#ttte sir nigel gresley

[mwolf0epsilon]

We live in a world where Gordon's siblings and cousins personalities are up for grabs in terms of interpretation, so everyone has that one chosen sibling/cousin who is The Insufferable Bitch Of All Time™ and I think that's magical.

Anyway, my version of Gordon essentially served as an educator/parental figure for his baby siblings up until he was brought to Sodor, with the majority of them being fairly amicable to him (some bonds were stronger, some inevitably drifted apart), and the later generations being more indifferent because they only had stories of him (and were 'raised' by the much older siblings that he nurtured).

The situation varies more with his cousins, since they were more familiar with Great Northern than they were Gordon.

On Ryan's side of the family, there's a good deal of respect since Gresley Tank Engines were taught to be mindful of their tender engine contemporaries and their "sensibilities" (it wouldn't do to sully the Gresley name by having an internal class war), while on Spencer's side it's... Well... Err...Very very complicated.

The sense of superiority that Mallard brought on after he broke Flying Scotsman's speed record tipped the balance, and put a bit of a strain on both sides of the coin so to speak... In fact, the one A4 that has shown any sense of respect for Gordon or any of his late (and still living) siblings is Sir Nigel Gresley. It's hard to get a read on the others since they'd rather be scrapped than show genuine emotion/vulnerability.

[redwryvernwrites]

Flying Scotsman, Mallard and Sir Nigel Gresley

[askyoungiron]

Yknow with Hamilton being nicknamed "Ham", who else has food nicknames? Might as well complete the meal by adding on others!

( -🧀non)

BITTERN: People eat ducks right?

SIR NIGEL: Bittern!

BITTERN: What! It's true!

SIR NIGEL: Mallard is your brother!

BITTERN: He's an asshole!

[noble-atomics-railway]

The Flying Scotsman and Sir Nigel Gresley at the sidings of The National Railway Museum in York.

[elester01]

Traintober Day 19 Admire - Aspirations

“Great-uncle Nigel?” the young boy asked as he fiddled with a bolt, spinning the small metal object in his hands as he stared at the elderly man. He was scrawling on some papers, planning his next great steam engine. His brow was creased in concentration, the white hairs crossing over each other. Nigel’s brow lifted, and he looked over at the brownish-black haired youth. “When do I get to start making trains?”

“Soon, Gordon,” the elderly man responded with a tight smile. “You are still only 8.”

“That is very old, you know,” Gordon decided, turning his nose up at the mere indication that he was still a child. “I’m very much old enough to do all of the stuff you do.”

“What is the square root of 49?”

The child opened his mouth to say something, before promptly closing it again.

“There’s your answer.”

“Hmph.”

Gordon went back to the book he was reading. Not for long, however, as another question sprung to his mind. “Would you be proud of me if I drove trains?”

“Very. If you do that I’ll give you an A1. Your brother as well.”

The child’s eyes widened. “Oh my,” he gasped. “Really?”

“Someone has to drive it, right? I’ll keep the prototype safe, how about that.”

Gordon blushed with pride, nodding.

“Good lad.” And with that, Sir Nigel Gresley went back to his work.

[fireflameproductions]

The Gresley family

I love this family so much, they are all so cool and I adore them all! Especially since these diverse characters are all related! Since I haven’t connected to half of these characters I won’t leave headcanons this time but maybe in the future once I get to know them more. Just enjoy the art for now ^^

Characters in order: Gordon, Flying Scotsman, Spencer, Mallard, Ryan, Pretty Polly (I had to include her even if she didn’t appear in the books, I love her so much)

[henryandgordon]

Watching this with pure tears

[trainalt22]

A dictation of the National Rail Museum curator orientation of the class of 2015

The speaker is Doctor Ashton Collins, lead mechologist for the N.R.M.

[Recording start]

"The first of May 1925, Solario came to me today asking for a once-over. I found this odd because I had just finished maintenance on him not a week ago, but I'm not foolish enough to ignore my engines when they say something is wrong. He asked to speak with me in private. I eyed him warily but had my workshop cleared regardless. He said he was visited by a small purple tank engine the night before. From how he described this engine, it didn't match any I knew about, but I let him continue. He said that she had chosen him to be her guardian, that his kind heart and brave soul would be of great use, and then he paused, a look of contemplation on his face. I pressed for more, and he said she disappeared in a flash of golden light.

