lesser extent, Wilbert Awdry stated "James the Red Engine" to be his least favourite work due to being written hastily to meet a deadline.

*** The engine who would have helped Donald and Douglas with their workload, as implied in "Wilbert The Forest Engine", would have been an [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunslet_Austerity_0-6-0ST Austerity]], just like Wilbert. In addition Chris also had plans for a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BR_Standard_Class_2_2-6-0 BR Standard Class 2]] tender engine named Barry based on the stories of engines being rescued from the [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodham_Brothers Barry Scrapyard]].

* InkSuitActor: Or perhaps a case of accidental NoCelebritiesWereHarmed, in the 90's and 00's various heritage railways that had preexisting deals with the Awdry family to license Railway Series characters for events were legally threatened by the TV series creator Britt Allcroft shortly after Wilbert Awdry's death. This included the Bluebell Railway which owned Stepney an 1875 locomotive that had worn that name for nearly its entire existence, which Allcroft claimed was a rip-off of the ''TV character'' and particularly the Talyllyn Railway which had been canonically included in the Railway Series as a place where locomotives such as Peter Sam or Sir Handel would visit (being portrayed by their respective real life counterparts). With a deal inked with Rev. Awdry before the TV series creation to pay only £1 annually in licensing, the Talyllyn was able to avoid Allcroft's legal charges and retain the ability to let Railway Series characters show up on the railway. However since ''faces'' were designed by the TV show artists, the Talyllyn had to create custom faces which didn't resemble the TV show character designs to continue holding Skarloey themed events on the railway.[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nasOrrSq1Jc&t=3s]] This eventually lead to them creating a face for Peter Sam that resembled Creator/NicolasCage. No, ''really'' just take a look at it [[https://twitter.com/TalyllynRailway/status/768706917501919232/photo/1]]. Cue all sorts of bad puns from internet railfans about Peter Sam looking to "[[Film/NationalTreasure steal the Declaration of Independence]]" or screaming about "[[Film/TheWickerMan2006 the bees]]!"

** On the mainland, the diesels are always shown as largely arrogant and think themselves immune to scrapping, from newer, more powerful, more reliable, cheaper-to-run diesels or electric engines. Indeed, it seems the series never acknowledges they are neither immune to time or corrupt heartless controllers (though some trial runners are sent away for bad behaviour). Save for Pip and Emma, the High Speed Train engines, none of the other diesels shown in the books have counterparts still in revenue service on the Other Railway by the series' end - and the High Speed Trains aren't far behind.

*** The engine who would have helped Donald and Douglas with their workload, as implied in "Wilbert The Forest Engine", would have been a [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunslet_Austerity_0-6-0ST Austerity]], just like Wilbert. In addition Chris also had plans for a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BR_Standard_Class_2_2-6-0 BR Standard Class 2]] tender engine named Barry based on the stories of engines being rescued from the [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodham_Brothers Barry Scrapyard]].

*** The engine who would have helped Donald and Douglas with their workload, as implied in "Wilbert The Forest Engine", would have been a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BR_Standard_Class_2_2-6-0 BR Standard Class 2]] tender engine named Barry.

* InkSuitActor: Or perhaps a case of accidental NoCelebritiesWereHarmed, in the 90's and 00's various heritage railways that had preexisting deals with the Awdry family to license Railway Series characters for events were legally threatened by the TV series creator Britt Allcroft shortly after Wilbert Awdry's death. This included the Bluebell Railway which owned Stepney an 1875 locomotive that had worn that name for nearly its entire existence, which Allcroft claimed was a rip-off of the ''tv character'' and particularly the Talyllyn Railway which had been canonically included in the Railway Series as a place where locomotives such as Peter Sam or Sir Handel would visit (being portrayed by their respective real life counterparts). With a deal inked with Rev. Awdry before the TV series creation to pay only £1 annually in licensing, the Talyllyn was able to avoid Allcroft's legal charges and retain the ability to let Railway Series characters show up on the railway. However since ''faces'' were indeed often designed by the TV show artists, the Talyllyn had to create custom faces which didn't resemble the TV show character designs to continue holding Skarloey themed events on the railway.[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nasOrrSq1Jc&t=3s]] This eventually lead to them creating a face for Peter Sam that resembled Creator/NicolasCage. No, ''really'' just take a look at it [[https://twitter.com/TalyllynRailway/status/768706917501919232/photo/1]]]. Cue all sorts of bad puns from internet railfans about Peter Sam looking to "[[Film/NationalTreasure steal the Declaration of Independence]]" or screaming about "[[Film/TheWickerMan2006 the bees]]!" thanks to the Nicolas Cage look-alike face.

