The (potential) Modern Practices of Sodor’s North Western Railway

[RudyProductions]

I think my biggest hurdle as a Railway Series fan and modeler is deciding on a era. Because the storyteller and modeler inside of me are at constant odds. By all accounts, it is highly improbable that a (mostly) steam railway would survive into the 21st century, and yet, here I am, choosing 2000-10 as my era. (Though me being a 2001 kid might have had an influence). BUT… if I’m gonna do this, I’m gonna do it right!

 

This thread is for theoretical discussion about how a modern (yet still familiar) North Western Railway would operate in the 2000s. Now this is post-privatization, so the NWR can have it’s own policies now, but surely some policies implemented during BR days will have carried over. There’s also the question of which BR policies (notably anything put into place after 1969) didn’t effect the North Western (formerly) Region (sectorisation and TOPS come to mind).

 

This thread is NOT for discussing implementation of this topic to an actual layout or model. That will be for a separate thread elsewhere on the site. Once I get to that stage, I’ll link the accompanying threads here.

[DK123GWR]

I suppose that the first question is: what type of Sodor do you want?

I think there's a spectrum really from 'fairytale' Sodor, where steam goes on forever as the dominant form of motive power and what exists in the 21st Century is essentially a giant network of heritage railways (albeit with higher speed limits), to a 'gritty' Sodor in the style of Corbs' Sudrian Histories, with more heavy industry. You also have options for how much modernisation has taken place.

 

At the fairytale end, all trains probably finish at Barrow where you can change onto mainland services. The Sudrian network will be largely independent, with a few railtours running through. The steam locomotives will likely continue in similar roles to those they had been in during the mid 20th Century (albeit with freight locomotives shifted over to passenger work). If there is any diesel traction then it will probably be a mixture of preserved locomotives (surely including Bo-Co), and perhaps there is a DMU which runs from Manchester once or twice each day. Any freight heading for the mainland would also be diesel hauled, and managed by a national FOC.

 

If we go for modernised Sodor, and assume that some freight flows continue into the 21st century, then I would imagine that a national FOC (probably EWS at this time) would be responsible for them, using their normal locomotives. Perhaps the NWR took advantage of Sprinterisation to buy up redundant first generation DMUs (108s and 121s, for example) which are now used on regular passenger services Perhaps there was money provided to give the NWR sprinters and pacers. It is likely that many of the preserved steam locomotives were among the group made famous by Awdry's writing - and given how many of these were unique in some way it makes sense from a national perspective as well. Some of the branch lines may be operated in much the same way as real heritage railways, using the smaller engines, while the larger locomotives might be used on a service similar to The Jacobite running the length of the island twice each day.

 

We could also go gritty without much modernisation, though it seems unlikely that the NWR would have been quite so neglected. It is likely that Sodor as a whole has become very poor, with most people living in poverty relative to those on the mainland. Here the network is badly run-down and heavily rationalised. The railway is still struggling on with mostly the same fleet of locomotives that it had fifty years ago, though they are now all far beyond their expected lifespans. Perhaps the bridge to Barrow was damaged and the money was not there to repair it, leaving Sodor isolated from the rest of Britain. Whether a train turns up is down mostly to luck, with the railway having descended completely into confusion and delay.

 

Before going further, you need to have a think about what sort of place you want Sodor to be, because that will have an enourmous effect on how the railway operates.

[Cwmtwrch]

You can add to the list of factors to be considered the impact of the WCML Manchester-Glasgow electrification, the possibility of a new road bridge [to replace the railway one?] and the disappearance of firms able to supply new boilers at a reasonable cost. Steam boilers in use have to pass regular inspections, and there is a limit to how long boilers can be kept in acceptable condition before they must be replaced,

[Paul H Vigor]

2 hours ago, Cwmtwrch said:

You can add to the list of factors to be considered the impact of the WCML Manchester-Glasgow electrification, the possibility of a new road bridge [to replace the railway one?] and the disappearance of firms able to supply new boilers at a reasonable cost. Steam boilers in use have to pass regular inspections, and there is a limit to how long boilers can be kept in acceptable condition before they must be replaced,

https://ttte.fandom.com/wiki/Scrapped_Engines

[SM42]

Perhaps it would be a sort of stand alone hybrid passenger/freight franchise with a unique geography and character ( like the Isle of Wight) on a grander scale. 

