#nwr departmental

[edwardthomasnw]

Been working on Departmental stuff lately, part of that drawing up the NWR's Departmental Locos and

I've made far too long a list help

#the railway series #the sodor chronicles #nwr departmental #how do i tag this help

[thesudrianchronicles]

NWC: NWR Loco fleet

Welcome to the AU. There is no order, just pure chaos & crack ideas. More info to follow. - The Author

NWR STEAM ENGINES

Thomas (NWR 1)

Alice/Edward “Alice Edwards” (NWR 2)

Henry (NWR 3) 

Gordon “Shooting Star” (NWR 4)

James (NWR 5)

Percy/Paisley (NWR 6)

Toby (NWR 7)

Duck “Montague” (NWR 8/GWR 5741)

Donald (NWR 9)

Douglas (NWR 10)

Oliver (NWR 11/GWR 1436/1451)

Emily (NWR 12)

Eagle (NWR 13)

Tilly “Tilbury” (NWR 14)

Gwen (NWR 15)

Alberta (NWR 16)

Jessica (NWR 17)

Callum (NWR 18)

Sam “St Johnstoun” (NWR 19)

Noah (NWR 20)

Archie (NWR 21)

Alexandra “Princess Alexandra” (NWR 22/GWR 4053)

Aaron (NWR 23)

Rosie (NWR 24)

Louise “Princess Louise” (NWR 25)

Garry “Glen Garry” (NWR 26)

Molly (NWR 27)

Josh (NWR 28)

Skye (NWR 29)

Trigger (NWR 30)

Rachael (NWR 31/GWR 4112)

Charlie “Charlotte” (NWR 32)

Joey/Josephine (NWR 33)

Jinty (NWR 34)

Catlin “City of Coventry” (NWR 35)

Neville (NWR 36)

Arthur (NWR 37)

Murdoch (NWR 38)

Belle “Annabelle” (NWR 39)

Angus (NWR 40)

Rebecca “Saunton” (NWR 41)

Tadano (NWR 42)

Sophie “Sophia” (NWR 43)

Ren (NWR 44)

Nakanaka (NWR 45)

Komi (NWR 46)

Hiro (NWR 47/JNR D51-1158)

Marklin (NWR 48/DRG 80 0007)

Barry (NWR 49/GWR 5609)

Shuuko (NWR 50/JGR 58629)

Ella (NWR 51/NSR 245)

Tess "Tulip" (NWR 52/NS 3820)

Nia (NWR 53/KUR 1118)

Tid “Tidmouth hall”* (NWR 54/GWR 7930)

Ryan (NWR 55)

Winnie (NWR 56)

Gill “Lough Gill” (NWR 57/GNRI 196)

Ashima (NWR 58/NMR 37395)

Andrew “Andrew Bain” (NWR 59)

Kenzie* (NWR 60)

Hank (NWR 61)

Philip (NWR 62)

Mark (NWR 63)

Wells/Wellan “Wellsworth Cathedral”* (NWR 64/GWR 8020)

NWR DIESEL ENGINES

Daisy (D1)

BoCo (D2)

Bear (D3)

Glenn “Works diesel” (D4)

Derek (D5)

Dennis (D6)

Paxton (D7)

Splatter & Dodge (D8 & D9)

Diesel 10 “Cockade” (D10)

Edwin (D11)

Sarah (D12)

Martin* (D13)

Alastor (D14)

Paul (D15)

Patryk (D16)

Robin (D17)

Iris (D18)

Peak (D19)

Sidney (D20)

Grant & Polly (D21)

Den “Denise” (D22)

Dart (D23)

Yin Lee (D24)

Pip & Emma (D25 & D26)

Darren (D27)

Mavis (D28)

NWR ELECTRIC ENGINES 

Thor “Thorkell” (E1)

Loey “Loey Machan” (E2)

Lindsay (E3)

Sandra (E4)

Crovan (E5)

Kirk (E6)

Stafford (E7)

Arnold (E8)

Madison & Mel (E9 & E10)

Ark & Parker (E11 & E12)

Logan & Beth (E13 & 14) 

