#mountain engines

[pepperher]

(Checks notes) Ah yes, 6/6… PATRICK DAY!!!

Love you Patrick. Shoutout to fighting through a storm and ascending a mountain that translates to ‘companion of god’ in order to redeem yourself.

[ballercoles]

Mountain engines is so good yall

[duskstargazer]

[1963]

“It was that coach, sir,” blustered Lord Harry. “She never-”

“No tales.” Mr. Richards interrupted, his graying brow locked in a stern glare. “The derailment today was your fault, and you know it. You upset our passengers, compromised the trackwork, and damaged yourself by being a swanky little twerp and taking risks. I will not have such carelessness on my railway.”

“But sir-”

“One more word of excuses from you, Number 6, and I’ll have whatever’s left of your wheels and running motion stripped off and given to Dooiney!”

A long silence hung in the yard.

“N-number 6?” The red engine finally asked.

“Yes. Number 6. The workers are going to take off your nameplates first thing in the morning - after they’ve finished cleaning up the mess you made.”

“You- you can’t!”

“You forget. You are an engine on my railway.” Mr. Richards aggressively pointed his cane between the engine’s eyes. “I gave you that name, I can sure as hell take it away. Maybe it’ll take this foolish attitude with it.” He sighed, and strode away, producing a lighter and a cigarette from his waistcoat as he went.

Silence once again reclaimed the mountain railway.

“Perhaps,” Ernest said, at last, “it’s time we told you why our railway lacks a number 1.”

[pepperher]

Culdee and Godred

Culdee still misses his big brother, but he’ll always be there with him

And just a closeup of Culdee because he took WAY too long to draw

[pepperher]

Traintober Day 15: Reminiscing

Even if their time together was short, Culdee really did love his big brother. Their arguments always came from a place of genuine concern. It’s just a shame that Godred proved Culdee right…

I’ve made the executive decision that Culdee (left) gets freckles.

[pepperher]

All of my random Culdee Fell headcanons (plus a bonus pic of my ERTL Godred)

Due to their isolated nature, the Culdee Fell engines are perhaps the most social out of any of the Sodor engines. They always face their coaches and are usually interacting with many returning visitors. This all leads to good chats, and the engines are well known to know just about everyone who has ever visited their line.

Ernest and Wilfred are the eldest engines, and form their own little big brother duo for looking after their younger siblings (even if they’re all practically the same age).

The pair share a love of terrible puns and dad jokes. They are also huge gossip hounds!

(Average conversation at the Culdee Fell summit)

Ernest: Wow, we really peaked today!

Shane Dooiney: Okay that was a new level of bad.

Ernest: Don’t talk out of your ass Shane ;)

Shane Dooiney: Please stop…

Ernest: I can’t! Then I’ll lose my train of thought!

Shane Dooiney: STOP!!!

Ernest: Why, I’m only being earnest?

Shane Dooiney: AGHHHHHHHHH-

Ernest is the true oldest and acts as the leader, especially when addressing management he's basically the engine representative.

Wilfred enjoys music. He loves to whistle a tune as he ascends the mountain and is well known among locals for his cheery demeanor.

Culdee is a social butterfly and gets along great with anyone, machine or human. He is very charismatic and tells great stories to anyone who will listen. Many do! He’s easy to befriend and many returning passengers enjoy him as their engine. Culdee also holds the most guilt over the death of his big brother Godred. While all of the original siblings do, Culdee took it especially hard as he not only witnessed it in person, but has also convinced himself that if he had only tried a little harder he could have gotten through to Godred before it was too late.

(Unbeknownst to him, in spirit all Godred wishes for is his little brother to forgive himself.)

Some days are harder than others when it comes to this guilt, but Ernest and Wilfred always look out for their little brother.

Shane Dooiney is the youngest of the original siblings and was often lightheartedly teased about this. It was a bit strange to find himself so old compared to their newer shedmates after thinking of himself as the youngest for 60 years. He enjoys the quieter side of life, and the local wildlife. He doesn’t have much of an emotional filter, and will always plainly show just how happy or upset with something he is.

