#real true railway stuff

[angryskarloey]

Historical Derogatory Railway Company Nicknames:

- Late & Never Early

- Green, Wet and Rusty

- Gresley Was Right

- 'Ell of a Mess

- Mud, Sludge & Lightning

- Money Sunk & Lost

- Slow & Dirty

- Erratic & Wandering Journey

- Slow, Mouldy & Jolty

- Wonkily Managed & Confoundingly Queer

- Where's the Money? & Continuously Quirky

- Wobble, Bobble, Turn-over & Stop

- Tramps, Hobos & Bums

- Old & Weary

- NoWhere in Particular

- Cheap & Nothing Wasted

- The Misery Railway

- Old, Worse & Worse

- Breakneck & Murder

- Dangerous & Rapidly Getting Worse

- Slow, Dirty & Aggravating

[mean-scarlet-deceiver]

Railway Magazine March 1938

@joezworld What I'm seeing here is that engines do get nose-piercings. Just not on the LNER.

[jobey-wan-kenobi]

devious diesel strikes again

[sudriantraveler]

Iceland's Only Steam Locomotives

I would like to introduce everyone to Pionér and Minør, Iceland's only steam locomotives, and currently the only locomotives in Iceland period.

Built by the Jung engine company of Germany in the 1890s, both engines worked briefly in Denmark before being imported to Iceland in 1913 for the Reykjavík Harbor Railway. This was a 900 mm (2ft 11+7⁄16in) narrow gauge railway, which was operated from 1913 to 1928 for the construction of the harbor breakwaters.

Reading from the Wikipedia page for Rail Transport in Iceland both Pionér and Minør seem to have been involved in at least on incident each. Quoting from Wikipedia:

"Pionér was deliberately derailed by vandals, who placed a chain across the track and weighted down its two sides with rocks. They later claimed that they were testing the locomotive's performance, because it had already survived their previous experiments of placing coins and planks on the track. Minør was involved in a genuine accident when a section of track gave way beneath the engine. That was later found to have been caused by rotten wooden sleepers supporting that section of track."

Minør was the first of the two engines to be withdrawn (Wikipedia does not give the exact year in which this happened). Pionér meanwhile had received a replacement boiler in 1910 and so continued to operate until the railway was closed in 1928.

Both engines are happily now preserved. Pionér is now a static exhibit at the Icelandic Folk Museum in Arbær, Reykjavík. Minør spend many years in storage in a small hut buried under piles of scrap, but is now an open-air static exhibit in Reykjavík's Old Harbor, the former site of the railway both engines used to run on.

Fun fact: since these were the only 2 steam locomotives to ever operate in Iceland, that means that technically Iceland has preserved 100% of its railway steam fleet!

I actually saw Minør when I visited Iceland. At the time I had no idea she existed, let alone that she also had a surviving sibling also in Reykjavík, so I thought I had found the only steam engine in Iceland (turns out, not quite)!

[transsexualunderground]

i'm bored so have images of locomotives i like and some short descriptions of them

1: THE FLYING BUFFERBEAM (Peckett No. 1900)

Standard gauge and only 5'9". Very short for an engine indeed! A short king.

2: BECKTON GASWORKS NO. 25

This guy's, like, at most 8 feet tall. ALSO very short for an engine.

3: THE PLAZA LIBERTAD, ILOILO CITY ENGINE (888)

Just LOOK at that funnel! It's ridiculously big and I love that. Such a fun design.

4: KCS 2037

This engine's kinda sentimental to me because it was the first one I ever saw IRL, noted down the number of, and got to googling. 2037, you may not be the most impressive or unique engine out there, but you're very special to me.

Feel free to reblog with other nifty engines in the tags or something! I like looking at them!

[eeveeandme05]

Ffs I swear we have such a poor track record when it comes to catching steam trains passing by 😂

LNER B1 Class 61036 'Mayflower' passed through the station today - twice! And both times I only saw it out my bedroom window (not a very good view, mind you). Oh well. At least we got this video, taken courtesy of our neighbour who actually knows when they're coming LOL

[imitation-steamroller]

Okay, big question. Where exactly would one go to learn more about railway operations and locomotives? Specifically in the UK.