NWR DEPARTMENTAL ENGINES 

Ernie (SRR 1)

Bertha (SRR 2)

Jones (SRR 3)

Sixteen (SRR 4)

Niffty (SRR 5)

Husker (SRR 6)

Winston (HATT 2)

Diana “Denmark” (NWDS 1)

Harvey (NWDS 2)

Baxter (NWDS 3)

Victor (NWDS 4)

#thomas and friends #railway series #alternate universe #pure chaos #i came up with this #help my sanity #enjoy the ride #first post #thomas the tank engine #ttte oc

[shikhachopra]

North Western Railway (NWR is inviting interested and eligible candidates to apply for North Western Railway Recruitment 2023 to join them as Asstt Loco Pilot posts against the General Departmental Competitive Examination (GDCE) quota. The eligible candidates can apply for this recruitment drive with an online process via the official website.

#north western railway recruitment 2023

[resulttak]

RRB ALP New Vacancy 2023: for RRC NWR GDCE all regular Group C And D Employee RPF/RPSE

RRB ALP New Vacancy 2023: This recruitment has been issued by the Railway Recruitment Cell Jaipur North Western Railway under the Railway Recruitment Board, in which it has released the General Departmental Complete Examination GDCE for the already recruited railway employees who are Group C and Group D employers. Applications have been invited for 238 posts, which will be used to fill the posts…

View On WordPress

#GOVT JOBS #RRB ALP New Vacancy 2023 #sarkari jobs #sarkari naukari

[feigeroman]

Thomas Headcanons: James

When James was first built, he carried the standard L&YR tender, in common with his fellow 28s. This was later upgraded to a slightly larger tender of the same design, to accomodate his experiemental modifications. This tender was itself damaged beyond repair after his accident on his first day of NWR service, and replaced with the Fowler-style one he carries to this day.

That original tender, incidentally, still survives as well, as part of the NWR’s departmental stock. It’s seen all kinds of uses, from carrying weedkiller or boiler sludge, to forming the framework for a snowplough.

While James’ outward air of pride and vanity has always stayed the same, his internal reasons for it have constantly changed over the years.

To begin with, he felt insecure about being such a non-standard oddity, and so tried to twist that into the more positive connotations of simply being special (1912-1925).

Then, following his initial accident, and subsequent incidents, it was to prove himself a capable and competent worker. And possibly he was trying to earn favour with Gordon, whose shadow James was constantly in (1925 onwards).

James doubled down hard following the War, most likely in a bid to try and repress some of the effects it’d had on him. Nationalization may also have had something to do with it, as James tried to assert his own individuality in what was now a much bigger state machine (late 1940s to early-50s).

The publication and increasing popularity of the RWS books meant that fame inevitably went to James’ smokebox, hence his slightly more dickish nature around this time (1950s).

Then it was the looming threat of Modernization, and later scrapping, which caused James to once again try to prove that he was special, and therefore worth keeping around (late-50s to late-60s).

Finally, once his future was more secure, James started to relax a bit. However, as with Percy’s facade of simple-mindedness, James ended up going slightly too far with his own facade of grandeur, to the point where it was rare for him to show any other sides to his character (early-70s onwards).

James’ role in the Big Engines dynamic changed considerably over the years:

To begin with (1920s), he was very much an outlier, as Gordon and Henry were too busy dealing with each other to take much notice of him. And even when they did, it was more as a two-against-one thing.

Eventually, though (1930s to early-60s), James did become part of the clique, and the trio as we best know them was formed. Depending on the circumstances, they could act either as a proper trio, or two engines against one, or even all three engines set against each other.

Much later on (mid-60s to early-70s), the dynamic shifted, as Henry became the outlier, and the trio became just the duo of Gordon and James.

Later still (early-70s onwards), the trio regrouped, but was rather less consistent. Sometimes James was in command, sometimes he was just an aide, and sometimes he returned to being the outlier.

Finally (1980s onwards), it was back to to the duo of Henry and James, with Gordon being the outlier.

