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feigeroman · 3 years

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Thomas Headcanons: BoCo

When Boco was first built in September 1958, he was originally allocated to the London Midland Region alongside all the other 28s. He was usually to be found on the Condor - an overnight container train running from London to Glasgow - and double-heading the service with one of his siblings. This often entailed working a northbound service one night, and then heading back down south the following night. This double-heading was required because although BR did have more powerful engines, these were in short supply, and in constant demand for passenger services.

Surprisingly, the 28s were well-suited to the Condor service. The night-running allowed for their power output to be kept as near to constant as possible, and apart from a two-minute crew change at Carlisle, the Condor almost never had to stop to make way for any other traffic.

Unfortunately, although largely reliable, various issues let BoCo and his classmates down. The main problem was with their engines, an experimental two-stroke design rather than the four-stroke type more commonly employed on BR’s diesels at the time. The manufacturers, Crossley, had already provided similar engines for classes working in Ireland and Australia, and in both cases the same problems were reported long before the 28s were even drawn or thought of.

Why BR chose to press ahead with Crossley engines anyway is anyone’s guess, but in any case, they paid the price for it. The 28s were prone to failure, and often had to be taken off the Condor en-route. As the class were only stationed at opposite ends of the run, this often meant replacing them with any other engines that happened to be available.

In most cases, the replacement would be a steam engine - usually a Black Five - and this often lead to them making fun of the 28s they were covering for. Eventually, however, both sides would have the last laugh - albeit for different reasons - when the Condor was taken over by the more successful 24s.

In 1961, BR attempted to solve the engine problems by returning the whole class back to Metropolitan-Vickers, and asking them to sort it out. Metrovick did their best to remedy the trouble, but they weren’t able to solve the problem entirely. However, they did have more success in fixing the front windows on the engines, which had a tendency to fall out at high speeds due to the vibrations.

When the 28s were returned to service the following year, they still suffered from various issues, but BR couldn’t justify scrapping a class that was less than five years old. So they decided instead to banish the entire class up to Barrow-In-Furness, which they figured was far enough out of the way to avoid the embarrassment that came with public scrutiny.

Naturally, this is how BoCo came to end up on Sodor in the first place, when he visited the NWR on an inter-regional freight train. Understandably, due to his past experiences with steam engines, he initially treated the Sodor engines very coldly, and wanted to stay no longer than necessary if he could help it. Given their past experiences with diesels, the steam engines similarly treated him very coldly as well.

However, things started to change when BoCo broke down one day, and was taken to Wellsworth to be repaired. He stayed there overnight, and ended up making friends with Edward.

Presumably this was how Edward seemed to already be familiar with BoCo when helping to diffuse the Diseasel situation - which took place the very next day. Despite his friendship with Edward, BoCo still remained grouchy towards other Sodor engines for a short while afterwards.

Incidentally, it was Edward who coined the name BoCo, during that same overnight stay. BoCo had been explaining the various problems he and his classmates had had, and the class nickname of CoBos was brought up. Edward then decided that swapping the syllables around, to get BoCo, sounded more affectionate, and rolled off the tongue better.

BoCo’s friendship with Edward was certainly a major factor in the other engines’ eventual acceptance of him. The way they saw it, any friend of Edward’s was a friend of theirs. That being said, it did take slightly longer for them to accept BoCo on his own merits, rather than the company he kept.

With Gordon, of course, the fact that BoCo seemingly saved his life certainly helped endear him to the diesel. For months afterward, Gordon tried to repay the debt, until BoCo kindly told him that the friendship they’d devloped was reward enough. In reality, of course, BoCo didn’t really think he’d done anything spectacular, as he knew Bill & Ben were only kidding around - though he’s never had the heart to tell Gordon this.

It wasn’t until shortly after the Wrong Road incident that Sir Topham Hatt started seriously considering keeping BoCo on. Due to their past misfortunes with the 28s, BR were only too happy to allow the NWR to give BoCo a trial run. In fact, they agreed to sell BoCo full-stop, their exact words being, “Keep him if you like! You’re welcome to him!“

After the sale was made, both parties were left wondering if the other was feeling alright that day. After all, Sir Topham Hatt had previously shown little interest in diesels, beyond the occasional disastrous trial period. And BR had previously never been so desperate to sell him one of their engines.

Upon officially entering NWR service, BoCo was originally intended to work on the Main Line, with occasional branch line runs on through trains. However, following the events of Edward’s Exploit, he was reallocated to the Brendam branch to fill in while Edward was being repaired. He ended up being so well-suited to the line that he became permanently based there upon Edward’s return. To begin with, Edward mainly handled the passenger services, while BoCo concentrated on the goods. Later on, though, they rearranged things so that every so often, they would swap duties, allowing both engines a bit of variety in their work.

At some point after 1968, Sir Topham Hatt managed to finally sort out BoCo’s engine troubles for good, by having him refitted with an English Electric engine provided by BR. Apparently they’d considered attempting this on their own 28s, but had instead resorted to scrapping the whole class as non-standard. Correspondence on this subject implies that having heard about the vast improvments in BoCo’s performance, BR are to this day still kicking themselves for not having gone through with the rebuild themselves.