My expression must have been one of unamusement because Solario asked for a chance to prove what he saw was real. I was unsure of what he meant but allowed him to, and before I could object, a golden dust enshrouded him. I could see him start to fade. I must admit it gave me a shock. I fell from my stool, but something most peculiar happened. When the dust settled, before me where Solario was, a man stood, dressed in a green jacket with 'LNER' embroidered across the left breast pocket, while the right had '4473' across it, and his trousers matched the same green with black and white lining down the sides.

His hair was a blinding blonde, and he had eyes as green as his coat. I called out to him, worried about what had happened to my engine, but he proved his identity by reciting the conversation we had when he first awoke two years ago, and we talked at lengths about how he came to be like this. All I can say for now is this is most interesting."

An excerpt from Sir Nigel Gresley's journal taken from the LNER Archives

"I know what you all are thinking: Gresley must have had something stronger than tobacco in his pipe."

[Dispersed laughter is heard in the crowd]

"But you'll learn that stranger things happen here than just the errant railfan trying to get themselves locked in overnight, and it may shock you to find out that Gresley wasn't off his rocker when he wrote that entry in 1925. You ten have been selected because you have shown the most aptitude and drive to be curators to help look after these places of history. But a curator's job isn't just planning maintenance and events; sometimes this job can be more than what we signed up for.

Gold Dust is the lifeblood and souls of sentiences everywhere. Now before you write me off, allow me to demonstrate."

[Dr. Collins produces a small wooden box from the desk he's standing at and takes out a weathered conductor whistle]

"This is a conductor whistle. It was entrusted to the NRM after its owner passed. Now, while gold dust can be volatile if misused, it can be a useful tool for those who wield it."

[Dr. Collins wipes the mouthpiece with his sleeve before blowing into it. The whistle bathes him in a cloud of golden dust, and he disappears, causing the group to panic before he reappears in the back of the room]

"Pretty neat, right?"

[Dr. Collins's sudden reappearance startles the class]

"Sorry for the scare, everyone, but I'm guessing you're going to take what I say a little more seriously. Sure, every machine you have needs its fuel to run, but this is what keeps them alive; it's their soul. But while I am the Lead Mechologist, I think it more prudent for you to hear from someone who doesn't just use gold dust for cheap tricks. So please welcome Mrs. Morgan Merlin, or as you would know her, LNER 4468 Mallard."

[A tall, tanned woman in a dark blue suit and matching skirt with bright red heels walks into the room with a look of unamusement on her face]

"How many times do I have to tell you not to use gold dust for cheap tricks?"

"Ducky, I was just using it so they'd take me seriously."

"Get out and stop calling me Ducky."

[Dr. Collins leaves the room, shutting the door behind him. Mallard clears her throat before continuing]

"Now, a few things before we continue. 1. Yes, I'm the real Mallard; the one downstairs is a replica. 2. Yes, I can still use my engine form; I just haven't in a while. 3. Do NOT call me Ducky. Understood?"

[The group either nods or responds in the affirmative]

"Now, it is part of your job as curators to help us guardians complete our duties. As such, most of the UK's guardians and all remaining former guardians that survived scrap are stationed here. Myself, Evening Star, Lode Star, and Sterling Number One are all guardians, and I have been given their permission to talk about their status with you.

This brings us to another point. Knowledge about guardians is hush-hush. You tell no one other than those above you or your fellow curators this information. If fallen into the wrong hands, it could spell disaster for sentient machines everywhere.

Now..."

[Morgan writes on the chalkboard]

"Application of gold dust. Gold Dust has many uses, one being teleportation like you saw Dr. Collins demonstrate. However, it is not just for travel; it can be used for offense and defense as well."

[Golden dust envelopes Morgan's hand and condenses into a golden blade. She holds it up for the entire class to see]

"There are many dangers guardians face, many of them being supernatural in nature. Gold dust not only allows us to battle these threats if necessary, but it also defends us from them as well."