For many years, James was both the NWR’s only red engine, and the only engine specifically designated as mixed-traffic. Therefore, he was more or less directly responsible for the NWR adopting red as its official livery for mixed-traffic engines. Presumably the decision went like this: “Well, we’ve decided that blue means express passenger, green means local passenger and black means freight...“ “But hold on. What about mixed-traffic? That doesn’t really fit any of those categories.“ “Ah, right...Well, what mixed-traffic engines do we have?“ “Uh...just James, I think. And he’s red, so...“ “That’s settled, then! Red means mixed-traffic!“

As much as I enjoy James as a Scouser, I’ve always imagined him sounding like Toad from Wind in the Willows, as voiced by David Jason in the stop-motion adaptation of that story. He just perfectly captures the same sheer manic, chaotic energy as James, with all the personality quirks to match. Just listen to him in an episode or two, and you’ll see what I mean.

Having said that, I still think James would have had the Scouse accent early on, only to later repress it as part of his self-important image. He’s still prone to lapsing back into it now and then, which amuses the other engines no end. 

In the early 1980s, the NWR’s first ever woman driver was assigned to James. At first, it was feared that he wouldn’t take kindly to such a drastic change. Fortunately, though, once he was assured of his new driver’s competence, James had no issues accepting her whatsoever - except, of course, for the fact that most of her previous driving experience was on diesels. Even then, this problem didn’t last long, as it was only a short while later that James finally managed to shake off most of his anti-diesel prejudices.

Blatantly stolen from @mean-scarlet-deceiver​, but what the hell, it was just too perfect not to include. Find the full details here.

On a similar note, once James gets over his new driver being ex-diesel, the two of them actually end up becoming quite a double-act. Inevitably, his driver (name undecided as of yet) ends up as the straight woman, constantly battling to reel James in when he’s getting too far up his own tender - which is most of the time.

#thomas the tank engine #the railway series #sodor #island of sodor #north western railway #ttte headcanon #ttte analysis #ttte james #james the red engine

[exambio]

rrc jaipur gdce answer key question paper 2018 Department Exam NWR Railway

rrc jaipur gdce answer key question paper 2018 Department Exam NWR Railway Rajasthan Jaipur Railway Recruitment Cell RRC Jaipur, North Western Railway NWR, conducted the online examination on June 25, 2018, to fill the vacancies of various posts of Group C under the General Departmental Competitive  Examination GDCE quota. ThisRead More → http://dlvr.it/QZfYqm

#Answer Key #Railway

[onlinejobstudy-blog]

The Recruitment Is Related to the GDCE(General Departmental Competitive Examination) notification. General Departmental Competitive Examination has conducted the Exam For the various Post those posts are a staff nurse, junior engineer, station master, goods guard, pharmacist, stenographer, commercial clerk, ticket examiner, technician, assistant loco pilot and clerk cum typist .interest and eligible candidates those make career in railways submit the application Form before last date 12th oct 2017 .North Western Railway Recruitment 2017. Read More 

#RRC_Jaipur_Recruitment_2017 North_Western_Railway_Recruitment_2017 Latest_North_Western_Railway_Recruitment_2017 NWR

[shikhachopra]

North Western Railway (NWR is inviting interested and eligible candidates to apply for North Western Railway Recruitment 2023 to join them as Asstt Loco Pilot posts against the General Departmental Competitive Examination (GDCE) quota. The eligible candidates can apply for this recruitment drive with an online process via the official website.

#north western railway recruitment 2023

[feigeroman]

Thomas Headcanons: Dennis

As many people have guessed (and his physical number would indicate), Dennis is indeed BR #11001, the solitary prototype for a class of diesel shunter designed by Bulleid for the Southern Railway, but not built until 1950, after Nationalization. He was a development of an earlier pre-war design, and intended to be powerful enough for shunting work, yet fast enough for trip working in between the intensive passenger services across the Southern Region.

In any event, though, Dennis proved to be less than satisfactory, but contrary to speculation, this was not down to pure laziness. Surprisingly, he was genuinely keen to work to begin with, but this may have been tempered somewhat by his frequent mechanical failures.

