#oliver the western engine (rws)

[edwards-exploit]

happy late 11/11!!! ... this was supposed to be a sketch.

[visionarylocomotiveworks]

Hope everyone is making plans for a great Summer time!

Here's an old piece I dug up from the archives. Hard to believe how much has changed in the 8 years since.

[ask-the-young-nor-westers]

Meet Olivia Greene

Bio: Olivia is the young daughter of Oliver's Driver. Named after the Famous Great-Western engine, She has a great respect for Oliver and Toad. Whenever she's visiting the engines, it's always a treat, as her bright smile and childlike joy is enough to turn even the deepest frown upside down.

Trivia: Olivia's greatest ambition is to be a Guard, just like her mother was.

[mean-scarlet-deceiver]

also, not quite related to Great Hate but is related to some stuff said therein; I don't think any of the Skarloey/Arlesdale/Culdee Fell books are bad (honestly i rate them all very highly) buuuuuut if there was ever another attempt to adapt the books for television or television-adjacent-media, I would probably just opt to cut the non-North Western Railway stories out entirely. (the railways wouldn't be straight up Not Canon, there just wouldn't be episodes based on the stories about them.) They're a bit of a narrative cul-de-sac in terms of the overarching story of The Books, and while they are all excellent I feel like the opportunity cost of adapting those instead of expanding on the existing North Western stuff would be too high... Insult to injury is that by doing this, you don't really impact the North Western stories at all besides a little bit of Oliver the Western Engine's content and that can be adapted around (as has been done before...)

Ooh. You make a compelling point about how you could have a very good adaptation by cutting out the smaller-railway stuff.

At minimum, if one did not want to take their literary axe that far, the writers should very much take the opportunity to come up with a better way to manage the narrative of the multiple railways. I agree it's a big weakness that the RWS flips back and forth after introducing other railways — it doesn't always feel like all these books are in the same series and the going back and forth can be jarring. It's understandable, since Awdry was constrained by writing them in the order than he created them. But with distance there is a chance to reconceive things in a better way.

TVS Series 4, I think, made a vast improvement by grouping all the narrow-gauge stuff together — showing the Duke rescue before Peter Sam's and Sir Handel's S.R. breaking-in is awkward, of course, but having a whole half-season devoted to the narrow-gauge railways helps the narrative flow immensely. Sadly I think for the rest of the TVS they fall into the same choppy waters Awdry did. Obviously plenty of people do like the narrow-gauge episodes despite all, but they are definitely not set to best advantage when a handful of them feel kinda randomly sprinkled within the other stories. The improvement TVS continues to make however is finding ways for "the big engines" and "the little engines" to interact, as in creating more and more locations with mixed gauges.

Anyway your idea of a fresh television adaptation of the RWS is so enticing. My ideal series would be 30-minute adult-TV-esque episode dramas (hey, we're dreaming). You could have a significant number of episodes that take a birds'-eye view of Sodor rail and, instead of being organized around One Character Gets Put in a Situation, are organized by some new development (a new service, coal shortage, dieselisation, key person retires, labour strike, etc.), then you can have an A and a B plot on two different railways and see the fallout.

(Usually the North Western would be one of the two railways in focus, just coz a lion's share of industrial activity and travel on the island is going through them. But can you imagine how cool and special an episode it would be to have a Depression-era episode where we see the Skarloey and Mid Sodor Railways trying to pluckily adapt and eke out their survival? And we could see the Skarloey, who seemed to be in the more precarious position at the beginning, still squeaking through at the end with one engine, one engineer, etc., and downer ending! at the very end we see the Mid Sodor is ruined. Cue silent montage of putting up "Closed" signs and boarding up windows and selling off Falcon and Stuart over sad music.)

It would, indeed, necessitate coming up with original plots, especially for the smaller railways (even if, again, the North Western probably will get a big share of screen time), but the fandom has shown that there's plenty to be done there. However, the goal is to cover all the classic RWS stories — just putting them into a larger context and thinking about the island's arc over the course of a season. Fleshing out the dramatic bits of lore.

The openers for most of the episodes would be, like, a little slice-of-life showing miners or dockers or farmers or housewives going about their life for a minute or two until the Pressing Need is shown and a hint of what the railways are gonna do about it appears; a bunch of men in top hats and tails shaking hands over some new venture; new track is being laid; or some piece of news reaches Sodor and then! opening theme song and then we cut to our engines <3

[jobey-wan-kenobi]

The Engines as Mentors

Okay but I'm eternally salty that TVS in particular—though it was RIGHT to expand the NWR fleet—failed to use the dynamic of the OG characters from the books all functioning as Mentors and Elder Statesmen to the newer and more obscure and younger engines.

It would have been THE way to effectively integrate the newbies (looking especially hard at you, HIT era). Like, some of the best use of the new characters already are when they fall into a mentee dynamic with one of the established characters. But the TVS writers really only ever let this happen with, like, Thomas? To a degree? And Edward? A bit? And then the best and most beloved BWBA episodes (BWBA!) are when Gordon and, again, Edward get more of this sort of material. And then again, in fuckin' AEG, the most popular thing so far seems to be Gordon's whole Grumpy Dad shtick.

But I think canon and fan writers should have done this with all the classic characters. After decades as The Famous Eight—erm, Ten—(but not Eleven—to me Oliver is in that category of newbie that needs looking after. which is what the rest of the Little Western spends most of his one book doing!) they are all  kinda old af and well-qualified and honestly just should be mentoring the diesels and younger steam engines and whatever wide-eyed newcomers are brought to the Island Where Fever Dreams Come True and Culture Shock Is Probably One Hell of a Bitch.

LIKE. Percy. Yes, absolutely Percy! He's inconsistent about standing up for himself or making good decisions in his own working life but honestly his instincts when it comes to others have always been completely on-point. And he never has any hesitation about acting on his instincts so there is a recipe here for big-brother success. He must be so wonderful with uncertain new engines. I think he would have been much better for taking Molly under his wing than Thomas, and he must be a god among many of the newer tank engines. Like the dynamic I tried to paint in my headcanon post about Harvey—Percy gives whiplash as your mentor because he will always support you 100% but sometimes he will suddenly make the most baffling decisions and if you are not, yourself, a natural chaos gremlin, you are just along for the ride and possibly dying of secondhand embarrassment. But again, you also get over it because no one will ever show up for you more consistently than Percy the Caterpillar Engine.

The BWBA era thing where Gordon winds up mentoring Rebecca is... like, fine, I guess. I don't have any complaints about it, but—as I tried to show in my ficlet with him and Derek—I think Gordon's most typical mentorships have two unmistakable characteristics:

it is insanely arbitrary as to whether or not he decides to take you on. if you wind up in his circle of trust you probably weren't trying or even remotely expecting. it is also hard for anyone else to understand why Gordon looked at a new engine and said to himself "Yes. That one." Because the way Gordon makes emotional decisions is utterly impenetrable—this is RWS canon. Why did Gordon one day go from being Pure Unadulterated Jackass Whose Only Thought So Far In His Life Has Been "Me! Me! Meeeee!" to the engine who (evidently? without?? snark???) suggested the Fat Controller let Henry out of the tunnel to take a turn on his train? Honestly we don't know but it remains Gordon's signature style. Why did Gordon do an about-face after James took the express and graciously decide James was his new buddy? Well, to save face of course, but Gordon is also not above a good grudge so it feels like a coin toss. Why did Gordon decide to be super gracious when he rescued Percy and Thomas from their RWS scrapes? No one knows but somehow these moments are so quintessentially him (even though showing up moaning and scolding would have also been quintessentially him). And—most relevantly of all—there is what I regard as his archetypal moment with BoCo. 'My dear engine! You SAVED MY LIFE.' 'I mean, you're welcome for getting rid of them but they were never actually going to kill you.' 'YES THEY WERE. THEY HAD MURDER IN THEIR HEARTS. YOU ARE A GOD AMONG DIESELS, STANDING STRONG AGAINST THE FORCES OF DARKNESS.' '... Sure.' Gordon logic is not the same as earth logic and his reasons for rejecting or accepting others seldom make much sense.

If he does take you on, you may not even notice. Gordon is very stuffy and kind of... emotionally remote. His mentorship style consists of long rambling bouts of relating/boasting about his own experiences and/or advising you, without you able to get much of a word in edgewise—but then, he does this with everyone who is ever stuck with him—and doing extraordinarily nice things for you such as pulling strings to get you the best assignments or upgrades but he'll do it all behind your back, so it might take a while before you realize. (But you'd better, because even though he deliberately decides to do these things in secret, he will also privately feel hurt and hard-done-by if you don't figure it out and thank him. Or at least exclaim happily in his presence and sing the praises of your unknown fairy godfather.)