[Her "blade" disperses into a cloud of dust again, reshaping into a shield]

"As you may have already guessed, gold dust allows guardians to shed their mechanical forms and become human with an appearance based on both the physical attributes of whatever machine they are and their perception of themselves."

[Morgan disperses her shield, the dust seeps into her skin, then she gestures to herself]

"As you can see, my engine is in perfect condition, and I'm very confident in myself and my abilities. That's not to say that heavier-set guardians aren't confident with their forms; much like you humans, our forms still have a bit of an unknown factor when we transform into them for the first time. Things like skin tone, hair color, and eye color vary.

Some of you may have noticed I mentioned that guardians face off with the supernatural. One of our most common foes are wraiths. They are spirits of machines that have died and chosen not to travel on to the Grand Terminus, and instead choose to roam and seek out humans. I can assure you, you do not want to find yourself cornered by a wraith. There are not very many things in this world that will bring you a more painful demise.

The other type of enemy we face is called the Blighted. They range vastly from machine to machine, but they are the poor souls that have been unfortunate to have been infected with Crimson Rot. Their minds are subsumed by it; they become a husk of their former selves, attacking any machine to siphon their victim's gold dust, feeding the parasitic infection.

Make sure to check your machine carefully for unusual rust or rotting of wood or other such materials, especially if they work in or around a scrapyard. Crimson Rust likes to fester in scrapyards to drain what little gold dust dying machines have left."

[Morgan's watch beeps twice, causing her to sigh]

"We will explain the rest of a guardian's duties in the next class, so do be there. Class dismissed."

[End of recording]

[uncoupledengine]

Got to see the amazing Flying Scotsman today.

Didn't expect to see him, so the day was made

[amazonykamiaba]

[redwryvernwrites]

Day 2 - First Light | Traintober 2024

Duchess of Hamilton takes Tornado to meet some of the LMS express engines much to the dismay of Sir Nigel.

[askyoungiron]

So let me get this straight, Olivia’s mom Jacqueline is actually Merry Hampton?

QUICKSILVER: ... Yes. She is actually Merry Hampton, the cursed engine that should have been left for scrap and saved us a lot of trouble in the long run.

SIR NIGEL: Quicksilver! That is unnecessary!

QUICKSILVER: It's true! You think an engine would want to be saved in her state?

[fanficfish]

Gordon Ranch AU headcanons

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headcanons for my version of Gordon in my human ranch ttte au! And other stuff. I'll probably re-edit this in the morning lmao.

He's a city boy (son of the famous Sir Nigel Gresley) that moved to the country to get away from the wild life of showbiz. He still likes to show off though- hence why he runs an "Express" service to take visitors and locals alike from one side of the island to the other. It's actually decently fast and reliable, to most people's surprise.

He kind of figured out Henry has some relation to him, but didn't really think too hard about it and assumed he was just some distant relative because he has A Lot of those. He finds out that Henry is actually more related to him then he thought after Gordon himself went to the hospital for a broken arm and a nurse asked if he and Henry were brothers. Gordon came back to the ranch and didn't speak to anyone for three days while he processed, and Henry contemplated if it was worth requesting to be transferred to the other side of the ranch but have to deal with Bill and Ben. (He decided getting stared at by Gordon was more manageable.)

He's very overprotective of his family, new or old, after most of his family [eedacted] [redacted] [redacted]. Thomas thinks it's holalrious watching Gordon following Scott's every move, until Thomas himself finds himself ont he recieving end after complaining that he almost slipped on some very slick mud.

He's not great at keeping in touch, but Scott doesn't mind taking th initiative to give his dear big brother a call every now and then, and it's a highlight of both their days.

Gordon is vey strong-minded, and in the early days of the NWR, he fought and bickered with Thomas all the time. They made up after a [eedacted] incident, and Gordon considers it the best move he'd made since Thomas helped him avoid the first Sir Topham Hatt's wraith. In return, Gordon sometimes helped Thomas, who was head stable hand at that time, with stable chores.

Gordon was a bit apprehensive when he first met Donald and Douglas, since all twins in his experience (read: Bill and Ben) were nothing but trouble. He finally came around after finding out how helpful they were, and then regretted his decision to trust them after they duct taped his shoes to the floor after he boasted his cart could go faster then theirs with the same load of goods.

He once helped North get a job outside the family ties. He claims he hasn't heard from him in years, but every so often he'll get a card or letter and mysteriously have a better mood for a few days.

He likes to work out, if not for the fitness then to flex on everyone else.

He's not good at dodging the tabloids. More then once his face has appeared on the cover, with everything from "Oldest Gresley son a REBEL???" To "Gordon Gresley: Working Against His Will???" The others find it funny. Gordon thinks they have a strange sense of humor when he has to constantly tell gossipy tourists that he's perfectly happy working on a ranch, thank you very much.

When Scott visits, it's twice as bad, and Gordon comes close to punching a tabloid journalist or camera person more then once for invading his privacy. At some points the others take pity on him and the Scottish twins manage to scare off the majority of the tabloids long enough to give the brothers some much-needed bonding time.

He believes in a healthy diet of cheese, potato chips, granola bars, and the occasional apple. Duck is horrified.

He also finds all of Henry's pets minus the squirrels very cute. He personally gets attached to a cow that he and Henry take turns feeding.

He tries to run a marathon at least once a year starting when Duck joins the ranch and he can afford to take time off to travel to the race. He does decently well, but has never come first. He came close once, but was beaten out when his shoe fell off and he cut his food on sharp stone.

He wears contacts that make his eyes look blue, but his eyes are actually a bright (apple) green. This is a secret he will never let the media see over his dead body.

And of course, mandatory piccrews (Artist links will be added as I go back through my search history, but they're all not my art)

Scott and Gordon.

[thatcheeseycandle]

//Postive rant post

I can't stop thinking about that one moment in RWS No. 8 (Gordon the Big Engine) where Gordon comes to help out James.

LIKE COME ON EVERYTIME I THINK OF THAT MOMENT I THINK OF A FATHER HELPING HIS CHILD LIKE OGJUDJGJJJG. THEM.

And as a bonus it adds onto my whole "generation" grouping thing, if you dont get what I mean then let me just-

Gen 1: N. 2 (??), N. 3 (??), and N. 4 (??)

(Gen 1 could mostly be Coffeepots like Glynn, I just don't know what to name them-)

Gen 2 (?): Rheneas (N. 2), Sir Handel (N. 3), and Peter Sam (N. 4)

Gen 3: Edward (N. 2), Henry (N. 3), and Gordon (N. 4)

Gen 4: Thomas (N. 1), Percy (N. 6), and James (N. 5)

Now how does this tie into their characters? BASICALLY, take James, Peter Sam, and Gordon as an example of things. Those three have something incommon, they have something special only known to them. What do I mean by this? Well, Peter sam's funnel, Gordon being the one to pull the WNW (Wild Nor' Western) Express, James with his special paint.

Technically this sort of thing only applies to Gordon and James and the mysterious N. 4 Coffeepot, that came before the two, since Peter Sam belongs to the Skarloey while James and Gordon belong to the main cast I think Peter Sam wouldn't count, but possibly can if he did come to Sodor before them.

But yeah, basically my point is, the next/current generation will always carry a trait from the last generation.

Thomas carries Edward's "early days" traits, Percy carries the anxiousness and moodiness of Henry, James carries the Pride and the similar haunting past of Gordon, Philip (and Mavis?) carries the self-esteem of Toby, etc. Like family in a way, except they're a found family of traumatised anthropomorphic engines

Though to mention it in a more metal-related (my term/words for blood-related/relative engines) I think the most common/well-known example would be the Gresleys, aka the telenovela other Railways watch.

How exactly would they be an example? Well to explain, since Gresleys are actual irl things and not just part of the TTTE universe, that would mean a big BIG family tree.

Meaning, Scotsman and Solario would've been passed down Great Northern's observant eyes, Sir Nigel got passed down Banbury's calming aura, Pretty Polly carried Blink Bonny's forwardness, etc etc. Like genetics, except through gold dust (some of Gordon's gold dust was sprinkled into Scotsman's gold dust in my au, so yknow. WAHBANG Genetics)

Now every family has one trait most of the family has, and in the Gresley family, it would be their Pride and brutal honesty. (mostly pride-)

[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.