#she also made the br cover of red white and royal blue

[lbbutch]

i'm so in love with the brazilian cover of One last stop by Casey McQuiston. look at them🥺

cover by Isadora Zeferino

[houseboatisland]

Any HC on Molly?

Yeah! Here's a link to a post I made (in a shippy lens) but here's a summary of all the non-shippy stuff:

She's timid because she was bullied by her sisters back in England. They looked down on her for being willing to do goods work.

She was one of several Clauds on the rota for Royal Trains.

She had an excellent service record and was the fastest by time among her class, which made her sisters even more jealous and vicious.

They treated her so badly that she volunteered to go to Sodor when The Fat Director was looking for potential engines. Sir Nigel Gresley recommended her on his own behalf, partially because he had a soft spot for Gordon and the NWR, but also because he knew she needed to get away from her sisters and deserved a chance to be happier somewhere else.

She came to Sodor in 1938 to cover for Gordon on the express when his overhaul/rebuild was to start. When her loan ended, Gresley let the NWR buy her for a hundred pounds rather than ask for her back, which was a fraction of a fraction of her value. He knew the NWR couldn't pay full price, but he couldn't take her new life away from her, and he couldn't just say he gave her away for free if ever asked. The war began, and any planned investigations into the dubious sale were forgotten forever.

Gordon wasn't supposed to know Molly was coming to cover for him, but it got out, and he deluded himself into believing she was there to replace her permanently. So, he treated her terribly.

The other engines sided with Molly rather than Gordon, because she was the first engine on Sodor in like, ever, to not like fighting as a way to pass the time.

Molly broke Gordon's speed record and this of course made him lose it.

Gordon returned from his rebuild, and shortly afterwards the war started. He and Molly reconciled, and they did lots of double-heading goods trains to Barrow. This was hard, dangerous work which put them at risk of attack, and it really helped them put whatever differences they had left aside.

When the war ended, The Fat Director let her choose her own paintjob. She didn't want to be unlined black like during the war, and she didn't want to be LNER Apple Green or GER Royal Blue because they reminded her of her sisters. She chose the livery we're familiar with, of yellow with red stripes and white wheel rims.

The Fat Director, despite what you'd expect, LOVED this livery. He was actually tempted to make it the railway's standard colors when the NWR was to become a BR region, but he gave that idea up immediately knowing most if not all the engines would either (1) want to keep their usual colors or (2) just hate the yellow period.

She does lots of branchline work, and she's one of the few engines Bill and Ben don't play tricks on.

She keeps a pretty low profile voluntarily, which is why despite being on Sodor since the Thirties, she never appears in the RWS and the TVS only featured her briefly. (Many engines on Sodor exist but just aren't well known because they don't consent on the necessary release forms to be portrayed fictionally.) Her and Thomas cutting Gordon off at the junction was the closest the TVS writers wanted to bother with writing about their 1938-39 feud.

The NWR numbering system is... stupid. She's carried multiple numbers since arriving, but since 1995, when the NWR was re-privatized, she has been their No. 13.