#-between Knapford and Kellsthorpe

[master-of-the-railway]

Me pulling up my map of Sodor 200000 times a minute while writing fanfic/making AU notes because I have shit memory when it comes to where and what direction certain places are on this godforsaken island:

[cerenemuxse]

Ok so for a fic I'm working on, there's a reference made to "Old Iron." It was as I was working on it that I made this realization.

The absolute irony of the complete opposite happening. Instead of Edward being late to the station, its James who is late with Edward's passengers, which occurs in the beginning of the RWS story, "Edward and the Cabbages".

Edward doesn't say anything but he immediately starts rushing the moment leaves Wellsworth so he can be on time. But as he journeyed down the branch line, he felt his bogie wheels feel odd after running over a set of points. His crew checked when they reached the next station, presumably Suddery, but nothing was wrong. But when they head down to Brendam, Edward's frontmost leading wheel just slips/breaks off and rolls into a cabbage patch that they passed by. Keep in mind, his driver warned him to slow down when they left Wellsworth, and this takes place in 1995, about 43 years after "Old Iron.

The whole situation just seems so funny to me for that reason. Like, you'd think Edward wouldn't do that but nope, he did not hesitate to do so. And its mentioned that the Main Line engines arriving late happens more often. So did he do this every time they were late or did he just go "Screw it" that day? 💀

Also, can we just acknowledge the fact that in the RWS version of "Old Iron," James canonically rolled down the other side of Gordon's Hill, and somehow didn't crash???

We saw what happened when his brakes failed in "The Fastest Red Engine on Sodor" so how did he not crash as he is without a crew, meaning no one was there to pull on the brakes.

I was looking for the locations in the RWS and TVS versions of the stories, and in the RWS, the whole thing starts at Maron, which is set at the peak of Gordon's Hill in the RWS, and it ends at Kellsthorpe Road, which is TWO stations, Cronk and Kildane, away from Maron. James stormed by TWO stations whereas he only managed to reach the halfway point between Knapford and Crosby in the TVS. (The signalman does say that all traffic was clear for the next 30 miles which is more than 1/3 of the Main Line. The Main Line is about 87 miles.)

[agirlwholovesspe33d]

Here it is: The Main Eight (that name sounds 110 times better than Steam Team)

Thomas Billinton - Driver of NWR N°1, an LB&SCR E2, NWR Blue.

Gender-fluid.

Dyed a lock of his hair blue because he thought he would look cool. (He was sorta right)

His middle name is Brighton, prefers to be called Thomas. Please don’t call him Brighton or she’ll kill you.

Bisexual

Excellent singer

Currently dating James. ❤💙

Runs the Ffarquhar Branch Line, his local passenger service starts at Tidmouth, on his first return journey he goes to Knapford and alternates between the two every other return journey.

He sleeps in both Tidmouth and Ffarquhar’s Workers Hut.

Loves fruit as much as Sportacus (the blue guy from LazyTown)

If you offer her cake or any sweet stuff he’ll deny unless it’s an important/big/formal occasion.

He hates Duck, and Duck hates him. Mainly because (and yes I am quoting from The Unlucky Tug) “Duck is a traditionalist proud of his heritage and very by the books, he does things the proper way, contrast that with Thomas who will do whatever if he gets to have more fun“.

Arthur sorta holds a grudge for him since Thomas ruined his spotless record.

Literally the whole island except for Duck loves him.

My ideal voice for him: John Hasler.

Edward Pettigrew - Driver of NWR N°2, a Furness Railway K2, NWR Blue.

Decent singer, doesn’t like singing in public though

His good lifestyle keeps him looking young.

Mostly seen as a father figure by most NWR Workers.

Asexual/Aromantic (Aroace)

Had a cousin (who I will talk more about in another post) and was like a sister to him, since he was an only child and his parents weren’t able to have more kids.

Loves milked coffee and can’t live without it.

Runs the Brendam Branch Line, currently resides at the Wellsworth Workers’ Hut, as it is at the start of the branch line. There he lives with Tiffany (his stoker), BoCo and Nia.

He’s one of the few Steamies Damian (aka Diesel) respects.

Henry’s bestie.

Close friends with Gordon, James, Thomas, Percy, Duck, Trevor, the Vicar of Wellsworth, Bertie, Salty, Porter, Nia, Bill and Ben, Neville and Molly.

My ideal voice for him: Keith Whickham.