Like, I know some stuff. You could point me to a locomotive and I could probably tell you which of the big four it was a part of, what work it did, and I could maybe give you a rough guesstimate of when it was built.

But I don’t know a lot about the history of like, the LNER or BR or anything like that, and I have no clue where to start.

[theyellowroseofsodor]

Today marks 100 YEARS of the Alaska Railroad!! We were so happy to be able to attend, not to mention it was in our humble little village of Nenana. It was pretty awesome to see the diesel engine The Spirit of Seward and to see the Golden Spikes hammered in. It was quite the eventful day!

[ryan1014n2]

they are besties actually

[greatwesternway]

Diesel Does It Some More

A thing I think is sort of overlooked about Diesel is that he is one of the few characters in the series who gets genuine development over the course of the show. Some characters get that over the course of two episodes, particularly if they are a one-off, but Diesel is the only one who got development slowly - so slowly - over the course of several seasons.

I have a longer, different post coming about his early history on Sodor so we're not gonna talk about Duck v. Diesel here. This post concerns what happens after the point at which we can assume Sir Topham Hatt finally gave in and bought Diesel outright, securing his place on the NWR's roster.

Effectively, what this means is Diesel is no longer in danger of being sent away, but it also means he has to invest more in his relationships with other engines because it's a small island.

He's not been well prepared for this on the Other Railway. Luckily he has tons of time to learn.

The first few seasons after his acquisition are rocky. Diesel needs to show he deserves his place on Sodor, but he usually tries to accomplish this by undermining other engines which is not conductive to getting the work done ("Fergus Breaks the Rules"). He's also still telling them that steam engines will be scrapped ("Thomas to the Rescue", "Squeak, Rattle and Roll"), which is obviously not true on Sodor but is often an effective way of achieving his first method. (It's also, I think, important to note that the punishment for the thing with Fergus was being sent to work at the smelter's, which is where 'Arry and Bert work, but that's an entire other post too. It set him back, let's just say.)

From here on out, though, Diesel is sometimes treated by the narrative neutrally rather than as a villain. In "Respect for Gordon" he's making fun of Gordon, but so is Emily so that's not really a comment on him so much (also he does this by facetiously wishing Gordon well which is an interesting and funny twist on that). He's the villain in "Emily and the Special Coaches" but it comes about that he's behaved this way because his accomplishment of shunting the most trucks in a day has been overlooked and he's acknowledged for it by the end of the episode.

In "Thomas and the Billboard", Diesel is actually the victim of circumstance (and his own reputation, let's be real). During a photoshoot for a billboard, Diesel is directed by the photographer to move forward and he accidentally obscures Thomas from the shot. Later, when Thomas sees the billboard, he assumes Diesel blocked him on purpose. Shit happens, the billboard has to be redone anyway, but this time, Thomas deliberately does not tell Diesel about the rescheduled shoot. Thomas keeps stalling the reshoot to keep Diesel from finding out about it, which in turn keeps all the other engines off their jobs as well. It later turns out the Diesel was doing the priority stuff they were all supposed to be doing and was now late to do his own jobs.

So to sum up, Diesel is the only one doing his fkn job today and Thomas is trying to fuck him over all unbeknownst. Fascinating! Thomas does apologize eventually and everyone gets to be on the billboard.

Then you got "Don't Go Back" where Diesel keeps goading Thomas into - more or less - friendly races that end up causing confusion and delay. The episode concludes with them setting out on another race so the takeaway isn't that Diesel was actually out to make trouble so much as just show he was better than Thomas.

These are all from the model series. I don't necessarily think there was any sort of organized effort to make Diesel more friendly here. One might even attribute this to the show seemingly forgetting who certain characters were. I'm pretty sure the show bible at this point specifically said he was a villain. Still, there's a cohesion to it and they're doing interesting things with the expectations. (Also, as an aside, Diesel being the only one doing his work also happened in "Diesel Does It Again" so that's not exactly out of character, hilariously enough.)

Diesel gets sidelined to cameos for a while as the show transitions to CGI, but he does have one notable outing in which he's desperate for the approval of children and commandeers a bunch of other engines' seemingly better freight to get it ("Diesel's Special Delivery"). This episode is sort of ??? but I do like the end where Diesel's boring utilitarian freight (slate to repair their school's roof) is actually what the children want. It's not a full treatise on steam/diesel relations, but most people probably think the Class 08 is boring compared to steam engines so if you're choosing to see this as a metaphor, then it's nice the functional freight got the appreciation in the end.

