#Mid Sodor Railway

[naurasweetarudesu]

I feel like this is them in MSR

#ttte sir handel #ttte duke #ttte falcon #mid sodor railway #ttte incorrect quote #Ttte meme #ttte shitpost

[weirdowithaquill]

Traintober 2023: Day 17 - Holiday

How Sudrian Tourism has Evolved:

Sodor has changed majorly thanks to the publication of the Railway Series and the subsequent Television Series, both of which propelled the island and its railways from being just another part of the UK into a tourism juggernaut. But the fact of the matter is that Sodor did not immediately transform from being an insignificant island on the coast of Cumbria to one of the most popular tourist destinations in the United Kingdom overnight – so how did it all change?

To understand, we must go back to the 1500s, and the Protestant Reformation in England. At the time, Sodor was part of the English Crown – but far looser than its Irish and Welsh neighbours. Due to its small size, rough terrain and low population, King Henry VIII was far less interested in confiscating Catholic land on the island than its surrounding areas. This was in part due to the both Sir Geoffrey Regaby and Bishop Michael Colden, who managed to guide Sodor away from the Lincolnshire Rising and the Pilgrimage of Grace. Due to their remote location and general poverty, Thomas Cromwell never visited Sodor, and Cronk Abbey was never closed. For its part, St Luoc’s Cathedral at Suddery was ‘converted’ to a Protestant Cathedral in 1537, but continued holding Catholic mass. This was done by holding the two religious ceremonies one after the other.

As Sodor was now one of the few parts of the British Isles that had a Catholic church and direct line to the Papacy in Rome, it became an ‘underground’ tourist destination as a new British site of pilgrimage, frequented by Catholics looking to attend mass at the Suddery Cathedral. In return for continuing these ceremonies, Sudrians became more devout to the crown – in particular to Queen Elizabeth I, and by 1603 the Catholic mass had been all but forgotten. This did not end the attractiveness of Sodor as a religious destination, due to the caves of Saint Machan and several other holy sites that litter the island; the numbers were not large, but they did lead to a number of important connections, especially with Ireland, the Isle of Man and English ports.

The next phase of Sudrian tourism came in the 1860s, when the Skarloey Railway found the long-forgotten Skarloey lake and hidden hollow. Rather than explain it, I think I’ll just use the description that the Reverend Wilbert Awdry did:

“Spas were popular at the period and offered the possibility of a lucrative passenger business. Skarloey’s mineral springs and sheltered situation took hold on the minds of some members of the Board, among them Shamus Tebroc who conceived the idea of developing Skarloey as a spa. An hotel and a number of villas were built as a speculation, and the gravity worked incline which had been installed for the conveyance of materials was retained and up-graded for coals, merchandise, and passengers’ luggage.”

Skarloey became the first of the Island of Sodor’s tourist hotspots, especially due to its proximity to Culdee Fell and Saint Machan’s cave. The popularity of the spas was good for a time, but began to fall off as the bad fortunes of the Sodor & Mainland Railway continuously hurt the Skarloey Railway’s tourism campaign with delayed and cancelled trains, ratty carriages and even standoffish staff. This led to Skarloey becoming a local holiday destination instead, but even that began to slow down as WWII loomed.

On the other side of the island, the Mid Sodor Railway also began heavily advertising their railway to holidaymakers across the UK, but to a somewhat better result. The Isle of Man Steam Packet contract the railway picked up led to a large influx of tourists across the late 1800s and early 1900s, up until the 1920s. The railway’s ability to reach the walled city of Peel Godred and the cave of Saint Machan (via the Culdee Fell Railway) made it a very attractive destination for tourists, though this would change at the end of WWI.

The advent of relatively cheap international travel via ferries in the 1920s did a lot of damage to Sodor’s tourism economy, as their major markets in England preferred to travel to either the Continent or the Lake District – or even as far afield as the United States. Sodor instead switched to being primarily an agricultural and resource-extraction economy, with some manufacturing. This continued throughout WWII.

Which leads us to May 12th, 1945. The Three Railway Engines was published – in colour – in the UK. It achieved enough success to lead to the continuation of the series in 1946, and again in 1948, and then again continuously until 1972. These twenty-seven years’ worth of publicity for the island and its railways had a massive effect. Skarloey was rediscovered and the budget-conscience holiday maker of the 1960s chose it for its low prices, high quality, and picturesque scenery, turning around the railways needed to reach it. The Culdee Fell Railway also saw an uptick in traffic as the Peel Godred Railway brought in more passengers than the old Mid Sodor Railway had.

