#Gunzel Speaks

[engineer-gunzelpunk]

Happy Disability Pride Month

I want to wish a Happy Disability Pride Month to everyone; to everyone with a physical disabilities, mental illness, neurodivergencies, cognitive and intellectual disabilities; every one who's disability interacts with their race, gender, sexuality and class.

As this is a train related blog, I want to showcase here some history about the relationship between disability and rail transport. For those of us for whatever reason cannot use a car due to disability or poverty, access to a good, working public transport system is crucial to conduct the business of living.

Like a lot of folks in the railfan community, I am on the Autism spectrum, which can and does impact me in certain ways in getting about. I cannot drive because I have no car (for multiple reasons to do with cost and my conditions), so the train and bus is the most reliable way for me to go about my day (subject to lots of things of course).

Access to regular, safe and working public transport is a necessity for all and a Disability right.

The National Railway Museum in York has a dedicated exhibition to the experience of rail travel by disabled commuters, Go As You Please, as well as a short film We Do Go Out And About.

The video is captioned and has British Sign Language for all the spoken word parts.

[tjejojyj]

Flowers and three trains at Central. A challenge would be to get four trains and two teams in the shot at the same time. I’m sure some crazy gunzel* would be patient enough to capture it. (* speaking as one of the brethren I think the adjective “crazy” here may be superfluous for a general audience, but it makes sense for us.) (at Central railway station, Sydney) https://www.instagram.com/p/B6AFFZyHeDc/?igshid=50ntp4o6b6ex

[engineer-gunzelpunk]

I'm on Art Fight!

Hey all, I'm on Art Fight! I'll be drawing things or the next month or so. Maybe I'll see ya there!

Edit: Here's my account!

[engineer-gunzelpunk]

Obligatory Introductory Post

Hello all, I am Engineer GunzelPunk. Pronouns They/Them. By my name, I'm an Australian railfan (a ''Gunzel" is a Australian term for a railfan used a lot in Victoria; it used to mean something similar in implication to 'otaku', ‘foamer’ or even "Queer" in the LGBT sense, but it's changed a bit since then), and think way too much about trains and the Railway Series/TTTE. Here is where I will dump all my odd train thoughts, art (OCs, redraws and other things), some videos and generally engage in nostalgia.

I simp really hard for Henry, the green Black Five. If there is a bit of an excess of Henry content, that is the reason why. I also simp for Victorian Railways locomotives. I do not apologize.

I may also indulge in a bit of TTTE AU (human-This Is Sodor: The Age of Iron)/ Red and Black Steam On Southern Metals (Victorian Railways RWS/TTTE AU/Extended Universe)/headcanoning from time to time.

THIS IS AN NSFW 18+ BLOG. DNI MINORS AND PEOPLE THAT DON'T LIKE ANY SORT OF ADULT CONTENT.

I will tag all "adult" topics appropriately for the benefit of everyone, as there will be some topics discussed on my blog such as death, funeral culture and its associated practices, criminality, obscure and bizarre magical philosophies or other such things that may offend or trigger.

Some of my fiction is spoken in my native tongue (liberal use of the word "cunt" will be the least of it). It will offend or be incomprehensible.

There may be gore, violence or drug references.

IF YOU ARE OFFENDED BY SUCH CONTENT, TURN AROUND AND WALK.

DNI

Here is a list of tags you can put in your filter list:

#thomasallgrownup (for spicier TTTE or my other sentient train related content, mostly varying levels of Coarse Language and Adult Themes)

#gunzel speaks (for any particular thing I want to make an announcement for)

#cw gore

#cw violence

#cw suggestive

#cw language

#cw drug use

#cw alcohol use

This blog is LGBTQIA+ allied. NO APOLOGIES. All in the Queer community are welcome at Casa D'GunzelPunk.

It should go without saying but I'm going to anyway... NO TERFS, NO SWERFS, NO FASCISTS.

