The Awdry Extravaganza celebrated the life and legacy of the Rev. W. Awdry, creator of Thomas
the Tank Engine and one of the earliest volunteers on the Talyllyn Railway – the fifth and final
event for a while took place over the long weekend of the 18th, 19th and 20th July.
With 2025 marking 80 years since the publication of the first Railway Series book, the three-day
event was the ultimate celebration of the Rev. W. Awdry’s most enduring creation. The Railway
Series was first published in 1945. It grew into an international phenomenon, spawning the
iconic television series first narrated by Ringo Starr in 1984.
A keen railway enthusiast, Awdry first visited the Talyllyn Railway with his family in 1952. He had
joined as a member and became a volunteer guard on the trains, his experiences inspired the
creation of the Skarloey Railway – a fictionalised version of the Talyllyn Railway set on Sodor –
which first appeared in 1955’s “Four Little Engines”.
The steam engine characters on the Skarloey Railway are all based on real steam engines on
the Talyllyn. The equivalent to TR No.3 ‘Sir Haydn’ on the Island of Sodor is ‘Sir Handel’, who
‘visited’ the TR alongside Skarloey diesels, ‘Rusty’ and ‘Fred’.
The event was opened on Friday by the Reverend Wilbert Awdry’s daughter, Veronica
Chambers, who gave a short speech and wished everyone an enjoyable weekend. The event
saw one of the most intense timetables the TR has ever witnessed in operation, with 77 trains
running over the course of the 3 days – with not an empty compartment in sight! General ticket
sales across the event (day rovers, exhibition slots, evening events, special trains) totalled at
2661, 1020 more than the previous year’s event. By the end of Sunday the shop at Wharf had
been picked bare to the bone.
Our highlight train of the event was ‘The Talking Train’ – hosted by Tim Dunn and the Reverend
Wilbert Awdry himself. The passengers on this train were treated to a live commentary
describing the history of the Talyllyn Railway, reflecting the real-time location of the train along
the line, and how the history of the Skarloey Railway on Sodor parallels it closely, interspersed
with excerpts of recently rediscovered archive audio of the Reverend Wilbert Awdry reading his
stories. This was achieved with a new speaker set-up devised by the Railway’s S&T Department
and the event organisers that didn’t require any permanent or damaging modifications to our
original 1860s carriage set, which was in use on this special train.
Other special trains that ran each day included ‘The Picnic’ and Photo Charters hauled by ‘Sir
Handel’, alongside some runs with ‘Rusty’ the diesel! Some of the regular service trains were
billed as ‘Trains with a Twist’ and had an Awdry theme to them. Services pulled by No.4 ‘Edward
Thomas’ had an open wagon that had been dressed up as one of the old style open coaches
once seen on the TR with two replica BBC TV Outdoor broadcast cameras mounted inside –
recreating an iconic scene from both the Railway Series books and genuine Talyllyn Railway
history.
With help from Fox & Edwards Events in sponsoring the transport costs we were delighted to
host two more ‘visitors from Sodor’ at the event, these being ‘Duke the Lost Engine’ (actually
Ffestiniog Railway No.4 ‘Palmerston’) and ‘Mike the Small Engine’ (Actually Ravenglass &
Eskdale Railway ‘River Mite’). The former was occupied almost constantly across the 3 days
giving footplate rides on a stretch of temporary track laid at Tywyn Wharf, with the crew
reckoning each day equated somewhere between 17-20 miles, while the latter was strapped
down to one of our flat wagons and was formed into various passenger workings across the
event – much to the delight of all attending!
Another visitor to the event was ‘George the Steam Roller’, the famous antagonist to the cocky
‘Sir Handel’. In reality this roller was ‘Thistledown’, once owned by the Reverend Awdry’s very
close and well-known friend the Reverend Teddy Boston – who was immortalised within the
Railway Series books as The Fat Clergyman alongside Wilbert as The Thin Clergyman. It is
believed that ‘Thistledown’ was the inspiration for the character of ‘George’, so it only felt fitting
to have it come and take part in the festivities.
The world descended on Tywyn with visitors ranging from as far as New Zealand, Kuwait,
Poland, Japan and more. The sense of community at the Awdry Extravaganza events has
always been a big part of the experience, but none more so than this year’s event. A regular
feature is our “fan tent” at Wharf Station which has been described as a fringe event in it’s own
right with any and all available tables very quickly becoming a communal display of custom
made model locomotives based on the iconic characters – be it meticulously detailed 4mm scale
models or a modified ‘wooden railway’ toy all the way up to indistinguishable prop replicas of the
models used in the television series production.
Something prevalent at each and every event has been the feedback received from parents of
neurodivergent children and young adults – most who feel at ease at Tywyn Wharf station,
knowing that their child can be 7 ¼ miles up the line at Nant Gwernol sharing a compartment
with their friends they’ve made and met at the event, and not having to worry. The event and by
extension the Railway has become a safe space for those who may otherwise be shunned and
judged for their love of the Rev Awdry’s works and other quirks of life they may possess – and
this is something we are very conscious we need to foster and keep alive, for their sake.
