henry: gordon it's just the flying kipper. it's not like the world will end if you pull it
gordon: (still sulking)
henry:
henry: oh well. I understand. pulling the flying kipper isn't an easy job and most engines aren't up for it. you probably wouldn’t manage! once again, I understand-
My dear deceiver, this is correct ttte. Henry in fact does directly manipulate Gordon into taking the Flying Kipper this way in the CGI series. And it is just as glorious there.
I swear I can only barely find any actually GOOD RWS/TTTE fics anywhere. It’s all bizarro dreck except for the few good ones I’ve seen out there. Like, FutureRust on FF.net is cool. @mean-scarlet-deceiver and @joezworld I also rate pretty highly. But aside from them, it’s hard to find good fics out there.
I find it odd they just dubbed out "Fat Controller" and nearly any other instances of "fat" uttered in the US airing but for some inexplicable reason, the US dub of Tenders and Turntables keeps the line of James going "No fear! I'm not so fat as you!" at Gordon intact.
bwadsfk;lasdfffff
For all the American attitude is supposed to be all anti-authoritarian, boy were we chickens about having a tongue-in-cheek name for some Monopoly-Man-looking-guy in a kids' train show.
the Shining Time Wholesomeness Committee really just shrugged and said 'whelp you can't spell Gordon without Gordo ig'
Uh...what are you even talking about, dude? Like, aside from a couple of examples, the US Narration is identical to the UK one? Outside of replacing TFC with STH, as well as swapping UK rail terminology for US rail terminology in the earlier seasons.
The Sad Story of Henry is one of the stories that started the RWS and one of its most famous, yet….it never made sense to anyone who met those involved.
STH the first while strict, was known for being fair, and bricking an engine up and taking their rails sounds more like a horror story from the Mid-Sodor than the NWR.
Henry is the Enterprising Engine, known for fighting through over a decade of steaming issues, saving two trains at once while failed, and he quits bc of rain?
As with most decisions of little sense, the reason behind it was politics. Every STH has had to fight for control of their railway, and the first was no different. Upon becoming director in 1920, Hatt quickly established his power, gaining the loyalty of the engines and crew, and buy shares whenever he could. By 1922 the board was determined to put him in his place, decided to start by getting rid of two of his engines; Henry and Edward.
Edward , while perfectly capable, was ageing and the board wanted new, modern engines representing the railway. The fact he been purchased directly by STH only made the matter worse. Henry was perhaps the only time Hatt was successfully swindled. While he appeared large and modern, he was a poor steamer and struggled to haul the trains he should. Fortunately Hatt was two steps ahead of them, as would become the norm for the rest of his reign, and made a plan to save both of his engines.
When Edward began to be left in the shed in favor of larger engines, STH approached Henry and his crew. He explained that while Crovan’s gate was building a new firebox and boiler tunes for Henry, they had to do so without the board knowing, so it would take months to finish and fit them, months Henry didn’t have. They needed a way to buy time for Henrys parts to be finished, and somewhere to fit them, the answer? Ballahoo tunnel.
The Ballahoo tunnel was a single track tunnel built by the Sodor and Mainland in 1854 and had seen little maintenance since. A new bore was nearing completion alongside it with two tracks, with plans to rebuild the old tunnel to modern two track standards in the months following its completion. This is where Henry would be rebuilt.
On a rainy morning in late 1922, Henry raced into the tunnel with a “special”, squeaked through his funnel, and stopped just shy of the other end of the tunnel, refusing to come out. All attempts to move him failed. And so STH ordered the rails to the east side of the tunnel pulled up and the entrance bricked up as a lesson to any engine to defy him. The board was delighted, the “Green Elephant” boarded up for ever, the fear of god put into all the engines, the day went perfectly…or so they thought.
That night STH visited Henry in the tunnel, where workmen were already at work removing his original firebox. He praised the engines performance and promised to visit regularly until the rebuild was complete.
The loss of Henry left a driver and fireman pair open to take Edward out of the shed for service. Everything was going to plan for STH, but he had failed to consider something; the other engines.
Only Henry and his crew had known the tunnel was a ruse, and while at first the other engines felt that Henry had got what he deserved, over time the engines grew more and more uncomfortable with Henry’s situation. 5 months after Henry was punished, the first NWR Indignation meeting was held. The meeting was arranged and led by the railways new express engine Gordon. Gordon had arrived two weeks before the incident, and had been one of the loudest in condemning Henry in the first weeks following. However he had decided enough was enough, no engine deserved an eternity locked away, no matter the offence, so earlier in the week he had approached the oldest engine in the Vicarstown sheds, Edward, with a plan. Together they had refined the plan that was presented to other engines. The plan was unanimously agreed upon, and all that was needed was the opportunity to use it.
