The Puff Puff Parson

The Rev. W. Awdry (1911-1997) observing his self-made model of Thomas' Branch Line.

     Today marks the 104th birthday of the Rev. Wilbert Vere Awdry (1911-1997).  This clergy man had made many a childhood with his creation of a certain little blue tank engine.  Originally written as stories to entertain his son Christopher when he was sick with measles, the Rev. Awdry's Railway Series has since held strong for 70 years and continue in the form of the television series Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends.  It has been very much a part of my life since I can remember and still is.  A lot of people like to think that the Awdry made a killing with his books, but all it really did was give him a new modest home and a proper pension for when retired from his service in the Church of England.

     He was more conserned with his role as a clergyman than a writer of children's books.  In Brian Sibley's biography of the reverand, The Thomas the Tank Engine Man, Awdry discribed his philosophy is that this is God's world.

He makes the rules.  We have free choice, we can obey or disobey; but we cannot choose to disobey him and live happily our way.  [...]  Like us humans, [Thomas and his friends] go their own way and, inevitably come to a sticky end.  Then offender has to show that he is sorry and accept his punishment.  But the point is, they are punished, they are never scrapped. (331) 

To put it simply, we mess up but we can be forgiven for it.  There is always a change to prove yourself.  It not a new thing, it can be found in the Bible.  The Rev. Awdry just made it easier to understand with his stories.  When asked how he wanted the remembered, the Rev. W. Awdry answered that he would want his epitaph to read: "He helped people to see God in the ordinary things of life, and he made children laugh." (Sibley, 331)  I certainly think he did.  Do you?

The original model of Thomas.

Bibliography
Sibley, Brian. The Thomas the Tank Engine Man: The Story of the Reverend W. Awdry and His Really Useful Engines. London: Heinemann, 1995.
 
"The Thin Clergyman." The Rev. Wilbert Vere Awdry. Accessed June 15, 2015.

 "Thomas the Tank Engine." Characters of the Railway Series:. Accessed June 15, 2015.