“GOODBYE, TOBY… WE ARE SORRY YOUR LINE IS CLOSING DOWN”

AWDRY, Wilbert. Toby the Tram Engine. Leicester, England: Edmund Ward, (1952). Oblong 12mo, original tan paper boards, original dust jacket. $850.

First edition of the scarce 7th book in the Railway Series, with 30 vibrant color illustrations.

In this 7th book in the series, Toby the Tram Engine and his coach Henrietta are retired from service due to lack of use. However, when the famous tank engine Thomas turns out to be ill-equipped to take workmen to the quarry due to his loud whistle and sleek design, Toby comes to the rescue. As a young boy growing up in Hampshire, Wilbert Awdry developed a fascination with railways as a result of his father's enthusiasm for them. When Awdry's family moved to Box in Wiltshire, Awdry would lie in bed at night listening to the trains on the main line of the Great Western Railway, located just yards from his house. He later wrote, "It needed little imagination to hear, in the sounds the train engine and banking engine made, what they were saying to each other… From that time there developed in my mind the idea that all steam engines had personality and could express it." When his son came down with the measles, Awdry began writing the first railways stories, which began a beloved series that ran for 28 years. "Not only does Awdry's splendid Railway series seem not to have suffered a jot from the passing of the age of steam, but it seems to have blossomed into a truly permanent landmark in 20th-century children's books" (Connolly, 29).

Book about-fine, dust jacket extremely good with slight soiling and a bit of wear to extremities.