#irl locomotive history

[hazel-of-sodor]

I'm gonna start going through my folder and posting the up to date versions of all my engines. Tonight’s is the Avonside B3. Specifcally Margaret, a Engine that worked at St. George quarry and the Kinmel Railway with her sister Eleanor.  The right version is her in @denbigh-and-wrexham​ ‘s Au version of her, owned by the Denbigh Quarry Company.  Heres the real Margaret looking worse for wear.

[r0-boat]

I don’t really like irl talking, I don’t like my voice, but I would kill to hear Ingo and Emmet info dump about locomotives to me, history facts, how it all works, parts, old locomotives, modern ones, just anything about them, ask them questions of it them to get them to keep talking and rambling on and on, I can’t tell you how much my heart melts when people do this with me, hearing someone talk so happily about what they are fixated is so comforting, like can I please fall asleep on you while you talk? Or put on like a 2 hour long documentary about trains?….I need this in my life, damn quarantine got me realizing how lonely and love starved I am.

- noodle 

Don't worry bro once my dms reopen I listen to all your rants.

I can't tell you how much I'm grateful to people who actually listen to my bullshit when it's really hard to do the same for them :(

I can tell certain people get a little annoyed when I constantly say can you repeat that when after I just heard them

[horiizonsstuff]

TTTE OCS‼️

shawties i wanna talk about my ocs now lmao. I talk abt my ocs a lot in this acc and i wanna give them a proper introduction. Yes my ocs are in the gold for blood au and maybe will add them in my hnk au for fun

.·:*¨༺ ༻¨*:·.

FLEUR JACKSON

Fleur isn't a self insert or someone being bonded with an engine. She's your local florist in Sodor who has a motherly vibe all in all. I just made her last week so there's not much info about her. Hopefully, I can talk about her more here.

.·:*¨༺ ༻¨*:·.

PYRRAH

Also known as "Pyrrah Collett". Her name was actually based of Pyrrah from RWBY since at first her original inspo was the Achilles class aka GWR 3031 but I wanted to go a bit more,,,in the creative side. Yknow at first her whole relationship w/ The Flying Scotsman was just me wanting to ship my oc with him due to my dumb simp phase. It started as a joke but here i am. Its ur cliche not so rich woman dating a whole ass rich man. She's so strong she could bench press me and i would say thanks.

.·:*¨༺ ༻¨*:·.

CORAZON

Also known as Corazon Porter! GOD I HAVE SO MUCH TO TALK ABOUT WHEN IT COMES TO CORAZON! I WOULD LOVEEEEEE TO DRAW HIM AND SPENCER'S DYNAMIC BECAUSE EVEN WHEN THEY HAVE THEIR MOMENTS OF BEING A GOOD DUO, THEY DONT WANT TO BE FRIENDS AND THATS OKAY. Anyways, creating Corazon was more like a love letter to the Philippines' history of locomotives (There's only a few locomotives preserved in the Ph.), thats why he has so much info than the other two ocs. He's more like a distant cousin to Hiro just to clarify. Every now and then, He would visit the Island of Sodor due to his owner (self insert coming soon hehehehe) having some business there or just wants to visit. When he visits Sodor, he does his best to help there and on rare occassions, he would pull the express. He lives for the gossip in Sodor, especially the whole difference between Diesels and Steamies. Hes just there in the sidelines. His earing was based on that one earing that uh,,,miss universe,,,inspired. I tried to just add a few elements of his filo heritage there. I would say that he died in 1990 based on the irl history so he was just one of the old steam locomotives that lived a good life.

.·:*¨༺ ༻¨*:·.

Anyways thats all for my ramblings of my ocs! I will talk about them more in this acc soon and will slap full rendered pieces of them in my main acc soon.

You can find Pyrrah and Corazon in this post. The text reveals a bit of their history so yuh.

Thats all, see u in the weekend 🏃‍♂️💨

[gundamcalibarney]

Top 5 irl locos!!

(Recently watched some history stuff lmao)

I've done USA locomotives so for this one i'll be interpreting this question as IRL Locomotives of all time, I will unfortunately have to exclude the ones that I have listed in the USA list.

Unlike the USA list this one won't be in any particular order.