And this is where shit starts getting real interesting!

Day of the Diesels is... it's not a good movie. I won't lie and tell you that. But it does do very interesting things with the diesel vs. steam concept. It points out things that would happen on Sodor as a logical conclusion of dieselization on the mainland (things that look much more unfair than they are in a show that prefers to disregard that part of the lore) and I love how they re-conceptualized Diesel 10 from his Thomas and the Magic Railroad debut. That stuff deserves its own essay, but the important thing about Day of the Diesels today is that it's the first time we see a steam engine really giving Diesel the benefit of the doubt.

The engine in question is Percy and he's ideally suited to extend this olive branch. As far as steam engines go, he's got the least status among them. He pulls the mail train, but even the Pride of the Line is treated as beneath most of the other steam engines. He also lacks a pedigree. Granted, most of Hatt's early acquisitions have dubious claims to lineage but Percy's just a straight up mongrel with no discernible builder. And most exploitable, many the other steam engines don't treat Percy with much respect either. Even Thomas is blowing him off in the movie, which is what gives the diesels their opportunity.

It's no accident that the diesels choose Percy as the target for their appeal and it's no accident they enlist Diesel to reel him in. Diesel is convincing, persuasive, and knows the motions of sympathy even if he doesn't quite manage empathy.

Unfortunately, the second Percy arrives at the Dieselworks, they literally put Diesel on a shelf and Diesel 10 takes over.

But the point is, Percy is now an ally of diesel equity and he's got a sort of acquaintance with Diesel himself (aside from it undoubtedly being Percy's idea to strike rather than work with Diesel, who he'd only just met at that point). And it comes back around later.

In "Percy and the Calliope", Percy and Diesel are tasked with taking a busted-ass calliope to the smelter's, but Percy wants to see if it can be fixed. Diesel disparages the operation the whole time... but he does go along with every single thing that Percy wants to try too. Even after Percy insulted him by mistaking his squeaking axles for the Monster of Brendham six episodes earlier.

"Disappearing Diesels" is when the effort to actually develop him starts in earnest. Up to now, things have just been kind of moving along in a lazy and convenient sort of way. Diesel gets to approach the possibility of being cool as a matter of deus ex machina. This episode marks the first time they actually put a specific thing in that they reach back for later to show he's learned something.

In this episode, Diesel convinces all the other diesels to hide from Paxton. And Paxton, not being too bright, comes to the conclusion that all the diesels on Sodor have disappeared. He searches all over Sodor until he happens upon Diesel at the docks. Diesel runs from him but because he spends so fuel evading Paxton, he runs dry on the line. Paxton then shunts Diesel to the next station to get refueled which Diesel does not understand because this is surely not a thing that he would do.

"That's what friends are for," says Paxton.

That evening, Diesel takes the berth next to Paxton's and, though he cannot bring himself to say thank you, he does give him a pained little smile.

The next season, we've got "Wild Water Rescue", in which Diesel commandeers a job Percy was given because he thinks he's going to get his picture in the newspaper. He sends Percy to an abandoned quarry instead where Percy runs himself into a pond and puts out his firebox. Later, Diesel (after finding that the photo was only of Search and Rescue vehicles) goes to find Percy and tries to pull him out, only to flood his own generator too.

And as they are sitting there in that pond, Diesel makes a valiant effort to actually apologize to Percy. He can't quite get the word "Sorry" out of his mouth and he's interrupted by the entire Sodor Search and Rescue before he could manage it. Unlike the thank you he owed to Paxton in "Disappearing Diesels" though, he's actually making an effort here for Percy.

And Percy knows what's up. Percy knows what's good! The next day, he visits Diesel in the Dieselworks to thank him for trying to rescue him (even if Diesel tricked him in the first place) and to show him that he did get his photo in the paper.

Couple seasons later, there's "Springtime for Diesel" where he bumps Daisy so hard that her springs sprong. She has to go to the Dieselworks and it takes so long to get replacement springs in for her that rumors start circulating that she may have to be scrapped. Diesel feels terrible about this and goes to visit her. She pretends to be asleep though, which permits Diesel to actually say that he's sorry this time. With the words and everything!

