View source for Barry the Rescue Engine (lost production material of cancelled "The Railway Series" book; 1980s)

{{InfoboxLost
|title=<center>Barry the Rescue Engine</center>
|image=LMWA.jpg
|imagecaption=The basis of the book's titular character, Barry.
|status=<span style="color:red;">'''Lost'''</span>
}} 
'''''Barry the Rescue Engine''''' was intended to be an installment of the popular British children's book series, ''The Railway Series'', on which the television show ''Thomas And Friends'' is based. The book was to be written by Christopher Awdry, the son of original author Rev. Wilbert Awdry.

Awdry wrote the book sometime in the 1980s and would have introduced the titular character Barry, an LMS Ivatt Class 2 2-6-2T, who is named after the scrapyard in South Wales where he was rescued. The book has been confirmed to heavily feature the owner of the railway Sir Topham Hatt (otherwise known as The Fat Controller).

However, the company that published ''The Railway Series'' demanded to have more Thomas-centric books, and refused to publish Barry's debut appearance in the series. This was likely compounded by the fact that, at the time, the television show based on the book was running strong and had catapulted Thomas into the spotlight. At the time, Britt Alcroft (producer of the television series) was under contract that she could only make episodes based on stories from the book. Therefore, it is likely that the book ''More About Thomas the Tank Engine'', a book specifically written for that reason, replaced ''Barry the Rescue Engine''.

Sadly, Barry hasn't seen the light of day since his debut book got cancelled, outside of a few fan-made projects made using the ''Trainz'' software engine. Considering the highly merchandised-based aspect of ''The Railway Series'' and ''Thomas the Tank Engine'' at this point, there is still a chance Barry could make his way into the official series. However, as Mattel has moved on from the books, it's highly unlikely.

It is likely that some drafts of the stories in the book reside with the Awdry family, and possibly some stories in the book might be in other books, published after ''More About Thomas the Tank Engine''.

In the 2023 Awdry Extravaganza, Richard Awdry (son of Christopher Awdry) stated that Barry was a LMS Ivatt Class 2 2-6-2T, not a BR Standard Class 2 (as had been stated by the Sodor Island Fansite many years ago), but also said that he didn't know if the book had gotten past the planning stages.

In the 2024 Awdry Extravaganza, Richard Awdry specified that it had only made it as far as a manuscript, however briefly mentioned three other cancelled books, of which ''Barry the Rescue Engine'' was stated to not be one of them.

==External Links==
*[http://sodor-island.net/railwayserieshistory.html History of The Railway Series.]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYjC8xHZWRE&t=4467s Awdry Extravaganza 4 Interview with Richard Awdry]

==See Also==
===Thomas & Friends===
*[[Thomas & Friends: All Engines Go (partially found test animation of reboot of British children TV series; 2019)]]
*[[Thomas & Friends: Day of the Diesels (lost original cut of direct-to-DVD film; existence unconfirmed; 2011)]]
*[[Thomas & Friends "Jack Jumps In" (found Alec Baldwin narration of British children's TV series episode; 2002)]]
*[[Thomas & Friends "Series 7" (partially found original music of British children's TV series American dub; mid-2000s)]]
*[[Thomas & Friends "Series 12" (partially found Pierce Brosnan narrations of British children's animated series; 2008)]]

===Thomas the Tank Engine===
*[[Thomas the Tank Engine (lost pilot episode of unproduced 2D animated adaptation of "The Railway Series" books; 1976)]]
*[[Thomas the Tank Engine "Down the Mine" (partially found pitch pilot version of British children's TV series episode; 1983)]]
*[[Thomas the Tank Engine "The Missing Coach" (partially found footage from cancelled British children's TV series episode; 1986)]]
*[[Thomas the Tank Engine "Season 3" (found original Michael Angelis narrations of British children's TV series episodes; 1991)]]
*[[Thomas the Tank Engine "Season 4" (found pre-recorded version of British children's TV series episodes; 1994)]]
*[[Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends (partially lost deleted scenes of British children's TV series; 1984-2021)]]

===Other===
*[[The Adventures of Thomas (partially found production material of cancelled "Thomas the Tank Engine" live-action film; early-mid 2010s)]]
*[[Jack and the Sodor Construction Company (partially lost episodes and production material of cancelled spin-off series; 2002)]]
*[[Storytime with Thomas (partially found Fox Family series; 1999-2000)]]
*[[The Thomas & Friends Institute of Innovation (partially found informational short film; 2013-2014)]]
*[[Thomas and the Magic Railroad (found deleted scenes of children's fantasy adventure film; 2000)]]
*[[Thomas and the Magic Railroad (lost test footage of 3.5" character models for British children's TV series; 1995)]]
*[[Thomas and the U.K. Trip & Thomas Number 1 (found Japanese "Thomas the Tank Engine" crossover TV special and music video; 1991)]]
*[[Thomas the Tank Engine (found original illustrated edition of book; 1946)]]
*[[Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends (found build of cancelled NES port of educational game; 1993)]]
*[[Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends (lost build of cancelled PlayStation educational game; 1999)]]
*[[The Three Railway Engines (lost live BBC broadcast adaptation of "The Railway Series" books; 1953)]]
*[[The Three Railway Engines (found original edition of book; 1945)]]

[[Category:Lost literature]]
[[Category:Completely lost media]]