[5.] SR West Country Class Tangmere - Honestly the fact that she's apparently gotten into a Whole shit load of problems is pretty funny and honestly gives her a lot of personality to a degree. The West Countries and Merchant Navies are a pretty up there in favourite locomotive classes primarily because their boxy streamlined shape compared to the duck bill of the A4s and the bullet shape of the Coronations and I feel like that kinda makes the class stand out amongst the UK streamliners.

[4.] LNER A1 60163 Tornado - Tornado holds a special place in my heart, though this is primarily because of how I write them in Locomotion however I have other reasons as to why they're in this list. They're a new build from scratch steam locomotive of a (pre-2009) extinct class of locomotives and they're kinda living up to that legacy of sorts And being steps in steam preservation.

[3.] LNER A1/3 4472 Flying Scotsman - I think my copious amounts of Scotsman content can already speak for itself. They're famous, she went 100 miles and he got on TV shows and documentaries so I think many people can already get the appeal. I don't exactly have much that hasn't been said about the Flying Scotsman because what I'll say about the engine has already been said more eloquently that me lol.

[2.] The BR Class 14 - Okay this is on the list primarily because of that One video where the preserved ones are in a line honking their horns and it's so fucking cute please look it up if you have the time. Also they're little fucking dudes!! What more can you get?

[1.] GNR Stirling Single - Beautiful locomotives the Stirlings are! Like the boiler sort of merging with the cylinders really give it a nice shape and the fact that one of the class took part in the Race to the North and just well IT in general.

[rroguess]

irl football can stop trying the greatest play in the history of football already happened in the year 20020 with the Locomotive Lateral

[hazel-of-sodor]

LNER A2/1 Appreciation post

[hazel-of-sodor]

Can you tell us more about the Seagull Line? Where it is, its history?

everything spontaneously catches ablaze, screams can be heard in the distance as the Earth groans beneath your feet.

Sobbing-why did you have to ask about that one!?!?!?!

The history of "The Seagull Line" irl was a temp livery for a 4-4-0

Sice then its made a few appeances in lore posts, but it was basically the "I can't be bothered to explain this" railway.

So of course, thats the railway everyone is intersted in. Not the railways I have lore for, the one railway meant to be the blackhole of my AU is the one all my friends and followers wanna know about.

Fine. here we go. lets try to string together the existing lore into something sensible.

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The earliest form of what would become "The Seagull Line" would be eastablished in the 1840s. On Gwylan Island to the Northwest of Wales, a railway began construction from the capital of Krestaen to the coastal port of Castell Hafan, across the water from Holyhead. Begining construction in 1843, it was called simply "the railway" by the locals, as it was the only railline on the island. It would gain the dersive nickname the Seagull line from visiting mainlanders, as Gwylan meant seagull. Construction would be nearing completion in 1853, when the owners turned their eyes towards the mainland. Whilst running local trains was turning a profit, the board knew they needed a connection to the mainland in order to achieve true growth, but connecting to the Mainland, would require an act of Parliement to recognize the railway. Something they were unlikely to recieve.

Fortunetly there was an opertunity just across the water. The Chester and Holyhead Railway was struggling. Connecting the London North Western Railway in Chester to the port city of Holyhead, the lines purpose was to carry government dispatches from to London to ships in Holyhead, headed for Dublin. Unfortunetly governement bureaucracy and corruption crippled the line after its opening in 1850. The government had allowed the lines construction in order to expedite the irish mail service, but had then refused to award the line the rights to said service. by 1853 the railway was on the verge of being absorbed by the LNWR. Until the Seagull line stepped in. The railway approached the C&HR with an offer. The two would merge into a single railway carrying the legal identidy of the C&HR. The Seagull line would gain access to the mainline, and a conection with the main british railway network, as well as legitimacy with parliment. The C&HR would gain not only the funds they desperately needed as well as the locomotives and rolling stock to run their mainline (which was being run by the LNWR at the time), but also the buisness of all of Gwylan Island.

A deal was reached, and in 1856, the first incarnation of the Seagul Line came to an end as it assumed the identity of the Chester and Holyhead Railway. A happy end, as they line would go onto be a major player in its own right, but an end nonetheless.