Henry Stainer - Driver of NWR N°3, a “Black 5″ Class Locomotive painted NWR Green with Red Stripes. (formerly a C1 “Atlantic”)

Strong, kind, friendly giant.

Loves the nature and usually goes to a forest near Vicarstown, where he and his stoker; Jessica, calm down from work.

Somewhat irritable.

Vegan

Big fan of chamomile tea,

Bisexual (and Hiro’s boyfriend)

Very tall

Loves to deliver the Flying Kipper. He collects it from Knapford South Harbour, A.K.A, the Harbour at Thomas’ Branch Line, being close to Tidmouth Sheds and all and with the other Knapford Harbour being used only for light goods. Although Brendam is still the main and largest port on the island.

He and Edward are besties. He’s also good/close friends with Thomas, Gordon, James, Percy, Toby, Emily, Bear, Murdoch, Arthur, the Scottish Twins and Molly.

When his engine was a GNR C1, he was ridiculously thin. He became stronger by exercising, something he liked to do while waiting for the locomotive to come out from Crewe Works after the Kipper accident.

My ideal voice for him: Kevin Frank.

Gordon Gresley - Driver of NWR N°4, a blue LNER A1 Pacific prototype Locomotive, nicknamed “A0”; painted NWR Blue with red stripes.

Used to transport the fast NWR Express Passenger Service, otherwise known as The “Wild Nor’ Wester”. Starting at Knapford and travelling Eastbound for Vicarstown and only stopping at Killdane, Crovan’s Gate and his final stop being at Vicarstown. But ever since the Kirk Ronan Branch opening, the Fat Controller gave this job to a new engine (whom I will enter into more detail in another post), so he does a local service now, stopping at junctions like Kellsthorpe Road, Wellsworth, and Maron. Elsbridge and Tidmouth both in return journeys and journeys to Vicarstown.

On return journeys, he uses a Loop Line via a junction in the middle of the Main Line, after Crosby, the line goes up, passing Elsbridge, stopping there and continues down until passing Tidmouth and entering Knapford from the south

A direct descendant of Sir Nigel Gresley, more specifically his grandson. Not biologically, of course. His father was very close to Gresley and worked with him. And thus Sir Nigel considered the son Gordon’s Father had as his very own.

This fact became stronger after Gordon’s father passed away.

Straight.

Loves tea, and fancy food in general. And would normally have a chat drinking tea with James and Henry. Or other drivers of the Main Line.

Has sort of an Uncle-Niece relationship with Rebecca.

Has a close bond with Thomas ever since the incident at the Lead Mines. Henry sees him as a big brother and he sees Henry as a sort of brother his same age.

My ideal voice for him: Neil Crone.

James Hughes - Driver of NWR N°5, an L&YR Class 28 Locomotive with extra boogie; painted Skarloey red with blue stripes. Although it did have the traditional 0-6-0 wheel configuration, but after an accident at Crosby Field on its first day of work, the engine was given the extra boogie for safety reasons at Sodor Engine Works. (renamed Sodor Steamworks)

When the engine was in the Engine Works at Crovan’s Gate, James saw the Skarloey Railway engines painted in what was at the time, SKR red so he said “I want that for my engine” and it’s been red ever since. 

Very vain

After an accident with some bees at Tidmouth Station, he held a phobia for them ever since.

Pansexual

Currently dating Thomas

He has a special passenger service from Knapford to Kirk Ronan known as “The Special Express”.

As said, he enjoys the fancy food he could get if he hangs around Gordon and/or Henry but also is happy with Thomas inviting him to something as simple as an ice cream.

Emily’s bestie

Admired Gordon and sort of have a Napoleon complex.

My ideal voice for him: Kerry Shale or Luke Marty.

Percy Avonside -  Driver of NWR N°6, a GWR Saddle Tank  Locomotive painted NWR Green with added bunker for long-distance goods trains.

Station pilot at Knapford, but after the work in the yard grew to be too much for him and River (his stoker), so the Fat Controller bought another engine and hired another driver, Montague “Duck” Collet, from the GWR. 

Percy currently assists with the goods on the Ffarquhar Branch Line and delivers stone trucks to Knapford Harbour. A work Rosie sometimes does when he needs help but the one who helps him the most is Sonny. Although Rosie did deal with Percy’s goods deliveries full-time during a time period where he and Thomas were off the Ffarquhar Branch helping out on other parts of the island.