His design had a number of inherent flaws as well. One of the main things letting him down was his gearbox, which allowed three speeds to be selected from one of two speed ranges, high and low. Unfortunately, the high-speed range was too slow for main line work, while the low-speed range was too inflexible for shunting.

It is known that for a time, Dennis was tried out as a shunter at the marshalling yard at Norwood, in South London. However, due to his various flaws, he ended up spending as much time out of service as he did in. These problems came to a head in 1959, when Dennis was finally withdrawn from active BR service. He’s recorded as having been disposed of later that year, but in actual fact, he was transferred to the departmental stocklist, and used as a shunter at Ashford Works.

Dennis’ time as a works shunter proved beneficial for two reasons. Firstly, whenever he broke down, it didn’t take nearly as long for him to be fixed up again. Secondly, and more importantly, he became something of an ongoing pet project for the workshop staff, as they worked to properly iron out all his faults.

It ended up taking several years to get this done - mainly because Dennis figured that the best way to avoid failing again was to not do anything that might cause him to break down. Which basically boiled down to anything resembling actual work.

During the late 1960s, the importance of Ashford declined following the closure of the locomotive works. Dennis continued working at the wagon works - as and when he wanted, of course - until around 1970, when his position was taken over by a Class 12 who’d been transferred to the departmental stocklist following withdrawal from BR. This left Dennis out of a job, but luckily, he ended up being sold to the Ashford Steam Centre, a short-lived museum based out of the former motive power depot close to the Works.

Dennis remained on display at the ASC until 1976, when the museum was forced to close due to mounting debts. Most of the engines and rolling stock were dispersed to other preserved railways, but Dennis had to wait a bit longer before he left the site.

This happened right at the beginning of 1977, after one of the former museum owners was approached by representatives of the NWR. They’d heard about Dennis, and were interested in returning him to active service on Sodor. The museum were only too happy to make the sale - though Dennis himself required a bit more persuading!

Dennis officially entered NWR service in mid-1977. Even though he was now more mechanically sound than before, Dennis was still paranoid about breaking down, and once again, he decided that the best way to avoid failing again was to not even attempt his work. He would slack off at the least excuse, and persuade other engines to do his work for him.

Predictably, this ended in disaster for him - while attempting to run away from one of his jobs, he came off the rails and damaged his fuel tank. Fortunately, no fire resulted from this, but what did happen was Dennis getting seriously called on the carpet by Sir Topham Hatt. After promising to not be so lazy in future, he was given a second chance.

Surprisingly, Dennis did keep his word - sort of. While he no longer shirked off work altogether, he instead tried doing as little work as he could possibly get away with - and somehow, he did get away with doing the bare minimum. Obviously this made him massively unpopular with the other engines, particularly when they realized he was technically still keeping his promise - which had been to stop avoiding his work completely. While Dennis was doing the bare minimum, he was at least still doing some work.

A couple of years later, the NWR was approached by a private builder, who was intent on building a new engine to the same design as Dennis. The builder wanted to use the design as a starting point, but build upon its successes and iron out its flaws. The NWR agreed to provide assistance, working from the experience they’d had with Dennis. This proved invaluable during the new engine’s construction.

That new engine was, of course, Norman (NWR #D20), who would himself go on to be purchased by the NWR in late-1981. However, he ended up having the opposite problems to Dennis, in that while he was more willing to work, he was more prone to mechanical failure. See his write-up for further details.

#thomas the tank engine #the railway series #sodor #island of sodor #north western railway #ttte headcanon #ttte analysis #ttte dennis #dennis the lazy diesel

[feigeroman]

Thomas OCs: Donna

Number: D25 Class: BR Class 37 Co-Co Built: 1960 Arrived on Sodor: 1988 Service (Shed): NWR Main Line (Barrow-In-Furness) Livery: NWR Diesel Green

The NWR’s diesel fleet is often badly misjudged, as media attention tends to be biased towards the smaller diesels, leading people to assume that the whole fleet is similarly made up of smaller engines. This is obviously not true, as the NWR does in fact own diesels of all different sizes, with one of the largest being Donna - one of two 37s owned by the NWR, the other being Mungo (NWR #D6).

