#tales from the tarmingham overhead

[greateasternj69]

The two brothers made their way onto the main running line outside the yard, only to stop so they could reverse into the station platform with Ormond swapping cab ends from Danwood to Sanworth so he could see ahead. The signalman switched the points, and give Sanworth and Ormond the all clear to head into the station, and Danwood and Sanworth slowly moved in the opposite direction, inching their way into the platform where they stopped beside the main building. The station itself was built to that of Devonshire grey stone construction, the stone having been quarried out from the copper mine who assisted in its construction with a design similar to Buckfastleigh station on the old Ashburton line, having been built during the period when the line was originally built to a board gauge standard and was operated by the South Devon Railway with some extensions added to the station by the GWR in 1923 and 28 respectively.

Another illustration done for TFTTOH chapter 2, this one featuring Danwood and Sanworth pulling into Lightcombe station in preparation for their first run of the day. This one of the more detailed illustrations I had to do, but it was worth it in the end.

Tarmingham Overhead Railway and Characters: © GreatEasternJ69

[greateasternj69]

Another illustration for the upcoming chapter 2 of TFTTOH Book 1. Here we see Danwoods and Sanworth's driver Ormond who used to drive them when they worked on their old branch line in Devon, enter the shed where they along with their sister's Angelina and Danielle are sleeping, as the sunrises behind him.

Tarmingham Overhead Railway and Characters: © GreatEasternJ69

[greateasternj69]

Should've posted this here awhile ago. Anyways the second chapter of TFTTOH book 1 is now available to read on FA and you finally get to meet the stories main protagonist th BR Class 101 brothers Danwood and Sanworth, enjoy!:

[greateasternj69]

The HighwayStruct Logo that was used in the latest illustration of TFTTOH chapter 1 of the Roadway Plan poster. I've uploaded it here as a separate PNG file for use in future projects.

Universe 29A Lore: This logo was the last logo design to be used by HighwayStruct, and was used by them as their corporate logo between 1965 up until their bankruptcy in 1972. The logo was designed by Canadian graphic designer Adam J. Fox who was commissioned by the company to design a new minimalist logo to replace their pervious Highway and Car logo that they used between 52 and 65 with various design changes. What Adam came up was a logo that represented a Highway junction with the two sides representing which side American road traffic drive on. The Red for traffic on the right, and the Grey representing traffic on the left with both having a slip-road and a spiral junction on both sides in the shape of an R. This logo would become HighwayStructs most recongizable and iconic of all their logo's, as it was seen as a symbol of their dominance of the US road construction market during that time period and later their evitable demise during their final years.

Tarmingham Overhead Railway and Characters: © Great Eastern J69

[greateasternj69]

Trainz Spotting: Jamston Station, Devon, 1969

[greateasternj69]

“Alistair’s right, my families legacy will soon be over, and there is no hope for the overheads survival with him influencing the election and everyone voting in favour of him, and no matter how hard I and the others try to persuade them in each election that roads and motor vehicles shouldn’t be the main form of transport that drives the future of this city forward, they won’t listen to us or believe any facts we present. The age of the railways, I feel, is over…” - Nathan Ruleton Another illustration for Tales from the Tarmingham Overhead. Same process as in the last illustration. We focus on Nathan Ruleton and his assistant Coleman this time, this takes place after the meeting with Alistair and the final words from Alistair are sinking into Nathan who is beginning to lose hope of saving the overhead from certain doom. His assistant tells him not to give up on the railway yet, as they still have time before the local election turn things around. Proposing other solutions to solve the situation, to which sadly Ruleton doesn't think any of them would work in the end, as they would probably only lead the railways in bankruptcy without subsidies to keep going. With Alistair influencing the local election and him having the entire population of the city supporting his roadway scheme, and likely to vote for him again. Ruleton see's no hope of ever persuading the public to realise that roads shouldn't be the thing that drives the cities future forward, and Coleman has unfortunately no other solutions to change things for the better. Tarmingham Overhead Railway and Characters: © GreatEasternJ69

[greateasternj69]

Sorry for taking so long to get a new upload out, been busy with IRL stuff over the last month. But I have some art in the works so there is stuff on the way, and some of them are not an illustration for Tales of the Tarmingham Overhead this time. But it is a stand alone drawing relating to Tarmingham, featuring one of the locations on the Overhead and is right in the centre of Tarmingham.