Multiple accidents made him have memory problems, which explains why he doesn’t even know what a Railway Inspector is.

He sees River as the big sister he never had, mainly because he grew up at an orphanage for most of his life. And saw Diesel 10 as a father figure during his stay at the Dieselworks. His engine is also of obscure antecedents, Sir Topham Hatt I bought it second or third hand during a strike at Tidmouth.

Big fan of anything that tastes sweet. (Thomas made him addicted to Sportscandy though) Except for chocolate, he despised it ever since the accident at Mr. Jolly’s Factory.

He’s more familiar with the term “Father Christmas”, hence why he doesn’t know what “Santa Claus” is.

Loves to deliver the Post Train during the night with his best friend, Thomas.

Ever since the scarf incident in Winter, Percy hates scarves and never uses them, even though he should.

When Thomas’ siderods were broken and had to go to the Works the day he met Elizabeth, Harold helped Percy with the post, something he didn’t like until Harold crashed his helicopter in a haystack due to the mailsack being too heavy.

He was given a Daytime run with the Post Train after arriving late several times and after an accident with Gordon and trucks with tar barrels.

Asexual/Aromantic/AroAce.

My ideal voice for him: Nigel Pilkington.

Toby Holden -  Driver of NWR N°7, a GER C53/LNER J70 Steam Tram painted brown with NWR Blue sideplates.

He’s preeeeety old, but younger than Edward

Demisexual

Loves tea, and it helps him to relax.

Helps deliver workman to the Ffarquhar Quarry with the coach of Henrietta, his wife.

He doesn’t care about self-image. He’s just happy.

He is a mutual to both Thomas and Percy but when they argue, Toby steps aside and watches the fire spread, and loves every second of it.

Mentor figure to Percy, even more so than Edward.

As user wrduckdog said “Edward has the kind of wisdom in that he knows just how to advise younger drivers and mentor them. Toby has the kind of wisdom where he knows how to get free candy of a machine if you hit it a certain way”.

Ideal voice for him: Colm Feore.

Emily Stirling -  Driver of NWR N°12, a GNR 1003 class “Single” Locomotive painted emerald green with gold lining.

Emily is also an orphan. After a business trip from which her parents didn’t return, Emily was left an orphan in Scotland, having to raise herself alone, having that tenacious and strong attitude of later model seasons until one day Addison, a granddaughter of Sir Nigel Gresley, saw her wandering through Scotland (where she went for a vacation) and seeing a 7-year-old girl struggling to survive on the streets, she took her in as her sister. In England, Emily grew up seeing the railway and becoming fond of it until she became an engine driver.

Pansexual.

Had feelings for Thomas during her first days on Sodor, but saw how happy he and James were, and slowly accepted them.

Also felt attraction for Spencer but it was more of a guilty crush.

She’s currently Caitlin’s Awesome Girlfriend (if you understood that reference I will love you)

She had a crush on Mavis for a while.

Due to the Peel Godred electric line not reaching Callan Castle and Black Loch, she helps with the tourism there. As well as Molly and Neville from time to time.

Loves fruit and staying healthy as much as Thomas does, in fact sometimes they do workouts together (Sportacus and Stephanie moment)

Sister figure to most members of the team, except for Edward or Toby.

James’ bestie.

Close friends with Deci (my OC), Thomas, Percy, Gordon, and Henry.

My ideal voice for her: Teresa Gallagher.

Note: Despite some voice actors I mentioned being from TATMR, set movie is not canon in my AU of stories, although I guess that goes without saying.

And there you have it folks, the Main Players on my Humanized AU. It’s been fun to come up with some of these ideas. I especially thank YouTube, Twitter and DeviantArt user https://www.youtube.com/@JamesAWilliams for inspiring me with some of them, as well as my best friend https://www.youtube.com/@artuthebigengine7928/featured, user https://www.youtube.com/@TheUnluckyTug_official/featured and @asktrio516 . All of them are really awesome. See you in the next post! ;D

[feigeroman]

Station to Station (funk to funky...)

So, spurred on both by one of my previous headcanon posts getting liked and reblogged by @mean-scarlet-deceiver​ (who is totally awesome - go check them out), and by The Unlucky Tug’s magnum opus of a video essay about his take on the Island of Sodor (check it out below, and then check him out - both are totally awesome), I decided it’d be a fun idea to share some of my own headcanons about Sodor. Most of these are things I remembered while watching the video, which you can see here...

