#Sodor island 3d locos series#

The Tidmouth, Knapford & Elsbridge Railway (1883-1914) from Tidmouth to Elsbridge (the railway was known as the Knapford & Elsbridge Railway until 1908 when line extended to Tidmouth).The Sodor & Mainland Railway (1853-1901) which ran from Ballahoo to Kirk Ronan.W Awdry, a government-sponsored amalgamation of the standard gauge railways in the Island occurred in 1914 to build a strategic railway for coastal defence called the North Western Railway. Īccording to 'research' conducted by the Rev. Their abridged notes were published in 1987 in a book entitled The Island of Sodor: Its People, History and Railways.

#Sodor island 3d locos series#

Some place names were Sudric equivalents of those in the real world (for instance, Skarloey was the Sudric version of the Welsh Talyllyn.) By the time they had finished, they knew more about Sodor than would ever be used in the actual Railway Series stories. Elsbridge was named after Wilbert's parish of Elsworth. He and his brother George worked out the history, geography, industry and language of Sodor between them. A large island would meet the criteria he required, giving him the isolation from changes to the British railway system while giving him somewhere that people could believe in. Awdry noted that while there is an Isle of Man, there was no similar Island of Sodor. Inspiration came on a visit to the Diocese of Sodor and Man. Awdry required a setting for his books that would be within Great Britain, but would be sufficiently isolated from the rest of British Railways to allow him to do as he wished with the location.

The need for consistency in the locations for The Railway Series necessitated the creation of a suitable location. One of the more famous settlements on Sodor is Ffarquhar, the terminus of Thomas the Tank Engine's Branch Line.Īll of the other settlements on the island are described in Locations on the Island of Sodor, while the six railway lines from The Railway Series are described below. The ancient capital of Sodor is the 'city' of Suddery but Tidmouth has grown to be the largest town on the island. The summit is reached by the Culdee Fell Railway, which is based on the Snowdon Mountain Railway in Wales. Its highest mountain is Culdee Fell, which was modelled on Snowdon: the ridge of Devil's Back copies the Clogwyn ridge on Snowdon. It has various small industrial sites, including a prosperous stone quarry served by the island's railway. The island's language is Sudric, though like Manx, this is falling out of use. The place names on Sodor are mostly a mixture of Manx and Norse. Its northeast edge overrides and replaces the real Walney Island. Its northwest coast is separated from the Isle of Man by a sea strait called the Sudrian Sea, four miles wide. It is often shown as roughly diamond-shaped, 62 miles wide east to west and 51 miles long north to south. The “deplorable” Henry I was traded for a brand new 5MT in a somewhat murky deal.Ĭorbs adds his impressions of “Henry I” brought to you by the wonders of modern imaging software.Sodor is usually shown as much larger than Man. There were in fact two Henrys, Henry I and Henry II. Luckily some degree of stability was achieved after his “rebuild”. His colours also switched back and forth at the begnning as follows: green for “The Three Railway Engines”, blue for “Thomas the Tank Engine”, “James the Red Engine” and “Tank Engine Thomas Again”, and green again for “Troublesome Engines” (his own choice).

Also, he is a 4-6-0 in 1950's encounter with an elephant (“Troublesome Engines”), and a 4-6-2 when hauling the Flying Kipper in1951. Reginald Dalby also invented a unique retractable rear pony truck - now you see it, now you don’t! Henry is a 4-6-2 when he goes into the tunnel in “The Three Railway Engines”(1945) but a 4-6-0 when he comes out. He currently runs with a Fowler tender.Ĭ. Awdry suggests that Henry's rebuild into a 5MT was achieved through Hatt’s contacts from his locomotive engineering days (during which he was apprenticed under Stanier himself). The original Henry is described as “one of Sir Topham Hatt's rare bad bargains”, having been constructed from rejected Gresley blueprints stolen by a rival. Henry has always been based at Tidmouth for working mainline services. The main difference is that due to the shorter runs on Sodor, Henry has a low capacity Fowler tender. On return to Sodor Henry has proved to be a much more reliable machine. With thanks to Jim Grattonġ950 after an accident involving “The Flying Kipper” Henry was sent to Crewe for a major rebuild, into an engine which resembled the LMS Stanier Black Five 4-6-0. Sir Topham Hatt’s orders? The Rev Awdry’s original drawing of Henry from the 1940s.