#'arry the ironworks diesel

[leatherbootlace]

“Grim Messengers of Doom”, or “The Class 13 is a Horrifying Concept to think about in the world of Thomas the Tank Engine.

writing this down because inspiration came to me at the worst of times and i have an assignment due in a few hours.

so according to some merch (mainly just one game) arry and bert have a triplet - this fella right here:

now, i’m thinking about this, and i’m thinking to myself, “Bootlace, there’s got to be something you can do with this information at some point. This is premium storytelling waiting to happen if you go and seize it”.

so, here’s what I’ve got in mind

Early 70s hits Sodor and the Killdane Ironworks is hitting an all-time record level of production. So much so that their aging fleet of Industrial Tank Engines can’t keep on top of it all. So what does management do? Scrap ‘em, of course!

The Industrials are withdrawn and in their place three Gronks arrive from the Other Railway - Harrison (’Arry), Herbert (’Bert) & Hecate (’Cate). The three work fine for a time. Arry’s the Brains of the Trio, and while he’s a great schemer he’s kinda useless without someone else to put his plans in action. Bert’s the Brawns, the silent muscle who does all the dirty work force onto him by their classmates. And Cate is the Beauty of the three, who lures unsuspecting engines through the mists and fog to their grisly demise in the Ironworks. All three are complete and total bastards.

Cate being directly based on StarSearch1927′s take on the Ironworks Triplet, read more about her here for a base of what I’m going off of.

But one day, after a Dead Train arrives from the Other Railway with engines to be smelted down, something goes wrong. Really wrong. An engine tries to make a run for it and wrecks itself, taking out Cate in the process. The Ironworks has been running well for a time, so they’ve got money to repair her, but an experiment being done on the Mainland catches the Manager’s eye.

The British Rail Class 13

So Management procures a Gronk in the process of being withdrawn and hooks it up to Cate to make one of their own. And the results, while horrifying to just about any engine, are great! Cate’s now much stronger and capable of handling the bigger loads of scrap they need to smelt down. It’s a complete success(-ish)! So much so, the Manager’s even considering turning ‘Arry & Bert into one.

And that’s where the line in the sand gets drawn for the two diesels. Because while Cate’s become the absolute power of the Smelters Yard, Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely. The process left her with a fair few bolts loose, and a rather sadistic streak to boot, and what’s worse - that Gronk they hooked up to her? It’s still (barely) alive, and it has no control over itself.

A Note on this. The Class 13 was formed of two Gronks permanently coupled together in a ‘Master & Slave’ Unit, with the ‘Slave’ Unit having its cab removed. Cate’s the Master, and the unfortunate Gronk (let’s call it that as its name) acquired for her is the Slave.

Now it goes without saying that ‘Arry & Bert aren’t exactly keen on the whole thought of “We’re going to join you together permanently and also the process might leave you a bit fucked up.” So much so, the two actually begin conspiring together to sabotage Cate so management doesn’t turn them into something like her.

And so, the day arrives. After overloading his train with scrap, Arry turns it into a runaway through the yards and it careens directly into Cate & Gronk, severing their link. Unfortunately, Cate was the only thing keeping Gronk alive at this point, so severing them had... unforeseen consequences.

The work at the time was enough to where ‘Arry and Bert can manage fine by themselves, so the Manager simply had Cate shunted off into storage, hoping to eventually find time to repair her so that she could either run by herself or with another Slave Unit in time.

[engineer-gunzelpunk]

Scenes from 'This is Sodor: The Iron Age'/Calling All Engines humanized: Diesel Gets Defenestrated

The Tidmouth Gazette reports:

CHAOS AT KNAPFORD

Tensions between steam and diesel locomotives are set to escalate from this latest incident from the so called ‘Sodor Airport Conflict’. Main heavy fast goods locomotive, ex-(railway of origin unknown)Stanier Black Five NWR#3 ‘Henry’ was captured on photograph defenestrating ex-BR Class 08 ‘Diesel’ from a station window into a pit of mud after the former engine was humiliated by ex-BR Sodor Ironworks Class 08 shunters ‘Iron ‘Arry’ and ‘Bert’, when they assaulted him and doused him in oil in an earlier incident of violence on our fair Island home…’

"But for a few bruises and a besmirched outfit, he was unharmed'

"This is merely the latest incident of steam-diesel violence which includes; the aforementioned dousing in oil, ex-GNR NWR #7 steam tram "Toby" being hung up by the ankles from a loading ramp by Diesel, ex-LB&SC shunter NWR #1 "Thomas" getting doused in paint by Diesel (the triggering incident of the conflict), 'Arry getting shoved onto gravel by Thomas and ex-L&Y Class 28 NWR #5 "James" being grabbed and thrown under a coal hopper where he was subsequently buried in coal. His outfit was besmirched but he was otherwise unharmed.'

"It is to the shame of the NWR that we on fair Sodor should witness the type of mindless violence plaguing the Mainland in imitation of the conflicts between the youth cults of Mods, Rockers, Teddy Boys and Skinheads, particularly from our naughty engines. It behooves Sir Topham Hatt to quell the violence and restore order before it spreads out of control..."

"The Tidmouth Gazette with the kind permission of the Daily Mirror has printed this invaluable guide to the youth cults from which the engines are patterning their style and dress."

[tidmouthterror]

Anyone interested in trying an arry/diesel roleplay?

