List of The Railway Series and Thomas & Friends characters

The main characters of The Railway Series, as seen in the book The Eight Famous Engines. The following list describes the characters that have appeared in the British children's book series The Railway Series, along with the television adaptation Thomas & Friends, which ran from 1984 to 2021, as well as other media in the franchise based on the television series. The Railway Series is a series of 42 British books written by Wilbert Awdry and his son Christopher Awdry. Wilbert wrote the first 26 books from 1945 to 1972 beginning with The Three Railway Engines; while Christopher wrote the remaining 16 books from 1983 to 2011 concluding with Thomas and His Friends. Unless otherwise stated on this page, the technical notes come from actual notes laid out by Wilbert Awdry when he was developing the characters and setting for his stories; these notes are cited in his publication The Island of Sodor: Its People, History, and Railways. Introduced in The Railway Series Standard gauge Steam engines Name Number Railway Description First appearance Based on Voiced by (UK) Voiced by (US) Thomas 1 North Western Railway A blue tank engine who works on the North Western Railway on the Island of So