#double fairlie

[the-time-lord-oracle]

A quartet of Double Fairlies; James Spooner, David Lloyd George, Earl of Merioneth and Merddin Emrys. It's a pity Livingston Thompson wasn't present to make it a bunch of fives.

[whirligig-girl]

People were asking me about Fairlie nomenclature on the Train Misconductor Discord so...

The first builder of a Double Fairlie locomotive was a wealthy astronomer and optician making and selling telescopes and binoculars--locomotive design started off as a sidegig. The first single Fairlies were called Telescope types having "Shaflaauh Telescope & Optics Company" on the builder's plate; therefore the Double Fairlies became known as Binoculars. Since the Doubles were a lot more popular than the Singles, the Singles eventually became known as Monoculars instead when built by other builders.

The planet Flibul was actually discovered using a Shaflaauian telescope, which is a particular kind of corrected doublet telescope intended for focal viewing (as opposed to afocal viewing with an eyepiece)

In a normal visual telescope the entire system doesn't actually have a focal length, only a magnification factor. The telescope itself has a focal length, and the eyepiece has a focal length, and if you divide one into the other you get the magnification. So my 6" f/8 Dobsonian reflector with a 1200mm focal length using a 25mm eyepiece has a 48x magnification. This afocal imaging requires that the imaging device have its own lens for focusing light. This could be the lens of a smartphone camera or the lens in your eyeball.

But when doing serious astrophotography, the telescope is used without an eyepiece with a camera that is used without a lens. As a result you have the telescope essentially acting as a powerful photographic telephoto lens. This is a focal imaging setup. The light comes to focus on the imaging sensor.

On Gymnome, though, the astronomers can do occular shapeshifting. While traditionally this practice has been to shapeshift one's eye lens to form bigger and bigger telescopes, this tops out at only about an inch or two of aperture, beyond which abberations due to the sloppy gooey structure of the eye lens make it impossible to see more detail. When glass and metal telescopes were invented, they were used to replace the eye lens, so the occular shapeshifter would shapeshift their eye lens flat, blinding themselves without the help of an artificial lens or mirror to focus light--the telescope's objective.

Eventually occular shapeshifters started going permanently blind in one eye and needing contact lenses at all times to see, leading to the development of the telescope eyepiece lens. But some visual astronomers still swear by focal viewing.

Sketch of Eaurp Guz, a Gymnomi Slime, on Earth, using an ancient 21st century telescope set up for afocal viewing, as all visual work telescopes on Earth do.

The distant ice giant planet Flibul, as if seen using afocal viewing in a powerful telescope.

[hazel-of-sodor]

The FR Double Fairlie? I have two OCs of this class (This is specifically Livingston Thompson, which I think is the best-looking IRL :))

So these are neat engines. I don't agree with each one being two locomotives in one. It's a single engine in terms of personality.

I personally love The Square and hope she returns.

[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.

[the-time-lord-oracle]

Merddin Emrys sporting a new look for 2025; the green livery used in the early years of preservation. As 2025 marks 70 years since the Ffestiniog Railway reopened as a preserved line, they did this repaint to mark the occasion. Prince is also to receive a green coat for this year too.

[supertrainstationh]

Mexico Railways - Ferrocarril Mexicano Class R-1 0-6-0+0-6-0 Fairlie type steam locomotive Nr. 45 (Neilson Locomotive Works, Glasgow 2875 / 1883) - front side by Historical Railway Images Via Flickr:

In Mexico the Ferrocarril Mexicano (FCM) used Fairlies on a mountainous stretch of line between Mexico City and Veracruz, where 49 enormous 0-6-6-0 Fairlies weighing about 125 short tons (112 long tons; 113 t) apiece were imported from England. The largest and most powerful locomotives built there up to then, they were used until the line was electrified in the 1920s.

Nr. 45 was one of twelve Neilson Class R-1 locomotives built for service in Mexico in 1889. Additional locomotives were supplied by the North British Locomotive Works in 1902 and 1907, and Vulcan Foundry in 1911.

From "The Engineer" dated December 01, 1922, page 572:

"The Fairlie engine was built for the Mexican Railway merit special mention, as they have to negotiate gradients of 1 in 25 with numerous reverse curves of 350ft. to 400ft. radius. The wheels have a diameter of 3ft. 6in., the four cylinders are 16in. by 22in., the wheelbase of each bogie is 8 ft. 3 in., and the total wheelbase is 32ft. 5in. The distance between the bogie pivots is 22ft. in. The tube heating surface is 1532 square feet, and that of the firebox is 10 square feet.

With a boiler pressure of 165 lb. per square inch they can exert a drawbar pull of 17 tons. Owing to a brake mishap, one of the engines once broke loose from its train and ran away for a distance of nearly 7 miles over the worst portion of the road. Although the speed rose to more than 60 miles per hour, and the engine fled to traverse the reverse curves of 350ft. to 400ft. radius, one of which describes more than a complete semicircle, it reached the bottom in safety, and was then stopped without any damage to any part of the motion or framing. The materials and workman which stood a test like that can only be described as excellent."

If Reverend Awdry had incorporated double Fairlie locomotives into the RWS, he would have done painstaking pre-internet research to find a story like this, or of equivalent caliber, to adapt into the story.

The writers of Season 9 of the Thomas & Friends TV show did exactly what was asked of them, and did a fine job of it, but, from my perspective, “lol lets have the two halves of the locomotive argue with each other on the basis that they somehow never worked together before in spite of having been described to have worked in shunting yards before this episode” is pretty weak in comparison.

Never mind the fact that they had one of the most powerful 2 foot narrow gauge locomotives to have been built within the UK be charged with pulling a single non-bogie passenger car...

[supertrainstationh]

Trains by Rebecca Rice-Roberts Via Flickr: Ffestiniog Railway’s Dafydd Lloyd George at Coed y Bleiddiau