Here we see Danwood and Sanworth pulling into Tarmingham City Centre Station during the rush hour on a warm summers day in 2021 (the reason I choose to set the image around 2021 and not 24 is because I have a piece of lore about a war that starts in 22 that happens in the 29A timeline, and it has something to do with an AI Sentient Machine army. I'll be doing more lore relating to this event, and this war at a later date and when I release the official 29A timeline) while on their usual service to seaside town of Searonby. Tarmingham City Centre is as it's name implies is located in the centre of the city of Tarmingham serving it's main financial and shopping district and is a major interchange and junction on the Overhead with both the line to Ronston Quarter another major junction with lines from there branching off to Walaceton, Searonby, Greenham, and the south city line to band the line to Blburgh Oakland, and the station is where the western city line to Slaidon Marsh begins and is a starting point for the newest line on the Overhead the city circle line, and consists of four platforms.

Opening with the first section of the Overhead in 1864 as part of the line to Walaceton, albeit without delay after an incident that occurred at the station that became the railways first major accident, when a supplies train was driven by a bunch of rioting protesters from the southern part of the city at full speed off the end of the then under construction station with the engines boiler exploding upon impact with the ground, destroying and damaging several nearby buildings in the process with the engines boiler being sent flying thousands of feet into the air and landing inside the hull of a merchant freighter. The station opening as part of the section between GER's terminus at Tarmingham Piccadilly Street and the GE&SEJR's terminus at Ruston Quarter as part of the Overheads efforts to provide easy access to the docks and to allow the overhead to expand further to Walaceton. The station became a major junction for the Slaidon Marsh line after that lines opening in 1876 which allowed passengers to exchange between trains running on that line and the Walaceton line.

Since it's opening the station has gone through at least two redevelopments throughout it's life, with the first from 1971-1974 and the second from 2010-2015, with the bridge it was built on and the stairs leading up to the platforms being the renovated but others the only elements of the original station to remain standing, with the station being the busiest station the Overhead's network and the busiest in Tarmingham with it continuing to fill it's role as the city centres most important public transport hub with the station having since received a third line to serve that being the Circle line which opened in 2017.

Universe 29A and Characters: © GreatEasternJ69

[greateasternj69]

Another illustration done for chapter 1 of Tales from the Tarmingham Overhead. This one is of a HighwayStruct poster for the Tarmingham Roadway Plan, which as you all know as mentioned in the first chapter is the big road improvement project initiated by mayor and former CEO of HighwayStruct, Alistair Lancaster in 1955 at the start of his first term as mayor and continued throughout the 60's. For this poster, I went with a different art style compared to my usual one with the character's having the outlines, in this one I used water colour brushes and went completely lineless on most of the layers. The poster is inspired by retro-futurism which depicts a blend of retro-styles with futuristic technology as seen here with the companies mascot Highgia (the Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz (known as the Suddillac Colorado Bordeaux in the 29A Universe) in the centre of the poster and is played in in-universe TV commercials by car actor Regina who is based on this car model) and the two cars on both sides of her having hover thrusters underneath the them in the place of tires.

For full Lore: https://www.deviantart.com/greateasternj69/art/Tarmingham-Roadway-Plan-Poster-992789607

Tarmingham Overhead Railway and Characters: © GreatEasternJ69

[greateasternj69]

The front cover for my first book of my new series of stories Tales From The Tarmingham Overhead.

Read the first chapter here: https://www.deviantart.com/greateasternj69/art/TFTTOH-Year-1970-Book-1-The-Arrival-of-the-DMU-s-967248279

Tarmingham Overhead and Characters © Great Eastern J69

[greateasternj69]

Here is the first in a series of concept art for the first episode of Tale from the Tarmingham Overhead of the one of the scenes that'll be featured in the episode.

 It is January of 1970 and having arrived yesterday from their home in Devon on a five year loan to the Overhead in the city of Tarmingham to help out with the motive power shortage on the railway. Danwood and Sanworth the Class 101 DMU's are soon to be recoupled together ready for a trial run along the Walaceton Line to Walaceton in Suffolk, to see if they would perform well on that service to allow Gareth to be moved on to another service and other duties on the railway.