So yes, mentor!Gordon is a lot like friend!Gordon and worker!Gordon. He is pretty damn high-maintenance but he is also genuinely quite worth it. What his relationships lack in... comprehensibility they make up for in loyalty and generosity. ALTHOUGH. It's worth laughing because I think most of the engines he takes on are decent, polite engines who perhaps have some self-confidence issues. Basically it's like any engine he meets afterwards who is in the Edward mould he is actually magnificent to, which is hysterical considering that one of the keynotes in early canon was Gordon bullying the shit out of Edward. (I still think that wasn't malicious though, and more Gordon did not yet have the remotest understanding of Himself, Theory of Mind, or How to Be a Friend.)

If you have self-confidence issues but you do not win Gordon's capricious favor, never fear! You have James. Who is even more capricious, but that's not to say he's never been the most faaaaaabulous mentor in the world, c'est ne pas? Look. I want to see James as the catalyst for shy newcomers having a glow up. In appearance and attitude. I don't think he does he often but it has definitely happened around twice. I somehow have never actually watched "Rosie is Red" or "The Fastest Red Engine on Sodor" while paying attention but I've been assuming that's exactly how Rosie's Confident Girl Arc went down. Maybe he could be a similar idol for Neville or Flora. Another thing that has happened twice is James just flat-out corrupting a couple of the Good, Buttoned-Down Boys and Girls. I still want to see James take, like, Porter or Arthur and teach 'em anger. Introduce them to the world of (tiny) rebellions. By the time James is done with them, they are starting to Display Behaviors, and Act In Certain Ways.

Henry, I firmly believe (sticking out my tongue at most of the TVS and magazine writing for him), is actually regarded very intimidating. Like Gordon and James are intimidating too, but they are also known jackasses and the universe is known to have slapped them around reliably when they get too far up their own tenders. Also Gordon usually puts on an air of affability—in RWS it's Henry who is the Grumpy One (and meanwhile James, though he has a foul temper, is just too ADHD to be properly intimidating). I suspect Henry's actually always had the reputation for being extremely snobbish. Which is silly because he's only mildly to moderately snobbish, but there you are. He also doesn't put himself out there socially, but of course if you put yourself out there to him he's perfectly friendly. Anyway newcomers and young engines wouldn't know this right away. I think Henry's specialty is mentees in the mold of Bear and my OC Laura and even Rebecca—extroverted, expressive engines who show him respect. In those cases you see his best side, all kindliness and unstinting support. And Henry's support is really valuable, for the usual reasons that all the OGs have a lot of pull on the railway but also because Henry is surprisingly sage and sensible. He doesn't have the reputation for it the way Edward does, due to some of his notoriously poor decision-making in his earlier years and the way he can still sometimes be a bit literal or naive. But even if he's had to learn most things the hard way, he hasn't lied to himself about it and therefore he's developed a very clear-eyed view on things. Refreshingly simple and sound. We see this already in the RWS Super Rescue—he's got Bear and Spamcan pretty well-pegged long before the story ends. He also values engine solidarity in a really consistent, utterly unpretentious way that shows you he doesn't even think about it, it's just become a part of who he is. I love it. And, of course, he's bold as brass. He once hissed steam at his boss and essentially told him to fuck off for no better reason than it was raining and he just wasn't feelin' it. He had the most horrid wreck in the series and after being rebuilt he just got right back on that horse, pulling Flying Kippers again for the next century without the slightest sign of trauma. So if you need him for something, he won't hesitate to move earth and heaven for a friend. He may be a bit of a hypochondriac and likes to predict doom and gloom but he is fundamentally pretty fearless when it comes time for action. (Cut him a break with the elephant thing—he's allowed to have tunnel-related trauma, okay?)

Of course there was one extroverted engine inclined to hero-worship that Henry rejected in canon as a mentee, and that was Philip. Which brings us to Edward, and I fully agree with the fandom consensus that he is the mentor ever, capable of and inclined to look out for, like, everyone. All I'm saying is that I think the others can also step up in this way... Anyway, Edward's specialty of course is engines who are in the mould of Thomas, engines who are excited and eager to work but who talk a lot and might have a streak of mischief and who are definitely considered Too Much by everyone else. Edward likes energetic gremlins. They've always kept him young at heart. And, more importantly, they trust him so completely. Probably because they can tell he's one of the few who genuinely doesn't mind them at what everyone else considers their Most Annoying. He never tells them to hold still or quiet down or make themselves smaller in any way, so they are incredibly receptive to whatever he does tell them.

But what if you're Too Much and you are not eager? If you are not susceptible to admiring Edward's stellar work ethic? I think this is where Thomas shines. Like I think HIT abbreviated and simplified the conflicts with Dennis and Billy too much but it was such a gold mine. Because Thomas, see. You get these little sneaky rotters who don't want to listen to anyone—and at first Thomas seems like the most out-of-touch engine on the rails. Coz Thomas is a tryhard. He also has that whole "corporate positivity" thing going on. Like, the way I resolve the way TVS massacring my boy is by supposing that, after all, Thomas might have really tried to adopt that persona, especially in the '80s when he was inducted into the National Collection and the, well, television series got underway and Thomas becomes damn near the most famous locomotive in the world, certainly he knows he is an icon for children, and he might have figured that, well, this means I have to be a Good Role Model and Teach Children Valuable Lessons. And so he really did try to do this whole pep-talk, moralizing, sugary sweet encouragement thing (and he has a Word of the Day calendar, lol).

And the Dennises and Billies of the world look at that and—understandably, I think—retch a little. But then they double down. And the thing is, when they push Thomas too far, Thomas forgets to be sweetness and light, and just becomes himself. First of all, a foul-mouthed little drill-sergeant wannabe ("Cinders and ashes!!!!" "Who's been late every afternoon this week?!" "You're too fat—you need exercise!" "IF YOU DIE? IF YOU DIE, MOTHERFUCKER? SO WHAT?! I WOULDN'T GIVE A SHIT COZ I'D BE TOO BUSY FINALLY RUNNING MY GODDAMN TRAIN TO TIME." - all direct quotes from Thomas the Tank Engine, ladies and gents) Secondly, an extremely experienced engine who really has done a bit of everything by this point (he even hitched a ride on the Wild Nor'wester that one time, lol) and who is pretty skeptical so he's hard to fool (Percy was the last engine to really ever get one over on him, during the Ghost Train incident, and that's ancient history by this point). If you try to get away with doing a shitty job he's bound to notice and he will be quite acid-tongued if you've pierced his PR Persona. Third, although he can be kinda self-involved and the last to "get" what's going on with newcomers, he is surrounded by his old friends, who are all pretty good about either clocking an engine's whole Deal, getting all the tea like the gossips they are, or both. So while he was still in his amiable-idiot stage of your acquaintance, you, poor rebellious fool, thought you had the run of things but all the while he was getting up to speed on your whole deal. Which means you won't be prepared, should you really commit to ongoing antisocial behavior, for Thomas the Beacon of Children Everywhere to abruptly cast up your entire life story to you and to read it for filth, telling you the merciless truth about yourself in a way that the other engines pieced together but with which they probably never hit you deadass between the eyes.

Of course, this doesn't mean the would-be punks and malcontents who get onto Sodor are instantly cured, lol (though it has gone down that way a few times—my alternate version of Billy's intro story would feature an end where he's just gobsmacked into submission). Sometimes it just means you are going to decide Thomas is your Hated Enemy for Life, but you know what? You will have to step up your game in order to compete with him or even to gain enough clout to try and sabotage him so you're still playing into his hand (if we accept TVS's idea that 'Devious Diesel' did become a part of the Sodor family, I think this is how he was successfully integrated. At some point Thomas unexpectedly read him the riot act and Diesel was like 'who the FUCK are you?? like i know i already had beef with all the main line engines but where the hell did YOU come from???' but then after decades of competition they are essentially frenemies). But mostly the thing is, you are shell-shocked for just long enough, and you'd probably shift to being a bigger asshole than before... but, during that period where you're still burned, you are also looking at all of Sodor and every engine on it with fresh eyes (because if Thomas the Merchandise Engine could ream you out like that, perhaps you underestimated everything about this place). And you are noticing something else. Once Thomas has scalded you with his bitchery, he's also your friend. It's almost his version of sharing his lunch with you on the playground. (Something something salt and vinegar.) For all he rode Henry so hard from some of the earliest days of canon, I bet you he also beat down any 'outsiders' who took shots at him. For all he and Percy squabble, they are the closest of friends (and they weren't! for decades! but the more they squabbled, the closer they got). Getting into a knock-down fistfight is alarmingly close to Thomas's love language, and by the time he's savaged you verbally he is also invested in you. Once he's told you what he really thinks of you, he's also going to start showing up for you genuinely.