Over a month later, their chance finally came. When Gordon left the sheds that morning, only Edward was left. When he backed down on the morning express, STH greeted him and informed him that he would be riding on the express that day. As he pulled off with the express, he gave five short blasts on his whistle, the signal that it was time. As he approached the tunnel he forced his safety valve open and slowed the train to a stop right in front if the tunnel and waited for STH to approach.
STH approached Gordon, as he blew steam profusely from his safety valve, and listened to the crew explain that Gordon had blew the valve and couldn’t pull the train. He ordered for Edward to be called for to try to pull the train then walked away back to his coach, trying not to burst out laughing. He had been CME at Crovan’s Gate for 5 years before becoming director and had been Cme for the TF&K for over 10 years before that! He had quickly figured out the plan, but had to play his part. And if he had fun at their expense? Well they shouldn’t have thought him so naive, a broken saftey valve really.
When Edward, as he expected, failed to pull the heavy train, STH paced pretending to not notice Henry lying in the tunnel, the wisps of steam from his funnel giving lie to the fact he had already been steamed. Not laughing at Gordon’s strained, “Why not let Henry try?” was one of the hardest challenges in his life. He ordered the track relaid (which was mysteriously right there to be relaid) and the bricks knocked down. Henry rolled stiffly but surely out of the tunnel, his new firebox and tubes proving their worth. Once ran back to Vicarstown to be turned around, Henry joined Edward at the front of the train and together the two manged to make up enough of the lost time to impress the board. Henry was reinstated to the locomotive roster was given a new standard coat of blue paint with blue stripes. He still suffered days of poor steam until his rebuild in the 30s, but it was infrequent enough to hide from the board.
That night Hatt snuck into the Vicarstown sheds where he found the engines and their crews were warmly welcoming their shedmate back and celebrating their success. Hatt revealed himself, causing everyone but Henry and his crew to freeze until they saw they smile on their faces. The four explained Hatt’s actual reasoning for locking Henry in the tunnel and STH praised the groups loyalty to one another. The look of stunned realization on Gordon’s face would be a cherished memory for the rest of Hatt’s life. As STH left them to their celebrations, the Engines and crews were left with two realizations; 1. They could trust his decisions to be fair even when it seemed otherwise. 2. It would take engines and men greater than them to get one over on Hatt.
Inspired by the amazing @mean-scarlet-deceiver ‘s headcanon
I'm probably a bit rusty on my RWS, but why exactly does it raise questions for Gordon to run into the ditch at the Vicarstown sheds as opposed to the Tidmouth ones?
So Gordon is napping at Vicarstown... fine, maybe he took an early train and now has a rest... but Henry, Edward, AND Percy are all chilling there too?
Seems like a setup that is natural for Tidmouth, but it needs a lot of explaining what was going on with the timetables to have all four of them at Vicarstown on a Monday morning.
Also, selfishly, I have HCs for what happened when Edward took the special afterwards and all of them involve him heading east not west. But that's not the only reason I swear.
Ah, thanks. I’ve been hanging around and lurking, just I’ve been super busy between work, work, and herding my friends about. Thomas isn’t my only fandom fixation, so it’s a lot of work, lol.
Wish I could say I had stuff to share in terms of writing or headcanon, but my brain is empty. Good thing I have a break this week.
Baby, if posting challenges late is wrong — well then I’m hardly ever gonna be right, now am I?
I know this may seem like I’m stretching the prompt… but I live to stretch prompts.
I knew I wanted Gordon for “blue” coz I want practice writing Gordon rn, especially in writing “matured, mellow” Gordon (as preparation for November, when I will be writing a whole lot of baby!Gordon). But I wanted to be very cheeky about bringing in the “brown,” and to go with something no one else would think of.
Big thanks to @houseboatisland for giving me a crash course on Class 17s. I incorporated some of his research and headcanon into this!
Summer 1987
There was a diesel engine left on a siding. He looked dirty and morose, with a “Not to be Moved” sign on one of his fronts.
Gordon couldn’t help but be a little curious. This was not a common sight on Sodor.
To be sure, it was hardly unknown, either!