 While they were being prepared the other engines left to start their work, while the last engine to leave the shed who was a regular guest to the engines of the Overhead, was a Class 37 called Andrew who usually worked the top expresses out of Tarmingham down to London Liverpool Street on the Great Eastern Mainline, along with stopping services between there and Norwich. He was heading out to take an express down to London, when he began brooding to himself about something. Danwood having noticed this asked Andrew if he was alright. Andrew told him rudely that it was none of his business and lied to him that he was fine, to which Danwood didn't take lightly to and told Andrew that he wasn't going to fall for a lie that he used to cover up what was on his mind.

 Knowing that he wasn't going to hide his thoughts with a lie to one of the engines who worked for the same operator as him. Andrew give in as soon as the turntable stopped moving. In a grouchy tone, he told him and Sanworth that after what the other engines told them about the current state of the Overhead and how they believed that the railway was probably in it's final day's of existence. He stated that life was not simple or an idealist utopia that their kind was led to believe in the first place, and believed that BR and the humans in charge, had failed to prevent the discrimination brought upon them by their steam breathing predecessors and that their modernisation plan had been nothing but a costly failure, that was only done for the sack of the government tax payers to continue running BR into the ground, and that Alistair was no different to BR's management. Seeing as he was once a CEO of an American road construction firm, which was so happened to be working with him and through manipulation sent the Overhead into the state it found itself in for fourteen years.

 Andrew started by expressing his distrust for steam engines, as he believed that they brought discrimination against him and other diesels because they feared them and let their belief that steam traction was still superior than diesel power blind them to the point of extremism and near oppression of their kind. Which was a huge shocker for Danwood and Sanworth having worked with a steam engine themselves on their branch line back home before he was withdrawn and scrapped, and wasn't like the ones Andrew had described. Andrew told them that he was one of the few who didn't side with his prejudice peers, seeing those who were like him as the only ones whoever seemed to got along with diesels. Despite this he believed it still didn't justify their peers actions that were brought against them and they did nothing to prevent their suffering.

 This hate was made even more so by the organisation who fought for steam to remain the dominate motive power on the railways, the British Steam Locomotive Liberation Front, who under the leadership a manipulative human being lead a futile campaign in an attempt to prevent diesel's and electrics from replacing steam locomotives in their entirety in favour of some unachievable aim to have steam turbine engines be the next phase of locomotive traction. Through strike action outside stations and small damaging accidents that disrupted the system, they committed to more discriminatory actions towards their successors to that of hate crimes committed towards people of colour.

 This treatment by steam engines eventually reached a boiling point where the Liberation abandoned their role of fighting for the rights of steam locomotives and the members including several engines turned into steam power extremists hell-bent on resorting to violent acts in an attempt to destroy their species to extinction and to force BR into ending the dieselisation program. Andrew then said that the steam locomotives and their terror group eventually got their comeuppance by the end of their time on the railways two years back, when those who were members were finally arrested for their crimes. But because of the abuse that he experienced during that period with some engines and because of what they did, Andrew treated all steam locomotives with deep distrust and suspicion, and was lead to cynicism that they only cared about themselves than the lives of other motive power round them, and that view would probably never change for him.

 He took this further in his next point, and that they were also responsible for the death of his favourite sister Olivia. Who was brutally murdered along with some other engines in a horrific shed explosion in 1965 at the hands of the liberation parking fuel tankers in the shed and setting them alight. He was of course there at the time outside the shed and he had to watch in horror and helplessness as he tearfully watched his sister burn to death right before his very eyes. Even to that day Andrew could still see that gruesome image flying around in his mind of his sisters death, and it was a scar he believed would never heal. Therefore he blamed the steam engines involved in the incident and the liberation for taking Olivia away from him, and he also stated that he also blamed BR for doing nothing to prevent her and the other diesels from being burned to death at the hands of them. Feeling his loss Danwood and Sanworth could only symphysis with him, but said nothing as Andrew continued. He also felt that other diesels who had lost siblings to the liberation had also been let down by BR and had to deal with years of loss a deep never-ending one.

 Finally Andrew brought up the leader of the Diesel and Electric locomotives and the assistant to BR's management himself, Lord Edward. Who Andrew saw as an ideological, capitalistic, patronising and deceitful liar who only cared about fulling their kinds minds with nothing but lies about how BR's modernisation was a success and that dieselisation was the way of the future. When he failed to see that BR was not this private company that run for the sack of improving services through profit, and was instead a government funded enterprise that rallied on tax payer money from the public in order to survive. Something that he believed the government had been downplaying for years, as Lord Edward was actually running the services and the modernisation program into the ground to where Andrew saw it as a massive failure, as the network was now in a trouble state outside the mainline and London routes as most of the rural lines had simply been left to rot with most of their services having been cut and the trains were running late, tracks deteriorated, and rolling stock being old and outdated. To where the public saw the system as being more of a joke now, than one that Lord Edward could show off in that stuck up brain of lies of his.