Furthermore, tourists came to see the engines, a phenomenon not seen before in the island’s tourism industry. Insignificant towns such as Dryaw, Brendam, Crosby and Glennock became infinitely more popular as the sites of incidents in the Railway Series, or as convenient locations to stay for travelling the island. The biggest success story of the island’s cities was Cronk however. Cronk grew massively from the tourism trade as the most central location on the NWR to reach the various tourist destinations of Sodor – even Awdry takes a moment to mention ‘The Crown of Sodor’ Hotel on Sigmund Street due to its prominence as a hotel on the island.

This large influx of tourists was however of a majorly local source – the UK, parts of continental Europe and a relatively low number from North America. It wasn’t until the advent of cheap international jetplane flights in the mid-1970s and the debut of the TV series on October 9, 1984.

This debut is what changed everything.

The Thomas and Friends Television series was an international success, with translations into a number of languages (eleven by Wikipedia’s count) and broadcast around the globe. This, coupled with the opening of an enlarged airport at Vicarstown (which had been constructed in 1941 by the RAF and expanded by Vickers in the 1960s. The airport itself had been bought by the NWR in 1982 (probably in anticipation of the TV series) and began receiving jetliners from across the world as early as 1986.

Today, Sudrian tourism is one of the largest income producers in northern England due to its international status crafted by the Thomas & Friends series. The island is a popular tourist attraction for both railfans and Thomas fans, as well as religious pilgrims, spa enthusiasts, hikers, ramblers and historians. The airport at Vicarstown has been linked into the NWR via a spur line, and more recently a number of signs on the island have been converted to include secondary and tertiary languages, for better interpretation.

Sodor reached its best numbers for international tourists in 2019, when over 1.5 million people visited the island, making it the third most visited tourist destination within England, beating out Birmingham. The secret to it’s recent further uptick in visitors is the opening of a number of museums, galleries and other cultural sites on the island, as well as a strong advertising campaign that focused on the island’s major tourist draws, which are:

The North Western Railway, Skarloey Railway, Culdee Fell Railway and Arlesdale Railway from the Railway Series book and subsequent Television series

A pre-Norman era Abbey at Cronk, one of the oldest of its kind in Britain

Suddery Cathedral, which continues to be one of the few remaining pre-reformation cathedrals in Britain

Several Norman-era castles, including a completely intact castle at Harwick

The Walled City of Peel Godred

The caves of Saint Machan

Culdee Fell

Henry's Forest National Park

Skarloey and its spas

Museums, galleries, and cultural centres

The Standing Stones of Killdane.

This advertising campaign brought a greater variety of tourists to the island, especially those from North America.

The island was badly affected by the advent of the Coronavirus pandemic, which saw the high tourist numbers of the previous decade prop by over eighty percent, which forced the island to once again consider restructuring their economy around agriculture, manufacturing, and resource extraction. This eventually was decided against, as tourist numbers have slowly picked back up through 2022.

Sodor has been greatly affected by its rise to one of the most prominent tourist destinations in the UK, including a number of hotels being built on the island – many of which are converted manorhouses – as well as several upgrades made to the transport systems of the island, with updated ferry services between the island’s major ports and locations in the UK and Ireland, as well as the railway building a special line to the island’s main airport, new tram and bus services within the major cities on the island. The island’s railway system has also seen upgrades throughout the latter half of the 20th century, including a third track being added to the mainline, new signalling systems and a number of extra connecting services to cities in the UK, such as Manchester, Birmingham, Carlisle and Preston.

Sodor has grown drastically as a result of its tourism industry and is today an international tourism hotspot. The island continues to be popular into the modern day, as a result of strong advertising and a pointed diversification of tourist offerings on the island to help the island’s tourism industry grow and bring in profits for the island’s people.

Back to Master Post

#fanfiction writer #weirdowithaquill #railway series #thomas the tank engine #railways #RWS analysis #Thomas and friends analysis #island of sodor #tourism #mid sodor railway #skarloey railway #traintober 2023 #traintober

[duncandonuts06]

"You can't get rid of me Duncan"

I've been drawing a lot of Mid-Sodor stuff recently so I thought it's about time I drew something related to this little AU I've been scheming heehee.