Patrick has mellowed out significantly since his youth, but still has a bit of a temper at heart. He uses this more for good, such as keeping his siblings in check, defending them, or when someone acts in an unsafe manner. He is the oldest of the younger engines and very much a big brother to Alaric and Eric. He is also rather pleased that his new name matches theirs. Patrick secretly idolizes Culdee and wants to be more like him (though it isn’t a very well kept secret…)

Alaric is a bit of a chatterbox. He loves to socialize with his passengers and enjoys hearing their stories. He wishes he was as great of a story teller as Culdee is, but he’s learning! Ernest and Wilfred have been a terrible influence on him when it comes to gossip, and Alaric can’t get enough of it. At the end of the day the trio love to chat together and trade tea.

Eric is the true youngest engine of the group, but he’s never thought of himself as such. He and Alaric see each other as twins. Eric is more easy going and shares a kinship with Shane Dooiney. Both of them have a soft spot for animals. Eric in particular ADORES cats, and is given the honor of naming their fluffy shedmates.

The older Culdee Fell engines all think of the newer engines as their little siblings. 

All of the mountain engines are hard, cautious, workers and take their work extremely seriously. They know how dangerous it is and how quickly things can go wrong. The winter months are a good time to let loose a little as the railway is closed to the public and they spend a lot of time in their shared shed. It’s like a little vacation for them! Engines normally don’t like to remain idle, but it’s more bearable when it’s the 7 of them chatting away together.

Godred’s story is real, the only thing Culdee made up in his retelling was that he was still alive as his parts were cannibalized. In reality Godred died during his tumble down the mountain. However his corpse was still kept in the shed as he was slowly stripped of parts. This still seriously traumatized his siblings even if his remains were kept under a sheet.

His siblings miss him dearly, and he will always be their true big brother. Even if he was foolish and arrogant, he was still practically a kid, they all were. They had only just been built.

Similar to most of northern Sodor, Culdee Fell is a divine and rather sacred place. Godred’s spirit still lives on, some claiming to feel it in the wind or earth around them. He is a benevolent spirit, and legend has it that protects the inhabitants of his mountain and guides them away from the wrong path.

Some engines like BoCo and the Culdee Fell gang have multiple faces, but only one exists at a time. They can swap between them depending on what direction they’re moving, kind of like turning your head.

[ballercoles]

Finding Godred.

[ballercoles]

I NEED LOREEEE ABOUT THIS

cracks knuckles

This takes place roughly in the 1990s, after the Rats [Kevin; long black hair, Toby; short light hair with black roots and Dacy; not pictured] got to Sodor and the Flying Scotsman was officially owned by the NWR.

Toby had decided to go to the scrapyard to fetch some scrap for a project he and his siblings were working on. While there, he not only found the scrap he was looking for, but also a very odd, very bare bones engine.

It had its smokebox door open and facing the ground, so Toby thought of it as just another scrapped engine he couldnt do anything about. However, when he lifted the smokebox door up, he realized that the engine still had a face.

It was still alive.

What Toby found was Godred, or what remained of Godred after years of being in the shed at CFR, giving away his parts for the bigger cause -- keeping other engines running when the railway was low on money and couldnt afford sending engines back to Switzerland for repair or having another defunct engine.

Godred was to be scrapped because mending him again would cost much more than getting a brand new engine. However, once he was at the scrapyard, it kept getting delayed again and again, until he was eventually forgotten about and became just another pile of rusted parts in the yard.

The entire situation was a shock to both Toby and his 2 other siblings, who were in the belief that Sir Topham Hatt would NEVER scrap a living engine if he could help it. [They of course didnt know that Godred wasnt Sir Hatt's engine.]

This made them feel very wary and, keeping hush-hush about it, gathered Godred quietly to the workshop and began repairing him, other projects be damned.

They did not know how much this decision would complicate things.