He's then quick to excuse his behavior by saying that he's mean to other engines because they're mean to him and they blame him for everything, but that he likes Daisy and wishes he could make everything right again. He's resigned though that after this, she's probably not going to want to be his friend.

When Daisy does get her new springs, Diesel is the first to meet her on the tracks. She doesn't directly acknowledge his apology because I think she does get that's a big step for him and she doesn't want to call attention to it. She does tell him though that if he wants to be friends, he has to change his ways.

And he does!

...until literally the next episode where he's trying to start shit between her and Harvey, but Diesel is as Diesel does.

Finally - finally! - in "Sonny's Second Chance", Diesel comes full circle and takes responsibility for his mischief in order to save Sonny from being sent away.

In this episode, Sonny (a steam engine who arrived in the company of a pair of thieves) has been offered the chance to stay and work on Sodor, but only if he proves himself trustworthy and Useful. He finds however that though he tries to be helpful, his actions are interpreted in bad faith by other engines, leaving him ripe for exploitation by a certain engine who knows that song and dance by heart.

Diesel tricks Sonny into hauling his cars to the dump, but they're actually having fun together.

But Diesel fucks it up 'cause of course. On his next job, he brags to Percy that he tricked Sonny into pulling his fish cars, but Sonny overhears. He storms off to deliver the cars and Diesel, realizing he's fucked another friendship, chases after him, but gets switched onto a siding, derails, and almost falls into a Class 08-sized grave. Sonny (who has notably quick reflexes demonstrated both here and earlier when he bumped James out from under falling watermelons) is able to hook a tow chain on and pull Diesel away from the hole. He accidentally derails his own fish cars by backing up so fast, but he catches Diesel before he falls in.

And Diesel thanks him for it! No hesitation, no hemming and hawwing. And. AND! He also admits that he did not deserve to be rescued. Look at my boy! Look at him GO! And Sonny! Sonny tells him straight up, "No, probably not." Which, gangster. "Consider it a second chance." A second chance! For Diesel! No one's ever actually given him one of those before.

Then Sir Topham Hatt rolls up and - in form we've not seen Hatt Bullshit in for quite some time - looks upon this scene and focuses his attentions on clearly the most pressing and important thing: "What's going on here? And what are those fish doing on the tracks?"

Sonny takes responsibility for the fish, and Hatt is all "Well, you've had your chance. I did say you'd have to leave if-"

"No!" interrupts Diesel. And he begs Hatt not to send Sonny away. And admits that everything was his fault. And tells Hatt that Sonny saved him.

"Is this true?" Hatt asks in his blithe Hatt Bullshit way. And it is, so Hatt declares that Sonny can stay and word gets around that Sonny's a hero.

Then they cancelled the show so we never get to see him again!

I'm real fuckin' mad about it honestly because not only was Sonny's episode the culmination of a seasons' long character arc for Diesel, but Sonny is such a uniquely perfect character to give Diesel a proper friend, which I'd argue he never got. Paxton is too trusting, Percy has better options, Daisy obviously isn't going to be BFF's with this guy.

Sonny was so uniquely positioned to be a good friend for Diesel. He's new so he doesn't have existing relationships to interfere with or a long history of previous slights to overlook. He's already committed to giving Diesel a second chance at getting this friend thing right, but he's not forgiving or naive the way Percy and Paxton are. Sonny suffers from the same problems of reputation that Diesel does but is determined to overcome them, which Diesel has never had motivation or incentive to do before. They'd be good accountabili-buddies that way. And perhaps most importantly, Sonny is a steam engine so he'd be closing that old diesel vs. steam gap once and for all.

That Diesel actually fessed up to keep a steam engine on Sodor is something on its own. The implication is that Diesel has found something compelling and resonant about this guy that copping to his bullshit is preferable to Sonny being sent away. If you're keeping dieselization in the back of your mind, you perhaps know there's not many other places anymore for such an engine to go.

What a turnaround for the guy who first arrived on Sodor bragging about how revolutionary he was.