Yet this one was of particular note. He was absolutely filthy. A peculiar little diesel — well, mid-sized, Gordon supposed — with a peculiar shape, its cab in the middle and two absurdly long snouts protruding from each end. Gordon could not discern his number or his British Rail insignia under the dirt. He wasn’t even entirely sure of the diesel’s color. Green, possibly? But just then he was much more brown and china-clay-colored than anything else.
“What happened to you?” he grunted, as he eased into the siding beside, readying for a wash-down.
By the time Gordon had settled, a remarkable change had gone down in the diesel’s demeanor. The dejected expression was replaced entirely by raised, alert eyebrows and an sharp, eager smile.
“Oh, to me? Well, you know — rough day at the pits!”
“I can see that,” observed the express engine dryly.
The diesel didn’t miss a beat. It chuckled, rueful yet merry, and to all appearances unfazed. “Why, yes — I suppose you can! Teething troubles, you know… you win some, you lose some…”
Gordon considered the newcomer. The diesel’s words stirred something in his recent memory, but he didn’t trouble himself to chase down whatever thread of gossip he may have been unable to avoid hearing the night before. Instead, behind his bored mask of indifference, and underneath the ministrations of the cleaners, he was carefully drawing his own conclusions.
And he was intrigued.
He respected an engine who could keep up appearances — and those were very uncommon on Sodor indeed.
Nonexistent, in Gordon’s book. Oh, there were people who seemed to think some of the smaller engines were very good at it. They were wrong. Edward wasn’t quite as embarrassingly transparent as once he’d been, but to his old friends he certainly remained an open book. Duck could hold his tongue only when he was plotting some insubordinate scheme. And Gordon supposed that no one who ever believed it of Toby had ever met the emotional steam tram.
But this diesel knew what it meant, to put on a brave face.
Keep calm and carry on, and all that sort of thing.
“You must be Gordon,” the diesel went on, after the cleaners had wiped down Gordon’s front, and the big engine could open his eyes again. “The pleasure is mine! I’ve heard of you, of course.”
“Of course you have,” agreed Gordon, flatly. “But you didn’t answer my question. What manner of teething troubles are you suffering?”
The diesel’s smile may have frozen, but it did not flicker. “Oh, I’ve been having a spot of bother about my cooling system. Sometimes it forgets where the hot air goes — you know how it is.”
“I do not,” Gordon reminded him. “When my kind can’t cool down, our boilers explode. And that’s usually that.”
This time the diesel did blink. Gordon supposed he might have said something surprizing. He seemed to do that a lot, but he could never predict when some perfectly matter-of-fact comment of his would upset another engine.
Still, he supposed it would be only civil to put himself out and carry the conversation a little past this sticky point. “Will they be able to mend your heating system here, or must they send you to the Works?”
“Well,” began the diesel, and for the first time a blush crept into his face. “They could fix it here — we’ll have to see, though, if your controller will bother, or if he’ll send me back. It’s only my second day on trial, and…”
His face began to fall.
“Don’t go fretting,” Gordon reproved. “Wait till you hear word. Our controller is a broad-minded man, and won’t send you away for failing once during your running-in.”
The diesel gave the ghost of a grin. “Well, as to that… it’s already been more than once!”
This time his chuckle was feeble, but Gordon had to admit there was cause. “You did say,” he queried, “that this is your second day?”
“Oh, yes. I’ll be frank, I’m surprized you didn’t hear word — I know it’s the sort of tale that travels! Yes, my heating system failed yesterday too. Going up Maron, I believe it’s called?… I’m — well, I’m afraid that hill did me in… ”
Gordon snorted. “Never you mind. You’re not the first to fail on that confounded hill, and you won’t be the last.”
“Oh! I’m not, then?”
Gordon frowned thunder, eyes shooting over to examine the diesel from cab to wheels.
And yet, he saw nothing but an flare of apparently genuine hope.
Gordon supposed he was rolling right into it, but he took a chance. “Why,” he began slowly, “do you suppose they call it ‘Gordon’s Hill’?”
“Eh? Why, I supposed it was natural enough — they must have needed an engine as big as you, to manage the express over a gradient like that.”
The diesel was perfectly blank and sincere.
For once Gordon was sure. Not a particle of cheek there.
The big engine exhaled slowly.
“Don’t fret,” he repeated. “Our controller will see to it that you get a fair trial, especially if the rest of us vouch for you.”
The diesel smiled, this time tiredly, but Gordon didn’t feel the slightest need to look down on him for it. “That would be a relief,” he admitted. “I didn’t really care to return to the aluminum works… not so soon as this…”
“Aluminum works! You’re not British Rail?”
