The Wonders of Thomas & Friends

Thomas & Friends (also called Thomas & the Tank Engines) is an animated children series about trains and engines that worked on the Island of Sodor.

We found the show to be very educational for our 2 year old toddler. He likes to watch the show on DVDs and also Youtube downloads on a daily basis. It keeps him occupied while my wife tries to have some blogging / internet time. We try not to use it as a "babysitter", so sometimes I also watch the show together with him. Our son has learnt a lot of words and phrases from the show. He also tend to speak like the trains, engines and people there, which made life very entertaining. He learnt his numbers from the trains and equipment's numbers too!

For those who does not know who Thomas is?..... Thomas is a cheeky, fussy little engine who wears #1 on his side. Joining him in his adventures on the Island of Sodor are his engine friends:

1. The cheerful green train Percy,


2. The moody red train James,


3. The proud but boastful blue colored train Gordon,


4. The coaches Annie and Clarabel,


5. Bertie the Bus,


6. Terence the Tractor,


7. Harold the Helicopter,


8. Jack the Front Loader (Shovel),


9. Cranky the Crane,


10. and last but not least, Sir Topham Hatt, the Superintendent of the railroad, is the kindly boss who keeps everyone in order.

There are also many other construction machines and trains that I won't list out one by one. We bought our toddler some of the die cast metal trains. Would you imagine what a fortune we would have spent if we bought them all??!!

Here's a bit about Thomas & Friends' history: The Tank Engine and his friends are based on the Railway Series of books written by an Englishman, Reverend W. Awdry. The stories were created in 1942 to entertain the Reverend's son, Christopher, who was confined to bed with the measles. That Christmas, a simple wooden train named Thomas was made for Christopher. This led to the creation of even more stories about Thomas Train and his railway friends. Reverend Awdry published 26 books before retiring in 1973. In the early 1980s, Christopher continued in his father's footsteps. He began creating Railway stories for his own young son and published his first story in 1983. In all, 40 Railway Series books were published.