I don't want to give away too much but let's just say Proteus' spirit seeks out and haunts Duncan. Duncan tries every way he can think of to get Proteus to leave him alone, but he refuses to go away until Dunc agrees to go on a little quest and take care of some unfinished business. This story would take place after "Duncan Gets Spooked" and will directly tie to events on the Mid-Sodor and to "The Magic Lamp" episode. In this AU Proteus is the engine who fell off the old iron bridge and drowned. He cannot rest until some loose ends from his past are tied up and poor Duncan is the guy chosen for the job.

hope you enjoy!! this drawing was a painnnnn but I'm proud of how it turned out!

#ttte oc #train art #ttte duncan #ttte proteus #ttte au #ttte art #mid sodor railway #skarloey railway #ttte skarloey #thomas and friends #thomas the tank engine #ttte fanart #ttte

[spud-dud]

I don't think i posted these here guys here yet, not here at least

Stop Ham Hatt and Stand Lee

#ttte #thomas the tank engine #trains #model making #the fat controller #sir topham hatt #ttte rws stanley #mid sodor railway #rws stanley #scratch build

[brendambois]

Here is a small headcannon

When the skr decided to connect to the old msr slate quarry, Duke, Handel, and Sam were ecstatic. Once the line had opened, the slate quarry became the most profitable slate quarry on the island. On the other buffer, the small raggedy blue mountain quarry was running on dimes money wise, and the mine engine and a faceless garatt engine wise. In all honesty, the bmq could make loads with their iconic namesake, "The Blue Mountains", due to te loads of slate in the hills of those peaks, but they were never in range because of their being only one engine who was able to either pull trains to lay rail or/and deliver the heavy slate to the harbours (where they have a contract for slate to

Scotland) so the trains would have to be juggled on a tightrope over lava type schedule. After a year and a half. The bmq had run down to their last $10, and the owner Jefferson Rheneas, was about to close up shop, when the manager of the Skarlowey said that they had a contract for the bmq, due to a spectral incident at the old quarry. The contract, you may ask, is to bring slate from the quarry to a construction site at Crovan's Gate to build a works for reparing, making and upgrading/updating any and all types of steam (fireless included), in return, the Skarlowey would by an engine for the bmq along with their purchase for a narrow guadge works shunter from Cuba. During the constructed of the newly nicknamed "Steamworks", the skr sent daily trains to work on building the quarry up, and during the calmest of days when trains were minimal, the skr would sometimes do construction trains to help build the quarry faster. A week before the new arrivals, "The Blue Mountain Quarry" finally finished the extention construction, and the morning of the arrivals the soon to be officially named "Stamworks" was finished. Unfortunately, during unloading of the new engines an incident occurred where the Cuban engine was accidentally knocked in to a shallow patch of water by the new Irish engine who would go to work at the quarry. Drowning in guilt that he had just killed an engine, the new quarry engine left for work as soon as he was steamed by his crew, who had been allowed to come with their engine. Luckily the yellow Cuban engine was fished out before any majior damage was done, and he got to atend the name christening and become the works very first repair and paint job. Que events of Blue mountain mystery. To this day still, the Steamworks get regular visits and the BMQ is the most profitable quarry on the Skarlowey Railway taking regular slate trains to Ulfstead castle making a tidy profit and getting regular trains of brakeroom snacks in return.

#ttte skarloey #skarloey railway #thomas and friends #brendambois #thomas the tank engine #ttte #ttte headcanon #the island of sodor #island of sodor #msr #mid sodor railway #mid sodor #skarloey #skr #bmq #blue mountain quarry #old slate mine #old slate quarry

[lunalmfao]

Saint Machan !!

i imagine the faces work on culdee fell rules, for rws consistency

#ttte #skarloey railway #mid sodor railway #mid sodor #railway series #ttte mighty mac

[sudriantraveler]

The Engine Before The Mid Sodor Railway

OK, so something just occurred to me. On the Mid Sodor Railway the section from Arlesburgh to Cas-ny-Hawin predates the rest of the railway. It existed in the form of a tramway, and according to The Island of Sodor: Its People History and Railways this tramway had steam engines!

Before we go any further I'd just like to say as an aside that in case anyone has forgotten the Cas-ny-Hawin mine was a lead mine, and based on this passage it seems that the tramway didn't have any coaches and so for any people who wanted a lift they would just let them ride in the trucks, and all I'm going to say is that we give Sir Charles Topham Hatt shit for using lead-tainted ballast on his railway (rightfully so), but at least he wasn't letting passengers RIDE IN THE TRUCKS WHICH WERE ALSO BEING USED TO CARRY SAID LEAD!!!