[charliespringverse]

iwbft – ghosted: a Bonus brief summary of my annotations

all highlighted quotes: 91

· ouch/ow/owie: 5

· real/felt/relatable/so true: 4

· ☹/☹☹/☹☹☹: 4

She said Shrek and Fiona, and then told me she never wanted to be famous. — the double life thing babeyy

“Jimmy,” he heaves out, and I feel a stab of panic in my chest. — just hearing ur friend's name shouldn't be enough to trigger panic unless u already know something is Very Wrong . at which point i feel they should've pushed for further help instead of finishing out the tour

“We can’t leave Jimmy out.” Lister stands shirtless in the middle of the room and spins around on the spot. — fuck yeah trio tingz :')

It almost makes me laugh how polite and casual Rowan manages to sound, despite the fact that our best friend is missing. — IT'S A DEFENCE MECHANISM!!!!!

I only wonder how much of it is my fault. — none of it bb dw :( he is Not With It enough to be thinking abt anyone but himself rn

“But I can’t drive.” Rowan stares at me. “I thought you had lessons.” “I only had three lessons.” And then I got bored, or tired, or busy, or all three. — ... adhd lister btw

Why would he do this to us? To me? — i think jimmy's dependence on rowan is more reciprocated than he realises

If we weren’t in a famous band together, I’m not sure whether we’d still be friends now. — this rly hurts my feelings and it hurts more bc he isn't necessarily Wrong i don't think

“You do know I can play eight instruments, right?” “But not the drums, huh.” Rowan folds his arms. “You will never let me live that down.” — LISTERROWAN BESTIEISM BANTER BABEY

“But you think I’m an idiot who has nothing intelligent to say.” “I don’t think that.” “Yeah, you do. You’d much rather I was the one who was missing right now.” Rowan doesn’t respond. We both know I’m right. — WELL MAYBE BUT U DON'T HAVE TO TELL ME THAT. I DON'T WANNA THINK ABOUT IT.

“I wish you wouldn’t—” he begins but is cut off when his phone buzzes. — i hate that the phone gave him a get out from being open n sincere w lister :^(

“That’s a Southeastern Railway train,” says Lister instantly. “You can tell by the seat patterns.” — [freddie mercury voice] auuuuutism auuuuutism i want to ride my autism (note: this is summat @to-grill-a-mockingbird says and now i can never get it out of my head)

“He needs a night off.” "A night off from … what? His entire life?” Piero chuckles. “Yes.” — i mean ouch but also Yeah

“That was good news. He hasn’t been kidnapped. He just needed a nap.” “Can you not make a joke about this situation for like one fucking minute, Allister?” — could be the tism on my end but i didn't take this as a joke . jimmy needs a break, piero told them that, lister has seen enough to agree . (also: lister has Also contemplated running away so it makes sense he's less eager to bring jimmy back to ldn bc he doesn't see it as fixing the problem the same way rowan does)

Why do I always have to be the serious one? The worrier? Why can’t someone else do the worrying sometimes? — other ppl Do worry . but not so much that it becomes its own problem worthy of therapy

We save the deep chats for Jimmy. Jimmy doesn’t open up very often, but you know Jimmy will listen if you have something serious to say. — vs jimmy's wednesday narration 'we don't ever talk about deep stuff, me and lister bird' :((((

This whole bedroom is something out of twelve-year-old Lister’s wildest fantasies—it’s spacious and modern, with one floor-to-ceiling window, dark walls, LED lights behind the headboard, and a fifty-inch TV. — what u lack as a child you seek as an adult etc etc (space, material possessions, money)

Rowan’s room is always tidy. He puts away his clothes at the end of the day and makes his bed in the mornings. — always craving order & control :(

Rowan loves to criticize me about buying unnecessary things, but all I need to do is remind him of the velvet chaise longue in his bedroom that I’m pretty sure nobody has ever sat on. — comedy gold amidst the agony

He blinks at me. “You remembered my weird order?” — remembering ppl's orders is a love language

“Can I … ?” I shuffle on my feet. “Can we eat it in here?” — i hate that he's so uncertain n lacking in confidence while asking one of his best friends

I’ve always been deeply annoyed by what a high metabolism he has. I work out three times a week with a personal trainer just to stay toned. — rowan's fixation on body image makes me ✨nervous✨

