Await guidance from
User:Gonzerelli before attempting anything significant. He is considering the best approach, and is (probably) planning a move of all characters to
Skarloey Railway page.
The engines are still a bit 'all over the place'. Unlike the other railways,
Skarloey Railway is prominent in the TV Series, and therefore needs to be handled in the same way as the NWR engines. Hence the Books/TV split is appropriate.
What is less clear is how to handle the Minor characters.
First task is to update the table of locos to show: No., Name (linked), Type (eg wheel arr, as per
Talyllyn Railway), 'Real Loco' (2 columns: Name and Railway, since not all are from Talyllyn now), Manuf? (if space permits), and Appears in, which will show 'Books + TV', 'Books only', 'TV Series only', or 'Unfeatured'.
This will leave no room for notes. Instead, below the table will be a section for (all?) the engines, with a quick summary and a link to the 'Main Article'. In the case of any that feature twice, separate links will be provided for TV Series and Railway Series.
Suggest this is done as a user project and copied across, first to the Talk page, rather than attempted 'live'. After the initial table/descriptions are done, it may be possible to see whether any minor (Books-only) characters can be fully moved to the Skarloey Railway page.
Once complete, can consider what to do with the rolling stock entries...
also link
0-6-0T - although note that
0-6-0 needs a subsection for
0-6-0T to which we can link directly
Note that the E2 page has a separate link to
side tank shown as
0-6-0T - not sure this is the ideal way to do it, as the T doesn't show up individually as a link - better to have a direct link to
side tank or
tank engine?
We could be naughty and add TTE to this category too! (wonder how long it would last?)
ALERT: E2 class page calls the original illlustrator 'inept' - suggest summarising the info from the TTE page here to explain the discrepancy - poss even add images to show the differences?
References to books have been removed, and need replacing in a different form.
Original text:
Although he is an engine of the
North Western Railway, he has so far only appeared in the books Enterprising Engines and James and the Diesel Engines
Suggest replacing 'As described in the books' with 'As described in Enterprising Engines'
Suggest adding later paragraph along these sort of lines: 'When Bear arrived on the
North Western Railway, he was painted in
British Rail '
Corporate Blue' livery. In James and the Diesel Engines, Bear's new coat of paint is seen to be a close resemblance of the attractive two-tone green livery worn by the
Hymeks in the
1960s.
(First half of that sentence is OK, but second half is a bit clumsy. Will need some more thought!)
Mavis
Mavis first appeared in Tramway Engines, later appeared in Toby, Trucks and Trouble
TV Series entry is comprehensive, but does not link to the Railway Series entry (see above!)
Nor does it give prototype information.
British Rail Class 04 includes prototype information and faulty x-refs back to TV Series character, etc
Under
Minor Characters, is it worth creating a new section for the various odd diesels that appear
NO - see
The Other Railway for a list of BR engines that have appeared in the books. THIS is the place to note appearances of the various diesels, including
31 120, not under Minor Characters (make sure it is X-ref'd)
in the same book is a suburban DMU with a Derby-style front
Has it's own page, which should be moved in due course! (
D10751).
Note another (sand coloured) Cl 31 can be seen in Oliver/Stepney (can't remember which book) together with a (maroon) Western and a (green) Class 40
In James and the Diesel Engines, James is rescued by a Class 47 sent from The Works (this is mentioned in
The Other Railway). Another Cl 47 is seen at
Barrow station on the first page of Henry and the Express (its number is not discernible).
There is a Cl40 (numbered D4711, but looks like a Deltic! although Deltics were D90xx!!) in Stepney - also appears in TV Series (entry already present)
The fictional
borough of Tidmouth is the largest town on the fictional
Island of Sodor created by the
Rev. W. Awdry as a setting for his
Railway Series children's books. The ancient capital of the island is however the "city" of
Suddery.
The Town
The town lies on the estuary of the River Tid and had in 1981 a population of 35,000. It is the island's principal port with extensive docks. It received a
Royal Charter confirming borough status in 1918.
Tidmouth is famous for its fishing industry, particularly the delicacy known as the Tidmouth
Kipper. There are ferry connections to the
Isle of Man and
Ireland. In centuries past it was also notorious for
smuggling. These days it is also a popular
tourist destination. The town's motto is "Industry and Progress".
The Railways and Tidmouth
Tidmouth is Sodor's largest railway centre and has been the headquarters of the
North Western Railway since 1925 when it moved from
Vicarstown on the other side of the island. Indeed, the town's
coat of arms features a wheel in commemoration of this fact.
Tidmouth Station (or, as it was known in the Railway Series books, "The Big Station") has four terminal roads and one through line, namely the
Little Westernbranch line to Arlesburgh. The
Fat Controller's Office is on one of the platforms.
Tidmouth is the western terminus for all main line services on Sodor and is used by some services on
Thomas's and
Edward's branch lines.
There have been at times direct train services from Tidmouth to
London.
Tidmouth Docks have an extensive railway system connecting with the NWR main line. The overnight express freight train to the mainland, The Flying Kipper, is loaded and starts from here.
Close to the railway station are the NWR's main engine sheds, where most of the main line and some of the branch line engines live.
Tidmouth on TV
On the Children's TV series
Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends, the big station on Sodor is Knapford. But Tidmouth is used for the name of the engine sheds where most of the characters in the series live.
In some episodes a station named Lower Tidmouth is shown sometimes as the junction station for Thomas's
branch line.
However, in series 2 and 3 a Tidmouth station did appear. This was different from the one in the original books and was a through station with three roads and an over-roof. In Series 2 it appeared to be on Thomas's branch line but in some of the later episodes of series 3, it appeared to be a mainline station.