Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends

Before the airing of the first episode of Thomas & Friends in 1984, previous attempts had been made to adapt Awdry's stories for television.[2] The first was in 1953 when the editor of the Railway Series books, Eric Marriott, was approached by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), who wished to use live-action model trains to re-create two stories from Awdry's first book, The Three Railway Engines.[2] The engines were portrayed by 00 gauge Hornby Dublo models and driven on authentic sets in the style of the original illustrations; the first episode, based on "The Sad Story of Henry", was broadcast live on the evening of Sunday 14 June 1953 from Lime Grove Studios.[2][3][4] Unfortunately, the live broadcast did not fare well: a failure to switch the points caused the model of Henry to derail and viewers of the live broadcast witnessed a human hand picking him up and placing him back on the rails, models moved jerkily, and all effects and music had to be superimposed.[2][3][4] By 23 February, news of the broadcast hit the front pages of the Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail; Awdry himself branded the episode as 'unprofessional', and the point-switching debacle as an 'elementary mistake'.[2][3][4] As a result, the second episode scheduled for 28 June 1953 was put on hold, and then later cancelled.[2][3][4] After the "Sad Story of Henry" fiasco, the BBC did attempt to rescue the project by offering to give Awdry and the Railway Series publishers greater creative control over the production of the episodes, but the publishers declined the offer, preferring to focus on publishing new books for the series.[2]

Nearly twenty years later, the BBC incorporated Awdry's stories once again. Fourteen years before Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends was aired, Ted Ray, sitting in a stationmaster's office, read out five Railway Series books between 20 September to 2 October 1970 on the popular children's television story-telling show