** ''The Island of Sodor: Its People, History and Railways''. The [[AllThereInTheManual guidebook]] by Wilbert Awdry, has not recieved any kind of rerelease since 1992, making it incredibly difficult to find and expensive to obtain. Christopher attempted to get it republished in the 2000s, even offering to buy it and release it himself, however all plans have failed, leading him to make a new guidebook known as ''Sodor: Reading Between the Lines'' in its place instead.

* InkSuitActor: Or perhaps a case of accidental NoCelebritiesWereHarmed, in the 90's and 00's various heritage railways that had preexisting deals with the Awdry family to license Railway Series characters for events were legally threatened by the TV series creator Britt Allcroft shortly after Wilbert Awdry's death. This included the Bluebell Railway which owned Stepney an 1875 locomotive that had worn that name for nearly its entire existence, which Allcroft claimed was a rip-off of the ''tv character'' and particularly the Talyllyn Railway which had been canonically included in the Railway Series as a place where locomotives such as Peter Sam or Sir Handel would visit (being portrayed by their respective real life counterparts). With a deal inked with Rev. Awdry before the TV series creation to pay only £1 annually in licensing, the Talyllyn was able to avoid Allcroft's legal charges and retain the ability to let Railway Series characters show up on the railway. However since ''faces'' were indeed often designed by the TV show artists, the Talyllyn had to create custom faces which didn't resemble the TV show character designs to continue holding Skarloey themed events on the railway.[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nasOrrSq1Jc&t=3s]] This eventually lead to them creating a face for Peter Sam that resembled Creator/NicolasCage. No, ''really'' just take a look at it [[[https://twitter.com/talyllynrailway/status/768706917501919232?lang=fi]]. Cue all sorts of bad puns from internet railfans about Peter Sam looking to "[[Film/NationalTreasure steal the Declaration of Independence]]" or screaming about "[[Film/TheWickerMan2006 the bees]]!" thanks to the Nicolas Cage look-alike face.

** Due to a distaste towards the character, Awdry originally wanted to write Henry off entirely and have him leave, however due to finding out that kids loved the character, he decided to keep him around, but have him redesigned InUniverse to be a Black 5 instead.

** The first versions of ''The Three Railway Engines and ''Thomas the Tank Engine'' (illustrated by William Middleton and Reginald Payne respectively) have not seen any rereleases beyond their original printing, making them incredibly rare and expensive, with the first version of ''The Three Railway Engine'' often going up into the thousands. In fact, the original 1946 version of ''Thomas the Tank Engine'' was considered [[MissingEpisode lost media]] for a long while until 2017.

* FanNickname: The red engine that briefly appears in "The Sad Story of Henry" has no name officially[[note]]The engine was intended to be James according to Awdry, however due to children questioning why [[SeriesContinuityError he's painted red in the story when the book after it had him in a black livery before he got repainted to red]], Awdry made him a different character instead[[/note]]. However, the ''Extended Railway Series'' fan project has decided to give him the name "Eagle", which quickly took off and spread like wildfire in the fandom shortly after. Nowadays, even those who are otherwise unfamiliar with the ''Extended Railway Series'' stories will often call him Eagle as it's become that ingrained into the community.

** Wilbert also disliked the illustrations of C. Reginald Dalby due to their lack of accuracy, culimating in him remarking negatively that his Percy looked like "a green caterpillar with red stripes", resulting in his departure and John T. Kenney taking his place shortly thereafter.

* CreatorBreakdown: John Kenney, who illustrated the books from ''The Eight Famous Engines'' to ''Gallant Old Engine'', retired after that point due to failing eyesight.

** Reginald Payne was originally due to be asked to come back to do ''James the Red Engine'', however a nervous breakdown he had due to issues in the Admiralty made him unable to do anymore art, leading him to get replaced by C. Reginald Dalby for the book instead.