Model Trains: Thomas And Friends

Thomas and Friends is a conception of the British television way of life inspired by the model train craze in the nation and its initial episode aired on British TV in 1984.  The title “Thomas and Friends” was converted to “Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends” in 2003 and was shot in Shepperton Studios. 

Thomas and Friends was inspired by Reverend W.V. Awdry’s book, The Railway Series, that mixes symbolism and narrative meant for kids.  For more than 20 years, the show has starred notable celebrity narrators from Britain and the United States namely Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Pierce Brosnan, and Alec Baldwin.

Thomas and Friends have made itself famous around the world by means of television export, publishing and merchandising.  A few of Thomas and Friends-inspired products comes in the form of shirts, mugs, blankets, bed sheets, and of course, model trains.

The Heritage Railways has even made locomotives with the very identical image 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 organised to draw visitors and tourists.  The extra revenues Heritage railways obtain and passengers and their kids riding on their favorite characters gives everyone delight.  Model trains are made after actual trains, but due to Thomas and Friends, that norm has been overturned and actual trains were made after model trains.

In the show’s first years, every episode was shot in a studio using model trains with live action animation.  In contrast to stop-motion animation that was the usual way in the time, Thomas and Friends used stationary characters and the style of animation given to these characters is by changing their facial expressions with interchangeable faces and the movement of the model trains themselves.  Character voices are uniformed because a celebrity narrator is the only one giving it. 

By the time HIT Entertainment got holdof show rights to Thomas and Friends, they settled on to change the way animation is made for it.  The application of model trains is still an indispensable part of the show but CGI methods made body and lip movements and facial expressions more effective. 

Even with this sort of upgrading to the show, people with more traditional taste opt to watch earlier episodes of the show because of its unique and plain method of animation.

A vast model railway layout was built within Shepperton Studios to where live action scenes were taken.  The German toy company, Marklin, is the one responsible for making and providing the studio with the train characters and the scale size of the locomotives is at 1:32 or Gauge 1 with a track gauge of 44.45 mm.  Movable eyes along with smoke generators were the basic special characteristics of the model locomotives for the show.

There is no denying that the popularity of Thomas and Friends has become a worldwide culture spanning over 20 years.  Children and children-at-heart have always stay tuned when it was first broadcast in 1984 and the show hasn’t lost its steam as millions of children stay tune to watch it. 

Model trains enthusiasts and kids alike will enjoy 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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