William Atkinson has narrated this article for you to listen to.
Ringo Starr is mostly known as the second or third best drummer in the Beatles. But for me – as for many children of the past four decades – he will forever be the voice of Thomas the Tank Engine.
This week marks 80 years since the publication of The Three Railway Engines, the first book in the Revd Wilbert Awdry’s Railway Series. The series is based on stories Awdry told to cheer up his son Christopher, who was recovering from measles. More than 40 books followed, alongside the television programme, films, theme parks and toys. Together, the franchise has been valued at more than £1.2 billion.
Despite its success, Awdry’s world has been condemned as authoritarian and reactionary. In 2009, a University of Alberta professor accused Thomas of pushing ‘a conservative ideology’ and relegating ‘female characters to the back of the train’. Others have called him ‘sinister’, ‘repressive’ and ‘imperialist’. A shadow transport minister once blamed the books for a lack of female train drivers, calling it a ‘national scandal’.
While these are rather silly comments, there is something conservative about Thomas. The engines puff around in constant competition and failure to follow the rules results in misfortune, derailment or punishment by the Fat Controller. In the first book, the engine Henry is bricked up in a tunnel for refusing to work because he is worried about damaging his paint job. Henry earns his freedom by helping another engine that breaks down, learning his lesson and once again becoming a Really Useful Engine.
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