Thomas and Friends is a British children's television series, based on The Railway Series of books by the W. V. Awdry and his son Christopher Awdry.
These show deals with the adventures of a group of trains and road vehicles who live on the fictional Island of Sodor.
The show was originally produced with live action model animation at Shepperton Studios in England.
The use of moving models was seen at the time of the show's conception as an effective method of animating the stories. Locomotives and other vehicles were operated by radio, while humans and animals were static figures.
Stop-motion was occasionally employed for instances in which a human or animal character would move.
Hand-drawn animation was used in Series 3 to create bees.