okay! uh, was reading the most recent part of the Uman and Din Railway, and Cassandra stated she genuinelly has no idea what her basis is, or where she came from, and considering we can assume most engines awaken fully in workshops during tests, she'd have remembered that. so, if i remember correctly, during an earlier information providing post from you, she was just found at the head of a train at...well i cant remember- she also, if she was a normal class, would be recognized by *someone*, even if slightly, and no one claimed an engine of her design... what if she wasnt made in a workshop? what if she wasnt made in natural ways? *what if the Lady created her?* also yes i have not slept last night this is in fact what caused this sudden train of thought, no pun intended-
I've talked about this before, but it's been awhile, so the original: Why Thomas is called an E2 is slightly inaccurate, so lets talk about it:
Ok so she was the last member of her batch, finished after the rest, and was shipped out to a yard before she was even properly steamed. She woke up in a yard and was set to work for the next three weeks. She is a North Eastern Railway E1 (LNER J72), but during the wars engines often wandered further afield, so while she saw ner engines, she saw other railways' engines too.
The day the ROD crew arrived, she shunted their train together, then was left on the front of the train as the men operating her, having heard the engine to collect the train was running late, went in the yard master's office to share drinks. The ROD crew arrived, unaware their engine had been delayed. They found their train as described, with a small 0-6-0 side tank on the front asleep (she'd been ran off her wheels keeping up with war traffic.) They were to collect an E2 class 0-6-0 sidetank engine. Now they had never seen an lbscr E2. They woke her, believing her to be the engine. Cassandra, having heard the E1 designation maybe once, and well E2 sounded right.
Cassandra rolled off happily with her first ever train. About 30 minutes later LBSCR 105 arrived...just as a German Zepplin unleashed its payload upon the yard. The yard master and the yard crew emerged to find a damaged and shaken (but thankfully alive) 105 staring in shock at the devastation. All that was left of the yard was metal shards and rubble. NER No.2203 was written off as a victim of the bombing, the bomb having made a direct impact on the spot the engine had been left sitting by the yard crew. No parts were found, but that was hardly a shock considering what was thought to have happened. 105 was sent back to Brighton for repairs. A new Atlantic of Raven design was given the number in honor of the lost engine...and that was the end of it. The youngest E1 was listed as killed in the line of duty before having met any of her siblings. The rest of the class, already 40 strong, mourned their youngest sibling.
Meanwhile the ROD train, carrying vital components for the Vicarstown Bridge arrived safely in Barrow in Furness. An exhausted but triumphant tank engine at the head. Now no one on Sodor, or in Barrow for that matter, knew both that She was meant to be an LBSCR E2 and what said class looked like. There was quite simply no reason to question her arrival. A train was scheduled to arrive with a new 0-6-0 sidetank, and it had. What would soon become the NWR sent word to the ROD that the train and its engine had arrived safely, and that was that. The LBSCR was surprised to learn the NWR had received their engine, but assumed that another railway had stepped-in to provide said engine. Quite simply no one had all the facts, and in the middle of the war no one had the time or desire to investigate any oddities that weren't causing issues.
Cassandra/Thomas quickly settled into life on the NWR permanent way trains, running all across the island repairing, building, and upgrading lines (and saving engines from the admiralty.)
Years went by, and the war came to a close. All but abandoned by the admiralty, the NWR struggled to its feet. The issue of Cassandra/Thomas's ownership was quite honestly forgotten in the mess. No one was screaming for their engine, so no one thought to question exactly who actually owned the little blue engine with the railway's number one on their side.
Finally 1921 rolled around, and with it the reign of Sir Topham Derek Hatt as Fat Controller. One of his first goals was sorting out the railways fleet, so he started with No.1...and immediately hit a brick wall. When contacted, the LBSCR revealed 105 had never made it to Sodor. Cassandra/Thomas wasn't LBSCR, much less an E2. Asking the engine was no help, as they had believed the same as the rest of the NWR. Discreet inquiries revealed that no missing engine from the war matched her description. It was realized the ROD had simply marked the NWR having received an E2 and investigated no further. Eager to avoid the audit, the LBSCR offered to sell "their" engine to the NWR for a nominal sum. The NWR, already into their first locomotive crisis, had no hesitation in accepting. Now by this time Cassandra was nearing her first overhaul, and it was decided to take the chance to obscure her origins. That was so that if her original owners ever came looking, they would be none the wiser. A curved front running board, false splashers (toolboxes), a new cab, bunker, extended sidetanks, and other modifications all drastically changed the engine's appearance.
The No.1 that left the works in early 1923 looked very different to the engine that had arrived in 1915, even if they were largely mechanically identical.
She looked different enough, that later historians would fail to recognize the few pictures of the No 1 pre-rebuild for what they were until her true origins were found during the preservation era.