 

Heritage diesel locos and units have been "saved" from  the mainland and run the bulk of services with the steam locos running a few scheduled services  for the enthusiast and tourist market.  (Think Wolstzyn to Poznan / Leszno services that still run on Poland) and the odd special. 

 

 

Freight would be mainly diesel hauled but the markets are changing. 

Fish is gone.

Coal still produces some flows of imported coal from the docks to support the island's  power station ( soon to switch to biomass)

Oil products still very much running but slowly losing out to road competitors. 

 

Now where Newtork Rail as the infrastructure owner , the DFT, ORR and RSSB would come into the modern Sodor and its quirky franchise model is an intriguing discussion point. 

 

One thing is for sure. 

 

They would need  a better safety record than in the books

 

Andy

[MJI]

Full of 37s

[RudyProductions]

Thanks for all the responses though I’m not sure any of them quite hit the mark I was going for. But regardless, it’s all in good fun. My idea going into this leans a bit more into the “fairytale” side of Sodor while still feeling right the  “history” of the island could happen (albeit potentially extremely unlikely). I’ll go ahead and set the stage a bit more clearly:

 

For starters during privatization the North Western Railway Company gained complete ownership and running rights over the rail network on Sodor. This is due in no small part to the silver tongued Sir Stephen Topham Hatt, the third Fat Controller, as well as the popular Railway Series books and the accompanying TV show, both of with had made BR hesitate to meddle with the North Western Region after Flying Scotsman’s visit in 1969.

 

The railway is still predominantly run by steam and older diesels, but the Sudrians tend not to mind. The people of Sodor have always been “stuck in their ways” and BR’s constant attempts to force modernization in the 60s only encouraged the very independent Sudrians to double down and dig their heel in! This has produced a culture in modern Sodor that greatly values the steam engines that have been running the line (some since before the Grouping in 1923)!

 

Now none of this would be possible without the resources available at Crovan’s Gate Works, one of the last true “Steamworks” in the British Isles! While it may pale in comparison to the likes of Doncaster or Crewe back in their heyday, Crovan’s Gate has all the facilities necessary for the full restoration of a steam locomotive. As a result, they have been approached by many a heritage railways to help restore and overhaul preserved steam engines!

 

But of course the NWR’s greatest claim to fame is the Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends TV series! Between enthusiasts and tourists, and merchandise sales, the NWR has all it needs to keep its steam engines running for many years to come!

 

 

 

Again, is it likely, heck no! But it doesn’t require too much suspension of disbelief.

Edited May 27, 2022 by RudyProductions

[Paleopotato09]

well it is a hypothetical and mostly fantasy world. i do love the image of the very independent Sudrians making the Peel Godred Electric branch as a thing just to keep BR happy. Only to keep running steam services up the newly electrified line.

[Northmoor]

Not really answering the original question because I've never modelled (or intended to) anything more recent than about 1990, but my experience of Sodor Railways (the std gauge ones) suggests they continued with much the same business model as it had since the 1940s.  Not meaning it retained steam until the present day, more that the company was always nearly broke and relied on purchase of cheap equipment from the mainland, which it then ran until utterly worn out.  The NWR were very good at spotting bargain, low hours locomotives from BR, so:

• 1965, purchased 20x Hawksworth 94xx Pannier tanks including some purely for spares; some were barely halfway to their first boiler overhaul.  These replaced an assortment of veteran tank engines on local freight and branch line passenger services.  The last two remain in service on the "heritage" Arlesburgh branch.
• 1968, purchased 3x 9Fs (one never entering service, but provided a spare boiler) for the heavy Tidmouth - Barrow freight.  The last was withdrawn in 1985, although the last years of its life were mostly hauling enthusiasts' specials.
• 1970, purchased 10x Class 04 diesel shunters to replace steam on all shunting and some local freight.  Some still in service in 21st century.
• 1972, purchased 6x Class 29 diesels replacing steam on all main line passenger traffic, remaining in service until the mid-80s.
• 1984, purchased 8x Class 46s to replace the 9Fs and Class 29s.

