Chuft- aims & goals
Children always have questions, it's how they learn. So part of the goal of "Chuft" is to try and find answers to some of those questions without taking away the magic from the Rev. W.A. Awdry's stories.
Our family also enjoys the stories about the hobbits from J.R.R. Tolkein and about Narnia by C.S.Lewis, but if you search on the Net, you'll find oodles of information on both of these. Both of these stories were being written at the same time as the early "Thomas" stories, and in one of the Narnia stories, the gateway to another, better world is found at a junction for a branchline. Thomas would be chuft.
Another goal of this site is to provide a link for older children and E.S.L. users who know and love these stories to learn more about the life and times of these tales, and especially the railways of the time. By the end of 1956, when most railways in the U.S.A. already had no steam engines and the Japanese high speed train was already been built, Swindon was still building steam engines some with copper caps to their chimneys.
And now the boring stuff. This site strives to remain within the ethics of the official "Thomas the Tank Engine" site run by Britt Alcroft. Having friends who are StarTrek fans, both the Awdry family and Britt Alcroft have been fairly free in what we can do, and I will try not to abuse that.
This is a Geocities free site, and that means no commercial use, asking for money and no nudity. Therefore, you will see no ads or appeals except for their little boxes and no pictures of scrap yards or dismantled engines or other vehicles. This limits are those I would want anyway, and this way you as visitors know those limits will be enforced. Links may be using other standards.
Please ask if you want to use pictures or text, or to make a link. The answer will usually be yes but ask anyway! To e-mail contact : jrye@sk.sympatico.ca .