And that's when the little shits see the final side of Thomas. The genuine good humor. Obviously it doesn't win over everyone but there is a real groundedness and humility that I am sure Thomas can show (I tried to show this in the fic I made with @shinygoku based off their artwork of Thomas and Daisy) that is hard to resist. He's also fucked up along the way in every way imaginable so even when he side-eyes you, he's not looking down at you. I can just see him showing screw-ups a lot of grace so long as they let down their guard even somewhat because he's been there. Hoo boy, has he been there. That's why kids actually love him (it's not your vocabulary lessons and beaming smile, Thom, though the effort is appreciated), and it's why young engines can wind up loving him too. He doesn't hold what you've done in the past against you; he genuinely believes in second chances (and third, and...). Plus he knows every engine needs some excitement and responsibility in their lives. He has never forgotten the insanity-inducing frustration of being tethered to Vicarstown station.

Basically, once you cut past Thomas's earnest (and bullshit) attempt to be Perfect Kids' Role Model, he's actually always been great at keeping it real. And that's where a genuine respect can often grow.

[www-islandofsodor]

Sodor Rebirth Headcanon:

Toby and Molly would easily be the firmest of friends. Both are very fond of teasing James and given the fact that they are both from the same great eastern railway, it’s no shock that they get along like a house on fire

Ever since Toby helped to replant Henry’s Forest, he and the big green engine have been the firmest of friends for many years. Hell, whenever Henry stops by Elsbridge Junction, he’ll only ever want to talk with Toby.

Duck and Oliver’s relationship in the beginning was very similar to Thomas & Percy’s from the RWS. The slight difference being that they only butt heads whenever the topic of “Great Western” comes up in conversation. Otherwise they would be described as reluctant coworkers with a begrudging professional respect.

Percy is the only tank engine on the whole of Sodor that can keep Duck and Oliver in order. Given that he and Oliver both had put up with egotistical engines in their lifetimes (Thomas and Duck respectively), it’s no shock that they get along like a house on fire.

Percy’s actual best friends are: Toby, Oliver, Duck, and Mavis (his girlfriend)

Toby’s actual best friends are: Percy, Henry, Belle (his girlfriend), & Molly

Thomas’s actual best friend is Gordon. But their dynamic is definitely that of a father-son duo

[feigeroman]

The New NWR Stocklist

As you'll no doubt be aware, about 90% of my Thomas output on this blog concerns my interpretation of the NWR locomotive roster - be it headcanons about our famous heroes, or write-ups on my metric shit-ton of OCs. You may remember I posted a stocklist, which neatly doubled up as a hub for all those headcanons and write-ups. For the benefit of those who haven't already see that post, I'll briefly summarize:

I've always thought that the NWR, as seen in both the RWS and TVS, seemed rather understaffed - only a dozen or so engines are ever seen in the former, with the latter expanding this to about 40 engines. Canonically, though, the NWR is said to have about 80 engines to its name, with the vast majority going undocumented officially.

So I took it upon myself to expand the visible fleet accordingly, deftly mixing elements from the RWS, TVS and my own ideas. Taking a leaf out of the Extended Railway Series, I limited myself to eighty steam engines, and thirty diesels, the names of which are listed under the break.

Now, the main purpose of this new stocklist is to showcase a substantial rethink I've had regarding the numbering sequence. To cut a long story short, I've massively overhauled the sequence so that it bears more relation to the order in which the characters officially joined the NWR - as well as take account of those characters with canon numbers.

As before, characters listed in bold are canon, and all others are my OCs - some have their roots in canon, though, and are also listed in bold, and marked with an asterisk (*). The numbers in brackets indicate the order in which the engines on this list entered NWR service.

STEAM

Thomas The Tank Engine (1)

Edward The Blue Engine (2)

Henry The Green Engine (9)

Gordon The Big Engine (10)

James The Red Engine (11)

Percy The Small Engine (12)

Toby The Tram Engine (23)

Duck The Great Western Engine (26)

Donald The Scottish Twin (32)

Douglas The Scottish Twin (33)

Oliver The Little Western Engine (50)

Barry The Rescue Engine (108) *

Vanguard The Austerity Engine (107) *

Charlie The Fun Engine (82)

Maggie The R.O.D Engine (3)

Murphy The R.O.D Engine (4)

Everett The R.O.D Engine (5)

Nia The Helpful Engine (102)

Warren The R.O.D Engine (7)

Vernon The R.O.D Engine (8)

Reagan The Director's Engine (6)

Rebecca The Happy Engine (103)

Barbara The Mixed-Traffic Engine (13)

Albert The Jubilee Engine (14)

Spike The Wharf Shunter (15)

Wendy The Dock Shunter (16)

Harvey The Crane Engine (66)

Maura The Atlantic Engine (17)

Sarah The Naughty Engine (18) *

Metin The War Department Engine (19)

Temel The War Department Engine (20)

Jesse The Steelworks Engine (21) *

Jason The Night Owl Engine (22)

Evadne The Commuter Engine (24)

Hilda The Commuter Engine (25)

Cathy The New-Build Engine (27)

Rosie The Yankee Tank Engine (77)

Siani The Welsh Engine (28)

Big Bertha The Banking Engine (29)

Grace The Midland Engine (30) *

Abigail The Compound Engine (31)

Heidi The Cambrian Engine (34)

Monique The Goods Engine (35)

Fletcher The Recluse Engine (36)

Roy The Scottish Engine (37)

Errol The Jazzer Engine (39)

Heather The North-British Engine (41)

Lady Margaret The School Engine (42)

Clarence The Calm Engine (43)

Michael The Franco-Crosti Engine (44)

Hiro The Japanese Engine (84)

Rhonda The Welsh Engine (46)

Elspeth The Caley Tank Engine (47)

Roscoe The Cool Engine (48)

Stepney The Bluebell Engine (40)

Loretta The Utility Engine (49)

Saffron The Hippie Engine (51)

Raven The Vicarstown Pilot (54)

Franklin The Really Usual Engine (55)

Jasmine The Suburban Engine (56)

Ashley The Suburban Engine (58)

Shanks The Suburban Engine (59)

Emily The Stirling Engine (68)

Arthur The Obedient Engine (69)

Murdoch The Mighty Engine (70)

Whiff The Rubbish Engine (78)

Victor The Works Shunter (71)

Molly The Shy Engine (74)

Neville The Ugly Duckling Engine (75)

Billy The Silly Engine (79)

Stanley The Silver Engine (80)

Hank The American Engine (81)

Scruff The Rubbish Engine (83)

Belle The Big Tank Engine (85)

Porter The Dock Tank Engine (93)

Callum The Highland Engine (94)

Robyn The Private Engine (96)

Caneri The Colliery Engine (97)

Ryan The Purple Engine (98)

Sonny The Fugitive Engine (105)

DIESEL

Daisy The Diesel Railcar (38)

BoCo The Diseasel (45)

Bear The Hymek Diesel (52)

Gideon The Station Pilot (53)

Sheridan The Railbus (57)

Mungo The Heavy-Freight Diesel (61)

Derek The Paxman Diesel (62)

Salty The Dockyard Diesel (67)

Dennis The Lazy Diesel (76)

Diesel Ten (65)

'Arry The Ironworks Diesel (63)

Bert The Ironworks Diesel (64)

Violet The Multiple Unit (72)

Hyacinth The Multiple Unit (73)

Den The Works Diesel (86)

Dart The Works Diesel (87)

Stafford The Battery-Electric Shunter (92)

Sidney The Australian Diesel (88)

Paxton The Green Diesel (89)

Norman The New-Build Diesel (90)

Argyll The Express Diesel (91)

Chopper The Quiet Diesel (95)

Maxine The Push-Pull Diesel (100)

Philip The Boxcab Diesel (99)

Donna The Heavy-Freight Diesel (101)

Devious Diesel (104)

Tracy The Thunderbird Diesel (60)

Tanner The Postal Shunter (106)

Pip The High-Speed Diesel (109)

Emma The High-Speed Diesel (110)

[shinygoku]

What are your impressions of Douglas, for the ask? (Or you can do both twins at once, if you prefer!)

Ooh, a nice dark horse [dark engine? lol] pick!

...Relatively speaking! D&D are pretty popular ^^;; Let's have a look whyyyy

First impression

My first experience of these two was in a youtubepoop collab...! This was using clips from Break Van and Twin Trouble, and through the haze of mature jokes and edits I gathered enough of the original episodes and characters to be like "hmm, they are Scottish and hard to tell apart!" lol

Impression now

I like them.... but uhhh, they really don't feel like two seperate characters so much as one cool character split into 2 bodies. As we're talking more about Douglas, as the younger bro being protected my his older twin, while still wielding immense strength he doesn't seem in full control of.

Donald, for his part, is the more aggressive one to a perceived threat but also has something of a sense of humour with the prank war and Dilly adoption with Duck 🦆

They have a theme that slaps and all their faces are pretty good too, so it’s again easy to see why so many are endeared to ‘em with cherries like this on top of the cake that is their brush with scrapping backstory.

Favourite moment

Crushing the Spiteful Brake Van with a smile on his face like he's thinking "worth it!" (maybe that was a face error but I'm rolling with it lmao) or rescuing Oliver

For Donald, the offscreen smuggling of himself and Douglas down south. Shame it's only alluded to.....