Donna is one of a number of diesels employed on the NWR’s heavy goods link, and is usually kept busy on the Main Line. Sometimes, however, she’s allowed to venture beyond Barrow-In-Furness, as some of her trains run directly from Sodor to any number of destinations on the Mainland. This direct running is more efficient than the usual system, whereby outbound goods trains have to stop at Barrow to change engines - the only reason the NWR doesn’t do direct running more often is because they only have limited powers to run their trains onto BR metals.

Donna is an interesting sort. Professionally, she’s a hard, strong worker, and a very determined individual. If a job needs doing, not only will she do it well, but she'll stop at nothing to see it through to the end. Personally, however, it could be said that Donna’s quite an embittered, resentful character, who considers everyone guilty until proven innocent. In particular, her past withdrawal in spite of her good track record has given her serious contempt for the people in high places who make such decisions without understanding the harsh realities of railway operation. However, since she was lucky enough to be saved by Sir Topham Hatt, she’s willing to make an exception for him!

Donna’s BR career had promising beginnings, as she was one of the first 37s to be built in 1960. For most of her life, she was based at Hull, and worked regular freight trains around the East of England. However, the depot at Hull also tended to use its 37s on local passenger trains, and so Donna was frequently to be found on these - though she didn’t enjoy them nearly as much as she did the freights.

Over the years, other 37s came and went, but Donna remained a constant, reliable presence at Hull, even as traffic patterns changed drastically, and BR started introducing more modern diesels to cope with them. There was always some job the 37s could manage, and Donna was convinced she had nothing to worry about - a refurbishment at Crewe in the early 80s only further assured her future...

That is, until one fateful day in 1985, when Donna was suddenly told that she was to be withdrawn from active service. Naturally, her reaction to this news was one of shock and anger, as there’d been no prior indication that her days were numbered - indeed, she thought she’d been doing better than ever at that time. However, there was nothing Donna could do to challenge this decision, and she was placed into storage at Hull. There was apparently talk of her being transferred to the departmental stocklist, or sold into preservation, but the odds of either happening were slim.

Donna remained in storage for over two years, until one day - and just as suddenly - she awoke to the news that she’d been purchased by the NWR. As she was still in operational condition, all she required was a clean-up before she was able to make the journey to Sodor under her own power - accompanied by some ex-BR wagons that’d been included in the deal as well.

After some further work to deal with a few minor faults, Donna officially entered NWR service in early 1988. She was met with some interest by the other engines, as she was the first big diesel to arrive on the railway for quite some years. Such scrutiny made Donna more than a little paranoid at first, as she feared that even doing her best might not be good enough for her to be allowed to stay. This was not helped by a string of incidents which affected some of her early runs on the Main Line.

Fortunately, Donna eventually realized her future on the NWR was secure after all, thanks to the part she played in getting the railway through a big freeze. The winter of 1988/89 was particularly bad, especially for the steam engines, as the snow stopped their regular deliveries of coal getting through from the Mainland. When their current reserves ran out, the whole steam fleet was left out of action, and all the diesels were pressed into service to keep things running. Donna in particular was put on snowplough duty in place of Donald & Douglas, and managed to clear the line to Barrow-In-Furness - which in turn allowed her to collect the delayed coal delivery, and help get all the steam engines back in action. To say they were all grateful would be an understatement.

Donna remains a reliable worker to this day, both on the Main Line and further afield. Because she frequently ventures out to all sorts of Mainland destinations, she rarely actually sees many of her fellow NWR engines, and thus has few friends among them. Those few friends, however, will tell you that if you can get Donna on-side, she’ll remain fiercely loyal to you, and despite her acerbic exterior, she really is a good engine to know.

Trivia

Like most people, I’d never really been satisfied with the NWR diesel fleet as shown in the TV series. As mentioned above, there seems to have been a bias towards smaller diesel types, in stark contrast to the wide range of sizes and types to be found in the steam fleet. This contrast was brought into painful relief in the episode The Big Freeze, in which a group of small diesels was somehow shown as being able to efficiently cover the duties of steam engines much larger than them.