On a lighter note - if somewhat more macabre - BR were happy enough to provide plenty of spare parts to keep BoCo going. The macabre part is that all these spares were sourced from the scrapped 28s, which does unnerve BoCo slightly on the rare occasions that he actually stops to think about it.

Although now mainly based on the Brendam branch, BoCo has occasionally worked elsewhere on the network. He frequently returns to the Main Line, and thus can often be seen at Tidmouth. It is also recorded that on at least one occasion, BoCo visited the Ffarquhar branch, though exactly when or why is not known.

This last point is inspired by the supposed use of a Triang 28, carrying the same number, on Awdry’s model of Ffarquhar. I have no idea if he was just testing the model, or actually made substantial use of it at some point. Either way, the information was there, and I just had to reference it somehow.

During the early 1970s, BoCo was also sometimes to be found helping out at the China Clay Works - mainly to make sure Bill & Ben were actually doing their work! At least two of these instances appear in the TV series: in 1973 (Double Teething Troubles) and in 1974 (Buffer Bother - in my headcanon, BoCo takes Mavis’ place in this story).

BoCo now shares this mantle with Derek (NWR #D7), following the sorting out of most of his teething troubles.

#thomas the tank engine #the railway series #sodor #island of sodor #north western railway #ttte headcanon #ttte analysis #ttte boco #boco the diseasel

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mean-scarlet-deceiver · 4 years

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just some further thoughts on the potential of boco fic (2.5/4)

My upcoming Traintober snippet for “Lonely” requires some background, maybe? *offers shiny pics below to compensate*

From 1958-59 (manufacture) to 1961 (withdrawal for remedial work), the Metrovick CoBo 28s worked the ten-hour overnight Condor Express freight train from London to Glasgow.

Ben Brooksbank photo of two CoBo 28s multiple-uniting a passenger train on the Sheffield main line. (This was post-Condor days, but they also ran the Condor two at a time, so. Still #relevant.)

But you want more relevance? Fine. Here’s noted oil painting “Night Freight” by Terence Tenison Cuneo, featuring a CoBo (notice the “CONDOR” headstamp as well as a second CoBo unit behind) passing a Black Five and set in the year 1960.

(In case you weren’t getting enough TTTE-related excitement, that shunting diesel on the right looks convincingly like a Class 08 to *me*...)

The Condor was a cool, romantic job that was remarkably well-suited to the 28s, even down to the fact that the long runs and minimal stops put the least possible strain on their weak Crossley motors.

After being recalled to their Metropolitan-Vickers shop for some not-wildly-successful remedial care, the CoBos remained stuck at Barrow depot for the rest of their not-very-extensive days and worked local passenger trains.

This background definitely makes me view with a fresh eye @princeluckybug13‘s discovery in the magazine stories that BoCo does not care for passenger work.

Anyway. In the course of sketching out some Condor adventures, I developed one of BoCo’s brothers, D7514, with whom D7502 is almost always paired during these years. 7514 is rather more impatient and salty than 7502, whereas 7502 is more protective and the “face” of the operation whenever they have their guard up... but both of them get very cross when you ever suggest that there is any distinction between them. They all very much wish to be treated like the inseparable unit with interchangeable parts that they basically are at this time. (Thanks to “multiple unit working,” Oh-Two and Fourteen even share the same driver.)

(D7514 is not the other future survivor of the class, btw—that’s D7505, who historically became a test engine for the Research Division, then a “carriage warmer”—which, don’t ask me, I haven’t figured out exactly how that works yet, though it comes up in my research quite a bit—then wound up preserved and leased to the East Lancashire Railway, where it works to this day. Frankly, I like to think BoCo has been absent from the TV show for a while because he’s gone to the East Lanc on a visit. <3)

Another OC I’ve created for this period is an “ancient” (BoCo’s standards for what makes an engine "ancient” will later radically change, but at this point a poorly-maintained forty-one-years-old definitely fits the bill) raspy-voiced Mogul-style steam engine (either a Gresley K2 or K3, haven’t quite decided yet) whom everyone calls Crow.

One of the few remaining ex-LNER K2s working freight in 1960.

After several months’ acquaintance:

“Have you—been—female?”

Crow sounded a (well) crow on his—her—whistle.

“All along, hummingbird. Ay, you go without having your smokebox cleaned out proper ’s’long as I have, and we’ll see how dainty you sound, right?”

She marshals the yard at the London end of the Condor (the proto version of which she used to help run) and serves as a bit of a sharp-tongued asshole mentor for the baby CoBos. (“Hummingbird” or “hummer” refers to their constantly-running motors, and is probably the absolute nicest thing she calls them.)

During the course of this final night together, she will reveal that these two Metrovicks have been her favorite engines during her entire fifteen years stuck at their depot as “yard drudge,” which leads them to the reasonable question of “... if we’ve been your favorites, how have you treated the others?”

“Look, I never said I was proud of turning into such a bitter hateful sod, did I? Now stuff it up your brakepipe, Fourteen.”

... I have a type for OCs. Don’t I.

#real true railway stuff #ttte oc #ttte boco

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