Thomas turns 65!

Tank Engine Trivia: Fun Facts About Thomas

• Thomas the Tank Engine was not part of the Rev. Wilbert Awdry's first book. He was introduced in the second book.

• New characters are introduced every year with their own fictional back stories -- Hiro is the first Japanese engine and Victor is the first Hispanic engine.

• Thomas has found himself in many sticky situations, which have left him covered in jam, stinky cheese, sticky toffee, ice-cream, flour and mud.

• More than 80 million pieces of wooden track have been sold globally.  That's 240 million inches -- approximately the distance from New York to Paris.

• As of 2009, Thomas & Friends could be seen on television in 30 different languages and 185 territories.

Excerpted And Adapted From: Thomas & Friends 65 Fun Facts

Thomas the Tank Engine began as "Edward the Blue Engine" -- star of the many stories the Rev. Wilbert Awdry told his son Christoper in the early 1940s. Christopher, who was sick with the measles, would correct his father if he did not use the same words to tell the stories each time, so Awdry began jotting the stories down. Above, a sketch from Awdry's first manuscript of Edward's Day Out.