Our story begins in 1917 in the sleepy village of Box in Wiltshire, England. A young boy lies awake in his bed, listening to steam engines huffing and puffing along the nearby Great Western Railway. To the little boy tucked up in bed, listening to the engines, it sounds very much like the trains are talking to each other. The young boy is Wilbert Awdry – later to become the Reverend W. Awdry, the creator of "The Railway Series" and the most famous tank engine in the world — Thomas.