Thomas the Tank Engine - The Complete Series!

I'm pretty sure there are thousands of moms who are with me on this one.  That their son/daughter is stuck on Thomas & Friends.  Has to have everything Thomas; the little take n play trains, the comforter, stuffed trains, the little rug that can run their trains on, and all of the shows.  Yes, I'm describing what we have of Thomas for my little Thomas lover.

Now since Thomas was based on a series of books, I of course had to find the books for my boy.  

The series is called The Railway Series by the Reverend W. Awdry.  As a child, he grew up around trains when he lived near a train yard.  He would make up stories about each train that he heard since he felt that each train had a certain emotion and personality on just the way they sounded.  He then brought his son Christopher into the picture by telling him made-up stories about trains and even making him the trains as well.  

By the way, Thomas wasn't even in the first book.  He made his first appearance in the second one.   

Now, the Railway Series has 26 books (not including the books his son Christopher wrote after his father was done with the series).  And I didn't think it was possible, nor cheap to purchase each book individually (I did look at the prices and .... ugh.....)

So here was my solution:

Here is the complete book!  All 26 books with all the original illustrations.  It is pretty thick but I'll take the thickness with the cheap cost that came with it.  

I do enjoy the stories.  I mean, if you've seen the Thomas shows, you will understand how the engines work and what their personalities are like.  Many have argued that the Railway series is full of trains who are mean, argue and take vengeance on other trains.  But I don't know what they are expecting.  They are trains!  They are bold, hard workers.  They are the hard industry.  They aren't supposed to be cute, cuddly and have flowers in their funnels.  

There are few things to consider when purchasing the book:

As an American, there are a some words in the book that wouldn't be recognizable or understandable.  Awdry was British, and thus, he wrote that way.  

Sir Topham Hatt is known only as the Fat Controller in the series.  That was his original name.  Only in America is he called Sir Topham Hatt.

The pictures in the book are about 2.5 x 3.5 inches.  They aren't small to where you can't see them but it sure would be nice if they were bigger

But none of these deterred me away from purchasing it.  And I'm glad I did.  It's a fun book for Thomas lover, though the stories are long so they are best for kids around 5-6 years old.  

There's also a beautiful picture of the island of sodor on the front and back inside covers.  Plus stories about the author and illustrator as well.

 By the way, thanks kid for giving up this book even though it was an awesome birthday present from your friend/relative.  So sad.

So where to buy:

Here's a tip on buying this book.  BUY ONLY THE HEINEMANN EDITION.  This is the British publisher which, for some unknown reason, makes this cheaper.  It must be cause the American publisher is Random House, which is a worldwide famous publisher.

I purchased my book on Amazon, but there are two listings.  Since the book was published by two different companies (one in America and the other in Britain) they are sold separately.  The one sold in America is twice or even three times the price as the one from the UK.  So that's where I purchased mine.  On Amazon, via a used book dealer in the UK.  It's the same book, so just go that route.  The cheapest at the time I purchased was overseas and I didn't mind waiting the extra week.  But now they do have some American dealers for about the same price.

You can also find this book on Abebooks from the UK for around the same price.  It's also on Thriftbooks but this is where you will have to pay around $15 since the books are mostly in the US.
I prefer Amazon, so that's the one I recommend.  You can click on the link below to purchase