The Railway Series

The Railway Series is a series of British books about the railways of the fictional Island of Sodor, including many anthropomorphic locomotives, the most famous being Thomas the Tank Engine. There are 42 books in the series, with 169 stories in total, the first, The Three Railway Engines, published in May 1945 by Wilbert Awdry. Awdry wrote 26 books; the final one being Tramway Engines written in October 1972. His son, Christopher, wrote 16 more between September 1983 and July 2011 with the first being Really Useful Engines and the final one being Thomas and his Friends. The books were adapted into the television series Thomas & Friends from 1984 to 2021, which has expanded into being a media franchise.

Nearly all of The Railway Series stories were based on real-life events in railway history. As a lifelong railway enthusiast, Awdry was keen that his stories should be as realistic as possible. The engine characters were mostly based upon real classes of locomotives, and some of the railways themselves were based upon real lines in the British Isles.

Audio adaptations of The Railway Series have been recorded at various times under the title The Railway Stories.