...And I’ll be presenting them in the order I remembered them. The video isn’t strictly necessary to understand this post - I just wanted to share it. It’s also worth having a copy of the Sam Wilkinson map (mentioned in the video) to hand, as it’s what I used as the basis for my take on Sodor. Yes, I know it’s a bit of a clusterfuck, but so is my version of the timeline, so...

***

1) Knapford is Tidmouth, and Elsbridge is Knapford

What do I mean by this? Well, what the RWS calls Tidmouth, the TVS calls Knapford. And what the RWS calls Knapford, the TVS calls Elsbridge.

Confused? I certainly was the first time I tried typing that! I’ll just explain the headcanon:

Basically, I go with what the RWS says. In other words, what the TVS calls Knapford, I call Tidmouth (incidentally, I prefer this version with the big yard alongside)...

...And what the TVS calls Elsbridge, I call Knapford. I know this shot doesn’t really show the station, but I decided the yard in the background is part of Knapford as well.

2) Which harbour is which?

This is somewhat similar to HC1, in that I’m changing up some of the names of established locations. There are many docks and harbours on Sodor, but the show mainly focuses on Brendam (and either Knapford or Tidmouth in earlier seasons). Those locations change drastically from season to season, and I wanted to account for most of the various appearances. So in no particular order:

For Tidmouth Harbour, I use the current Brendam Docks (though my headcanon is something nearer to the real-life Southampton Docks).

For Knapford Harbour, I use a mix of S2 Knapford Harbour and S3B Brendam Docks Just imagine that the former evolved into the latter over time.

For Brendam Docks, I use the S2 Brendam Docks.

I’ve loosely based Arlesburgh and Kirk Ronan on the real-life Bristol and Weymouth harbours, respectively.

3) Two or three-track mind

Okay, this was something I only thought up after seeing Tug’s video. He points out that the number of tracks tends to vary between sets, and he decides on the following:

Three tracks means it’s somewhere on the main line.

Two tracks means it’s a branch line.

One track means it’s either the far end of a branch line, or a freight-only line.

However, he also makes the point that some parts of the main line are inexplicably double-tracked, such as Cronk Viaduct (which he moves to Wellsworth, but that’s neither here nor there):

In cases like this, my headcanon is that the main line was originally completed as a double-tracked railway, with most of it being upgraded to triple-track later on. Obviously it may not have been possible or feasible to upgrade certain sections, hence them being left as double-track.

4) Lower Tidmouth

Now here’s one that I really like. This unnamed station from The Three Railway Engines was christened Lower Tidmouth by the TVS modelmakers. It’s located between Tidmouth and Knapford, and sits on the southern outskirts of the former town. Even though Tidmouth is a pretty large town - especially in my headcanon - its main station seems to cope well enough on its own, so why this extra station?

My headcanon is this: During the War, Tidmouth would most likely have been of great strategic importance, with its harbour and rail links - and therefore a prime target for air raids. Just in case the main station was bombed out of action, Lower Tidmouth was constructed just outside what was then the edge of the city, to serve as a temporary passenger terminus. After the War, the rudimentary station was given a major upgrade, after it was discovered that many people living to the south of Tidmouth found it more convenient than the main station.

5) Lower Tidmouth Tunnel

A much smaller idea now. This short tunnel is located between Tidmouth and Lower Tidmouth, and I just want to say I like to imagine that this looks the same as Henry’s Tunnel does in the TVS - two tracks in one bore, one track in the other. The only difference is that it’s built from red brick, as shown here.

6) Some ideas above Edward’s Station

This is a double-barrelled headcanon concerning Wellsworth. One concerns the station itself, and the other concerns its goods yard.

Firstly, the station itself. There’s been a lot of debate about which way round it should be. Should the footbridge be at the western or eastern end? Personally, I think it should be at the western end. My reasoning is that that would allow the bay platform siding (where Henry is in the above picture) to be at the eastern end, facing towards Gordon’s Hill. I assume that’s where Edward would normally be stabled when he’s waiting to bank trains up the hill. I just think it’s more convenient on that front.

As for the goods yard?

Well, I think this is Wellsworth Yard. That’s it. That’s the headcanon.

7) The Parkway Stations

This next headcanon concerns a rather obscure part of the Sodor railway geography - namely, these two tiny stations on the main line.