Idea for a story

...hey! Maybe the trials and tribulations involved with getting out of The Mainland? We know the crew were also family with each other and had a considerable influence, but still leaving it as secret backstory is a bit of a cop out

Speaking generally I would really like it if we had more ways to tell them apart from each other, so something could explore little differences and ways they respond to things when not a single minded unit

Unpopular opinion

This is more like an opinion that 50% of the fanbase agrees on, but I really prefer the black livery the show sticks with. It's a shame, because their motive for wanting blue makes sense and is very sweet, but then they instantly form a Similar Squad and look way too much like Edward. As I love Edward so much I get excited to see a blue tender engine who isn't Gordon, only to be disappointed that it's one of D or D instead! I should know I'm looking at one'a the twins and be like 'ooh cool, it's D or D!'

Plus the Black with Red and Yellow just looks really nice and smart, helps that they're the only ones with it [even if irl it was BR's answer to everyting for a while? lol]

Another Opinion is that the Scottish accent being like... written out is a bit hard to actually Absorb as dialogue. I get the intent but still, what? If I did write any of them I think I'd go with consistancy to the other characters rather than embarass myself butchering another language I don't understand.

Lastly, The Missing Coach is a weak, confusing story. Woulda been cool if the ep was finished and watchable, but as a RWS story it's still one of Wilbert's least good entries.

Favourite relationship

Other than their obvious Twin Brother thing with each other, I think they also have potential to be able to be more nuanced and interesting if they were paired with their respective GWR buddies more often. Donald's Duck was almost certainly made largely to capitalise on the reference, but now I've written a load about Duck myself there's stuff to explore, there.

Seeing that the books have 'em all groups on Duck's branchline / The Little Western it seems really odd that the Douglas and Oliver connection fades away in favour of the twins being together and Oliver just hanging with Toad (Duck gets to be in more circles lol). Considering how Escape is such a beloved episode there's so much more ground that can be covered with Douglas and Oliver chillin' and working together.

Favourite headcanon

I would gladly embrace someone finding cool and fresh ways to tell them lads apart! I don't really have anything beyond what I've written here, but I feel that, again, something could be made of uhhh Donald being more aggressive but also cooling down quickly, Douglas being firmer friends with Oliver, both of them having a life outside of each other but still being tight bros and stuff.

🚃 <- Hey, is this the missing coach?

[pikablob]

With Very Old Engines obviously in first place, what is your favorite RWS book? And single RWS story (which might be and probably is from VOE, lol)?

<3

I mean, you've kinda answered your own question - VOE is my favourite :)) But barring it, my favourite is Gallant Old Engine; you can probably tell I have a thing for the Skarloey stories. They just felt a little more real to me (Awdry was great at that in general, but it's especially strong with the NG books, I think maybe because of the stronger personal experience there?). My favourite story is Crosspatch, for pretty obvious reasons XD

My favourite standard gauge book is a harder question; my favourite story is easily The Deputation, but I'm torn between a few books overall (The Twin Engines, Branch Line Engines, Enterprising Engines, and Oliver the Western Engine are all potential options tbh). :))

[joezworld]

sooo... pip and emma headcanon?

So, I had to put some thought into this one - behold my result. 

The Princess Dragon and The Dragon (better known as Pip & Emma)

There are few ‘true’ siblings on the railways - engines not only related by class and proximity, but also age. Sodor has three such sets - Donald and Douglas, Skarloey and Rheneas, and Pip and Emma.

They were close from birth - they were built right after each other, numbers 43017 and 43018. They were outshopped the same day, and each were the first locomotive they saw once ‘born’.

‘Close’ does not begin to begin to describe the two. From their introduction to service in the 70′s, they were kept as a pair, working trains all over BR’s network as a matched set - where one went, the other followed. Attempts to separate them in order to meet trainset needs typically ended poorly - both units operated well below norms when alone, and often exceeded those same norms when together. By 1983, a notice had been put into BR’s computer system to ensure that they wouldn’t be separated.  

Such close proximity is nothing new to engines (look at Donald and Douglas), but with Pip and Emma there was a new twist:

Ask most diesels about being a trailing unit - one that is controlled by the lead engine via Multiple Unit (MU) controls - and they will say that it’s a necessary discomfort. (To sum up many different opinions: It feels weird, and not in a good way. )

Because the HST sets were supposed to permanently run ‘top and tail’ on their trains, BR did design them in such a way as to make MUing more comfortable, and most class 43s have no strong opinions on being MUed.

The key word there, is most. 

Pip and Emma - who had spent most of their lives connected to one another in just about every way, including mechanically - began to exhibit some form of telepathy with each other as early as 1985, and by the early 90′s had basically stopped acting as two separate entities. 

While they remained two (interconnected) minds, they became basically one body - totally aware of what each other was seeing and feeling at all times. 

[They can also sense each other’s thoughts, but wisely have kept that on the down-low, and have said little on exactly how close they are.]

-(They’re totally drift compatible, btw)-

-

Now, after decades of basically living in one another’s heads, the sisters are capable of sensing each other even when disconnected, which has caused no small amount of shock for bystanders when one of them is in for maintenance, and the other one is miles away on a train, but they’re still talking to each other.

-

They originally gained nicknames back in the late 70′s, when a cracked exhaust manifold caused Emma’s engine to roar loudly at idle. Pip’s somewhat demure attitude at the time quickly gained them the nickname of “The Princess and The Dragon”. 

This nickname lasted almost three whole years, until Pip learned what a dragon actually was, decided that they were much more exciting than princesses, and began referring to herself as ‘the dragon’ as well. Emma, being an enabler, agreed with her sister totally on this point, and the two of them essentially gaslit members of staff at BR into believing that they had always been referred to as “The Dragon and The Dragon”. This nickname has stuck ever since - including after their move to Sodor, but nobody on the Island knows why they’re called that, so it doesn’t get as much use unless they’re feeling quite ornery, at which point they become insistent on being called by their “titles”.

Also, in the 1980′s, some true Agent of Chaos in the Western Region taught Pip how to growl and roar like a “real” dragon. Naturally this meant that Emma learned that skill as well, and the ‘Dragon Sisters’ have occasionally expressed their frustrations by roaring into the night when they think nobody is around. 

On more than one occasion, this has absolutely scared the living daylights out of some poor shunter parked just out of sight.

(It’s a ridiculously accurate sound too, and isn’t helped at all by both sisters having seen ‘jurassic park’ enough times to be able to mimic the t-rex’s roar. When coming out of two little express engines, this sound can and has startled bigger engines off the rails)

-

Moving to Sodor happened in the 90′s. The newly independent North Western Railway wanted a diesel express service for running into London, and The Fat Controller (the Third) found an agreeable pair of West Coast Main Line HSTs in London. 

That agreeable pair was promptly killed less than a week later in the Southall Rail Crash, forcing Stephen Hatt to go back to Great Western Trains for a different set. 

GWT, now down a pair of 43s, wouldn’t sell him any more, which forced him to go to GNER, where he found Pip and Emma, who jumped at the chance to go back to the strange island full of steam engines that they’d visited before. 

Their arrival on Sodor doesn’t go perfectly, as some engines who shall remain nameless *cough cough* Oliver, Douglas. *cough* are still opposed to new diesels - *for somewhat* understandable reasons. (It’s 1998 guys - stop stereotyping. They’re not all evil.)

However, Pip and Emma really don’t help avoid suspicion when they intentionally act “evil” and “scheming” whenever certain engines are about. 

BoCo and Bear, who are always down to psychologically torment idiots, get involved too, and the prank goes wildly out of hand when everyone on Thomas’ branch line (except a very unamused Daisy) starts panicking about ‘soul stealing, mind reading, red-eyed, diesel electric monsters!’

The prank is eventually brought to heel after an embarrassing incident at Kellsthorpe road station involving tinfoil, Annie, Percy, and one of the engines from the Electric Branch. The Fat Controller - once he learns all the facts and can speak without laughing, is merely glad that Pip and Emma are integrating well to the railway.

[Note - this does totally ignore RWS book 42 “Thomas and his Friends”, which states that Pip and Emma arrive on the island in 2011. This is because that book is dumb. The last time any main line engines are mentioned in the RWS before then is in 1995 in “Thomas and the Fat Controller’s Engines”. There is zero reason for the NWR to have waited almost 20 years to buy an HST set. It makes no sense. Also, it ruined a very good Railway Series fanfiction on the Sodor Island Forums, which had to be taken down because it defied continuity. So I say they showed up in the late 90′s. Deal with it.]

-

In 2007, Pip pleads/threatens the paint shop staff at the works, and gets herself and Emma a Christmas present: A giant, fire-breathing dragon painted on both of their cabs. The works’ paint shop staff consists of a bunch of guys who customize old cars in their free time, and a bunch of young apprentices who play D&D in their off-hours. The resulting Dragons are some of the most amazing vehicle art ever applied to something that isn’t a 1970′s Chevy Van, and actually win several awards from hot rod magazines. 