I've lost touch with the NWR since the 1990s, didn't they get some Turbostars with part of the IMF loan (which also paid for the main road improvement which transformed driving E-W across the island)?

[RudyProductions]

20 hours ago, Paleopotato09 said:

well it is a hypothetical and mostly fantasy world. i do love the image of the very independent Sudrians making the Peel Godred Electric branch as a thing just to keep BR happy. Only to keep running steam services up the newly electrified line.

Interesting thing to note: the Peel Godred Branch has been electrified since it was built in 1923! I get the feeling that the first Fat Controller wasn’t really the steam enthusiast that his son ended up being. He used what he could get! And with the Peel Godred Power Company funding the project, he’d be a fool NOT to electrify the line!

 

 

And yes, my premise does require some jumping through hoops to justify in the “real world” but hey, who cares. At the end of the day I really just don’t want to limit myself to any one era and Sodor provides the perfect setting where one doesn’t really have to question why a Stirling Single is in operation along side an HST! Of course I could just make it easy on myself and run operations without think about the “when” at all, but just doing a “time warp” seems a bit cheap to me. That, and knowing me, I’d definitely end up with way too many Gresley’s! I need limits! Doing this as a “what if steam just kept on going” allows me a “Limited Freedom” as I like to call it!

[NewFangledNonsense]

Depends how strapped for cash they are, but might they have looked West and bought up the Class 80 or 450 'Thumpers' off Northern Ireland Railways when they were disposed of in the early 2000s???

Or, if more money was available to them in the 80s (EU funding?) they could have continued their earlier experiment in making single-unit railcars based on heavier-bodied multiple units and been running single-car Sprinters, possibly in multiple on the heaviest-traffic / hilliest gradient routes.

If you do have an electrified line, there's the question of what current / transmission method is being used... How eccentric were they?

[phil_sutters]

On 27/05/2022 at 17:13, RudyProductions said:

Now none of this would be possible without the resources available at Crovan’s Gate Works, one of the last true “Steamworks” in the British Isles! While it may pale in comparison to the likes of Doncaster or Crewe back in their heyday, Crovan’s Gate has all the facilities necessary for the full restoration of a steam locomotive. As a result, they have been approached by many a heritage railways to help restore and overhaul preserved steam engines!

 

Again, is it likely, heck no! But it doesn’t require too much suspension of disbelief.

Here's one they could work on, if they could source the missing set of wheels.

[Northmoor]

10 hours ago, NewFangledNonsense said:

Depends how strapped for cash they are, but might they have looked West and bought up the Class 80 or 450 'Thumpers' off Northern Ireland Railways when they were disposed of in the early 2000s???

Or, if more money was available to them in the 80s (EU funding?) they could have continued their earlier experiment in making single-unit railcars based on heavier-bodied multiple units and been running single-car Sprinters, possibly in multiple on the heaviest-traffic / hilliest gradient routes.

If you do have an electrified line, there's the question of what current / transmission method is being used... How eccentric were they?

I like the NIR Thumper idea, but stock that needs re-gauging doesn't generally fall into the "bargain" category!

[kingfisher9147]

This is a interesting topic, reading the history of island sodor, the NWR had 80 engines in total and we only saw a few of them. Peel of godred branch has interesting fleet of locos all overhead equipment which include class 86/87 and emus, also there was supposed to be a monorail at the aluminium company. The Thomas fandom have done this, look at the island of sodor website and go to extended railway series you can see what has been done. Look forward to seeing more.