Only a couple of days into 2025 we all woke up to the sad news of Britt Alcroft, creator of Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends and The Magic Adventures of Mumfie passing away. A lady whose vision created so many happy childhoods around the world, and heavily influenced my interest in Model Railways.
I would like to take the opportunity to share a e-mail I recieved from Britt when I was 13 years old in remembrance of her.
Nearly 20 years ago (Ouch) before I joined any of the Thomas fandom, I used to browse all the Thomas related websites, including Britt Alcroft's professional site, apart from one or two pages talking about both Thomas and Mumfie, there was not an awful lot to look at but I would often check back to see if anything new had been added, and one day I realised there was an e-mail address.
So I decided to type an e-mail to that address despite not knowing whether it would go directly to Britt Alcroft herself, or if I would even get a reply. I wrote to say how much I loved Thomas, and that my dream was to meet her one day and go and visit the film studio where the series was made. (Bear in mind I had no idea that Britt was no longer working on Thomas at that point in time)
Time passed, I didn't hear anything,
and then one day,
there it was in my Inbox.
Dear Thomas,
Thank you very much for taking the trouble to contact me at our website.
Thank you, too, for all the nice things you have said in this e-mail.
I certainly won’t laugh at the news of you being 13 years
old. I always am pleased that Thomas (the blue one!) has so many fans of
all ages.
I do like steam trains and can even
remember riding in one with my mum to London from my home seaside town
when I was a little girl.
If ever I have another
opportunity to invite guests to a location where Thomas’ adventures are
filmed, I’ll remember your dream.
No- I wasn’t the
creator of tugs but I am the creator of Britt Allcroft’s Magic
Adventures of Mumfie, Shining Time Station and our new TV series for
kids called Scoobs.
Watch out for more information on this on our website.
Have great times!
All the Best,
Britt Allcroft
Looking back, its hard to put into words how I truly felt, but...Oh My God...It was really Britt Alcroft!
The most wonderful thing that could have happened had happened, the lady who heavily influenced my childhood actually took the time to read my e-mail and write one back, with no personal assistant writing on her behalf.
I was so excited!
So excited that I sent her a follow up e-mail proposing a new engine to
put in the series (As if she hadn't had thousands of those sent to her
already) I can't remember what I named my engine, but rather naively I
assumed she would consider making him.
Sadly, I never got to visit the model sets or meet Britt, but knowing how deeply she cared about her fans and that she kept every drawing and every letter that she recieved, it made me truly appreciate just how special she was.
Before this, I hadn't joined the forums or had any other friends who loved Thomas as much as I did, so to have had this e-mail when I felt the most alone with my interest truly meant the world!
Thank you for everything Britt, R.I.P.
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Image (c) https://ttte.fandom.com/wiki/
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