OK, side tangent over. Now where was I...

We really don't know anything about these engines or even how many of them there were... But I have a theory...

Could the mine engine be one of the old Arlesburgh Tramway engines? As far as I know the currently prevailing theory is that this engine was privately owned by the mining company and so technically isn't owned by the Mid Sodor Railway itself, meaning them predating the MSR wouldn't conflict with Duke being the MSR number 1, which brings me to my next point...

As much as I kinda like the idea that Duke was just built old... he would still have had to learn how to run a railway from somewhere... or someone...

Do you see where I'm going with this?

Honestly it might be kinda funny if the mine engine was trying to be a mentor to Duke... But they were also learning a lot of this stuff for the first time themselves and so were mostly talking out of their bunker! After all, a fully certified passenger carrying railway is a whole other beast to a freight only (technically) mineral line. In the years during the MSRs construction they were probably introduced to a LOT of new practices and procedures which they would have been completely unfamiliar with up until then. Such as the novel concept of carrying passengers in these fancy new things called coaches instead of just having them ride in the (lead carrying) trucks!

It would be very funny if part of Duke's strict obedience to rules and procedures comes from him being taught by an engine who was really just pretending to be extremely competent all in an effort to try and bullshit knowledge of a rulebook which they definitely haven't read!

This is rapidly turning into another one of my late night rambling posts, but now I'm just picturing this engine as acting a bit like Yoda, except unlike Yoda something like 90% of their wisdom is really just absolute nonsense!

Bonus hilarity points if this engine somehow survives to be reunited with Duke on the Skarloey Railway, where they confess to having absolutely no idea what they were talking about...

Duke just bluescreens and has an existential crisis, because half of his knowledge base is a lie and he's already passed it all on to Sir Handel and Peter Sam!

Skarloey and Rheneas meanwhile, are just looking on and feeling simultaneously sorry for Duke, and extremely vindicated because they had been trying to correct Duke on his misinformation, but he was just too stubborn to listen!

#ttte #rws #ttte headcanon #ttte duke #the mid sodor mine engine #mid sodor railway #arlesburgh tramway #Does any of this make Sense? Probably not. #Am I going to implement it into my current headcanon? Maybe some of it. #Do I think this is hilarious? Absolutely! #Duke thinks this engine was kept at the mine because they were the only one wise enough to keep everything in order up there #In reality it was to try to keep them as out of the way as possible so they wouldn't spread anymore bullshit to the rest of the engines #the mine engine was friends with Stanley/Smudger #They would talk whenever the mine was quiet

[verypsbfan019]

Skarloey Fletcher from the Mid-Sodor Railway!

I just drew Skarloey once some time ago, I am so glad to see some improvement in his design hehe xD

#ttte #fanart #thomas the tank engine #ttte humanized #art #digital art #illustration #digital artwork #the engine drivers series #digital drawing #ttte skarloey #mid sodor railway #skarloey railway #he is smol #I have to draw the rest of the small engines

[the-time-lord-oracle]

The Picnic: RWS & TVS;

Duke and his Picnic in the RWS and TVS.

#thomas the tank engine #ttte duke #Duke the Lost Engine #mid sodor railway

[www-islandofsodor]

#planetsodor #thomas and friends #spooktober #demonic possession #mid sodor railway #arlesdale railway #Youtube

[naurasweetarudesu]

Handel smoking doodle

Someone give this man brown contacts pls

"It is not easy to love one self...

However, I promise...

I'll ease up as I should..."

#The chorus of Rayuan Perempuan Gila (Seduction of One Mad Woman) by Nadin Amizah ringing in my ears while i doodled this. #But Sir Handel is the 'mad woman' in my brain rather than the man who listening to her. #Falcon with uncanny blue eyes strikes again- I SWEAR I'M NOT MAKING TELL TALE HEART REFERENCE #ttte sir handel #ttte falcon #ttte humanized #Star Rails Chronicle #Skarloey Railway #Mid Sodor Railway #Ttte au #I love Sir Handel in two ways. First way is I want to pat him and saying everything will be okay. #Second way is I want to slap him so hard that he spinning and either became a drill to dig earth #Or just start take off to the sky like a helicopter propeller #I don't think he's a smoker. But in my hc he's not going to refuse one if someone offered him a cigarette. #SweetaruArtwork

[weirdowithaquill]

Hi! I read your WIP game post. Tell me please, what is the Sodor Highland Railway? - NBA

The Sodor Highland Railway is an AU IOS-style book I did a lot of work on recently, which follows an AU where the Skarloey and Mid Sodor Railways united in the late 1890's.