Or an arry/diesel/bert roleplay?

Diesel and his rough, tough boyfriends. Diesel acting all tough until he ends up getting in trouble and being forced to help Arry and Bert at the ironworks and he finds that he’s pretty inferior to the two in terms of ‘bad boy’ attitude lmao.

And Diesel’s stunned to find that they start flirting with him the longer he works with them, and Diesel really likes the attention despite thinking it’s weird at first lmao

If this sounds interesting, dm me here or on discord to rp! My discord username is splodge#6863

[ttte-tugscrowskullausmainblog]

Yay, filler post, let's go, lads-

Currently working on another demon design, it's a surprise though so can't tell ya. Anyways, here's some terminology stuff from my AUs. There are multiple sets of twins, especially diesel twins, and because I'm lazy I thought of grouping names for them so we don't have to say their individual names together.

These will also be how they are tagged in posts that feature them.

---

Bert and 'Arry = The Ironworks Twins

Splatter and Dodge = The Splodge Twins

Bill and Ben = The Claypit Twins

Donald and Douglas = The Scottish Twins

Rheneas, Smudger, and Dolgoch = The Narrow Gauge Triplets (might be renamed, especially since they aren't referred to as narrow gauges in certain AUs)

---

These are the current names for these groups, all except the triplets are official.

Aight, back to sketching I go, peace. ✌️✨

[feigeroman]

Thomas Headcanons: ‘Arry & Bert

Both ‘Arry and Bert were built in 1955, although by which workshops is not known. In any case, they were both initially based at a marshalling yard in East London - possibly Hither Green, going by their accents. However, they only worked there for a few years. In 1960, BR sent both of them to the Barrow-In-Furness area, in answer to a request by Barrow Ironworks Ltd for shunters to help their own engines with an extra workload.

In early 1962, both ‘Arry and Bert were transferred again, this time across the channel to the neighbouring Vicarstown Steelworks, in response to a similar call for help. They had little contact with the NWR engines at this stage, although it is known that they had a brief altercation with Stepney when he arrived on his initial visit to Sodor.

This explains 'Arry’s line, “Got you this time, Stepney!“ in Stepney Gets Lost, implying Stepney had previous met the diesels on at least one occasion.

Despite having been on Sodor for a good decade or so, it wasn’t until 1973 that the diesels were officially purchased by the NWR, in a joint agreement between the railway and the Steelworks. It is theorised that this arrangement was made so that Sir Topham Hatt would be able to keep tabs on how ‘Arry and Bert interacted with the rest of his engines. The fact that the sale was made shortly after their infamous second attempt on Stepney’s life seems to lend credence to this theory.

Like most of the engines jointly owned by the NWR and other private concerns, the exact nature of the arrangement is a little dubious, It seems, though, that the NWR owns the diesels outright, and simply leases them back to the Steelworks.

It was only at this point that both ‘Arry and Bert were repainted into the Steelworks’ corporate livery, and also gained their names for the first time. They were named respectively after Harrison & Hubert Beames, the twin brothers who originally founded the Vicarstown Steelworks. Obviously the full names never stuck...

An H-beam is a type of steel beam (geddit?).

‘Arry and Bert have both mainly worked at the Steelworks ever since, although being owned by the NWR, they are still frequently sent to help out elsewhere. This includes numerous stints as shunters at Anopha Quarry and Tidmouth Docks over the years, a few weeks each at various smaller yards, a few attempts at working proper trains, and even a brief spell as station pilots at Vicarstown station!

The diesels also serve as Diesel Ten′s current minions, following his arrival in late-1973. Although they themselves aren’t that competent at following his orders, they’re still a damn sight better than Splatter & Dodge, whose idiocy was great enough that Diesel Ten was often better off doing the dirty work himself!

In my headcanon, by the way, Splatter & Dodge were two other engines owned by the same government department who oversaw many of Diesel Ten’s modifications. They reportedly visited Sodor once, so they must have also been involved with Diesel Ten’s transfer there.

While it’s true that the two pairs of diesels have never been seen in the same place together, it should be stressed that they are in fact two separate pairs, and not one pair disguised as the other.

While it would be fair to say that Diesel Ten rules over the Steelworks with an iron fist (literally), he does frequently leave ‘Arry and Bert in charge while he goes out to deliver finished iron and steel, or collect scrap metal. On some rare occasions, he even lets them go out and do this, while he looks after the shunting - usually when he needs a moment’s peace and can’t be bothered going out!

To a lesser extent, the twins also sometimes serve as Devious Diesel’s minions - heavies would be a more accurate term. In other words, Diesel usually does the thinking, while they do the actual work.

[conceitcd-blog]

☱

Your character has just discovered my character’s journal/diary.

Leave a  ☱ in my askbox for an entry that’s about you.

Journal Entry

–As transcribed by the engineer–

And I thought Diesel was bad enough. These two engines are nothing but trouble. Look at them, scrapping engines and then telling others that they are next. What’s worse is that they’re twins. Or best mates? I don’t know. Whatever it is, it’s trouble times two. I’m sure they’d love to scrap all of the steamies. Diesels think they’re so much better.

What else would you expect from ‘Arry and Bert? They work at the Ironworks. That place is bad news for any engine who is no longer useful. Diesel 10 tried pushing me into the smelting pits once. They’re probably talking about pushing me in right now. But they’ll see. No one will remember the diesel engines. Steamies are a classic.

--James