More concerningly, the dragons do not appear to be stationary, as multiple pictures taken by trainspotters show the dragons on different parts of the engines at different times. Pip and Emma have not been asked, but one can assume that the Dragon Sisters might have more than just flashy paint, they may actually have real dragons now. 

[daikenkki]

epiclafiteau: If Edward and Henry never left Tidmouth Sheds, BUT two engines HAD to leave, who would they be and why? Let me hear what you think! Who would be in their spots? Someone that's been there before, or someone that hasn't? My take btw: Edward and James. Edward at Wellsworth Sheds makes so much sense, and James should've been kicked out as the punishment. Yeah, Thomas/Percy at Ffarquhar would be neat but Toby's at Arlesdale End now. Henry doesn't need to stay at Vicarstown and Emily is just there.

JD41796: Honestly do what the series did and move Edward to Wellsworth because that actually makes sense, and throw Thomas and Percy back with Toby. Have the engines stay closest to their place of work, and have the sheds be what it used to be; whoever is working in that area, stays there.

epiclafiteau: Edward moving to Wellsworth to be closer to his branchline was a smart move, and it made sense. The issue is they're like "Henry's going to Vicarstown ok bye". I'm sure we were supposed to get an episode further explaining it but they haven't done so yet and the only thing to back it up is the fact that Henry is on the Mainland in 70% of the specials lol.

StreakSmeargle: I’d actually kick out three. Thomas, Percy, and Edward. Thomas and Percy can move to Ffarquhar (and honestly Nia can live there too). And Edward can move to Wellsworth like he already does. Fill up the missing Tidmouth slots with Rebecca and maybe the Scots?

epiclafiteau: Unless I'm missing something, I'm not actually sure where exactly Duck, Oliver, Donald and Douglas stay in the CGI Series. We see Ryan, Daisy, Judy & Jerome at Harwick but are there sheds somewhere else on the Little Western? It made sense for Duck to stay at Tidmouth in Duck and the Slip Coaches cause he was needed nearby, something they should do more often, but I don't think we've actually seen where he normally stays.

StreakSmeargle: There should be sheds at Arlesburgh if the RWS is any indication. Duck, Oliver, and Toad would realistically stay there. Donald and Douglas could also stay there but it might make sense to have them at Tidmouth as they’re not strictly tied to Little Western only. Gordon, James, Henry, Rebecca, and Emily can definitely stay at Tidmouth tho. Henry at Vicarstown was a neat concept but it went nowhere so I say move him back.

epiclafiteau: I can get past Edward moving because of etc reasons but the big 3 should definitely stick together. Edward leaving felt sort of natural because it had a whole episode to it and he suggested staying at Wellsworth permanently. Henry liked the idea, followed by deciding to transfer to Vicarstown, and nothing happened.

StreakSmeargle: If they ever do move Henry back to Tidmouth, they could do an episode where he starts reconsidering his decision on moving to Vicarstown but worries about what the others will think. That would allow him to move back and even potentially shedding light on why he moved in the first place.

Jacob34335638: Well, I think James could be kicked out as punishment for destroying the sheds in the first place, and Emily could possibly leave too since she works on the Misty Valley Branchline, and it would be convent for her to be closer to her work like Edward is at Wellsworth Sheds.

epiclafiteau: Yeah, literally. I never understood why they were like "Well James, you destroyed the sheds... Okay, Edward, go find somewhere else to stay".

Echo62445283: Because apparently they were like "Hey thats Edward's part of the shed guess he has to go, not like he can sleep in your spot James".

ComradeSpinel90: Tbh... Percy and Thomas. They have sheds at Tidmouth and Ffharquhar. And in Nia and Rebecca and it would be fine. Or better yet. Drop Nia and add in oh idk... Stanley, or someone underrated imo.

epiclafiteau: Now you're on the right track.

ComradeSpinel90: And it wouldn't be out there norm. There was many time where they were at Tidmouth and Ffharquhar.

ilovetrains3232: The obvious Thomas and Percy go back to Ffarqhuar, Edward going to Wellsworth like in the show because, and as much as some people hate to hear, it was a great idea. They just haven't executed it to it's fullest ability. James could be an interesting choice as a punishment for crashing into it in the first place. I feel like Gordon is the only one who should stay there no matter what. Emily was the reason the 7th she'd was added but that doesn't necessarily mean she HAS to stay there and Henry, should have probably stayed but could easily go somewhere else and it would work. Tidmouth AND Vicarstown both honestly don't make much since for Henry. Yes, Henry does go to the mainland sometimes but not as much as he works elsewhere. If anything, Henry should have moved to Wellsworth with Edward. Since he has to go to Brendam anyways to pick up the Flying Kipper, and Wellsworth is in the center of the island so it would make it easier for him to work anywhere. As opposed to be on either side.

legomastr_365: I love all of them too much to kick anyone out, but seeing the replies makes sense since that's literally what I do in my series.

epiclafiteau: Thomas and Percy is the most logical answer but I'm curious to know if anyone would consider Emily or James, or have other reasons for Thomas/Percy.

GraydonBruckle1: Definitely Emily, as for the other I'm not sure.. I guess Edward or Percy. Edward does make sense BUT he is one of the three original character the Rev W. Awdry wrote about.. Percy could go to Ffarquhar. That way he wont have to go far for the mail run or something like that.

ElliotKW: It would be Thomas and Percy and I'd move them back to Ffarquhar Sheds (even though the sheds are in the yards at Tidmouth Station). Series 2 kept the roots of Thomas, Percy and Toby living in the sheds for five episodes and I would love to see that happen again in the future.

SunilFan48: Thomas and Percy. Go to Ffarquhar sheds with Toby like they did for S2 and then never again. Leaves room for Nia and Rebecca and no Tidmouth Shed reconstruction.

ThomasTheorist: The only engines who really need to be at Tidmouth Sheds are Gordon, Henry and James. Everyone else can be shuffled around.

TheLargeBarge: At Tidmouth Sheds you'll have Henry, Gordon, James, Emily, Rebecca, Donald and Douglas. At Ffarquhar, Thomas, Percy, Toby and Mavis. Knapford Sheds; Nia, Paxton and Rosie. Wellsworth; Edward and Philip. Arlesburgh; Duck and Oliver and Harwick; Ryan and Daisy.

CTFEologist: Thomas and Percy; move them to Ffarquhar with Toby instead.

DanielAlsop2: Well I’d still go with Edward, but also Thomas and Percy to Ffarquhar or Tidmouth Station, since they both work on Thomas’ branch line and if they had the usual adventure encounters, they could meet the others at Knapford or Elsbridge, simple.

GTSHProductions: I’d actually kick Thomas and Percy to live at Farquhar. But to be honest, I liked it better when the engines just slept wherever whenever they wanted.

TFan512: This may be controversial, but I’d still let it be Edward and Henry. Wellsworth is on Edward’s branch line, and he could be a mentor to Philip like he was to Thomas in The Adventure Begins (too bad no episodes have so far done that). As for Henry, he goes up to Vicarstown a lot anyway when he travels to the Mainland, and with him taking The Flying Kipper at night, he hardly has any time to rest at Tidmouth. I don’t agree with James being moved out as punishment, as he showed remorse in An Engine of Many Colours and was forgiven.

NWTom25: I choose three, Edward, Henry and Emily. It make sense to remove Edward to his branch line shed, Henry at Vicarstown since he could run goods trains from there to the mainland and Emily could stay at Knapford sheds like she did in CAE! I honestly don't see the need to remove Thomas and Percy since it had been stated in a Mr. Perkins interval that Knapford was the starting point for Thomas' branch line. So it make sense in the current series to have Thomas and Percy at the sheds. Plus Toby could fill in the spot at the sheds that the engines I chose left and maybe fill in the space for any of the secondary characters (e.g - Duck, Donald, Douglas, Rosie etc.).

TidmouthStudios: Y know if Knapford sheds came back I would LITERALLY LOVE THAT SO MUCH. I think Emily earned her spot in the sheds though and calling all engines definitely made a good move by specifically confirming that Emily was an official part of the core cast.

crikey_fell: Kick out everyone but Henry, Gordon, James and Emily, move them to their RWS positions.

Fan12Thomas: Thomas and Percy they should be on Ffarquhar Sheds.

kirkronan25: I'd chuck Edward to Wellsworth and I kinda like the idea of James having a shed all of his own, but I'm not sure about that.

Diesel20212: Thomas and Percy. I just can’t see them staying in Tidmouth when they already have their own sheds on their branchline.

TruckFan1996: Emily and Henry. I hate Emily and Mattel has made Henry wimpy.

WyattLoughrie: Well Thomas and Percy would have to live at Ffarquhar sheds with Toby and probably have Donald and Douglas take their places in Tidmouth Sheds.