“You were reading?” I ask, eyebrow raised. Lister narrows his eyes at me. “Wow, hilarious." — i stand by my 'lister loves to read but nobody ever assumes that or believes him bc their perception is skewed by him not gelling with academia' hc

“But don’t you see how that’s, like, still very fucked-up behavior, Rowan?” — GET HER JADE

And it’s scary that he thinks he’s completely fine. That this level of stress is normal. That he’s a functioning, well-adjusted human who is able to cope with being one of the most famous musicians in the world with absolutely no help or support whatsoever. — yeah :((

“You kissed him,” Rowan says. “So he decided to climb out of a window and run away.” “I mean, yeah, in summary.” — but no, realistically

Rowan wipes a tear from his eye. “Oh my God. So funny.” He’s properly pissing me off now. — give him a break roseph he's already mentally ill u don't have to embarrass him as well (/lh)

It’s a question I’ve asked myself every day for years. A question I’ve answered in daydreams, in nightmares, in conversations with myself in the shower. A question I still don’t know the answer to, and maybe never will. A question that doesn’t need an answer, now that I know for sure that Jimmy doesn’t like me back. — aaaaaagonyyyyy beyond power of speeeeeeech when the thing that u want is the only thing out of ur reach

“But … the circumstances of our relationship are so challenging. We live in very, very different worlds, and our lives are on very different trajectories. And sometimes I think relationships just can’t survive that.” — JUSTICE FOR LAIMONDI :(

Jimmy fell asleep almost immediately, a feat that would become less and less common as we all got older, but Lister and I couldn’t sleep because we were too busy watching funny YouTube videos on my phone, muffling laughs into our hands, trying not to wake anyone up. — BABY ARK MY CHILDREN

[angryskarloey]

"I consider it a great advantage to keep seperate engines for drivers. I have always believed that if an engine is made as carefully as possible, it will respond to the attention that it gets afterwards; that the driver will be proud of its appearance, and of the duty he can get out of it: and doubly proud to be able to perform a great duty with a small amount of expense. It has been found that the same will not take the same care of another engine as he does his own; and those engines which have unfortunately to be entrusted to several drivers deteriorate in quality, consume more coal, and get dirty and out of repair much more rapidly than those which are appropriated to a particular men. I am of the opinion that it is better for the railway company to spend more capital, and have more engines, so that one locomotive can be retained for each driver, as the cost of stores and maintenance will in that case be less."

- William Stroudley, LBSCR Loco. Superintendent.

[mean-scarlet-deceiver]

I've been thoroughly enjoying Anthony Dawson tweeting out his journey down the U.K. rail uniforms rabbithole, but this one made me fully scream.

'Undetected Crime Stripes'

[head-full-of-things]

(Started working on this awhile ago, some stuff happened in the lore since then, including an Hermit invasion... But I was like "better late then never" so here you go lol)

---

If you ever were to visit the Empires server, every villager will tell you right away- don't trust a word the Emperors say. Secrets, lies & denial run freely, the currency of the server more so than any of the kingdom's official exports.

Like the ruler of Gobland, for example. A friendly little guy, deputy for the sheriff. He will gladly welcome visitors to the caves, giving them a ride on the fully working railway system. "Safety first!" as he always says.

But the real reason is to keep them on the designated path. If they snoop around, they might see the prisoner in a cage, or the tunnels leading up to every nearby kingdom right under their nose. Truth is, the Goblin King is loyal to his people first and foremost. Even if they're underground dwellers, it doesn't mean the Goblins have to live in the dark, and when fWhip became ruler, he made it his mission to bring them closer to the outside world. So he will smile, and joke around, and suck up to whoever's necessary while counting up the gold in the vault.

And if he finds himself feeling more for the Sheriff than he anticipated- it's just a slight bump in the plans, that's all. He will never admit that to his face. "It's the highest honor for a goblin to be a deputy to a sheriff!" he throws around with another good-natured smile. Every goblin knows- your secrets are best kept deep underground.

---

Like the letter under the floorboards at the Great Witch's former house. Now only Tortoise lives there, jumping around the cabin, but Shelby still goes there from time to time to make sure the letter is still there. Each time she does, she can't help but pass her eyes over the words again: A danger to society. Expelled. No longer a witch.