These stations serve the tiny villages of Balladrine and Kellaby respectively - though, in true railway fashion, they’re actually located some distance from the communities they serve. My original idea was to go down the usual route and just add the suffix Road to the station names, but then I was struck by a flash of real-life inspiration.

In the 1970s, British Rail opened a number of park-and-ride stations, which basically means you drive to the station, park your car and continue your journey by train. They usually have the suffix Parkway, as the first one was built close to the M32, which is also known as the Bristol Parkway.

Anyway, that’s the gist of this headcanon. The North Western jumped on this Parkway bandwagon around that same time, allowing people from the villages to either drive or catch a bus to the stations, and then catch a train to wherever.

8) The new Kellsthorpe Road

In my own personal timeline (which is a whole other headcanon in itself), Season 8 takes place in 1976, and it’s during this season that we see Kellsthorpe Road being built. Obviously the station had existed since the railway was built, so what’s with this new one?

Well, I like to think this was actually a relocation to somewhere more convenient for both the town and the junction with the Kirk Ronan branch.

9) Crovan’s Gate and other small works

I already touched upon this idea before in my Victor’s Haulage Truck headcanon, but if you haven’t read that, it goes like this:

I’m not a huge fan of the Steamworks and Dieselworks being separate facilities in separate locations. I just think the RWS version of Crovan’s Gate makes more sense, seeing as you would want all your major repair equipment and facilities to be concentrated in one location.

That being said, I wouldn’t say all this sort of work should be concentrated at Crovan’s Gate. It’s implied in the RWS that more minor repairs are carried out at smaller workshops across the rest of the system - I’d assume these are located at all the major engine sheds, and that there’s at least one on each branch line. These would also be useful for when there’s more work than Crovan’s Gate can take on at once.

10) The Sheds

Speaking of sheds, I have a handful spread across my version of Sodor. Basically, I have a couple at each end of the main line, and one on each of the branch lines. And since the highest operating district number in real life was 89 (for Oswestry), I’m gonna say all of the NWR’s engines are allocated to District 90, covering all sheds on the region:

Tidmouth (90A)

Knapford (90B)

Crovan’s Gate (90C)

Vicarstown (90D)

Barrow In Furness (90E)

Arlesburgh (90F)

Ffarquhar (90G)

Brendam (90H)

Peel Godred (90I)

Kirk Ronan (90J)

Great Waterton (90K)

Norramby (90L)

11) Dryaw Goods Station

Alright, this one is more about a specific episode than a location, but I thought it was worth throwing into the mix. This goods station only appeared in Thomas Gets Bumped, and nobody is quite sure where it’s meant to be. Some people say it’s Hackenbeck. Others say it’s Toryreck. Me? I’ve always thought of this as the original Dryaw Station, on what is now the Harbour line on the Ffarquhar branch.

I say this because the surrounding scenery matches what’s shown on the map, and it makes sense for a freight-only station to be located on what is now a freight-only line. But if that’s the case, why does Thomas seemingly pass through daily with his passenger train?

I toyed with the idea of Thomas being there because he’s pulling a workers’ train, but then I came up with something better. In my personal timeline, this episode takes place during the initial construction of Knapford Harbour, and the new passenger line with it. More specifically, during a brief interim period between the closure of the original Dryaw to passengers, and the opening of the new passenger line.

12) The Sports Field Halt

At the end of the Sodor Explained video essay, Tug admits that he couldn’t think of anywhere to put this station from Three Cheers For Thomas.

Sam Wilkinson’s map places this halt just south-west of Elsbridge, and that’s where I’ve decided to place it too. Not just because it’s semi-canon, but because do you know what other location is just south-west of Elsbridge?

Yes, this cricket field. In my headcanon, I’ve merged these two locations together. Makes sense, right? They’re both sports related things, next to an embankment, and just south-west of Elsbridge. I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch, and you can always imagine the halt is a request stop serving the sports field.

***

Alright, I think that’s enough headcanons for one post. Firstly, because I underestimated just how much I had to talk about. And secondly, I’ve always said it’s not wise to put all your eggs in one basket. It’s much more sensible to just put out a short thing, let it simmer for a while, and then finish off the rest later.

I hope you guys have enjoyed this post. I certainly enjoyed finally getting all these thoughts out there. Stay cool, stay safe, and I’ll share the rest of my thoughts at some point in the future (even if they are as insane as the ones I’ve already shared so far!)...