“Oh, they sold me on ages ago! I’ve hopped a fair few jobs since then.”
“A fair few?” Gordon stared in some amazement. To his way of thinking, mainline diesel engines were still a brand-new technology.
And yet a little mental calculation reminded him that this engine may well already be thirty years of age.
Which was still, to be sure, rather young, to have hopped a fair few jobs.
The diesel must have known it, too. His blush deepened, but he insisted, stoutly: “Oh, yes! The aluminum works, and Hemelite before that, and a cement factory before that. Nice posts — good fellows all around.”
“They sound horrid,” said Gordon, with the blunt incomprehension of an engine that would sooner face the acetylene torch than be relegated to a branch line… let alone to industry.
“Well, it’s a matter of perspective, isn’t it? It’s good to be useful — and I’m sure some would argue that I was better suited there. Where it’s… flat…” Despite his best attempts, the diesel trailed off, his eyes roving wistfully around the bustling big yards.
“And dull,” put in Gordon, understanding.
The diesel chuckled. “Well, as to that… perhaps I’ve had enough excitement the past couple days…”
Gordon was not normally considered a paragon of perspicuity. As a rule, he could scarcely understand engines he had known for sixty years, let alone about a quarter of an hour.
But, this once, he got it completely right.
“Don’t talk arrant nonsense!” he snorted. “You mustn’t give up before you’ve even begun. They’ll see to it you have a fair trial here, if you’re a willing worker, and don’t cause trouble.” Maybe even if you do. “We’ve had another green engine here who failed on the regular, and now he’s the backbone of our main line operations… my own expresses excepted, of course.”
“Oh,” the other laughed, with real delight, “that’s quite nice to know, thank you! I do hope I can be useful here — I’ve liked my work in private industry — but I was usually the only engine on site, and it gets a bit lonely, eh?”
The life and fight were returning to the vigorous little (very well, mid-sized) engine. He was not altogether a bad-looking fellow, for a diesel. The middle cab still struck Gordon as quite odd — but at least he had a shape, and wasn’t merely another breadbox.
Yes, they could use an engine like this around. Gordon would talk to the Fat Controller.
“You were pulling a train, I suppose?” asked Gordon, mentally preparing for that dispe... despu… ('dieselisation'? — no). “What happened to it?”
“Oh, it went on,” said the diesel, though his face went its pinkest yet. “The two little saddletanks from the China Clay Company — they were heading the train, I was only there to assist, and they took it on. So the job was finished on time, at least.”
“Nonsense! They couldn't have!”
“Yes they could,” said the diesel earnestly, in the face of Gordon’s splutter. “Brave little fellows, those two — a very fine effort!”
“Why, they’re little demons on roller skates,” scoffed Gordon. “Your weight, too? — No. Someone must have come to assist at the front.”
“No, I don’t believe they did. They, uh… they were very celebratory about it, you see.”
Gordon snorted. “What is your name, diesel?”
“Oh — erm — Paxman they called me, at the aluminum works.”
“But is it your name?”
“I was called Derek when I was with British Rail,” said the diesel, then added with a brisk frankness Gordon respected, “and I miss it.”
“Of course you miss it. It’s your name. Well, Derek, those two murderous little bugs — ”
“Murderous! Dear me, that’s a bit much — ”
“It is not a bit much,” Gordon declared darkly, with a great and awful solemnity. “Why, the stories I could tell you, my dear Derek — ”
Do you think the NWR main line is double tracked or quad tracked? I can see them only having enough traffic to justify a two track main, but at the same time I can see Charles Hatt managing to convince BR that they should give him the rails that they ripped out of other lines during the Beeching Cuts.
Some of you ask me these things like I'm a logical thinker. All the railways on Sodor have as many tracks as necessary for the particular scene that I want to write.
That's why in QLIR-verse I have a quad track through (most) of the NWR main even though this is '22-'25. However, canonically it was double-tracked (and apparently sometimes not even "up" and "down" line?—I believe IoS says something to the effect that they would use the lines however they needed, so sometimes both lines would be for up trains depending on the time of day, etc.) and that does make far more sense.
I also believe that they would have quadded-up later on. The NWR's story last century is one of expansion. I was thinking they'd lay more track earlier than Beeching Cuts but that headcanon is also hilarious so I may have to change it up now.
To help with that stunt, I do believe that, in TVS land, FC has erected that elaborate Steelworks to sell the notion of a scrapping and smelting operation that is in reality mostly a cover for acquiring condemned engines, keeping them hidden away until the BR no longer cares to hit them with a VAT, and then restoring them to service.
