Where do the engines of the NWR metals go to sleep after a hard day's work? If you guessed Tidmouth Sheds, you're right!
Normally, the sheds in the earlier seasons of Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends had six berths but was later changed to seven after Calling All Engines! and right into the new series with CGI. However, you can honestly not believe how surprised I was when I found out that the show was getting a re-boot as Big World Big Adventures! and I was aghast and heartbroken when Henry, a childhood favourite of mine, was replaced on the Steam Team along with Edward the very engine who started it all. That was when I took matters into my own hands and fix the whole absurd 'gender-issue' thing with the so-called 'Steam Team'.
As well as Thomas, Henry, Gordon, James, Percy and Emily, Molly and Rosie would be perfect replacements for Edward and Toby, and by extending the sheds to eight berths would make the Steam Team a perfect gender ratio of five males to three females. This was something I had worked on as you can see with my Rosie and Molly models. Molly has a number on her cab and Rosie offically has No. 37 on her cab along with her new livery. I liked her old livery personally, but I decided to merge the two liveries together along with a hint of realism. So, my Rosie model has cherry-red livery, gold boiler bands, lavender side-tanks with the NWR lettering and the No. 37, black tank-tops and and black wheels. Thomas has his straight running board from the later stories as well as the Christopher Awdry books, Henry has a Fowler tender and flat rectangluar/squared running board much like his TV Series version, Gordon has LMS valve gear like his original book counterpart and even James has his red livery, brass dome, gold boiler bands and Prussian blue lining like his later book appearances and that livery is my favourite interpretation of said character alongside all other said characters. Now, onto the sheds...
According to the official TTTE Wiki, Tidmouth Sheds are the main engine sheds on Sodor. In the Railway Series, it is shown as a shed with three or four rails leading in (the illustrations were inconsistent), but in later books it was depicted as a shed enclosing ten berths around a turntable. This was up until James & the Diesel Engines, the sheds became a roundhouse which, coincidentally, is reminiscent of Barrow Hill Roundhouse if you look at the illustrations. In the television series, the sheds were replaced by a roundhouse with a turntable at the front. Rather than spend money on a Hornby turntable along with other bits and bobs, I think the Bachmann Tidmouth Sheds with turntable and Shed Expansion packs go well and are probably worth it if ever I'm going for this whole new look for Tidmouth just as I have envisioned.
As you can see, this is a rough treatment/planning of the Sheds on Sodor. If I ever plan to make a totally whole-new layout (which I probably might), then chances are I should include this revised bad-boy in it as well. Normally, I go into the more grown-up detailed stuff, but for the sake of my wallet, this is what I am opting for. Hand-operated accessories are a tradition and that is something I love, and if your layout is like this, then good on you! This is the sort of layout that kids appeal to. They get entranced by this sort and this is like the training wheels of owning a layout and having all the responsibilities like having a dog and such, only different.
Anyway, I hope you all like the idea of Tidmouth Sheds Redux as I will when I get around to making it. Stay Happy & Stay Really Useful!