#sodor lightshow

[noble-atomics-railway]

"The shooting star is coming through!"

This neon inspiration was too easy.

[edwards-exploit]

SODOR LIGHTSHOW 2024

The winter holidays are coming, and what better way to celebrate it than by decorative lights? Many railways in the UK agree, with dressing up their rolling stock in LEDs and other festive decor! It’s a wondrous sight, where families, friends, and strangers gather around to watch the trains run along the lines in bedazzling lights.

And what other railway would fully throw themselves and their engines into the holiday spirit than Sodor? That’s right! @sodorgazette’s 2021 event is coming back, hosted by yours truly- with permission from the mods, of course! The events holds no obligations- you don’t have to sign up, just jump right in with the #sodor lightshow or #sodor lightshow 2024 tag with your art, fic, or even edits following the lightshow and other illumination themes during winter!

The event starts at 2nd of December, with the end date being 8th of January, so mark your calendars, and have a very happy holidays!

[hazel-of-sodor]

Sodor Light Show

Ffarquhar 

1989

Other Stories

Other Chapters

A blur of blue, tan, and green paint, steam, and shining lights raced by in the night, a whistle piercing the cold night air. In the distance Toby tilted his head listening.

“That’ll be them,” he said lazily, stretching.

Percy scowled, “they're not supposed to be here for another ten minutes.”

Linda snorted, “They were given a clear line and told to hurry. You should have known better than to bet against the old birdbox.”

Percy sighed as Toby chuckled.

The whistle sounded, closer this time, Daisy’s horn sounding with it. The distant end of the Hackenbeck tunnel shone with light as the train raced through. The engines at the station could just make out the sound of laughter from the tank engine at the head as he raced ahead. The reason for the laughter soon became apparent as a red shape crested the hill, too far away for the engines to hear, but clearly cursing. Daisy taunting the bus could be faintly heard from the end of the train.

“Didn't Bertie leave before them?” Mavis asked, amused. 

“He did.” Diesel chuckled, “and he knows Thomas won't ever let him live it down.”

Thomas finally slowed, panting happily as he pulled into the town and turned into a tramway as the rail line ran along the street. Even among the streetlights the train seemed to glow with the number of lights strung along it, a long line of flashing colours and light. The children on the platform began cheering as they heard the tank engines bell ring out as he ran through the town. 

Finally the train rounded the bend before the station, the children's cheering from the platform reaching a fever pitch as the tank engine came into view whistling cheerfully, only matched by the cheering coming from the children in the coaches. Thomas sailed gently into the station, snow being pushed to the side by his plow as he filled the only empty line.

The tank engine stopped smoothly with a triumphant whistle, a full seven minutes early, smirking from buffer to buffer.

“You couldn't let me win this could you?” Percy said, faking upset.

“Pardon?” Thomas asked, clearly confused.

“He didn't know!” Mavis cackled, Percy blushing furiously.

“In his infinite wisdom,” Diesel explained silkily, “our saddle tank bet against Toby saying that you would be more than five minutes early.”

Thomas’s smirk returned full force as Daisy’s laughter could be heard from the other engine of the train. 

Before either could respond, Bertie pulled in, panting tiredly. “I thought she was slower than you?!” He accused.

“But still faster than you Mon Cheri.” Daisy said, mock sweetly.

The bus muttered frustratedly under his breath about blue kettles.

Thomas chuckled smugly as Sir Charles Hatt walked past him to the end of the platform, where the tall Christmas tree stood. The former Fat Controller waited patiently for the passenger from both train and bus to disembark, then he finally spoke, his strong voice carrying over the crowd. .

“It is my honor this year to welcome everyone to the lighting of the Village tree. Every year on the first of December, one city on Sodor lights their tree first, before the light is run across the Island the following night. This tradition was old when I first saw it as a child in this very town. This city and the Island it calls home have grown since then, but our spirits, and that of Christmas remains the same!”

The crowd cheered loudly, and the former controller smiled broadly.

It is my great honor to light the tree this year. 3…2…1…Light!”

The tree’s lights blazed to life, bathing the street in colour and light, to the sound of cheers, whistles, and horns.”

[sketch-pencilpoint]

Made an entry for sodor lightshow with my monster engines of the railway trio. MERRY CHISTMANS 🎄!

[mean-scarlet-deceiver]

Lightshow snippet :)

I've been trying to write a "spiritual sequel" to Steam and Light for 3 years running. It was to feature BoCo (along with a foul-mouthed relief driver) running a couple of holiday specials in mid-December, appropriately decked out in lights... and trying all the while to feign seasonal cheer. Unfortunately the truth is that he regretted this job one second after he let his malewife talk him into it he agreed to it. The result was to be an offbeat little fic for those of us who have ever worked customer service during the holiday. <3

This is me throwing in the towel on this project - just can't quite get the plot to cook.