Just to put this into perspective, their method of covering for Gordon on his express is running Den, Dart and Sidney as a triple-header. It honestly has to be seen to be believed.

Anyway, I decided to try and address this imbalance, and so when I started properly developing my NWR stocklist, that’s what I did. To compensate for the lack of bigger diesels in canon, most of my diesel OCs were based on larger prototypes. In fact, I’ve just checked, and my diesel fleet is perfectly balanced; of the thirty diesels I have, fifteen are small, and fifteen are big.

This was what lead to the creation of Donna. I seem to remember she started off as a kind of punk girl archetype, hence her name - I don’t know, Donna just sounded punk-ish in my mind - but that gradually changed over time into her current characterization.

I did have a specific 37 in mind when developing Donna’s backstory, but I’ve since been unable to remember which one. I’m good at writing down information like this, can you tell?

#thomas the tank engine #the railway series #sodor #island of sodor #north western railway #ttte headcanon #ttte analysis #ttte oc #original character #donna the heavy-freight diesel

[feigeroman]

Thomas OCs: Heidi

Number: 45 (ex-BR 855) Class: Cambrian Jones 89 0-6-0 Built: 1919 Arrived on Sodor: 1960 (purchased by NWR in 1959) Service (Shed): NWR Main Line (Vicarstown) Livery: NWR Goods Black

Although the NWR has well over a hundred engines on its roster, a great many of them haven’t received any attention in either the books or the television series - usually because of the publishers and producers’ bias towards the adventures of our more famous heroes. For some of these engines, though, this lack of attention is a good thing, and has often been a conscious choice on their part. One or two were even known to tell the Thin Clergyman or his son - chance a few words - to go away, and their wishes for privacy were respected.

Heidi is one such engine, though she was comfortable enough telling us a bit about herself. Now, it’s not that she’s an especially shy or reclusive engine - it’s just that she’s not a particularly outgoing sort either. Rather, Heidi’s a very introverted character, who gets her energy from spending time alone, and is generally happy to remain a background player in her role as a utility engine. That's not to say Heidi will outright eschew the company of other engines, but they know that she’ll speak up when she feels comfortable doing so.

With regards to her history, Heidi is probably one of the railway’s most enigmatic engines, as she prefers to keep her past a secret from all but her closest friends. What is known for certain about her, though, is that she was built and operated by the Cambrian Railways of mid-Wales. With the Cambrian's amalgamation into the GWR, Heidi was gradually superseded by more modern engines, but she managed to survive by virtue of being light enough to work on lines those engines were too heavy to run on.

Eventually, though, the former Cambrian network was upgraded to the point where heavier engines could safely run on it, and this left the 89s out of a job. They were all withdrawn from BR service by the end of 1954, but Heidi escaped the cutter’s torch by being transferred to the departmental stocklist. Thus she survived another five years or so, working as a shunter at Oswestry Works.

In 1959, following the whole Donald & Douglas debacle, Sir Topham Hatt was left with the dilemma of which twin to send back to Scotland, and it’s believed that he was fully prepared to have both twins sent away. However, this would leave him without an engine to handle the extra goods work, and so he started inquiring into the possibility of bringing in another engine to replace the twins. Exactly how he finally arrived at Heidi is unclear - especially since Heidi herself remains schtum about it to this day - but he did, and Oswestry Works kindly agreed to fix her up, before sending her up to Sodor under her own steam.

Heidi arrived on Sodor in early 1960, but by then, of course, Sir Topham Hatt had already managed to resolve the crisis with Donald & Douglas, and decided to keep them both. Heidi was thus somewhat redundant before she’d even started work, but luckily, Sir Topham Hatt decided to let her stay. Heidi soon carved out a nice little niche for herself, being powerful enough to haul substantial loads, while still being light enough to travel on those parts of the network where the heavier engines can’t go. She’s remained a vital background player ever since, simply getting on with her work in her own quiet, unassuming way.

