- “"Having told stories about engines, we had to have models of them too. During the war years materials were hard to get, but I managed to make, out of odds and ends of wood, a push-along model of Edward with coaches and trucks to match. I never got far as making Henry or Gordon, but I did make a tank-engine which we called Thomas. Once we made Thomas, I had no peace until there were stories about him too!"”
- ―The Rev. W. Awdry on Thomas' creation, 1961
Thomas the Tank Engine is the second book in the Railway Series.