I don't want to single out Ace/Aros but all sexual content will be marked for your convenience, if you wish to proceed.

NO MINORS PLEASE. THIS IS AN ADULT BLOG.

This is for your own safety. There will be adult content here. Minors DNI.

MAPs GET THE FUCK OUT. NO PEDO REQUESTS. FUCK OFF.

Otherwise I just wanna have fun posting stuff. No Drama.

Now with all that out of the way, I shall introduce my GunzelVerse under the cut:

This Is Sodor: Iron Age (Gunzelverse human/transformation AU/EU branch)

“All things pass into the night...

Goodbye Horses! I’m flying over you…”, Q Lazzarus

The name the “Age Of Iron/Iron Age” is supposed to evoke the Ages of Metal in Classical thought, with the Golden Age being the best and the age of Iron the absolute nadir, a Dark Age. (Such phraseology is used in steam enthusiast culture with the term ‘Golden Age of Steam’ being a well worn phrase, so the reference to the ‘Iron Age’ is a darkly ironic answer to that.)

It's grimly ironic considering the primary metal that steam locomotives are made of and the fact that during the Lokodammerung ("Twilight of The Locomotives", my term for the mass locomotive scrappings during the Beeching Axe/Operation Phoenix), they were being reduced to this base component.

Given as the AU occurs during that particular Dark Age for locomotives, the 60’s and early 70s, I thought it would only be appropriate as a subtitle for it.

The locos when they become humanised start becoming wise to humans, what it is to be human and messing about with subcultures in vogue at the time (in Britain; Mods, Teddies, Rockers, Skinheads, Greasers, Hippies, Punks, etc, and in Australia; the Mods, Sharpies, Bodgies and Widgies etc.), for them its a second sort of adolescence where new info, new sensations flood their conciousness, new modes of being... and a potent new weapon in their survival against the scrappings.

#GunzelVerse# This Is Sodor: Iron Age#ttte humanisation#ttte gijinka#thomasallgrownup

Red And Black Steam On Southern Metals (Victorian Railways AU/EU)

The Island Of Sodor isn’t the only place with non-faceless vehicles.

On the other side of the world, on a railway network the size of Great Britain and every Victorian human is no more then 25 kms away from a railway line; the steam locomotives of the Victorian Railways live and work.

They breathe and suffer and love like humans; from Newport Works where many locomotives were built, to the notorious soot-caked North Melbourne Loco Depot and the 1-30 slopes of the high country at Cudgewa, known as ‘K-class Country’, and the ever stylish Spirit of Progress and The Overland; when the Oz version of the Beeching Axe and Lokodammerung strike their Broad Gauge fiefdom, their world is upended forever.

And the survivors must carry on as best they can.

This is an Extended/Alternative Universe existing parallel with the Island of Sodor and overlapping with This is Sodor: Iron Age, though the sweep of time is longer. It will feature humanisation.

The 'Red and Black' of the title refers to two common liveries, black for goods work, red for passenger work during the active days of the VR (with plenty of variation such as the blue and gold "Spirit of Progress" livery of the S-class Pacifics).

It will feature OCs of mine based on real life locomotives like VR Pocono H220 ‘Heavy Harry’, Hudson R707 ‘City Of Melbourne’ (but here called ‘Cerberus’), A2 4-6-0 No 986 (in this universe, ‘Pluto’) and others. And there will be some reference to real life personages.

These are fictional representations of locos and humans and no comment is to be inferred from them, or offense intended in their depiction.

There will be very heavy coarse language (like I said in my intro, the word ‘cunt’ being used will be the least of it) and adult themes, and be written in the Australian vernacular.

A lot of it will jump time as the mood takes me. They will be dated if possible.

OC Profiles below:

VR A2 4-6-0 No 986 "Spirit of Warrigul" aka "Pluto"

VR H-Class Pocono H220 "Heavy Harry"

Cheers!