SciFiCosplay99: Maybe have Thomas and Percy move back to Ffarquhar, perhaps add Toby and/or Nia. The Scots then move in. Also, show a shed where the Great Western Engines and the Scots live at some point, please show?

YBoi95: Honestly probably still Henry and Edward. Edward is too smart to be involved in the hive mind mentality of the Steam Team and Henry is just kind of there and doing very little. Honestly the two just don't really contribute enough to be worthy of being main characters.

gwr_fan: Part of me wants Thomas and Percy at Ffarquhar with Toby, Mavis, etc

Mechai94829484: For me it’s Thomas and Percy instead of sleeping in Tidmouth sheds they sleep in the sheds at the ffarquhar station with Toby and Henrietta just like in the railway books.

CementLord: Thomas and Percy, send them off to Ffarquhar.

TidmouthStudios: I’m not mad that Edward left due to the fact that he simply wasn’t offering anything consistently new to the franchise for some time at that point. He’s been outshined by the other core cast members since S5 and him being removed from said cast was inevitable. I’m happy they just did it in a nice and pleasant way and didn’t just suddenly have him leave. He at least got an episode showcasing his goodbye. Going off where he was going to be stationed makes more sense and serves as a sorta mentor for Philip like bill and Ben before him.

FantasticMrS3: I'd go with Emily and James. Then they could be given their own branch line to share, and it would open up more storytelling possibilities for them, especially Emily; God knows more could be done with her as a character.

TomtheSTL: Thomas and Percy, they don’t belong on the mainline or you know, besides the big 3 and Emily, not having a strict cast at Tidmouth, have it change a bit, hell the Brenner era did it on occasion.

HTGE3Prod: Hmm, Edward and Thomas. Both have their respective branchlines to run. At this rate, I wouldn't be surprised if Salty, Bill and Ben are running Edward's line, and Mavis and Toby for Thomas' line.

Edwardandjamesp: Thomas, Percy and Edward. Thomas and Percy can go and sleep at Ffarquhar because that's where they work, and Edward could sleep at Wellsworth with Philip. And the ones to replace them would be Rebecca/Bear and the Scottish boys.

8Puffer: It would make more sense to put Thomas, Percy and Toby at Ffarquhar as it would help develop the three characters more and help build the relationship further.

ChaosDustSteam: I would actually pick three. Thomas, Percy, and Emily. Thomas and Percy would go to the Branchline Sheds, revealed in a new render for CGI. Emily would be moved either to Knapford Sheds or her own sheds, as I feel she is not a Main Line worthy engine.

BJG922: Hmm I would take out Thomas and Percy from Tidmouth and take them to Ffarquhar Sheds like how Edward went to Wellsworth, and keep Henry, Gordon, James and Emily at Tidmouth and allow Bear, Pip and Emma in Tidmouth.

ahmirallthings1: The answers obviously be Thomas and Percy. They lived in Ffarqhuar.

LNERA0X: If we wanted to apply this to all the engines really only Henry, Gordon, James, and Emily should be stationed at the main sheds. Decentralize the cast a bit.

JohnDarkblaze: Thomas, Percy, and Toby. My head canon is that they belong at Ffarquhar like they were before (also considering Arlesdale End hasn't been relevant for a while). As for Tidmoth Sheds itself, I'd leave Edward, James, Henry, and Gordon while adding Rosie, Stanley, and Molly.

TheThomasFan: Thomas and Percy, they’re supposed to be at Ffarquhar.

benbearce96: Toby and Emily because for Toby I just think he’s overrated as a character and Emily, well she can live at the shunting yards with Spencer Murdoch Arthur etc.

IvoryGreen456: Thomas and Percy. Because they were originally based at Ffarquhar they can easily go back.

SayCheeseBurgr: Emily and Edward, but Edward would still remain a main character, purely to line up with old continuity :p

sixteen_dnw: Edward to Wellsworth and Percy to Ffarquahar, they wouldn’t take Thomas away from Tidmouth.

EianHardy: I’d choose Thomas and Percy to go, as a way for them to be with Toby again in the branch line sheds.

TY_HAMMER_TIME: Its a tough one. I see a lot of thomas, percy, and Edward. But i think the "steam team" while still cool concept i think it hurt the series. Why not have a rotating cast of engines at Tidmouth Sheds per season. It would allow the writers to switch the engines in the shead and we wouldn't need to feel that Tidmouth Sheds = 100% steam team residences. Maybe then when Edward and Henry moved out it wouldn't have felt like such a blow or need explanation.

NWRGresley1942: Thomas and Percy because it would make sense that their work are closer to his branch line. Toby could also sleep at Ffarquhar with them. James because he destroyed the back of the sheds and Sir Topham would’ve strictly moved him out.

the_mega_derp: Move Thomas and Percy to Ffarquhar. It can have the same benefit as Edward moving to Wellsworth, since they’d be living on the line they work on. Whatever happened to them vibing in Ffarquhar sheds back in the day?

Jordan192692: I think Percy and Emily; To run the “new” Kirk Ronan branch-line. Thomas would miss both engines, but he would know it was for the best.

jaymeerkat520: It would be Thomas and Percy. Those characters have just become annoying now.

imnotveryfunny0: My take is Edward and Henry, yes, but don’t stick Nia there. Put her and her bland personality at Vicarstown. Put Rosie there with Rebecca, who knows the others but still has some well deserved fleshing out to be done.

HydesR01: Personally, I’d say Emily and Edward. Emily doesn’t really “click” with the originals, and I think Edward would be better suited at Wellsworth anyway. And in their spots, I’d say Rosie instead of Emily and Stanley in place of Edward.

Glover368: Emily and James, just send James back to his early RWS shed, and Emily can go back to Knapford.

RealMay_C: Emily and Henry, Emily is just a badly written character and Henry is just the stereotypical worrier and I'm really not a fan of that trope.

cgsmodelling: Let me say it loud enough so everyone can hear.... JUST ADD TWO MORE FUCKING BIRTHS. ITS NOT THAT DIFFICULT.

SquidTrain2020: Thomas and James can simply fuck off. But instead of Nia, replace James with Rosie and Thomas with Rebecca.

[supertrainstationh]

Its been two years but I just noticed that my haul of random Railway Series books I picked up from the little second hand shop on the western platform of Sheffield Park station on the Bluebell Railway included the complete set of Wilbert Awdry written Skarloey Railway books.

I mean, I know I specifically picked out these books  first, before I came back later and decided to clean them all their RWS books out entirely since I’d never get the chance to buy them over the counter again in the US, but I’m especially pleased to have these five books in particular.

The Skarloey Railway’s appearance in the TV show in 1995 made me aware of narrow-gauge railways for the first time and sort of pushed me toward finding out more about them via books about railroading and finding actual photos of the Talyllyn Railway.

Then soon after I got the anthology of all the Wilbert Awdry Thomas books (thanks Great Train Store, you literally changed my life in numerous ways) and finally got to read all the stories contained in these books.

And at last I have them all in their original format, and with nice big uncropped illustrations.

I always loved the Skarloey Railway set books. They just had a certain unique “comfiness” to them.

Its silly but I still haven’t actually gone through and READ any of the RWS hardcovers I picked up over there. I guess I know the stories by heart already anyway.

Aside from these I have know among the ones I got are “Enterprising Engines” and I’m also pretty sure I have “Oliver the Western Engine” which would be among the books I wanted the most.

Main ones I’d like that I don’t have are “Small Railway Engines” and “Mountain Engines”. I’m noticing a pattern where I’m attracted to narrow gauge themed books.

I’d also like a hardcover copy of “Stepney the Bluebell Engine”. I already have a copy of that book in softcover, but obviously being softcover its far more delicate than the hardcover books in my collection, and also, it’s signed by Reverend Wilbert Awdry, so I’m not eager to have that one anywhere but in my lead lined vault along with my Miyamoto signed Nintendo DS.

[mean-scarlet-deceiver]

Hi! What’s your favorite Railway Series book? I have another question too, what do you think of the engines faces being the smokebox doors?

I'm not sure what I think about the smokebox faces? It's peculiar when you try to think through it and make it "realistic" but the notion is so natural that there's not much to think about.

People really get on Awdry's case for not having thought through the implications of his sapient engines but I feel like we gotta cut the man a break. He clearly never had any interest in worldbuilding. It's not like he had some wild oddball idea that he just then neglected to nurture to maturity. Almost everybody has imagined smokeboxes to be the face of a steam engine (and the grill and headlights to be the face of a car, etc.)

No idea if that answered anything. Anyway!

What isn't my favorite RWS book?

Honestly it changes every week or two. At one point or another it’s been: 

Thomas the Tank Engine - the structure is so simple yet so sound. this is some Joseph Campbell bullshit right here (positive)

Tank Engine Thomas Again - simply a classic from the moment it was penned. not my personal favorite (i think the ffarquhar line is just a bit too twee as a setting for my tastes?), but you can't beat these stories or this character. objectively, the best stand-alone book in the series. you don't have to know anything about anything to read this and to fall in love and to sense at once that it's an indispensable part of classic childhood literature.