One little multidimensional accident and they throw her under the bus like that? She shouldn't be surprised, nobody expected her to even finish witch school.

But for someone who is such a failure, she does surprisingly well here at The Evermoore. She helps people. Even if some potions go wrong (she shudders thinking about fWhip's ear-wings), most of them work, and the grateful smile on the other Emperors' face tells her she's doing something right. So it's not a lie, not really. She is a witch, a good one at that.

But she still feels a sting in her heart whenever she has to keep up the front with the other Rulers. "Yeah, the academy loves me! they keep checking in on their top student," the lies have become second nature for her at this point.

Someday, she promises herself, she will tell them the truth. The more time she spends here, the more she starts to feel like maybe they won't exile her. Maybe they'll still want her around because of who she is, not because of some musty diploma. But until then, the lie stays.

---

It's not a lie if it's true. Even though all the other rulers laugh when she says, again, that she's not cursed. 'The cursed princess' they call her. How can she begin to explain that it was only a coincidence that the day she was born the kingdom got split in half, with darkness encasing the unfortunate half of it. She gave up on that hope a long time ago, when her own villagers didn't want to come near her. Instead, she came up with a plan- she's not the reason, but she can be the solution!

So she trains at night, forsaking sleep. And in the mornings she builds houses and grand structures, trying to rebuild the kingdom that once was. Except they all turn half-black and rotting under her hands. The curse is present more than ever, she's willing to admit. But she will fight it. She won't stop until it's gone.

Then, silly things like who caused it wouldn't even matter, right? Not that she did. She didn't bring this curse upon her kingdom. She's not at fault. She's not cursed she's just not.

It's not a lie if you tell it to yourself enough times.

[sudriantraveler]

Happy 100th Birthday to Flying Scotsman!

I don't really have anything special to mark the occasion, so instead here are just some images of Scotsman I found online, plus a few Railway Series illustrations as well.

[karnaca78]

14 Questions tag

Thank you for the tag @dreamyonahill!

Nickname: I'm not too fond of those, except in a humorous context. I remember my high school best friend who called me a vampire because my skin is very pale. It was silly and I like silly :^)

Sign: Aquarius

Height: According to my partner who is 170cm and claims he's a little taller than me (debatable), I should be something like 166-167cm. That's science.

Last thing I googled: My local train line timetable. Cancelled trains and railway strikes are so frequent here it's practically a tradition, so I have to make sure I can actually take one each time I go out.

Amount of sleep: Depends. My average should be 6 hours when I have to get up and go out (brain wakes me up before the alarm can ring, else I jump off the bed instantly and it's not fun)

Dream job: Something I actually love doing, that's why it'll probably remain a dream (I'd say writer or full-time artist). I'll settle for librarian because of books and quiet!

Wearing: A cool patterned shirt I bought in London! With a pair of dark grey dress pants, black socks and black and white Converse shoes.

Movie/books/media that summarise you: Too many? Right now my brain is focused on Dishonored, and I suppose it summarises my tastes in fictional stuff pretty well.

Favourite song: That question shall forever remain unanswered. But for the sake of it, let's say "Farewell Wanderlust" by The Amazing Devil. So many lines get me every single time.

Instrument: Piano, most definitely. I can play a few songs I learned by myself, and that's pretty much it for now. Should probably get back to it if I remember to buy a new cord for my keyboard!

Favourite author: Two questions I can't answer. Okay, let's see. I love Kafka, his works resonate with me on some levels and there's something about the atmosphere in these books that I can't help but like. Even though it's confusing. I should also mention Mervyn Peake (Gormenghast Trilogy is a real blast; it's weird too) and Natasha Pulley (two of her books make me extremely happy and I can't wait to reread them)!!

Aesthetic: Anything steampunk-adjacent is good. I like vintage fashion a whole lot too. And ships. Old ships, with wood and sails and maybe pirates. Probably anything retro, really. Typewriters are cool. Oh, and art nouveau. (My tastes are all over the place but I wouldn't have it any other way!)

Random fun fact: Did you know some ancient Greek dude (Aeschylus) died because a bird dropped a tortoise on his head? It's my funniest historical anecdote and I hope it's true (most likely, no)

Tagging: anyone who feels like answering random questions because I can't decide