However, I hereby offer some snippets for anyone who wants one last scrap of under-the-wire Sodor Lightshow 2024 content.

I also wanted to debut my headcanon that Bill and Ben's drivers play Pokemon Go on the job

"Hold still, will ya? We only turned over your engine so we could see what they look like—it'll be a good half hour yet!"

"A half hour?" BoCo looked at the clock mounted at Wellsworth shed, as if somehow it could back him up. But the second hand just went round uselessly at its usual speed, and the workers kept on with their fussing.

"At least. Don't get your pistons in a twist, lad; there's plenty of time."

"And if you don't hold still," quipped another worker, "I'll break out your Santa hat, and you'll wear it till it's time for your train."

BoCo made a face. He thought it was very reasonable to be restless, seventy minutes into his fitting. As the minutes crept by, and the sting of being made sport of held over his headcode as a threat to ensure good behavior deepened, he began to feel slightly murderous.

He wondered if this was how it was for Gordon and James, every other day.

BoCo rolled towards the platform rather unwillingly. There was still plenty of time before they were due, and he always preferred to back onto his train at the last possible minute, when all was just about ready and the passengers were too preoccupied with boarding to bother much about him. But his driver only snorted that shed staff had not gone to all the trouble of decking him out only for them to hide away from the public, so straight to the platform BoCo went.

"Blimey," cried a half-grown boy's cracking voice, anonymous in the throng. "They sent us the diesel, this time!"

"Ooh, gilt and flaaash," said another, with exaggerated awe.

"Sparkly!"

"I think you're a little confused, Diesel," laughed another, "you got all dressed up, but the girls' school is down in Suddery, innit?"

That was about all the reaction he got. The general laughing and shouting afterwards really all had to do with the students' own affairs, but BoCo did not know this and he felt his face start to harden into a grimace—which wasn't very professional, on a passenger service. To soothe his feelings to something more neutral, he gave a brief growl of his engine. "Is anyone here a diesel," he muttered to his driver, all irony, "and hasn't said anything yet?"

"Take it easy, lad," warned his driver. "No need to get your pistons in a twist."

BoCo glared. The smoking boy was too bold to do anything but smile back, although most of his companions started to giggle and shuffle nervously under the weight of a rumbling diesel locomotive's frown.

But not all of them. "C'mon, don't tell tales."

"Yeah, Diesel. Be a mate."

"Relax... have a puff." The tallest boy, taking the funny little whatever from his friend, made a gesture of offer.

This set off a new round of sniggers, and the engine had had enough. Not breaking eye contact, he gave a honk on his horn. 

"PORTER!" he bellowed, making everyone on the platform jump. Save for the insouciant youthful delinquents before him, who only pulled lazy faces of disgust. "If you would help these boys find their way out of the rain, and into a carriage!"

There was a collective groan and "awwww" from the boys. They began to shuffle, as if heading down the platform of their own accord. But they were such lallygags about it that, for all their amorphous shuffling, they hadn't really made an inch of progress before a porter and a schoolmaster came into BoCo's view, chivvying the boys along.

"Rat-sneak," one of them muttered out the corner of his mouth, as they passed level with the engine's bufferbeam.

"Rustbucket," hissed another.

"About as fun as old Eddie, this one..."

BoCo revved his engine, and finally got a jump out of them.

Though even then they laughed as soon as they were out of sight, unrepentant.

BoCo pressed his eyes and lips tightly shut for a moment. He then largely ignored the scolding of his driver, who had run out in alarm at the racket, and who was now grumbling that a body was expected to man a diesel-electric all on her own these days, even though you couldn't trust any engine alone for a moment.

In turn, BoCo growled protest about the blamelessness of his conduct and, especially, the insults he'd been subjected to—as a rule he wasn't a fussy sort of engine, but no locomotive busts their axles day in and day out only to take being called a rustbucket without a murmur. His driver was not oversympathetic. "Abbey boys are snotrags?" She snorted. "I'll alert the press."

People milling about at the fence grumbled among themselves, and a few even called out angrily to the porter as he made his way back into the station house. “Come on, mate! We’re all freezing our—” The cross passenger looked over at BoCo, and reconsidered. For some reason Sudrians were rather particular about their language around locomotives. “—wheels off.” 

The porter ignored the yells. 

The coaches, playing telephone, relayed up to BoCo (and down to the other end of the train) that the child was “overstimulated,” and Stationmaster had given them permission to board early so that the mother might be able to calm the girl and perhaps get her to nap quietly before the rest of the throng boarded, in hopes of avoiding a screaming meltdown. 

BoCo thought this perfectly sensible, and not much cause for the drama of the other waiting passengers. He explained as much to his driver. 

“They all turn into hags, this time of year.” He could feel the driver giving them a dark sideways glare. “Reckon I ought to stay with you this time, and protect you?” 

