proteusofthehills

[proteusofthehills]

[proteusofthehills]

Garf train…

I find him to be oddly endearing

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Humor me but I was trying to explain to my friend about how it feels to enjoy trains. Even as a novice I cannot help but romanticize them and wanted my friend to see through the mind of an engine or how I imagine an engine sees itself.

Imagine being so strong and nothing can really hurt you. You’re in a perfectly safe space made just for YOU (the rails) And your job is to go FAST as fast as you were made to be. Or to be strong and to be as strong as you were made to be. You were made to be fast and strong! There was intention in your design. Science, engineering, something real, something you aren’t taught to believe in the walls of a church. Power you can touch, see, and feel. You are imagination made real!

A person has to live under constraints and social pressure. And although you were made for people, their rules that restrict you like speed restrictions or what color you must be painted will never eclipse the truth of what you are and what you were meant to be.

Imagine being a thing built to work and LOVING to work and WANTING to work and when you’re tired, there are people who will fix you and you pay them with your work which also pays you! You are compensated by your mere existence and your usage! And people tell you you’re marvelous and strong and beautiful and it’s true because you are!

It’s like!!! Living an absolute perfect truth. And when you’re speeding down the track whistling as loud as you can for you’re meant to be loud and going as fast as you can because that’s what you’re meant to do; when you’re doing that, you’re living in perfect happiness.

The happiest one could ever be! No biological desire no concept of denying yourself your ultimate calling. Just doing what you’re made to do and loving it unconditionally. And being praised for it and never needing money because it means nothing to you! Incredible.

I just think it would be the most amazing feeling ever. But also!The saddest feeling to be broken! To be unused and waiting in a museum or a siding or a scrapyard. To be told you’re useless. To be melted down for some unknown purpose and to never feel the wind across your frames again and to never scream at your highest pitch that you’re alive and you’re loud enough to drown out the rest of the world! To be silent and only to take up space until you are removed from the beautiful rails and destroyed.

To no longer be what you were made to be. So cold you crack and rust away. And people only speak of your glory in past tense and blame you for things you couldn’t control.

Didn’t I do a good job?

Didn’t I pull? Didn’t I push trucks around nicely? Didn’t you get to where you needed to go? Did I ever treat your destinations as unimportant? Did I ever ask you to justify the direction I took you in? All I ever asked was to be what I was meant to be.

Now you say I’m too expensive. That I take up space. That no one will take care of me anymore. That I’m bad for the Earth I was made from and the living things on it I was made for. Why is this my fault?

Why is any of this my fault? When you made me this way?

Didn’t you benefit from what it took to give me power? Weren’t we all working together? I’m not sorry. I’m just sad.

So many times that came that never had to. So much work left undone. If I were an engine with my life cut short, how I’d cry over the loss of what could have been!

But no one would hear me. I can only be heard when I’m doing what I was made for. My truth only can be spoken when I’m given a voice.

I don’t know! I think trains are neat.

[proteusofthehills]

Happy valentines day everyone, have this Bertram gushing over his hand made gift :D

[proteusofthehills]

My Fair Lady.

my contribution to Britt Allcroft tribute art.

[proteusofthehills]

lots of doodle reqs from the disc and one oliver

[proteusofthehills]

also— did you know toby’s sideplates were orange in the tony wells book illustrations?

[proteusofthehills]

Train Observation

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Britt Allcroft, creator of the Thomas and Friends TV show, has passed away. It's the beginning of the year and there's already a celebrity death. She brought joy to millions worldwide through Thomas, and transformed the little tank engine into the global icon that he is today. May she rest in peace.

Thank you, Britt.

[proteusofthehills]

Rest in Peace, Britt Allcroft (1943 - 2024)

Hearing about Britt Allcroft’s passing definitely stings and I offer my deepest condolences to her family and loved ones. Her work on Thomas shaped my childhood and remains as one of my biggest influences for my own artwork. Rest easy, ma’am. You’ve brought smiles to so many children’s lives.

[proteusofthehills]

you, artist online. somebody has referenced you in conversation irl by your online handle and somebody else knew who you were talking about. somebody has kept up closely with your posts for a period of time like their morning paper. somebody found a music artist because of you, thinks of you when they hear them on the radio. somebody followed you years ago and remembers you randomly even though they can't find you. somebody has screenshotted and saved your posts and sent them in discord servers. somebody has made your drawings their lockscreen, added them to their favorites folder and looked at them when they're going through some shit, has sent them to their best friend and sparked conversation in private chats. your art in particular could be the source of a keen sense of nostalgia for someone. maybe they've even printed out your images using their home printer and taped them to their bedroom wall and they look at it every day and they never even told you. isn't that scary? isn't that awesome? remember this well.

submit to the mortifying ordeal of being known so that you may turn around and see the impact you leave and the light you cast on others.

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I don't know who to send this ask so I'm gonna leave it out here for the public because it just came to me out of the blue: locomotive literature

And I don't mean literature about locomotives, but rather literature written by locomotives

Train biographies detailing their lives on the railway and documenting how things have changed since they were first built

Ghost writers publishing literary works written by trains

Trains with human editors sitting on their buffers as they write down what their engines say and making adjustments for those especially picky or who's words cannot be transcribed because they will be banned otherwise (looking at you Duncan)

Just

Train authors you guys

[proteusofthehills]

Hi!

So as i'm writing this, I realize that the definitve season 1A video peobably won't have the credits for each episode, but if it did, would you ever consider reinstating We Didn't Start The Fire as the ending song for Branchline Work? I know it had to be axed for reasons that I forget, but I saw the og version with it on twitter a good while back and loved it since Billy Joel is my favorite musician and Ep. 3 is my prsonal favorite episode from season 1A. Also, will the unique ending songs be making a comeback in 1B?

I probably wouldn't use We Didn't Start the Fire, just because it resulted in the video being blocked in every country except the United States.

Some episodes in S1b do have specialized ending songs, things we've had in mind since the start, and whatnot :)

[proteusofthehills]

🚂+🚂=🏳️‍🌈? 🤨

[proteusofthehills]

a pile of silly from the discord!! some silly speed sonnys i did for my buddy @mindthegoop, a funky james from a collab piece (which was AWESOME!!!), peggy and sybilla being adorable wives, repton with a very innacurate headboard, and james gets a biscuit!

[proteusofthehills]

My favourite gag right now is people posting photos of seagulls saying "Edward sighted"