Toby the Tram Engine - this kicked off the era of somewhat darker themes of obsolesce as well as new characters having really great introductory arcs/backstories❤️ points off for the last story tbh—but points on for seeing the Fat Controller and his fam on holiday as well as the parts dunking on busybody cops

Gordon the Big Engine - another one that just has really good structure—plus some underrated character moments in this—plus stories 1 and 3 are hilarious

Edward the Blue Engine - the vibes are impeccable

Eight Famous Engines - altogether, just a really good ensemble romp

Duck and the Diesel Engine - I N T R I G U E

The Little Old Engine - another just-really-good ensemble romp

The Twin Engines - I N T R I G U E, also irony; it's just very ambitious, grow-the-beard stuff

Very Old Engines - the sheer layers going on. also i'm a sucker for prequels.

Main Line Engines - just very classic Golden Age rws stuff, witty and warm, nothing to criticize, all clover. it feels like home.

Enterprising Engines - hooooooooooly crap, it's so good. some bits are shaky or pudgy, i kinda wish i had been the editor for this one, but you have to forgive the nitpicky stuff in the face of all the wealth. a triumph.

Oliver the Western Engine - the books just kept getting better in this era? wtf????? 

Duke the Lost Engine and Tramway Engines - i could write ESSAYS on both these books. i SHOULD. like at this point you can start doing high-grade LITERARY ANALYSIS (enthusiastic)

Christopher Awdry's stuff is alllll on a lower tier than the above but while i'm on a roll i gotta give some props here too:

Jock the New Engine - i don't know how to defend it, it just makes the mini railway feel very real to me in a way that their first book (funny though it was) didn't

Gordon the High Speed Engine - it's overrated by certain Thomas bros, who to my eye seem to be deliberately obtuse when they insist that it's every bit as good as any Wilbert book (WHAT??), but it is enjoyable, thoughtful, and certainly the most consistently high-quality Christopher book

Henry and the Express - i'm here purely for the arc and the book's ending. as a final word on Henry's character development, the last couple of pages are unmatched and give him a new and hard-won layer that even Enterprising Engines didn't quite get him to

Thomas and the Twins - the interactions between Thomas, Edward, Bill and Ben are delicious. even if the Trevor story is pretty lame, i'm still soooo glad this book exists, i can't believe it, it feels like someone wrote a self-indulgent fanfic... and i am Here For It

[mean-scarlet-deceiver]

duck reviews the rws books

the three railway engines: man, this railway used to be a goddamn mess

thomas the tank engine: thomas would have never hacked it on the Great Western

james the red engine: uh, james? i just cracked a piston laughing at you cheeking off gordon? like, you used to be a normal, likeable engine? wtf happened to you mate

tank engine thomas again: this is still not very Great Western but i admit it’s all utterly charming

troublesome engines: *wide-eyed horror* i am so glad i wasn’t around for this era of the railway

henry the green engine: ah, yes. the one where henry is made a useful engine overnight just by giving him… the coal that is standard-issue on the Great Western.

toby the tram engine: i’ve got something in my eye…

gordon the big engine: i liked the part with the queen. also the part where gordon ran into a ditch like an enormous prat.

edward the blue engine: i unashamedly love literally everything about the last story… except i would have been in favor of james getting banged up at least a little

the four little engines: i wanna be able to run on the skarloey railway!

percy the small engine: features both percy’s and mine finest moments. 11/10

the eight famous engines: ALL THOSE OTHER STATIONS ARE FAKE NEWS

duck and the diesel engine: city of truro visits!!!!!!!!! also, i think i’m in it or something, idk i just re-read the first story over and over again

the little old engine: if i did get to run on the skarloey railway the first thing i would do is to bash sir handel’s stupid buffers in for him

the twin engines: starring the fantastic engines who put gordon and henry in their place in three seconds flat and in the process helped me finally reconcile myself to own my own scottish heritage

branch line engines: kudos to toby for retaining his sanity, i would not have been so mild-mannered about ANY OF THIS

gallant old engine: i am a sucker for these stories where the steam engine brings the train home Despite Everything

stepney the “bluebell” engine: good engine, good times, two headlamps up

mountain engines: … i’ve got something in my other eye…

very old engines: i wish nancy worked our railway! :/

main line engines: the title makes no sense, but i got to meet boco and then tell the big three off proper. overall, easy 9/10

small railway engines: i seriously thought donald and douglas were pulling my wheel. but i’m so glad i was wrong.

enterprising engines: these are some of my favorite memories of sodor 😀

oliver the western engine: i’m still cross about the publishers changing the title, but aside from that “Little Western Engines” is a 10/10 book <3

duke the lost engine: … i’ve got something IN MY HEART *sob*

tramway engines: dumbasses. you’ll notice we do none of this shit on my line. /affectionate /butalsojudgey

really useful engines: THESE ARE DEFINITELY NOT SOME OF MY FAVORITE MEMORIES OF SODOR. stupid book. -1/10

james and the diesel engines: yeah, this one wasn’t exactly fun to live through, either. what is your damage, james. i’m asking really.

great little engines: begging your pardon, but this book was mostly good for helping to put me to sleep

more about thomas the tank engine: i prefer my own line to the main line… but literally anything would be better than being assigned to thomas’s line. omg.

gordon the high-speed engine: as usual when it involves gordon, there’s lots of noise and fuss, yet i can’t actually understand half of what’s going on

toby, trucks and trouble: on the other rail, thomas’s line without thomas is bangin’

thomas and the twins: this book gave me a headache. i’m glad none of this involved me at all.

jock the new engine: mike and jock. whatta pair.

thomas and the great railway show: city of truro is mentioned, so this book is an automatic 8/10… despite that, unlike the big three, i can quite frankly admit i’m jealous

thomas comes home: … as usual, thomas’s branch line seems so much more chill when thomas isn’t there. just sayin’.

henry and the express: i cannot tell you how salty i am that i did not get to see red!henry for myself

wilbert the forest engine: he was a good bloke, he deserved a more interesting book than this

thomas and the fat controller’s engines: yeah, that was the year wildlife was really out of hand on our railway. also, don’t tell gordon i said this, but it was complete bullshit that he didn’t get to pull that train. (seriously DO NOT TELL HIM that i admitted this.)

new little engine: sir handel is like the james of that railway. geez.

thomas and victoria: i’m starting to think young christopher has completely forgotten the little western exists :/

thomas and his friends: y’all would be forgiven for any frustrating sense that you still have no idea what pip and emma are actually like

[mean-scarlet-deceiver]

The Classic Main Cast as the Olympian Gods

Here they are in the order which I matched them up… I think the logic will be slightly easier to follow that way. *sweatdrop*

Percy = Hermes

Matching the messenger god and the engine who takes the mail train is a gimme. Hermes is also a trickster, which suits Percy pulling the wheel of other engines (“stay in the shed today, James!” “do let’s pretend I’m a ghost and scare Thomas!” etc.) God of trade and merchants very much tallies with Percy’s long history working exchange yards. Finally, Hermes’s domain also includes thieves and conmen. Percy in RWS lore has one of the rougher and more knock-about backgrounds so this all fits very well.

Gordon = Zeus

Powerful bigshots who are also surprisingly great comedic fodder. ‘Nuff said? Well, there’s also the frequent language of Gordon thundering by with the Express—in fact, in “Henry’s Forest” James specifically drops this metaphor when he compares the raging storm to Gordon.

Emily = Hera

Next to Gordon, Emily definitely has the most regal personality (prior to Brenner and BWBA eras making her thing “insecurity”). There is even the episode where she declares herself a queen! Also, frankly, the notion of Gordon and Emily as a judgey power couple, while not canonical, still amuses me so much.

Henry = Poseidon

He is after all another very powerful engine/god. Also, a lot of his lore is associated with water. There is his infamous rain-tantrum-as-origin-story... and the Flying Kipper is a very apropos assignment for an engine with dominion of the sea.

Donald = Hephaestus

Douglas = Ares

These two rather fiery gods, both linked with war (*whispers* and Aphrodite), seem like a pair to me. Donald is Hephaestus not because of the limp or lameness (which didn’t really suit anyone, quite) but because of the associations of fire and battle. Both these figures are badasses, but Hephaestus is a shrewd sort, much like Donald, who is the strategic thinker of the two. Douglas, who flat-out destroyed a brakevan, suits the more full-throttle and destructive Ares.

