#trainspam

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That front looks absurd.

I know they were desperate to get the Amtrak logo on there somewhere, but this is NOT the way.

Anyway, I love it.

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Fruness Railway - E1 / Furness Railway J1

I like how tender locomotives magically look itty bitty when rebuilt into tank engines... yet bulkier.

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2/21/1995 - 2/21/2025

The Thomas VHS, “Rusty to the Rescue & Other Stories” turns 30!

The release of this Thomas tape was one of the biggest entertainment events of my childhood, it was even bigger than playing Mario 64 for the first time.

I was a kid in the US who loved Thomas and had no knowledge of the Railway Series aside from the fact that there were mysterious “old Thomas books” that I could never find anywhere. Somehow I got in my head that these books depicted the history of Sodor prior to what had been seen in the TV show up to that point, somehow I got that idea in my head in an era without internet or ANY means of learning about these books.

From the US perspective, Thomas was released sort of “by tape” rather than “by season”, so whenever a tape appeared that showed off a new character, it was a big deal.

Prior to this, Daisy and Other Stories was for example a big deal to me when I first saw it in a toy catalog, and that only had ONE new character.

So seeing the flyer for Rusty to the Rescue pictured above and being excited waiting for just one new engine character and instead getting SEVEN new characters, with the first two stories actually taking place in the past on an older railway, and learning that there were MULTIPLE railways on the Island of Sodor was a all huge mind blowing revelation to me, plus I never even knew that narrow gauge railways existed, so that was amazing to see as well, and basically sort of bridged the gap between me liking Thomas to learning as much about real life narrow-gauge railways as that books I had access to at the time allowed me to.

I think Britt Alcroft was very aware this tape was going to be a big deal, I never remember there being so many pre-release promotional materials for a Thomas tape during the VHS era.

The narrow gauge model work which was to scale with the larger standard gauge models was incredible, it was a great selection of stories, introduced me to the idea of the Bluebell Railway that I ended up getting the chance to travel to England to visit 20 years later (7395 days after the release of this tape to be exact), and it made it seem like basically anything could happen in future Thomas stories going forward.

Oh, and I was in fact totally aware even as a small child that Rusty was referred to only using gender neutral pronouns, which got my attention even without my awareness that it was a deliberate choice. 

But yeah, tons of new characters, amazing model work, a great mix of stories, yeah this tape was DA BOMB.

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Uphill by Matt Csenge Via Flickr: A Coney Island-bound (Q) train climbs the grade north of W8th St, where the Brighton Line used to split onto two levels. The lower level trackways are abandoned here, with the Culver Line tracks having taken their place at W8th St. R46 (Q) (Pullman-Standard, 1975-1978) W8th St - New York Aquarium Station Brighton Line - BMT

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Railway museum Mulhouse 1/06/2009 by peterspoor

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You know.... not until it was brought to my attention externally did I realize that coach to the right of Daisy was Annie or Claribel.

It makes all the sense in the world since Daisy is KNOWN to stay in the carriage shed with Annie Claribel and Henrietta.

But I always interpreted that as being some random other coach that was being stored there at the time.

Why?

Because this is the ONLY time Peter and/or Gunvor Edwards drew Annie or Claribel such as that their face was visible, and they were drawn with a face only on the lower front of their body.

I always think of THIS when I think of Annie and Claribel's faces.

But then I realized... that was basically one of the very very few times Annie and Claribel were depicted in such a way that their faces were visible, and by the time Tramway Engines was written it has been DECADES later.

In fact Peter and Gunvor Edwards took a LOT of liberty with faces, doing things like drawing a face on the REAR of a Class 08, and most infamously drawing faces on the rear of all the Culdee Fell engines since they ALWAYS push their trains and so often had their smokebox door obscured where the traditional face would often be drawn.

Anyway, this was my "today I learned" moment for Thomas stuff.

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The daydream of a former New York City kid who learned about Stepney via the Thomas & Friends TV show and the original Railway Series.

[🅗Twitch] [🅗Carrd] [🅗VOD Channel] [🅗 FA] [🅗Ko-fi]

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80098 At Cockwood Harbour. 01/05/2000. by Brian Dean Via Flickr: BR Standard Tank 80098 steams down the River Exe and across Cockwood Harbour hauling the afternoon 'Dawlish Donkey' on May 1st 2000.

Reminds me of the line across Jamaica Bay in New York.