In true IOS-style, it names all the stations on the route, where incidents happen, little historical events as well as including the histories of all the engines on the line, important controllers and references to events preceding the railway's existence. Here's a little piece from the very beginning:

'The Sodor Highland Railway is a narrow gauge railway that crosses through the heart of Sodor from Arlesburgh Port to Crovan’s Gate Works with a branch up to the Harbour at Harwick. It is an important part of the Sudrian economy, and the oldest railway on Sodor in continuous operation.

The line runs from Crovan’s Gate wharf on the Southeast of Sodor to Arlesburgh in the West and Harwick in the North, with the ancient walled city of Peel Godred being the central station and junction. This makes the railway the longest 2ft 3in railway in the world, being longer than the Welsh Highland and Ffestiniog Railways combined. 

Originally consisting of the Skarloey Railway (SKR) and the Mid Sodor Railway (MSR), when the two railways amalgamated in 1894, the railway was extended across Ward Fell and to Peel Godred and Kirk Machan from both directions, linking the entirety of central Sodor by rail for the first time.'

#ask answered #ask me things #mid sodor railway #skarloey railway #ttte au #Peel Godred #ao3 writer #fanfiction writer #railway series #ao3 stuff #thomas the tank engine #Crovan's Gate #alternate history

[feigeroman]

Any particular headcanons for the Skarloey?

On the whole, not really - as far as my Thomas headcanons go, my attention has largely been focussed on the NWR as of late. However, I do have one or two stray narrow-gauge headcanons, which are as follows:

The Original #7

The SR first considered a #7 engine in the late-60s, and a number of different ideas were proposed. The proposal that got the furthest was to purchase a brand-new engine from Hunslet, to a modified version of their Eva 0-4-2T design. This would have been delivered as a kit of parts, to be assembled at Crovan's Gate. The engine was to have been named Rowan - at the time, the Owner lived in a house called The Rowans.

Unfortunately, for whatever reason, the proposals fell through at the last minute. Apparently, though, things had progressed far enough that the SR had preemptively allocated the #7 slot to Rowan. This meant that when Duke was rediscovered and brought to the SR, he was given the #8 slot. It would not be until another thirty-odd years later, when Ivo Hugh was built, that an SR engine actually carried the number 7.

(Above: Coincidentally, the Talyllyn Railway also had the idea of buying an Eva themselves, but this too was shelved after they bought the engine who would become Tom Rolt. This model shows what the TR's Eva might have looked like, bearing the name Cader Idris. Picture and model courtesy of Galveira.)

(Also, one smaller headcanon about Ivo Hugh: My version of the SR has all the engines in their TVS liveries, so I've done what loads of other fans have done, and made Ivo Hugh purple.)

The Double Fairlies

In 1923, the Peel Godred Power Company obtained powers to build a dam and hydroelectric power plant a mile or so north of that town, and considered using the Mid Sodor Railway to transport the required building materials and equipment. The MSR realized that stronger engines would be needed for this work, and on the advice of the Ffestiniog Railway, decided that a Double Fairlie was just what they needed.

Two such engines ended up being built, as kits of parts at the FR's own workshops, which were shipped to Sodor for final assembly at Crovan's Gate. Little Giant was the first of the two to be completed, and he arrived at Arlesburgh by rail in 1925. Unfortunately, what with the PGPC's decision to use the NWR's newly-constructed Peel Godred branch line, Little Giant's extra strength proved to be surplus to requirements, and he was sold just a couple of years later.

Meanwhile, the other engine, Saint Machan (alias Mighty Mac), had just been completed when the call came through that he was no longer wanted. Crovan's Gate decided they had to get their money's worth somehow, and so Mighty Mac became the new works shunter, running on the site's own internal railway system. As the Works expanded, however, it gradually became too big for Mighty Mac to cope with on his own, and by the 1970s, the size of the complex had reached a point of no return.

Fortunately, it just so happened that by the 1970s, traffic had increased on the Skarloey Railway to the point that another engine was sorely needed. One thing led to another, and Mighty Mac was sold to the SR in 1976. This left his old position as works shunter open for Victor (NWR #67), who arrived shortly afterwards.

