Thomas the sodding Tank Engine is the bane of my existance.....

[IntergalacticWalrus]

DS1, who is 2 years old, is Thomas obsessed.

My mother buys him lots of TTTE stuff, which is great, but it's got to the point where he won't play with/watch/read anything that's to do with Thomas. It's taken over his (and our) life!!!

Not sure anyone can suggest anything, but I juts wanted to say

I FUCKING HATE TRAINS!

Pruni.

God, my father used to put on LPs of locomotives. All the different whistles and noises... used to drive me, my mother and sister out of the house. Just be glad yours hasn't got to that stage yet.

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He still expects to admire each and every one of his holiday snaps. Has about four holidays a year. And every single one has either a train or a station or a goods yard or a ship in it (sailing is his other thing). But I am enjoying the train thing again since having ds, is very nostalgic.

(expects us)

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LOL at 'I like a good bridge as much as the next person'.

He is, bless him. Wasn't brilliant as a dad when I was small, which is why I feel warm towards engines. Because the only times we got to hang around with him were all train-related - going to some event or looking round an engine shed or something. It was kind of special, dad-time.

Blimey, I'm getting really maudlin here, had better stop before I get carried away with woe-is-me.

This has made me ROFL. I thought we had got through the TTTE stage but OH NO - good old Father Christmas put a set of Thomas Top Trumps in DS's stocking. Cue long wait at airport with DS(4) and the never-ending game, the memory of which still brings me out in hives

Pruni sounds like theres a whole PhD in there! (I hate that film too...MIL has it and ds watches it when he goes there.... - he insisted we bought Diesel N10 after that)

Oh edam, such lovely posts, thank you for trying so hard on dd1's behalf. Yes, Lady is a creation of Britt Allcroft's for aforementioned Thomas film. Annoyingly definitely aimed at girls as she is purple and gold. I believe that BA lost shed loads on the film, which may account for why the merchandising has now got totally out of hand - she is trying to recoup her losses.

I will tell dd1 your story about the Mallard, and about your dad knowing the Rev Awdrey. I really hope she never loses her love of trains, however baffling it might be to dh and I.

Pruni - the dds have five of those dvds.

Edam - just told dd1 how kind you have been on her behalf, and she thinks that you have gone to the Magic Railroad for her! She was so excited when I told her your Mallard story. Thanks again for helping her. xxx

Nearlythree, bad news, my dad says Nigel Gresley isn't out until September as she needs some work doing to get ready for mainline running. In the meantime, he says all the little steam railways do Thomas days, co-ordinated around the country so everyone gets a go.

However, in September, NG is running from York to Bedford on September 15th, and then from Walsall to York the following weekend. And my dad will be driving! Apparently NG has a corridor tender, which means while you are travelling, you can walk along the train to the driver's cab if you ask very nicely.

He doesn't think Lady is based on any real engine, either, sorry, so you'll have to find a Thomas day out and hope they have something done up to look like Lady.

Btw, it's been lovely to 'talk' to your dd - so nice to find a girl who is into trains. Do you think she'd be interested to know my dad looked after all the steam engines for the Rocket 150 celebrations back in the 70s (150 years since Rocket won the Rainhill trials - kind of the launch of proper railways in this country)? We had a school trip to look at his engine shed which made me very proud.

Which part of the country are you in? Can find you a steam railway if you give me a clue!

Revd Awdry was lovely, btw, but sadly my father chucked out all his letters in a very misguided tidying up operation at some point.

well, my mumk turned up today with yet more thomas crap. DS1 is in bed with cranky the crane as we speak

H, Edam, thank you so much. My dd1 has been thrilled to hear your stories, she most definitely will be excited to hear about your dad's connection to the Rocket. She has enjoyed this conversation, too. I will tell her that the NG has gone to the works! Thank your dad for me.

We are near Stansted Airport - think our nearest decent railway is probably the Nene Valley. We might do a holiday to Brighton and go to the Bluebell Railway.

The 'Real Lady' thing is a huge problem, dd1 is obsessed. Am seriously considering buying a wreck of an engine, sticking it in the garden and spraying it purple. Dd1 plays with her engines in the way other girls play with dolls, she really gives them characters and voices and acts out stories with them, sometimes I can hear them having 'conversations' which must be based on things that have happened at school. But she is also quite an enthusiast for the technical side, too. As I said before, I hope this is something that never leaves her. And it will be interesting to see how dd2 goes with it, she often watches their nostalgia dvds when dd1 is at school.