“My knight in shining armor,” BoCo said drily, making her cackle with a trace of real appreciation.  More passengers trickled into the station, waiting impatiently for the porters to allow them to start boarding. BoCo eyed the clouds and the clock. The former loomed but continued their progress south-east. He reckoned if they started on time they were likely to miss the rain. He’d be just as glad, to catch one break today.

“Was the day so bad as that?” [Edward] asked at last. 

BoCo’s mouth quirked briefly, albeit he’d expected this. “I’ve had worse. But I don’t know how you stand these things. The Middle Station was awful!” 

“Ah, well. Public school boys can be a little obstreperous, I suppose.” 

“Ob,” said BoCo, stunned. “Obstreperous?” 

“Some of them. Some of them are nice lads, though! Did you talk with Robert and Declan?” 

Aha. “You put them up to that?” BoCo asked slowly. 

“Well! I told them, when I dropped them off beginning of term, to expect you might come to take them away. They promised to say hullo. They did, did they?” 

BoCo smiled weariness. He wasn’t surprised, really. “They’re nice kids,” he allowed. “But I’ve no platform manner, Edward. We all know this.”

“It takes practice.” 

“This is my sixty-fourth year of service!” 

Edward winced. “That can’t possibly be true,” he said, somewhere between wistful and dazed. BoCo raised his eyebrows. “But yes, I suppose I deserved that. Still, it’s not about you succeeding or failing. I knew the passengers were safe with you, and that’s all that matters.” 

“I think Bobby and Declan, or whoever, might disagree.” 

“Robert. He hates being called Bobby.” 

“We... didn’t get that far.”

"Ooh! Ooh! It's true!"

"Give us a blink then, BoBoBoCo!"

BoCo smiled. Zippy and troublesome though they might be, the twins were also inextricably tied up for him in the ideas of home and family and he couldn't be cross to see them…

... saving, of course, occasions where they came into view recklessly pushing around trucks with explosives. 

Or messing with his brake tender.

Or covered in petrol because they had "wanted a taste." (He never had pinned down exactly the sequence of events, there…) 

Right, so maybe there were plenty of times he might be cross to see them. 

A little cheeking off, however, never hurt. Not from these two.

And so, he obligingly flicked the lights off and on again.

"Oooooh," the twins chorused, very still and wide-eyed... for at least a whole two seconds.

Ben whistled.

"You can't operate your own lights," Bill teased Edward.

"No," Edward agreed. "I have to rely on the coaches for that!"

"Do it again, BoBoBoCo!" urged Bill.

"I will not," BoCo smiled. "I mustn't risk damaging them. And what's with the new name? It won't do, you know—I don't have that many wheels!"

"Oh, still the same number of bogies?" asked Bill idly.

"We thought you might have evolved by now," giggled Ben.

BoCo glanced at Edward, who mouthed Don't ask.

The pain appeared to have knocked out [the auto-ballaster] during the wait, which was all the better for her. BoCo felt an orderly's regret when he had finished clearing away the other containers. When it was time to approach the derailed ballaster, the loud grinding of the P-Way crane vibrated the rails - and at least two of her wheels were still touching the track.

She came to with a moan, cross-eyed at first, from her awkward angle. It took her several long moments to blink herself awake and as she was doing so all she could see, amid the darkness, was a looming, growling figure, some shape she had never seen the like of, made up of nothing but blinking flashes of red.

"Uhhnnnnmm," she groaned, in hazy, blinded wonderment. "I'm in hell..."

"No. Barrow."

This time she groaned twice as loudly. "Worse and worse! I don't deserve this, I don't... I wasn't that bad..."

[theflyingkipper]

merry sodor lightshow

[shinygoku]

Thomas’ Christmas Train, featuring his two faithful coaches and.... Daisy?! 💙🧡💛💚

For context, I suggest giving Jobey’s written entry a read! ;3

Collaborating again has been tons of fun, plus I’m really chuffed with how this came out~ This event has been a good way to try something experimental, but still Very Railway 😊💖

[sodorgazette]

Fan Event: Sodor Lightshow

As the nights get longer and the temperature plummets, what better way to shed more light and warmth into the depths of Winter, but to hop aboard a beautifully lit Steam Engine?!

An event held by several Heritage Railways in England is to dress the Engines and Coaches in multicoloured LEDs, play music, and chuff along the line with the steam catching the lights. The dazzling sight is truly something to behold and tickets sell out quickly!

So it only seems natural to presume that Sodor would run some special Trains with this themeing, doesn’t it?

This event is a no-obligation, generously timelined little tribute, where we celebrate the winter season with art or fic following the Illumination theme with our lads from Sodor.

Start Date: Saturday the 4th of December

End Date: Sunday the 9th of January

Please Tag entries with #Sodor Lightshow

For lovely reference and inspo pics, take a look at the Watercress Line Steam Illuminations and the Bluebell Railway Steamlights, with more information and pictures on their respective websites: