asimpledreamwanderer

[asimpledreamwanderer]

hey queens i’m back 😈 pulled a henry for a lil while but now we are in tip top shape 🙏🙏

[asimpledreamwanderer]

[asimpledreamwanderer]

this is you trying to hype me up for another day of this shitshow.

I made this months ago but forgot about it😭

[asimpledreamwanderer]

emily haters just do not understand what it means to be an eldest sibling (usually sister) and having to put up with everyone else's dumbassery all day and i will die on this hill.

[asimpledreamwanderer]

i deadass used to think charlie was james and edward's son for some odd reason

edit: my english grammar is horrendous at 3am

[asimpledreamwanderer]

omg larger seagull meets a lil seagull

All I have is crack Ed sketches from discord HAH enjoy the shitpost🩵

[asimpledreamwanderer]

I really love that ttteblr will see a video of a domestic duck interacting with a human and go "that's donald and dilly right there". Because it's true and it never fails to make me smile

[asimpledreamwanderer]

sir handel would definitely call the skarloey railway "peter sam and the opps." why is peter sam left out? because peter sam probably once got upset over being called an opp and sir handel probably doesn't want to upset his little brother (not to mention duke would probably give him the scolding of a lifetime if he ever found out).

[asimpledreamwanderer]

Sodor in the age of social media

1. Edward

Edward is perhaps not the type of engine you would expect to have an online presence, much less an active one, with a large following. However whilst he has never been a loud presence online, he has been consistent and beloved since nearly the beginning.

It began with a story.

In the early 2000s Edward's driver was at her whits end. Her toddler refused to fall asleep, instead crying throughout the night. The doctors all said she was healthy, that this was a phase, but the driver and her husband were exhausted. One august night, it was her turn to stay up with the toddler, she tried driving around, hoping the motion of the car would lull the child to sleep, but there was no luck. When she went to pass by the engine sheds, she turned in out of desperation. Edward was over 100 years old, maybe he knew what to do.

She entered the engine shed, finding all the engines awake. It is well known among railway men that any engine can pick out the cry of a child above any other sound, a fact that has proved both a blessing and a curse to their crews.

The exhausted woman climbed onto the bufferbeam gently shushing the child to no avail.

'Well hello little one."

The baby quieted, staring up in awe at the engine before her.

"Would you like a story little one?"

The toddler cooed and stretched a hand towards the giant face of the engine.

"Thomas was a little engine..."

The child was soothed by the elder engine's voice, and try as she might to fight it, she was soon asleep. The driver thanked the engine profusely, but he just chuckled and asked her to bring the child if it happened again.

Victoria Sand grew up on the buffer beam of her mother's engine, listening to stories of the railway, and her grandfather's time as driver.

In order to allow the engine sleep the mother recorded many of the stories, so they wouldn't have to disturb him to get the child to sleep, despite the engine's protests that he enjoyed their visits.

The years went on, and young Victoria began sleeping through the night (although there was more than one instance of her sneaking out to see her honorary grandfather.) The mother wished to help other mothers and fathers like herself so, with Edward's permission, she uploaded the stories to a video site.

"Storytime with Grandpa Edward" grew slowly but surely, as parents found them and played them for their children. As the videos popularity grew, many asked for Edward to read their children's favorite books.

It should be noted at this time, almost no one outside of the Island realized 'Grandpa Edward' was in fact a locomotive, much less Northwestern No.2. Victoria's father was an artist, and the videos consisted of Edward's voice over his paintings. Most of the audience had assumed Grandpa Edward was human. Upon the realization, Edward chuckled and asked it be kept that way, as he was touched so many people liked his stories on their own.

A young generation of children grew up listening to "Grandpa Edward" alongside Victoria Sand, some of whom would later visit Sodor. Whilst their parents would almost never recognize the engines voice over the sound of steam and metal, the children would. Edward would just laugh and ask for it to remain their secret.

The years passed, and the 2020s arrived. By this time "Grandpa Edward" was a household name for much of Britain, with thousands of stories recorded and released. Edward had declined in person interviews over the years, he was much too busy on his branchline after all. Despite helping to raise an entire generation, Grandpa Edward had remained a mysterious figure, known only by his stories, even as little Victoria grew up and became a mother herself.

The revelation of his identity involved certain blue tank engine, because of course it was. The sickness that must not be named had swept the globe. Sodor was weathering the storm well, as it had closed its borders promptly and thoroughly. Despite this, the children of the island grew stifled in their houses, mossing school, their friends, and the freedom of the outside worlds.

The NWR came together to help in what ways they could. Thomas was ran from one side of the island to the other, making videos for children to watch, to show them that the world and their friends would still be there waiting for them when they came out. As expected, the 'Thomas touch' happened, and the videos seemed to explode overnight, with children around the world eagerly watching Thomas on his adventures around the Island. But Thomas was growing tired. He was older now, 106 thank you very much, and the constant longer runs were more than he was used to on his branchline.

Edward took one look at him one evening at Wellsworth as he waited for a clear signal to Ffarquhar, and promptly dragged Thomas and his coaches. Thomas protested, the kids needed the joy the videos brought.

"Leave it to me," Edward said.

The first video was simply titled 'Grandpa Edward reads Thomas a story.' The video opened to show Thomas and his coaches parked inside the Wellsworth Sheds, a fully grown Victoria holding the 'The Three Railway Engines' up for Grandpa Edward to read.

[asimpledreamwanderer]

random (humanized) ttte headcanons!

the scottish twins absolutely love marmalades of any sort. they make it their goal to have some sort of marmalade at least once a day and love to try new marmalades (and douglas has racked up quite the skill in making dundee marmalade too!)

as patriotic as duck is about "the great western way," and to an extent, london and england, as much as he loves typical british cuisines, he absolutely despises chicken tikka masala being seen as a national dish of the united kingdom, but not for the reason many would think he does. he despises it seeing it as more of a disgrace to actual south asian foods, having seen the world prior and exploring many different regions and their cuisines, and actually believes that the dishes are best kept the way they are intended, and often recommends individuals other south asian dishes to try when this fact comes up.

james tousles and plays with edward's hair to help him go to sleep. earlier on in their relationship, edward used to experience frequent nightmares and sleeping troubles, something that would worry james to no end- especially since edward is very good at hiding any turmoil he experiences, and edward usually takes on a leading outwardly supportive role in their relationship. james began to big spoon when the two would get ready to sleep and play with edward's hair while having conversations about their day with edward until edward falls asleep, then holding him warmly throughout the night. one of his favorite things is waking up in the morning to edward sleeping soundly in his arms as the sun traces over them entangled in the covers.

percy actually becomes somewhat of a common man in local railway politics- not assisting directly in strikes, but negotiating for specific conditions and requests of workers to be met- and following edward, probably eventually becomes one of the fat controller's right hand men when it comes to overlooking operations and making sure everyone stays on task. he's also very good with children, having enough of a childlike spirit to have fun with them while also being responsible and stern enough to establish boundaries with them. percy is more of a quiet observer sort, slowly developing from being more or less of a c*nt to seeming more curious and childlike- though the childishness is not intentional, he simply wishes to know more and collect that information.

(tw: misogyny mentioned)

mavis definitely didn't have the best experiences prior to working on the sodor quarry and on the north western railway. she was oftentimes the only female driver, if not the only female diesel engine driver on her old railway, and was subject to crude language, misogynistic threats, and was forced to double down in favor of her male colleagues quite often. it's why when she came onto the north western and the sodor quarry she became irritable, and even more irritable when toby was trying to kindly direct her on where to put the trucks. for the first time, a male colleague was simply directing her- not berating her, not making crude misogynistic remarks to her, not threatening her alongside her engine- simply directing her and ensuring she does her tasks right. and that set off years of trauma from all of the misconduct and misogyny she experienced on her former railway to seep out, leading to her feeling as if she was "taking control" over her life by doing what she wished- but obviously, resulted in poor decision making. i'd imagine since then especially with emily and toby's places on the north western she has gotten a therapist and reached out to friends for emotional support- she's in a much better place now :)

thomas LOVES anything cheesy. and with bacon. he's also really really willing to try new foods and LOVES spicy food. unfortunately his cheekiness has also led to him sneaking a few REALLY HOT peppers into gordon's sandwiches which.. well... let's say it didn't end up well for poor thomas.

millie actually adores listening to stephen's stories of the older days, when he was referred to as "the rocket," and of how different life was back then- she's a little bit of a railway historian herself, and her engine's cab has many railway posters from the older days plastered inside it as a tribute to railway history

[asimpledreamwanderer]

weird thought: what if the engines have memories, have experiences, have thoughts and feelings, and can actually control themselves to some degree, but gain their faces at different times? this therefore prevents the engine from obviously having a face, making facial expressions, facial features, etc., but also from speaking- they cannot speak without their faces, and without this, their drivers and firemen won't know directly if there's actually an issue with the engine. what if james and henry were some of the few engines to get a face very soon following being built, hence leading to henry constantly being aware of when something's wrong with him, while also explaining the wrinkles on james' face. or engines like thomas and percy instantly getting a face after their smokeboxes being put together, leading them to have freshly brand-new opinions and feelings to express without actually having experienced anything. or even edward (our favorite shy steamer- might have to do with this), duke and emily (being some of the oldest by basis) being full in steam longer ago, but not having gained faces until almost a decade or two later- something that could actually tie in to duke's old spiel of "back in my day, engines were seen but not heard."

[asimpledreamwanderer]

oh. my. god.

People there's something I need to announce. It's been circling my head like the tracks on the island.

I keep seeing multiple human versions of Thomas and friends, so I brought you a challenge

Sir topem hat as a train 🚆

Seriously, imagine if there was an episode where he woke up as a train one day and has to keep it secret. As well, trying to change back

All the engine saw him as a new one recently came. But the fact that he has the face of the fat controller. How well can he fare as a train? How useful and reliable can he truly be in his new form?

How will the train's treat him? Who would he get along the closest? How well can he go against the trucks? The diesels About whatever trouble is happening among the island?

And how would he feel to learn that he was called the fat controller?

[asimpledreamwanderer]

as much as i love joking about my silly little obsession with fictional anthropomorphized locomotives i love ttte & rws so much because as an immigrant from another country who didn't learn english as their first language watching ttte and reading the railway series books is literally how i began to learn english. in some way i'm almost indebted to it, emotional about it, as silly as it may seem

[asimpledreamwanderer]

james is definitely one of those mfs who are SUPER SMART AND SKILLED he just has no common sense 😭😭

[asimpledreamwanderer]

headcanon: james is actually way less materialistic than he lets on. his red paint is nice, but he won't ACTUALLY go to hell over it- it's more of a way for him to build his own identity and almost his "place" on sodor than it really is a materialistic thing. in some way he finds it thankful that he has a boastful reputation about his red paint, as it saves others from asking him if he wants anything for christmas, or build days- thomas probably asked a few times early on in his career on sodor, to which james would always end up stuttering and stammering- he doesn't want gifts, he wants a sense of belonging (but obviously, that's probably odd to say, so he simply says nothing). sometimes, however, it's probably brought him some inner turmoil, seeing how some engines and individuals see him as only obsessed with his red paint and being splendid. i would expect james to be more of a charmer/gestures individual- small acts of love being his favorite thing. he loves to cheekily race with thomas, he loves when gordon feels comfortable enough to open up to the engines about his siblings, he loves seeing henry return from the steamworks (and probably jokingly calls him "as beautiful as a newbuild"). he greatly admires rosie for being his voice of reason when he isn't, and does his best to do the same for her. sometimes he loves to put together edward's coaches and trucks for his branchline duties when he's available, and loves it when edward does the same for him. he prefers the nights when he's able to talk deeply with edward and almost soothe him to sleep positively, and although not a morning person, definitely prefers waking up before all the others to see edward peacefully asleep and smiling with the others.

[asimpledreamwanderer]

they would definitely be the sort to bicker over what the proper way to watch tv as engines is (and sadly, emily probably has more common sense than james)

[asimpledreamwanderer]

I couldn't resist. Based on that tumblr post going around.