Thanks again, it has been so kind of you to share your interest and history with dd1 like this.

Hi Nearlythree. We are also near to Stansted and have taken DD to Days Out With Thomas at Colne Valley and also at Mangapps Farm . I think the next one is 16/17 June at Colne Valley.

Luckily DD was not too obsessed with TTTE - a mild level of fixation between ages 2-3 but now she is 4 she is not too bothered. Sadly more interested in Barbie, Polly Pocket and Baby Annabel...

NT, I think DS1 would get on well with your DD1 - he put my dad's Flying Scotsman video into the machine, pressed play and threw himself on the sofa, giggling, to watch it

Tyakit, thanks for the links. Isn't the track there really short though? I think dd1 would be really disappointed if she didn't go at least a couple of miles'.

Hunker - dd1 has her own Flying Scotman dvd. When my fil came over he said, 'Oh, look at that train going over that bridge', and dd1 said 'it's a viaduct actually'.

Dd2 changes her own dvds and she's not three yet. She's a bit heavy-handed though...

NT, I'd keep quiet about any mad ideas about buying a real engine, if I were you. I think buying steam engines is really, really expensive - doing the buggers up can cost hundreds of thousands of pounds. My dad used to rescue engines but those were in the days when there weren't that many people interested - just a few enthusiasts - and BR and private operators were scrapping steam locos. Now railways like the Ffestiniog, which he helped to rebuild, are serious businesses. Nothing wrong with that, costs a lot of money to keep it all going, just that it's not as amateurish (in a good way) as it used to be. My dad rescued a little blue quarry engine called Britomart that was going to be scrapped, for instance - these days I don't think anyone actually scraps engines.

Sadly my father has left his share in the engines he co-owns to the various preservation societies involved so we daughters won't get to inherit £££££££s. Hey ho!

Glad to have entertained your dd, has been an exercise in nostagia for me!

Um, think I mentioned on another Thomas thread recently, the story about the little lost engine is true. He's called Prince, and he lives on the Ffestiniog railway in N Wales. He really was lost and the Revd. Awdrey really did find him (he's the thin clergyman in the stories, IIRC). Most of the original stories were based on real incidents, like Thomas busting through the buffers and visiting the station master's family for breakfast.

LOL at viaduct actually! I used to correct grown-ups who would call engines 'trains'...

Hehehe, I like his thread.

I think my problem with the whole TTTE thing comes from a slightly traumatic experience I had when editing a book on Stevenson's 'Rocket' many moons ago. I cocked it up completely and for some time after endured the wrath of men who had devoted their lives to engines.

What can I say? I was young, I had man trouble. Steam engines were irrelevant to my life - if only I'd known what was to come

Thanks Edam - I wasn't actually going to restore it, just paint it purple! Do you think I could find one on eBay? Ah well, perhaps my dad can knock up something out of chipboard...

Thanks for the further info about the stories - I am amazed at how much of it is based on real events - I didn't know that about the Rev. Awdrey putting himself in the story.

Has anyone ever written a book with all this in? A kind of Thomas companion, with facts about the stories and some biography? O/wise one day all this could be lost and future Thomas fans won't know that a lot of their favourite stories were based on RL.

Oh, Snaf, poor you! I can imagine it - an interest in trains gives some men an outlet for that obsessional thing about collecting very, very detailed facts And Getting Them Exactly Right.

NT, found this site which has some info about women in railway history - mainly US but might interest your dd? here

Trying to think of other female role models... Olive, the signal woman at Knutsford in Cheshire used to let me work the signals (carefully supervised, of course). Electric signals were laid out in a diagram a bit like the underground map - you pushed a button to turn the signal red or green.

My 'auntie' Lottie (Edwards) was the crossing keeper at Minfordd on the Ffestiniog. Used to let us open and close the gates, which was a huge treat. We'd sit in her kitchen longing for the bell to ring so we could rush outside! Lottie used to provide lodgings for some of the young men who came up to volunteer on the FR - if they stayed out too late drinking she'd lock the door on them. My dad once got the ladder out to climb in through the landing window. Only to find Lottie waiting for him, armed with a carpet beater! Sadly Lottie died many years ago but there hundreds of now-grown up children who remember her fondly. Her cottage is still there, with a plaque on the door (crossing's automatic now).

I should suggest it to my dad, really, although the rights owners would probably just want to do their own version.

Couldn't resist this: doesn't say how much, though