The sense of community doesn’t stop at just those physically at the Railway either, a three day
YouTube livestream – perhaps the most ambitious in-house outdoor broadcast done by a
heritage railway – made the event accessible to those around the globe with a packed schedule
of exploring the festivities, including a race between road and rail vehicles almost taken straight
from the books! So far the event livestreams have accrued 33,201 views in total.
– Nathan spence
At Tywyn Wharf and Abergynolwyn stations there were exhibitions with material from both the
in-house Awdry Study Archive and Mattel’s Official Thomas Archives – at Wharf the exhibition
was themed around ‘The Three Railway Engines’ and ‘Thomas The Tank Engine’. A slew of
original artwork masters from the books, hand written manuscripts by the Rev Awdry and screen
used props from the television show were on display, with the centrepiece being a diorama of
Maron Station re-created with the original screen used buildings and featuring the original Ringo
Starr Era TV Models of Gordon, Henry & Duck – alongside a later TV Model of Edward.
At Abergynolwyn the Exhibition focused on the Skarloey Railway, with many props from the first
series to feature the narrow gauge line on display. A 16mm scale model of ‘Skarloey’ used from
the fifth series onwards was also featured, sat adjacent to a 16mm scale model of ‘Talyllyn’ to
highlight the similarities between the ‘Little Old Twins’ from Fletcher Jennings. Another focus of
this exhibition was the Rev Awdry’s own model railways – these being the OO gauge ‘Ffarquhar
Branch’ and OO9 ‘Ulfstead Road’. This was the first time since 2021 that both layouts had been
exhibited in operation together, with ‘Ulfstead Road’ still being in the care of the Awdry family
while ‘Ffarquhar Branch’ normally resides in the Narrow Gauge Railway Museum at Tywyn
Wharf.
On Friday and Saturday evening entertainment shows were put on at the Neuadd Pendre &
Magic Lantern Cinema respectively. Friday night featured a delve into some personal favourite
archive material from the Awdry Study from the organisation team before the main feature
began, which was a reading of the Rev W Awdry’s “The Railways of Sodor” lecture – with ALL of
the original slides for the first time since Wilbert was the one giving it. This lecture was
performed by Tim Dunn alongside the Rev Awdry’s grandson, and Christopher Awdry’s son,
Richard Awdry. Following the end of the lecture, Richard picked up the baton that his father and
grandfather have shared and gave the audience a short lecture on ‘Sodor in 2025’ – giving them
an idea of how the Island and its Railways have evolved since they were last written about in
Christopher’s Book 42 from 2011.
On Saturday, event co-organiser Daniel Long gave a retrospective view on ‘Four Little Engines
at 70’, delving into the first Skarloey Railway book, how it came to be, what inspired the stories
and of course the very emotional connection it had to Wilbert and the TR. Between each section
a story from the book was played on the big screen using the restored audio of Wilbert himself
reading the stories – utilising high quality scans of the original artwork provided by Mattel.
For the second story of the book, ‘Sir Handel’, something extra special was prepared. For the
first time ever, one of the original Awdry stories was filmed in live action with the locomotives,
rolling stock and railway that all inspired it in the first place. Utilising the audio recordings, actors
lip-synched to the Reverend’s narrations and 2D animation was used to bring the faces on the
locomotives to life. This live action adaptation of ‘Sir Handel’ has since been released on the
Talyllyn Railway’s YouTube Channel and has amassed upwards of 80k views at the time of writing.
Following this was a showing of The Adventure Begins, a 45 minute special produced by Mattel
in 2015 for the 70th Anniversary re-telling the earliest stories of the Railway Series for a new
audience, and an on-stage interview with ‘Thomas’ producer Ian McCue. To close off the night
‘Thomas The Tank Engine’ as read by the Rev Wilbert Awdry, once again using high quality
scans of the original artwork for the visuals, was shown to much acclaim!
Entering the Sunday of the event Veronica Chambers gave one of her Father’s sermons during
the morning service at St.Cadfan’s Church, with appropriately railway themed links between
other segments of the service!
While the norm for Railway events is to see a drop off on the Sunday, this was not the case for
the Awdry Extravaganza – with so many overseas visitors, they tend to stay for the whole thing.
So much so that at 5:45pm, everything came to a head for ‘The Grand Finale’ – a way to say
goodbye, for now, to the Extravaganzas – and what we think must be the most people ever on
Tywyn Wharf at once. All of the ‘character’ engines were gathered one by one, with chants of
the engine’s name when each one whistled while moving into position.
To quote The Railway Series Book 17 ‘Gallant Old Engine’, “You never heard such a noise in
all your life!” – whistles were blown, crowds cheered and applauded and some even cried.
Sales from pre-sold tickets, on the day tickets, merchandise, refreshments and more generated
an income of some £151,000 for the Railway – with an estimated £250,000 being introduced into
the local community economy with local accommodation fully booked and local eateries
completely selling out, even having to extend their opening hours!
While the Awdry Extravaganzas may now be on a break, there is no doubt at the Railway that
there will be continue to be Awdry themed events in the future – not only for the Railway’s
benefit, but for the community that transcends borders that has built itself upon our humble little
line.
