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Diesel Classes on the Island of Sodor.

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341o2

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There's also Rusty. Sticks out like a sore thumb amongst the steam engines of the Skarloey Railway (given the rest of the fleet are red though, you'd think he'd fit in quite well with that simile) and seems to spend his whole time on engineers' workings (why does the Skarloey Railway need maintaining so much? Sounds to me like it needs some proper renovation work).

-Peter
the Skarloey railway closely follows the story of the Talyllyn. The railway is worn out, as was Skarloey himself, unable to pull trains. Rusty was brought in to repair the track by the new management
 
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Merthyr Imp

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Henry the Big Engine might have been a rich tory who retreated into a tunnel (Estate).

To be pedantically accurate, it's Henry the Green Engine and Gordon the Big Engine.

As everyone knows, Henry stayed in the tunnel because he didn't want the rain to spoil his nice new paint.
 

Calthrop

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Daisy is notoriously unreliable.
Thomas the tank engine has been called sexist as all the locomotives are male and the carriages female
In that case presumably Daisy counts as a carriage. IIRC, the TV series tried to redress the balance with the blue female fire-fighting 2-6-4 tank engine, whose name I can't remember. Also there's Mavis, the tramway-fitted class 04 who works in the quarry and Emily, the GNR Stirling single.

I seem to recall Daisy being portrayed in the books as an annoying character: prone to hypochondria, forever complaining that she is "highly sprung", and that this, that and the other are "bad for her swerves". Hard to avoid the impression that the reverend gentleman's attitude to the female half of humankind, was not very forward-looking -- feelings which he tended to transfer to on-rails characters.
 

341o2

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I grew out of Thomas the Tank Engine in the mid 60's, so my memories only go as far as this, certainly before Daisy came on the scene.
But from a previous generation, I expect the Reverand would have followed the teachings of St Paul where wives should obey their husbands
 

181

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I've seen it commented on before that Thomas et al. are an exception in that steam locomotives elsewhere are often regarded as female, like boats; the most obvious explanation for the difference would seem to be that the original stories were written to entertain the author's son, not his daughters.
 

Merthyr Imp

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Was there not a very Deltic-like diesel in one of the earlier books....or is my memory playing tricks on me?

Certainly not up to 1987 or it would have been mentioned in the book I quoted from above - unless you're thinking of the Peak?

Nor in the first 16 books - Branch Line Engines published in 1961 was the 16th and was the last one I bought and read, having started to grow out of them by then.
 

tbtc

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Great idea for a thread - some lovely bits of knowledge displayed too - I preferred the stories involving diesels to the exclusively steam ones

Then there's the case of the imaginatively-named "Diesel"...
Seems to think quite highly of himself, and thinks he's the bee's knees (despite not having wasp stripes)

Nicely done!

Bear - an ex-BR Western Region Hymek formerly 7101. It was sent on approval in 1967 together with Peak no. 199. The Hymek was found satisfactory and retained; but the Peak was returned with unfavourable comments

Ah! I came on here to mention Bear - I enjoyed that story as a lad
 

Cowley

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Ah! I came on here to mention Bear - I enjoyed that story as a lad

Bear was a bit of an anomaly when you think about it. When he first came to the island he was painted in BR blue but then at the end of the book (Enterprising Engines) he’s pictured in two tone green with a yellow warning, erm. Face..?

This leads me to the conclusion that he carried BR blue for one of the shortest periods of any mainline diesel loco, and he was the first BR diesel class to receive a retro paint job (I mean we’re talking much earlier than when 40106 received its green repaint in the late 1970s).

I must say that Enterprising Engines is right up there as one of my favourite Awdry books. The stories are great, it’s got some interesting new characters and the artwork is lovely with a hint of the dramatic too.
 
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Daisy the Metro-Cammell diesel single-car unit which is a recurring character.

A Class 40 diesel appeared in Sodor once in ‘Bowed Out’ in both The Railway Series book (as D4711) and Thomas & Friends TV series (as D261). Another Class 40, 40125, also appeared in Sodor in BR Blue when it crashed through the shed. However D261 is the only Class 40 to appear in the T&F TV series to date.
 
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Sprinter107

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I think Daisy mended her ways in the end, and became a nicer dmu. I always thought she was strange, as there were never any Metro Cammel single cars. I think she should have been a 122.
 

D6130

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I think Daisy mended her ways in the end, and became a nicer dmu. I always thought she was strange, as there were never any Metro Cammel single cars. I think she should have been a 122.
Even stranger than that....she only had a face at one end, so she had to be turned at the end of each journey. Come to think of it, the same applied to the diesel locos as well.
 

Sprinter107

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Yes, she does only seem to have a face at one end. She was spoilt by her fitter, who came to attend to her every week, and who told her she must NEVER NEVER pull because she was highly sprung and pulling was bad for her swerves.
She seems to behave like a spoilt brat, but she gets better eventually, and works hard.
 

Calthrop

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Even stranger than that....she only had a face at one end, so she had to be turned at the end of each journey. Come to think of it, the same applied to the diesel locos as well.

Admittedly not about diesels: but I recall an (illustrated) comic-relief article in the Ffestiniog Railway Magazine some time in the 1960s, giving to the FR and its machines, the Awdry / Thomas treatment "with a difference" -- various mildly ribald fun on themes which the highly-moral-and-decorous clerical gentleman, writing for children, of course never touched. The books' motive-power-with-faces motif was taken to its logical conclusions -- if I recall rightly, the FR locos in the tale concerned, didn't have faces: because of the ramifications of same, for double Fairlies -- at one point, the author had Merddin Emrys, I think, saying something to the effect of, "and if I had a face at one end of me, what do you think there'd have to be at the other end?".
 

