#ttte flying thistle

[duskstargazer]

[2003]

“Uh… what’re you doing?”

“Hm? Sorting out my train, why?”

“Isn’t there a shunter for that? Like there are in most other yards?”

Cedric chuckled. “Nah. Apparently the yard here is too small to necessitate a full-time shunter. And most traffic is trains passing through the station, not actually stopping here.”

Barry thought back on something she’d heard about the railway a while back. “I thought the engines here were hellbent on having someone else do the shunting for them.”

“That’s only the occasional few. Most of us are fine with it - at least those that I’ve talked to are.”

“But yeah,” Cedric continued, “it’s not often that trains actually stop here. That’s why the stationmaster isn’t getting on you for blocking a ‘through line’. …Unless he’s sleeping on the job or something.”

“Or sitting at his desk with a newspaper, j-”

An unfamiliar whistle cut into the two’s conversation.

“The hell was that?” Barry mused.

A big red engine suddenly shot through, a rake of express coaches in tow. He gave two blasts of his whistle, then hurtled on towards the hill.

“Was that a Jubilee or some shit?” Barry asked.

“…Didn’t look like it.” Cedric replied, deep in thought. “Looked like a Pacific. Maybe a Princess Royal?”

“Nope. We’d know by now if it was one of them.”

Cedric wasn’t quite sure what that meant, but he certainly wasn’t going to ask.

[arthursisland]

Famous Engines

[galinneall-dearg]

I love going down random rabbit holes

So there's this one-off character from the comics called "The Flying Thistle", who appears to be a sort-of Flying Scotsman knock-off? I guess?

(Also the longer I look at that crane setup the more cursed it looks)

That's not the weird thing about him though-

They- at some point during the production of this comic- removed his face

WHY????

[the-time-lord-oracle]

The 1992 Marvel magazine story The Visitor saw Sodor play host to a red A3 Pacific named Flying Thistle. As a fun fact, his name is a hybrid of the names carried by two real-life A3 Pacifics; Flying Scotsman and Knight of Thistle. The red livery is completely fictional, but in hindsight gives me Hogwarts Express vibes. Maybe if they ever do comic book adaptations of the Harry Potter series the artist could use an A3 as the basis for the Hogwarts Express. It would be an appropriate choice seeing as how the train uses the A3s' old stomping ground of King's Cross and the A3s featured corridor tenders, which would facilitate Professor Lupin's chat with the driver in Prisoner of Azkaban. Back to Flying Thistle, he's a character that the CGI series could've introduced. All they'd need to do is recolour Gordon's CGI render! An episode featuring Gordon, Flying Scotsman and Flying Thistle together would be fun.