Duck = Apollo

Oliver = Artemis

The sun and the moon. Clever, hardworking Duck fits the daylight, rational nature of Apollo, who is also a harbinger of order and higher civilization (very Great-Western-Way sort of traits). Apollo is also a prophet and truth-teller—reminiscent of Duck, who never minces words! On the other hand, Oliver is the one of the two associated with the night—his origin story is all about him running in secret under cover of darkness, much like the wild fleet-footed Artemis who cannot be bound by law. Artemis is also infamously destructive (even by Olympian standards!) which definitely puts one in mind of a certain uppity private wagon who, after taking aim at Oliver, was never the same truck again…

James = Aphrodite

While I can’t really associate James with love (self-love, maybe?), the themes of appearance, beauty, and pleasure make this one a lock. Aphrodite is definitely the most splendid Olympian and you can’t tell us otherwise! (There was an entire Trojan war based on this fundamental fact! Also, that Aphrodite cheated her way to victory in the beauty contest is hilariously Jamesian to me.)

Edward = Athena

Goddess of wisdom, mentor of worthy youths, and the one you can’t have anything even remotely approximating a civilization without. We good here? She’s even a warrior goddess, suiting Edward’s part-time forays into heroic determination. (Speaking of the Judgment of Paris, the fact that this now means that it is a contest between Emily, Edward, and James is fine by me—as it happens, I think they are the three best-looking engines by far.)

Toby = Demeter

Actually, my first thought was that Toby was Hestia, goddess of domesticity, but apparently Hestia is only an Olympian if we exclude Dionysus, and I don’t believe we can do that (see below). Demeter also works well—she’s an earth goddess, of grain and harvest, fitting Toby’s frequent work taking loads to and from the farmers. His brown color also screams earth to me. Interestingly, Demeter is also the giver of sacred law—given Toby’s earthy good sense, freely-given advice and opinions, and how downright judgmental he can be, I think this suits quite well. Finally, there’s his near-miss with living death (his origin story is very much “Toby was at the end of the line, and even shedded up for good—but then!” which is incredibly fitting, because Demeter was so associated with death and rebirth.)

Thomas = Dionysus

Okay, so I admit that I got here by process of elimination—Thomas was the last engine unmatched when I got to the last god, who can be either Hestia or Dionysus. Dionysus is admittedly a kinda wild matchup, but hear me out because it also kinda works. First, as another earth god, he can function as a pair with Demeter, much as our two also-alliterated boys ran the (heavily agricultural) Ffarquhar branch exclusively for a while. Obviously, Dionysus is the wilder and more chaotic of the two. If one of these twelve engines is gonna be Dionysus, surely it’s the madlad who burst through the stationmaster’s dining room? Dionysus is also a wanderer… he roamed more of the world than any of the others (he even famously visited India—oh hi there BWBA!) The ‘god of wine’ thing is a stretch for any of these characters, but Thomas did notoriously drink something verboten in the ‘fishing’ incident. Yup, next to Thomas/Dionysus the rest of them are definitely “stick-in-the-mud”s.

Finally, if we allow the correspondence of these two chaos agents, then that means Annie and Clarabel are Thomas’s maenads—which is a hilarious take!

[feigeroman]

The NWR Stocklist (my version)

EDIT (AUGUST 2022): MESSAGE FROM FUTURE FEIGEROMAN! This stocklist is now out of date! I have substantially reworked the numbering system for my version of the NWR stocklist - please refer to this link. This original version is being retained because I fear deleting it might screw up something in several other posts.

The remainder of this post is the old Feige talkng:

So you’re all aware of my various Thomas headcanons, right? You must be, if you’ve been following me for the past month. Well, the fact is, I have a metric shit-ton of headcanons, a small amount of which I’ve been sharing recently. But I’ve been holding back, mainly because of that metric shit-ton, many of them feature characters of my own creation, and I wanted to get those out there first.

The bulk of these are my additions to the North Western Railway locomotive fleet. Like most people, I find it hard to believe that a railway of that size could function with such a small fleet of engines - about twenty in the RWS, expanding to god knows how many in the TVS.

So I decided to expand the fleet accordingly. Over the past few years, I’ve been developing and refining this, deftly mixing characters from the RWS, TVS and my own ideas. Taking a leaf out of the Extended Railway Series, I limited myself to eighty steam engines, and thirty diesels, the names of which are listed under the break.

I should stress that when I originally put together this list, certain characters hadn’t had numbers assigned to them in canon. So those characters will be numbered differently here. Likewise, other characters were introduced after I’d already assigned their canon number to someone else. As this is just my headcanon, that shouldn’t matter to much, but it’s just a heads-up.

Characters listed in bold are canon, and all others are my original characters - some have their roots in canon, though, and are also listed in bold, and marked with an asterisk (*). The numbers in brackets indicate the order in which the engines on this list entered NWR service.

STEAM

Thomas The Tank Engine (1)

Edward The Blue Engine (2)

Henry The Green Engine (9)

Gordon The Big Engine (10)

James The Red Engine (11)

Percy The Small Engine (12)

Toby The Tram Engine (23)

Duck The Great Western Engine (26)

Donald The Scottish Twin (32)

Douglas The Scottish Twin (33)

Oliver The Great Western Engine (50)

Barry The Rescue Engine (108) *

Vanguard The Austerity Engine (107) *

Charlie The Fun Engine (82)

Emily The Stirling Engine (68)

Arthur The Obedient Engine (69)

Murdoch The Mighty Engine (70)

Molly The Shy Engine (74)

Neville The Ugly Duckling Engine (75)

Rosie The Yankee Tank Engine (77)

Whiff The Rubbish Engine (78)

Billy The Silly Engine (79)

Stanley The Silver Engine (80)

Hank The American Engine (81)

Scruff The Rubbish Engine (83)

Belle The Big Tank Engine (85)

Harvey The Crane Engine (66)

Porter The Dock Tank Engine (93)

Big Bertha The Banking Engine (29)

Ashley The Suburban Engine (58)

Shanks The Suburban Engine (59)

Cathy The New-Build Engine (27)

Ryan The Purple Engine (98)

Barbara The Mixed-Traffic Engine (13)

Errol The Jazzer Engine (39)

Wendy The Dock Shunter (16)

Rhonda The Welsh Engine (46)

Elspeth The Caley Tank Engine (47)

Maggie The R.O.D Engine (3)

Murphy The R.O.D Engine (4)

Roscoe The Cool Engine (48)

Spike The Wharf Shunter (15)

Jesse The Steelworks Engine (21) *

Heather The North British Engine (41)

Heidi The Cambrian Engine (34)

Grace The Midland Engine (30) *

Sarah The Naughty Engine (18) *

Jason The Night Owl Engine (22)

Clarence The Calm Engine (43)

Saffron The Hippie Engine (51)

Hiro The Japanese Engine (84)

Roy The Scottish Engine (37)

Lady Margaret The School Engine (42)

Monique The Goods Engine (35)

Stepney The Bluebell Engine (40)

Siani The Welsh Engine (28)

Abigail The Compound Engine (31)

Rebecca The Happy Engine (103)

Nia The Helpful Engine (102)

Fletcher The Recluse Engine (36)

Raven The Vicarstown Pilot (54)

Warren The R.O.D Engine (7)

Vernon The R.O.D Engine (8)

Marie The Atlantic Engine (17)

Michael The Franco-Crosti Engine (44)

Loretta The Utility Engine (49)

Franklin The Really Usual Engine (55)

Sonny The Fugitive Engine (105)

Everett The R.O.D Engine (5)

Callum The Private Engine (96)

Reagan The Director’s Engine (6)

Albert The Jubilee Engine (14)

Evadne The Commuter Engine (24)

Hilda The Commuter Engine (25)

Metin The War Department Engine (19)

Temel The War Department Engine (20)

Caneri The Colliery Engine (97)

Jasmine The Suburban Engine (56)

Emerson The Highland Engine (94)

Victor The Works Shunter (71)

Diesel

Daisy The Diesel Railcar (38)

BoCo The Diseasel (45)

Bear The Hymek Diesel (52)

Devious Diesel (104)

Derek The Paxman Diesel (62)

‘Arry The Ironworks Diesel (63)

Bert The Ironworks Diesel (64)

Salty The Dockyard Diesel (67)

Dennis The Lazy Diesel (76)

Diesel Ten (65)

Den The Works Diesel (86)

Dart The Works Diesel (87)

Sidney The Australian Diesel (88)

Paxton The Green Diesel (89)

Norman The New-Build Diesel (90)

Chopper The Quiet Diesel (95)

Stafford The Battery-Electric Shunter (92)

Argyll The Express Diesel (91)

Phillip The Boxcab Diesel (99)

Maxine The Push-Pull Diesel (100)

Donna The Heavy-Freight Diesel (101)

Gideon The Station Pilot (53)

Violet The Multiple Unit (72)

Hyacinth The Multiple Unit (73)

Tanner The Postal Shunter (106)

Mungo The Heavy-Freight Diesel (61)

Tracy The Thunderbird Diesel (60)

Sheridan The Railbus (57)

Pip The High-Speed Diesel (109)

Emma The High-Speed Diesel (110)