#(Gordon blows off steam with his driver and his Barrow plotting for a month but apart from that)

[mean-scarlet-deceiver]

man, those humans sure are mortal, aren’t they?

In the notes of my Fat Controller I vs. Fat Controller II analysis, @galinneall-dearg​ posed the question of how the engines might have reacted to FC1′s death. 

Actually, she first wondered how FC1 might reacting to knowing FC2 had ever... actually... punished Thomas for something (vapors)!

Curious, I looked it up, and Thomas had a limited amount of time to get up to any shenanigans during that window: 

... yeah, FC1 timed that retirement pretty damn well. (Also, btw: Am I stretching it to say that Henry was named after the governor’s son?) 

Had a brainwave about the main question of reactions to FC1′s death... I’ve chatted before about the headcanon that the engines tend to be terrible when it comes to human facial recognition and names. 

And tonight I was just thinking that, specifically, you could probably fool an engine who ‘ought’ to know your face very well by shaving or dying your hair or wearing something unexpected. 

So, I think you see where this is going... What if the engines never actually knew that FC1 (or FC2) died? 

What if, by adopting ‘the dress uniform,’ the Hatts have been maintaining perfect continuity as far as their railway’s sentient stock are concerned? 

I’m not even saying that the Hatts had to have done this intentionally, or that the board elected them for this reason... I’ve seen someone (the name escapes me, sorry) explain the Xerox generation, and a dude in 2011 still going about in Edwardian formal wear, as just “the Hatts know good marketing when they see it!” And it would be good marketing, both for family brand, and for the railway... railways do tend to go in for a sort of fictional ethos, complete sometimes with “mascots” and characters. (@brownsugar-chan​ has totally convinced me that at least one RWS/TTTE character is nothing but a figment of the marketing department’s imagination... though I reckon I should not share details without her permission.)

But, whether it was their first priority or not, the continuation of ‘the FC character’ would allow the engines unbroken emotional continuity over the decades... probably important, considering that as early as FC1 this railway’s controller has been so intimately involved in the day-to-day management, and his engines seem to have meaningful relationships with him. And I’m sure it’s been observed that happy engines do better work and more of it, so... the board of directors certainly would find that a persuasive argument: stick with the Hatt line, and never have the productivity downturn associated with an entire fleet in shock and mourning. 

I’m not saying I totally buy it, but it’s interesting...