 Andrew then went onto what he considered the worse thing about Lord Edward, his constant lies towards diesels that they were the future of locomotive traction on the railways. Which he blamed for further incinerating the violence brought upon them by the steam engines and the liberation. As it was the enforcement of this belief that lead to his followers and other diesels to be aggressive towards steam locomotives that lead them to have massive resentment towards them. Andrew told the two DMU's that he saw it as propaganda to create unrest and ingrain supremacist views towards steam engines into their minds without considering the fact that maybe one day they too would be seen as obsolete as their predecessors, due to him having seen diesels of failed designs being scrapped, which helped him realise that in truth they weren't superior as Lord Edward had lead most to believe. Andrew also saw with his own eyes that as Edwards followers continued to believe his lies and show supremacy towards steam locomotives, their discontent with them continued to rise, to when the liberation would eventually turn to extremism and commit many of the acts that he mentioned earlier. Many who had come to fear them thought that Lord Edward and BR themselves would be their saviours who would protect them from the threats of the liberation.

 However even that was a lie that he could see, as what did Lord Edward do when the threat arise. Andrew told Danwood and Sanworth that Lord Edward and BR did absolutely nothing to prevent further suffering of those he was meant to represent, as he and the management spent most of that time focusing on their pointless modernisation plan and Edward focusing mostly on making BR profitable, increasing dieselisation and reducing services despite the safety of passengers, stuff and engines being at risk from the liberations threats being aimed at him and BR. Proving that Lord Edward was an engine who didn't care about the safety of others around him when it came to crimes being committed by the liberation, and was lying to make himself look good in front of his followers so that they wouldn't acknowledge what was happening behind their cabs. While BR eventually did realise the situation in the end and got the British Transport Police involved in the end to take the liberation down. The loss of innocent lives and the discrimination from steam engines though Lord Edwards incompetence of not being there for his fellow diesels including Olivia to Andrew was unforgivable and BR was no better as far as he was concerned. He told Danwood and Sanworth that since then he showed a strong resentment towards Lord Edward and the displeasure of working under a publicly run railway system who couldn't careless about modernising and improving standards, showing safety to their engines in times of crisis and were responsible for the downfall the entire British Railway network in not only his eyes, but also the publics eyes who saw them as being a no good unreliable service to the British people.

 After expressing his long discontent with the state of BR, the abuse he received from the steam engines, his loss and distrust of them and Lord Edward to Danwood and Sanworth in his harsh terms. Andrew told the two that even the Overhead wouldn't survive for much longer and that their time on it would probably be short lived, as Mr Ruleton himself was hopeless of the situation his railway was in with Alistair in charge as mayor, and that it would be Alistair's fault for why the railway fell. If even they somehow manage to vote him out, the railway would never be able to bounce back from it's financial crisis and would be forced into receivership, as the damage would've already have been done. Him finally saying "No publicly owned railway is ever the best." before heading off to take his train, little knowing the two DMU brothers would soon prove him wrong about the Overheads survival.

 Danwood, Sanworth, Andrew, Tarmingham Overhead and other characters © Great Eastern J69

[greateasternj69]

Here is Lady Agatha Ruleton (simply refer to by her engines as Agatha), the current manager of the Tarmingham Overhead Railway since 2017 after taking over from her father George as head of the company. An upper class women with a childish personality in nature that she expresses a bit in her managing role with clients and contractors and more often at home around her family and in front of her engines. While still having the responsibilities of an adult expected of her social class, but understanding that her duty is to her engines and stuff and that it's always the customer who comes first rather than money. However, don't associate her with one of those negative upper class stereotypes, as she'll feel very insulted with having to be lumped in with those who in enforce such negative portrayals of her class, push her over the edge with this and she'll storm out the office in a rage and assign you onto menial tasks until she can trust you to show her some respect.

Note: Because the first series of the upcoming Tales from the Tarmingham Overhead is set in the 1970s. Agatha won't appear in stories set in those times, as the manager back then would've been her grandfather Nathan Ruleton. So I will be saving her up for drawings set in more modern times.

Agatha Ruleton © Great Eastern J69