I adore these designs by Robert ‘Bob’ Gauld-Galliers. They’re genuinely beautiful as well as technically proficient, and historically accurate.

Each character would start as a written idea – just as you’d write a character for any TV series (naming them, often after real people, was particular fun) –then the bios were sent to him, and he’d dig out his big book of trains, and return the below, based upon real engines.

And everything was handmade on classic Thomas. The Shepperton workshop was like a 1930s factory, with fountains of sparks and the stink of grease, as metalworkers welded and ground, polished and oiled, day in and day out to keep the production, and the engines, running.

Until it went digital, and moved to Canada…

Their contribution to the legend of Thomas has been horribly underrated. So think on them, and enjoy these.

(And thank you James Gratton for supplying the missing facts!)

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