Cowley

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the author had Merddin Emrys, I think, saying something to the effect of, "and if I had a face at one end of me, what do you think there'd have to be at the other end?".

That’s a very good point actually. :lol:
 

341o2

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Like the TPPS sent up the original Sir Haydn/Sir Handel, when coming round a bend and colliding with a fallen tree was later observed with an eyepatch
"Hey don't mess with me, I came round a bend, there was this fallen tree so I nutted it"
 

Cowley

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Like the TPPS sent up the original Sir Haydn/Sir Handel, when coming round a bend and colliding with a fallen tree was later observed with an eyepatch
"Hey don't mess with me, I came round a bend, there was this fallen tree so I nutted it"

Shades of Bluebottle..?
 

neilmc

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I've always seen the Sodor series as sexist - all the steam locos are male because they do the pushing and pulling and the hard work, the coaches are females because they just get pulled around and meekly go where they're told, having no engines. Daisy the railcar is of course a female with her own engine and thus rather individual and independent but puts on feminine wiles when she chooses. Then of course you've got the trucks which are lower in the pecking order than coaches, and always misbehave rather like naughty children. Unfortunately some of them get wrecked completely in accidents they cause, and that would take the analogies into rather disturbing areas.
 

30907

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I seem to recall Daisy being portrayed in the books as an annoying character: prone to hypochondria, forever complaining that she is "highly sprung", and that this, that and the other are "bad for her swerves"
Hard to avoid the impression that the reverend gentleman's attitude to the female half of humankind, was not very forward-looking -- feelings which he tended to transfer to on-rails characters.
Certainly that his attitude to DMUs was typical of a steam-age enthusiast - unreliable, can't manage tail loads....
I've seen it commented on before that Thomas et al. are an exception in that steam locomotives elsewhere are often regarded as female, like boats; the most obvious explanation for the difference would seem to be that the original stories were written to entertain the author's son, not his daughters.
While, of course, coaches - if they carried names, which was only Pullmans - always had female names (ok bar a couple of Bars).
I think Daisy mended her ways in the end, and became a nicer dmu. I always thought she was strange, as there were never any Metro Cammel single cars. I think she should have been a 122.
Would anyone have recognised a 122 in 1960 except in parts of the WR? M/C cars were far more widespread, had been around for several years, and appeared on publicity posters...years not to mention in model form.
 

341o2

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I've always seen the Sodor series as sexist - all the steam locos are male because they do the pushing and pulling and the hard work, the coaches are females because they just get pulled around and meekly go where they're told, having no engines. Daisy the railcar is of course a female with her own engine and thus rather individual and independent but puts on feminine wiles when she chooses. Then of course you've got the trucks which are lower in the pecking order than coaches, and always misbehave rather like naughty children. Unfortunately some of them get wrecked completely in accidents they cause, and that would take the analogies into rather disturbing areas.
The incident I remember was that Sir Handel bumped some trucks and annoyed them so that they sought revenge.
However, Peter Sam was the engine they picked on, despite warnings from other trucks that it was not Sir Handel but Peter Sam, Peter Sam was bombarded by flying slate and was glad to hear the toot of Rusty's horn as Rusty came to the rescue.

The principle difference between the Talyllyn and Skarloey railways was a direct interchange between the Skarloey and the standard gauge, when Peter Sam was newly arrived, James advised him not to be late or his passengers would be left behind. Peter Sam got into a right tizzy over this, and when his passengers had boarded James' train, he was asked to explain and was told that James would not leave before he arrived because it was a guaranteed connection. By the time Peter Sam realised this, James had departed

It must be over 50 years, more like 55 since I read these books
 

eldomtom2

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The principle difference between the Talyllyn and Skarloey railways was a direct interchange between the Skarloey and the standard gauge, when Peter Sam was newly arrived, James advised him not to be late or his passengers would be left behind. Peter Sam got into a right tizzy over this, and when his passengers had boarded James' train, he was asked to explain and was told that James would not leave before he arrived because it was a guaranteed connection. By the time Peter Sam realised this, James had departed
This is presumably a bit of satire on Awdry's part - as related in Railway Adventure (which Awdry read, and copied the plots of several Skarloey stories from), the Talyllyn did indeed wait for the BR train to arrive at Towyn. BR, of course, did not reciprocate, and so in Awdry's idealised world of Sodor the relationship is restored to one of proper equality.
 

341o2

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i've remembered another story regarding Diesel, the trucks got the better of him when he shunted the wrong ones and all the trucks in the yard chorused
"Show the world what I can do
Gaily boasts the Diesel
In and out he creeps about
Just like a big black weasel
When he pulls the wrong trucks out
Pop goes the Diesel"
 

Pigeon

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Yes indeed. I'm just looking at the paperwork now and Stepney is pictured at a large station adjacent to a green disc fitted class 31, an all over maroon liveried Western and a green class 40 without yellow ends.
The 31 and the 40 look angry whilst the Western looks slightly sad.
Not sure what to make of that? Perhaps the Western finds anger quite uncomfortable to be around?

By the time the Bluebell got going the Westerns already knew they were on borrowed time?

I'm pretty sure there's a North British Warship with full yellow ends in one of those bit part appearances, too.
 

341o2

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The order for the Westerns was in 1961, and the first of the class was completed December 1961
 
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