THE Island's bishop will travel to Wales to mark the centenary of the birth of the author of the Thomas the Tank Engine series.

Bishop Robert Paterson will travel to Gwynedd on Wednesday for a special ceremony in honour of Rev Wilbert Awdry OBE.

The Thomas the Tank Engine series focuses on a railway that is based on the fictional Island of Sodor so it is apt that Bishop Robert, as Bishop of Sodor and Man, will travel to the Talyllyn Railway in Tywyn.

Rev Awdry's reference to Sodor was deliberate as the then Bishop of Sodor and Man was a friend who he gently teased that he was bishop where half the diocese was missing and the cathedral was a ruin. He therefore thought it only fair that he should create the Island of Sodor to give his friend back his "missing" Island.

The Talyllyn Railway, which is hosting the celebration, has similarly close links with the books as it inspired the Skarloey Railway on the fictional Island of Sodor. By some coincidence the engines on this railway all had twins on the Talyllyn - Skarloey and Talyllyn, Rheneas and Dolgoch, Sir Handel and Sir Haydn, Peter Sam and Edward Thomas and Duncan and Douglas.

In addition many of the stories that the Rev Awdry wrote were inspired by events on the Talyllyn Railway where he was a volunteer guard.

Bishop Paterson will be tying in a visit to the Narrow Gauge Railway Museum during his trip, where a special exhibition will also be opened in memory of the centenary.