Trivia

Heidi’s another one of those OCs where I’m not quite sure how she originated. I just remember I went through this phase of creating batches of OCs with the same wheel arrangement - in this case, the 0-6-0. This phase spawned Heather (#47, ex-LNER) and Grace (#40, ex-LMS). So naturally my next 0-6-0 had to be ex-GWR. Specifically from one of the Welsh constituent companies, as I’d liked how Rhonda turned out, and so wanted another Welsh character. As far as I can tell, the 89s were the only 0-6-0 tender engines operated by any of the Welsh companies - or at least the only ones I could find any decent information on.

I’m not sure why I went with Heidi as a name, considering it has no Welsh connection as far as I know. I guess I’d just gone through a list of Welsh girl’s names, not liked any of them, and settled on this one as being good enough. That happens a lot with me, I’ve found...

#thomas the tank engine #the railway series #sodor #island of sodor #north western railway #ttte headcanon #ttte analysis #ttte oc #original character #heidi the cambrian engine

[feigeroman]

Thomas OCs: Saffron

Number: 57 (ex-BR 69030/Departmental 60) Class: LNER J72 0-6-0T (with added cowcatchers and sideplates) Built: 1951 Arrived on Sodor: 1967 Service (Shed): Kirk Ronan Branch (Kirk Ronan) Livery: NWR Mixed-Traffic Red

For want of a better turn of phrase, Saffron is very much your typical hippie. Most of the time, she leaves the other engines utterly mystified by going on about free love, positive vibes and other such things. She believes that everyone has the power to make the world a better place, if only they could look within themselves for such power. Saffron even talks like a stereotypical surfer dude (surfer dudette?), which further confuses her colleagues.

However, her hippie mindset also makes her a very pleasant individual, knowing how to remain cool, calm and relaxed in a drastic situation. Despite her mystery, the other engines know they can rely on Saffron to keep the peace, and if anyone's in the area that has a problem, they know that Saffron's the guru, as she puts it, who can help them out.

Saffron is the main goods engine on the Kirk Ronan line, and also does a lot of work in Kirk Ronan itself - shunting trucks and coaches within both the station and the harbour. When she first arrived in 1967, the harbour line took the form of a roadside tramway running along the waterfront (not unlike the Weymouth tramway), so for safety reasons, she was fitted with a bell, cowcatchers and sideplates. Initially, Saffron was resistant to such modifications, but in time, she grew to embrace them as an integral part of her character - no doubt because miniskirts were in style around that same time!

The importance of this tramway declined just a few years later, when as part of upgrading work along the whole branch line, a new line was constructed which skirted around the town to reach the harbour - allowing heavier passenger trains to connect with the ships which called here. The tramway thus lost its passenger traffic, and was very nearly closed altogether. However, after an accident left the new line blocked, it was decided to keep the tramway open after all.

Saffron still works happily on the harbour tramway to this day - albeit now only handling freight traffic - and she’s become an integral part of the town's culture, with many visitors coming just to see her in action. So if you happen to be in the area, and you happen to see a red tram engine puffing slowly down the street, you can be sure that it's Saffron, doing her bit to help make the world a better place - or, failing that, simply making Kirk Ronan a better place!

Trivia

The name Saffron is a holdover from the character’s original basis, a SECR P class. Two preserved members of this class were once known as Bluebell and Primrose, and Saffron was meant to continue the floral theme set by those engines.

The name was also meant to tie into her hippie personality, and comes from the opening line of Donovan’s Mellow Yellow, a song with strong ties to the hippie culture.

The reason Saffron became a J72 was because these were built right up until 1951, and it just seemed more feasible to me that an engine built that late could conceivably take on a hippie personality.

By all accounts, Saffron doesn’t technically need all her safety equipment. Engines on the Weymouth system, which inspired the line through Kirk Ronan, made do with a bell and flagman. However, I feel like all the equipment gives Saffron a unique look. And I suspect Sir Topham Hatt would have erred on the side of caution anyway - not wanting a repeat of the events which led to Toby’s arrival.

#thomas the tank engine #the railway series #sodor #island of sodor #north western railway #ttte headcanon #ttte analysis #ttte oc #original character #saffron the hippie engine