#thomas the tank engine #the railway series #sodor #island of sodor #north western railway #skarloey railway #ttte headcanon #ttte analysis #ttte oc #ttte mighty mac #mid sodor railway #double fairlie

[duncandonuts06]

He was a wreck on the rails even back in The Great War! Perhaps letting this man haul live munitions wasn't the best idea...

Have some more war themed art! This is my Stanley design for his trench engine days. I'm also thinkin up some lore for our favorite chainsmoker hehhee

very tempted to make a goofy ref sheet of War Veteran Stan but we will see.... also expect an illustration of Duncan's wartime service in the near future!!

#thomas the tank engine #ttte fanart #ttte #thomas and friends #train art #railwayseries #rws #ttte art #ttte stanley #rws stanley #trench engines #skarloey railway #ttte skarloey #mid sodor railway #sodor #ww1trench #ww1 au

[spud-dud]

this is what i imagine happened when the mid sodor manager learned he could turn smudger into a generator

#ttte #thomas the tank engine #skarloey railway #the railway series #ttte smudger #smudger #ttte rws stanley #rws #rws stanley #mid sodor #mid sodor railway

[lunalmfao]

OK promised lore post

This post is gonna be divided into two, the part focusing on narrow gauge au stuff and standard gauge au stuff. Its going to be LONG

First of all we have original Skarloey Railway No.3, Hawin Dooiey

Hawin Dooiey (It/Its) was bought around 1867 and delivered the same year, but it was almost immediately considered surplus to requirements and stayed in the shed most of the time, only to be steamed in emergencies. It actually didn’t mind this too much and enjoyed the quiet of the empty shed. Eventually however, it was sold onto the Mid Sodor Railway, who used it as spare parts for Jennings until its eventual scrapping. Again, it didn’t mind too much as it didn’t ever do anything.

Saint Machan/Mighty Machan, Mid Sodor No.8

In early 1922 management on the Mid Sodor had heard about the soon to be Power Plant at Peel Godred. The Mid Sodor badly wanted to be the ones contracted to move the construction equipment and supplies, so to impress the public and the power companies management they ordered a Double Fairlie from Boston Lodge in Wales. The engine arrived midway through the year and was named Saint Machan (They/He) (pronounced Mathsan.) In advertising from this period the company boldy boasts “RIDE BEHIND THE MIGHTY MACHAN!" The Mid Sodor was not contracted to move construction supplies. Out of anger and spite, the manager removed Mighty Machan from Boat Trains for a year, until 1924 where they resumed passenger services with Falcon. To recover from the financial loss that came from purchasing the Saint Machan the Mid Sodor sold spares locomotive Hawin Dooiey for scrap and their water pump, Stanley, to a mine connected to the railway. In 1946 when the Mid Sodor shut down no one purchased Mathsan and it stayed in the shed with Duke, being rescued at the same time as him, but waiting until the mid 70s for restoration and running on the Skarloey Railway.

Standard Gauge, Starting with 82002 and 82043(Arthur)

In 1964 BR 82002 and Arthur(82043)(He/Him) were transferred to Sodor to work on renovations of the Arlesburgh branch. They were eventually allocated to Tidmouth and double-headed the Flying Kipper often. They also pulled the local train to Thomas’s branchline. Arthur and occasionally 82002 pulled a stopping fish train from Tidmouth Harbour to stations along the mainline, including Suddery Junction, occasionally but not always Killdane and ending at Crovans Gate. Eventually as Henry took more agency over the local trains and the advent of diesels, they took exclusively freight. Around this time Arthur began to stay at Tidmouth Harbour instead of the sheds and 82002 was reallocated to Suddery Junction to bank trains up Gordons Hill.

Charles Hatts Agreement with BR

In 1966 Hatt signed an agreement with higher ups at BR that would save the regions steam locomotives from scrapping, running under the guise of a “commercial Heritage Railway” as long as the Northwestern Region “promoted tourism and introduced more diesels to supplement the ‘aging’ steam locomotives.” Following the end of steam, Charles began a program which leased Crovans Gate built, and eventually all NW locomotives to various preservation railways in mainland England for up to 5 years. This program proved incredibly succesful and saw many NW locomotives gain notoriety outside of Sodor. 

#ttte #ttte au #railway series #ttte mighty mac #mighty mac ttte #sir charles hatt #arthur ttte #ttte arthur #skarloey railway #mid sodor #mid sodor railway #thomas the tank engine