Rest in Peace, Middleton. You might've not been the best illustrator, but you kicked off a legendary character that went though the biggest arc of the main characters.
Many people say that Reginald Payne set the groundwork for some of the character’s designs, but in my opinion, it will always be William (Bill) Middleton. Also, I just want this to sink in: He intentionally put no effort in because the book was about “Dirty, old locomotives.” I knew this info since 2021, and I still cannot get the word out enough.
Wonder how Middleton felt on how the RWS became so great after thinking it wouldn’t due to how in his mind it was just about “dirty old locomotives” as he put it, and I wonder how he’d feel now with how the whole franchise of TTTE is a big hit with what he said. And as for Henry; had he actually been illustrated as a 4-4-2 Atlantic rather than having to get a whole book about him getting rebuilt he’d probably end up with a book about regular everyday life things instead. It’s also still possible even without looking like Gordon him being repainted back to green would be considered so not all the engines would look a like just being blue. Henry would likely be taking passenger trains on the mainline more while James would likely be taking goods trains more due to their wheel configurations and speaking of the mainline, both would likely be considered underpowered for more heavy trains so maybe there’d be more bigger engines around for the mainline (possibly the other big engines from Edward’s Day Out staying in the stories instead of going out of existence).
Middleton’s illustrations are not great, but they are interesting to look at. It’s kinda crazy how his mistakes resulted in all the stuff that happened in the later books.
After watching the one about Reginald Payne's full life, I really liked that video and I was hoping that this video would come about William Middleton, because I believe both deserve to be remembered of their work on The Railway Series
Considering how Information about Middleton (outside his work on the RWS) was very sparse to non existent on the TTTE wiki, this Video was very exciting to see.
I think so. I've seen a bit of Henry Oakley at the NRM (not in great detail since it was in the maintainance area, not public display) and it bears a strong resemblance to Awdry's illustration.
Imagine how he would have drawn Thomas, Jamesand Percy if he stayed as the illustrator (I know there are other characters, but these three are what came to may mind)
TBH, I am not really interested in Middleton, as he clearly never put any effort into his illustrations, and even claimed himself that Awdry’s stories were about “Dirty old locomotives” No offence.
