Can't remember the name, but this looks like one of the Thomas characters:http://abpr.railfan.net/abprphoto.cgi?march04/03-22-04/68083a_march.c_1950.jpg

Bob,I believe the engine you're thinking of would be "Toby" the tram engine. He came to the Island of Sodor to help out on Thomas's branch along with his companion, a coach named "Henrietta". Yeah I know, but hell we were all kids once, gotta love Thomas. Thanks, Taylor

Toby the Tram Engine![/url]

If I recall correctly Toby was purchased by Sir Topin Hat(sp) for one of the branches. It seemed that the side rods on a normal locomotive scared some of the farm animals and Toby was the solution.Some of Thomas details are sketchy as many of the episodes were viewed at btw 5-6am, when my little one got up. She would watch Thomas and I would fade in and out.... Tayor is right, as hokey as it may be..."Ya gotta love Thomas"

As a self-confessed viewer of my son's dozen or so Thomas videos (with him, or course :) ), Thomas was required by the police to have a cowcatcher and side plates. When Thomas complained it would make him look like a tram engine, Sir Thopan Hat remembered that Toby had just recently been retired, and had him brought to the Island of Sodor.Getting back to the original character, it is a now-extinct class of 0-6-0 Tram engines built for the GER.-James Hefner Hebrews 10:20a Surviving World Steam Project

Geeze fellahs, get it right....it's Sir Topham Hatt!And you call yourselves railfans!.....bow your head in shame.:-P

Well, he was actually "the Fat Controller" in the original stories. I guess that was too "politically incorrect" for U.S. television.On the subject, I picked up Thomas the Tank Engine- the Complete Collection at Barnes and Nobles or some such place a few years ago for about $5. It's a beautifully illustrated large hardback book containing all the Thomas stories. My kids were already too big for it (though both grew up watching Thomas). I figure it'll come in handy for the grandkids one day.

On opening my copy of "Thomas, the tank engine" (11th impression - January 1952) the man in charge was called the "fat director".In "Edward the blue engine" first published August 1954 he had become the "fat controller". The job title was altered in recognition of the nationalisation of the railways.Jim L.

Hmm, interesting. Rev. Awdry seems to have been a stickler for keeping technical details as accurate as possible.I remember being fairly astounded when watching the TV show with my daughter when I saw the episode(s) about Henry's steaming problems. This was initial cured by switching to higher-BTU Welsh coal, and after a wreck by a switch to a Belpaire boiler! The book also details the installation of a "new shaped funnel" (a Geisl Ejector) on one of the engines. Too bad some of Porta's engines couldn't have made it to the Island of Sodor....

Several of the Railway Series stories were based on true incidents. The story of Thomas falling in a mine is one example; the prototype is still buried today, and occasionaly there is talk of digging it up. Same for the story of Gordon being spun on the turntable by the wind.Yes, the Revrend Awdry was a stickler for details. In the back of the Complete Collection, there is a writeup on each of the artists. Notice that the Revrend Awdry wanted the artists to portray the engines accurately, something he had trouble with concerning the first artist for the books. While the engines themselves look a little cartoonish; I always though the remainder of the modeling in the TV series was pretty good.There is also a biography of the Revrend Awdry in the back of the complete collection. He was truely a railway preservationist; and was involved with some of the early preservation efforts. Several of his books acknowledge the narrow guage railways they were based on. In that regard, the TV series fall short of the original books; but they have been a success in bringing another generation into the fold of railway preservation.In one of the stories on the "little" (narrow gauge) railways, it briefly mentions an American steam locomotive that was converted to a stationary boiler because it rode too rough. I have yet to figure out if that was based on a real engine, and if so, which one.-James Hefner Hebrews 10:20a Surviving World Steam Project

Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington railway (2-foot gauge, Maine)converted one of their engines to a stationary boiler..But I have never heard it was because it "rode rough"..I thought the engine had simply worn out its useful life, and the boiler was then recycled as a steam supply for the railroad shop.ah, here it is..it was WW&F #5:"Notes: Built 1882 as for the Bridgton and Saco River Railroad as that road's #2, and served the B&SR for 25 years. In 1912 it was retired from a burned crownsheet, but the boiler was continued to be used in the WW&F's Wiscasset shops (for heating and keeping other engine's boilers warm) until the railroad ceased operations in 1933."from: http://www.wwfry.org/equipment/histloco.htmlScotScot

I heard that there were thomas The Tank engines at Illinois Railway Museum and at Orange Empire railway Museum so far this year.does anyone know if they used the real ex BrooklynEastern District Terminal engine or one of the diesels?I wish they could find a real narrow gauge switch engine to use at the narrow gauge sites like Durango, Colorado. Having seen the real thing in standard gauge the narrow gauge lacks something!Ted Miles

As you say Wilbert Awdry was very particular about accurate reporting of strange incidents on the railway. The loco which fell into a mine shaft was on the Furness Railway. The incident where a loco on a turntable was caught by a freak wind and spun out of control took place at Hawes Junction (now Garsdale) on the Settle & Carlisle section of the former Midland Railway. After the incident a stockade was built around the turntable pit to guard against repetition.Regarding the American narrow gauge loco which became a stationary boiler because of rough riding. Baldwin built 100 (I think) 4-6-0T locos to UK War Department order in 1917 for use on light railways supplying the trenches on the Western Front in France during WW1. After the war they were disposed of and three UK railways bought examples. The Ashover Light Railway in Derbyshire had six and used nothing else. The Welsh Highland and the Glyn Valley Tramway each bought one. Also a purely industrial line in Shropshire, the Snailbeach (sic) Railway bought one. On all four lines the locos were found to be very rough riding, especially in reverse. The Ashover had no choice but to use theirs, but on the WHR and GVT they were not used if anything else was fit. I has not heard of the stationary boiler story. The WHR has to use their loco in the last few years before the line closed in 1937. So it could have been either the GVT or the Snailbeach where the loco was converted to stationary boiler use.Source:"Narrow Gauge Album" P.B.Whitehouse, Ian Allan 1957.

Was the original British steam loco turned into a stationary steam engine because it wrecked the track the "Stourbridge Lion" of the Delaware & Hudson Canal Co. about 1830?