The identity of the Seagull Line would remain dormant until the 1880s. A new route running along the southern coast of Gwylan Island, connecting to the C&HR at Castell Hafan. Since the railway didn't touch the mainland, an act of parliment wasn't needed, only the approval of the Gwylan government. The new line assumed the old identity of the Seagull Line, in a hope to draw attention and buisness through the former's reputation. The mainland would be completed in 1897, and the line only saw lukewarm success. The southern coast of the island was dominated by clifs and hills, and only small seaside towns, and few small cities in the hills. The line was forced to wind though hills and cliffs and this prevented the adoption of larger engines, which crippled the lines ability to carry freight. However, the line would survive for several decades maintained good relations with the C&HR.

However the line would not last forever, as the London Midland and Scotland Railway would gain control. The year was 1939, and the Seagull line was preparing to take delivery of its first new express locomotive. The exact details of how or why the LMS gained control are lost to time, but were described by the C&HR at the time as a hostile take over. Whatever their plans for the Seagull line were, they were derailed but the out break of war in Septemebr of that line saw the LMS's attention turn to the war effort, and the line was left to basically run itself. The lines fleet were outdated and worn before the war, and the work of helping to repair, retrofit, and install shore batteries on the southern coast wore the line even further. Folowing the war the LMS surveyed the line and placed it and reduced the line to essential services. This was not out of apathy or negligence, but the economic reality the LMS faced after the war. The LMS was struggling to restore its own lines. A deal was reached with the C&HR to oversee the overhaul of the former Seagull lines fleet.

What the LMS would have done with the line in the end was unknown, as Nationalization occured. The line fell into legal debate. As part of the LMS, the former Seagull Line should have have become part of the Midland region however, the Gwylan Government was firmly against their rail lines being nationalized, leaving the C&HR and the former Seagull Line in limbo. The C&HR was well off enough they could weather the battle, the Seagull line fell further and further into disrepair. While Brritish Railways would offically recognize the Chester and Holyhead's independance in 1955, the Seagull line wouldn't be recognized until 1958. The line was left with a small fleet of broken down engines, ratty coaches, and a deterioating track bed. The line struggled on for three years before closing due to the condition of the track. The following year, a group of preservationalists would buy the remains of the broken line, following the example of the Bluebell Railway.

The first section of track reopened in early 1962, and ran from Castell Hafan to the first Major seaside Village. The village opned a hotal to coincide with the reopening, and the line found itself a steadily growing trickle of tourist traffic and beachgoers. During the time the C&HR was still unofficially locked in legal battle with British Rails, and so were limited in their ability to assist the smaller lines, but late that year, a deal was reached between the two lines that British railways failed to have anulled. The C&HR would repair the trackbed, in return for running rights. At first glance this deal seemed massively in the C&HR's favor, as they gained mulitiple potential seaside tourist cities for the cost of repairing the track, but it was cruicial for the Seagull Lines survival. Repairing the trackbed had been a massive hurdle for the fledgling line, in terms of both money and manpower. The C&HR could in mere weeks restore lengths of trackbed that would have taken years for the preservation group to restore.

As for the competion the C&HR presented, the simple truth was the Seagull ailing fleet wasn't up to the task at hand. The buisness the C&HR took was buisness the Seagull Line would have lost out on either way. The C&HR taking on the burden of the track freed the preservationalists to restore their fleet. May Traction and Railworks were contracted to oversee the restoration of the lines rolling stock and locomotive fleet, but the group new they would need newer motive power soon if they wished to remain independant. In January 1963 the lines first new engine since 1938 arrived, freshly restored in the lines new 'Seagull' Livery, the apptly named former LNER 4902 cut a striking figure. The A4 pacific had been purchased as scrap with a line of retired coaches, but MTRW had quickly returned the streamliner to her former glory.

With modern building techniques and equipment, the C&HR was able to relay the line to allow for the engine longer wheelbase past thefirst town. The engine quickly became the lines mascot, and would haul the first train on the first extension the following year.

In the following years, the former line would not only be restored, but expanded. The line would save several more engines from scrap before the fall of steam in 1968, with even more pulled from scrapyards in the following years. Today the Seagull line is a popular tourist destination for both the steam enthusiast and railfans alike. 4902 Seagull still is the flagship engine, and has recently completed her most recent overhaul,