Toby (RWS)/Behind the Scenes

Background Information
Toby is a fictional steam tram locomotive created by the Rev. W. Awdry. Toby lives and works on the North Western Railway as their No. 7 engine.

He first appeared in The Railway Series book, Toby the Tram Engine, which was published in 1952. His last appearance was in Thomas and his Friends, published in 2011.

Front of Toby:Toby is based on the GER C53/ LNER J70 Class 0-6-0T Wisbech steam tram.

Creation
The idea for Toby came to the Rev. W. Awdry in 1951, during his family's annual summer holiday in Gorleston, Norfolk. Wilbert and Christopher Awdry were wandering around nearby Great Yarmouth when they came upon a dilapidated tram engine, became friends with its crew and took some photographs of it. Both father and son were intrigued by what Wilbert would later describe as a "funny little engine with a queer shape". When the holiday was over, Wilbert began looking for ways to incorporate a tram engine into The Railway Series.

Further inspiration came shortly afterwards from another tram engine. The Rev. Teddy Boston arranged for Wilbert to ride the footplate of one of the last surviving Wisbech and Upwell Tramway LNER J70 class tram engines. Wilbert was fascinated by the stories he heard about the tram engines, some of which he later incorporated into a series of articles about remarkable railways.

Wilbert considered authenticity vitally important and had his brother, George Awdry, research into a realistic way to incorporate Toby on Sodor. George researched into details of tramway regulations and came up with the solution of Thomas falling foul of the law on the Quarry Tramroad. Needing an engine that complies with the regulations, he sent for Toby. Wilbert incorporated his and Christopher's first encounter with a tram engine into the story by having the Fat Controller and his family discover Toby while on holiday.

It is of note that Wilbert wanted to go on holiday to Tywyn in 1951, but Margaret Awdry had already booked the holiday to Gorleston. Had Wilbert visited Tywyn that year, it is possible Toby would never have been created in The Railway Series.

Awdry's model
Wilbert began constructing his Ffarquhar Branch layout in 1955 at Emneth Vicarage. He constructed a model of Toby to go with earlier models he had made of Thomas and Percy. While Toby is based upon the 0-6-0 LNER J70 class, Awdry based his model on the earlier, but very similar, 0-4-0 GER G15/ LNER Y6 class, which was better suited for the four-wheeled motor-bogie he used to power the model. Since the last Y6 tram had been scrapped in 1952 and Wilbert had never seen one, Wilbert created his Toby with the help of old photographs and blueprints supplied by the Eastern Region's Stratford Works. This model, made in card and plywood, would last until 1979 when it went "into preservation".

The Toby model was very popular at the Wisbech Trades Fair, where Wilbert first displayed his layout, due to being based on a local engine. In 1959, the magazine Railway Modeller published detailed instructions by Wilbert for building a model of Toby in a "Railway Modeller Shows You How!" section.

By 1965, a spare Toby was required and this was built from a Keyser kit of the J70. It was powered by a Keyser motor bogie which, after ten years, was not performing as well as it should, so a third Toby was made from a Keyser kit for the body, mounted on a cut down Tri-ang Nellie chassis.