Thomas often sees his young friends standing by the stream fishing. <br>It looks like so much fun that Thomas wants to go fishing too. One day, he runs out of steam and his driver fills his boiler from the stream. And soon, Thomas' boiler is what the driver is fishing in! <br>In the early 1940s, a loving father crafted a small, blue, wooden engine for his son, Christopher. The stories that this father, the Reverend W Awdry, made up to accompany this wonderful toy were first published in 1945.