Of course, at first no one really believed FC's proclamations of "haha, you win, apart from our Famous Eight/Ten who after all bring in so much revenue" (this was pre-Oliver) "we're going to start modernizing like a Real Railway."
So that's when FC staged Stepney's scare with 'Arry and Bert. After a traumatized Stepney told all and sundry about his near-miss, everyone took the Sodor Steelworks a lot more seriously.
Anyway, I already believed they were mostly squirreling away engines there with lots of theatrical dressing to make it seem a legit BR-worthy destination (... and Douglas didn't know this but the existence of the Steelworks helped sell the "och aye they're all fer us!" ruse that allowed him to rescue Oliver and his train which was the whole purpose of the Steelworks anyway...) But now thanks to you I can also readily believe that FC won the contract to pull up and "scrap" significant amounts of closed mainland branch lines... only to take those rails and re-use them on Sodor.
So from my understanding, Diesel only shows up like once after his initial appearance in Duck’s book. And then he doesn’t actually turn up in RWS-canon until years later.
Meanwhile, over in the TV series, he just kept coming back and back over and over until they gave up all pretense and just let him stay. Which is...super odd, but something struck me when rewatching Unlucky Tug’s model series timeline video. Specifically a comment someone left.
The Northwestern is technically part of BR, but has a lot of leeway in the sense that steam traction never dies on Sodor, ever. I’m sure that caused a lot of headaches, but Sir Topham Hatt, as always, is too wily for them to cause much fuss.
...So I wager that what’s going on is that the guys up top are intentionally needling him by continually sending him Diesel whenever he’s asking to trial another engine, until finally he gave up and just kept him so they’d stop doing it.
Either that, or given the sheer amount of 08s BR made, they just pretended that he was another engine, and STH didn’t catch on until Diesel turned up on Sodor again. I mean, let’s face it, if he keeps his mouth shut, there’s nothing particularly noticeable about Diesel compared to any other 08.
I decided after my post the other day to actually watch Henry’s Forest again, ‘cause I was feeling a bit nostalgic and it honestly is one of my favorite Season 3 episodes.
And then a minute in, I blinked in surprise at something Henry relates. How he, Toby, Terence, and Trevor helped plant some of the trees in Henry’s Forest “many years ago”.
How has the fandom slept on this? Someone needs to write a thing about that initial planting. Maybe that’s where Henry first learned to appreciate nature, and before then he didn’t understand!
Also, can I just say, I absolutely adore how happy Toby was when he found out he could help Henry feel better. He said that bringing the new trees to plant was the best job he’d ever had. A job that would let him help out a friend who was feeling down.
The world really is much nicer whenever we see Toby around, huh?
I decided after my post the other day to actually watch Henry’s Forest again, ‘cause I was feeling a bit nostalgic and it honestly is one of my favorite Season 3 episodes.
And then a minute in, I blinked in surprise at something Henry relates. How he, Toby, Terence, and Trevor helped plant some of the trees in Henry’s Forest “many years ago”.
How has the fandom slept on this? Someone needs to write a thing about that initial planting. Maybe that’s where Henry first learned to appreciate nature, and before then he didn’t understand!
You know, I always thought that Awdry’s only problem with Henry’s Forest was that it didn’t hold to railway safety regulations, which fair enough, that had to be annoying to someone like him who holds that kinda realism in such high regard.
I was today years old when I discovered that he in fact disliked Henry liking nature at all. He’s on record as asking what use a steam engine has for trees.
And that kinda makes me pause a bit, because Henry’s love of nature is one of the strongest hidden depths he has, and we all love him for it. But if Awdry himself didn’t care for that kind of thing...it really makes you stop and think for a moment.
I could see Spencer still exist, because if we go by how Scotsman was portrayed in the books, he was very humble and respectful towards Gordon. A sharp contrast to the rivalry we see between Gordon and Spencer.
Plus, an A1/A3 and A4 butting heads with each other over who’s faster seems like low-hanging fruit.
Since @mean-scarlet-deceiver is going through Season 3 right now, and made fun of the original episode, I may as well point them in the direction of this vid someone made of a more...RWS-styled version of that episode. I don’t mind the original myself, but this does make a bit more sense.
Hahaha, guess not. You know, even though I had just seen that episode again before I made my post about it, I hadn’t even thought about that in connection.
No wonder James got snappy at Percy for making fun of it, though. “There’s nothing funny about jammed brakes!”
