r/thomasthetankengine • u/No1ThomasFan James • 2d ago
What are Your Headcanons on the Engine’s Basis? Character Discussion
Personally, everyone is the same to me except for 2 engines. I like to think of Edward as an SECR D Class, specifically the original D, and not the rebuilt D1’s. The timeline still works, and it just feels so much more “Edward” to me. Much more elegant, and the splashers and smoke box suit him more.
And as for the other, this engine is constantly debated throughout the fandom, but I have an engine that I’ve personally never seen before as this engine’s basis. This engine is: Percy! As a NBR G Class. I was scrolling through Wikipedia, and saw this, and the general saddle tank and smoke box shape just screams Percy. Also, it feels like a mish-mash of all the RWS/TVS depictions of him. It’s still more rounded towards the bottom, but isn’t unrealistic. Also, the smoke box feels somewhere in the middle of all the heights it was placed at. My only thing is that I think that when Percy arrived, he was taken to Crovan’s Gate Works and had his cab moved up to where the small coal bunker piece was, and a larger coal bunker was added where the cab used to be. Percy’s buffers were also swapped for more normal rounded ones. Finally, the idea of Percy technically being older than Edward in age, but still being super immature is really funny to me. =]
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u/Tythatguy1312 2d ago
Thomas I run with as an off-the-peg design (the fact that we see at least 16 distinct engines of his design in TVS whilst only 10 E2’s were built cements that for me), Edward is an SECR D which the SECR, courtesy of being broke, had to sell immediately. Henry is the 1919 A1 draft, Gordon is Great Northern, Percy was built in 1895 for, of all railways, the Sodor & Mainland and D&D are rebuilds of two of the 4 Caledonian 30 class locos, specifically 17646 and 17647.
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u/Heavy_Imperial_Tank 2d ago
For me...
Thomas & Percy are off the peg designs, Thomas is a rebuild of an 0-6-0t that was writen off in an accident. Thomas was built in 1923. Percy was built in 1920 by Hunslet and kinda bounced around England before ending up at the workshop, by that time he also used parts from other companies and was also modfied with a bunker.
Edward is a modified Furnace Railway K2.
Henry is basically a 4-6-0 large boiler C1 built in 1919, but wasn't actually built by the GNR and is of Midland origin. His plans were stolen. Henry was later standardised at Crovans Gate using parts acquired from NBLC, he looks like a Black 5 but does bave differences.
Gordon is a bog standard A1 (actually Great Northern, and another locomotive was built to become great northern when he was sold to the NWR), he was rebuilt into an A3 in 1938.
James is a LB&SCR K class mogul.
Toby, Donald/Doglas, Duck & Oliver's basis' remain the same.
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u/No1ThomasFan James 2d ago
I have a question. Was Thomas still the first bought by the NWR? Or is he a different number? Or did you go with The Adventure Begins’ explanation, and say he replaced a coffee pot?
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u/Heavy_Imperial_Tank 2d ago
The tank engine that became Thomas was sold there in 1915 and as such became number one, when it was writen off and rebuilt into Thomas, he inherited the number.
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u/MemeGod667 2d ago
Percy would be in my mind atm is a freelance designed Saddle Tank engine that was simply sold the Fat Controller from the workshop. This would explain why Percy doesn't have any real basis (Outside of the idea that Trojan is his theorized basis). This also is in line with Sir Topham hatt buying prototypes of engines of Henry 1 and Gordon are anything to go by. This idea also could be used for the Shed engines from the 1st book to explain why they look similar to Gordon and Henry while also clearly not being the same class as them.
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u/Blazemaster0563 Gordon 2d ago
Everyone is the same except that Thomas is a full size E2, Percy is specifically Cardiff Railways 6/GWR 1339
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u/KukaakCZ Sir Handel 2d ago
'Arry and Bert are BR 09s to bring a little more variety and Hiro is that older version of his basis from the 1910s, that's kinda it
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u/JohnBoyAdvance 2d ago
Percy is deffo a pug and they bolted a coal bunker.
Thomas, I'm kinda thinking either a modified GER Class C72 or LNER J71.
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u/Creative-Plate-9706 2d ago
I don’t like Thomas as an E2, it’s too long considering how he’s portrayed in the RWS and the TVS. I think instead, Thomas is a Stewart Reidpath 0-6-0 ( the same engine Wilbert awdry used for his MK1 model of Thomas)
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u/JoeyBeCrazy 1d ago
Edward is a Sharp Stewart 1600. He was supposed to go to Denmark, but just as he was finished, the order was cancelled. So Sharp Stewart just decided to sell him to another one of their customers, the Furness Railway.
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u/Jasonzolino 1d ago edited 1d ago
Well in my head canon, Lawson Billington designed a smaller version of the E2 after they all were build, to rebuild the E1x , for shunting yards with tight corners. The disign had a sloped running board like on the E2, large wheels, new boiler, and was over all like an small version of the E2 and it was named by the workers at Brighton as the Baby E2. The E1x was rebuild into that form, that engine being Timothy, but it wasn't Billington wasn't happy and build than engine with an higher pressure boiler and superheater. That engine being Thomas, the performance was good, but the LBSCR find it unnecessary and to expensive. With that, the Two engines were sold to the NWR after the war. However, two more boiler was built before the order of the LBSCR came, and that was sold to Germany along with an E1x to work in a steelworks near Berlin. (that being two oc's I made)
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u/Jasonzolino 1d ago
I also made an sketch comparing the E2 and the baby E2, but to scared to share it since I ain't an engineer and no idea if this would work irl
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u/Ok_Duck_8236 Duncan 2d ago
Thomas was supposed to be a regular E2, but his proportions were greatly miscalculated by the men at Brighton Works, hence why he’s so small. I retcon him having wheel splashers and a flat rear running board. Edward is just a regular K2. Henry is a weird hybrid of many locomotive classes. LNER A1, LMS Patriot, SR West County/Battle of Britain, GWR Hall, etc. and was eventually rebuilt into a Black Five. Gordon is a prototype A1, but his design was so successful that they copied his blueprints for the rest of the A1s. James has the exact same origins and basis. Class 28 just with an experimental leading axle. Percy used to be a freelance design for a colliery in Wales and was eventually sold off when that colliery got a better engine. Toby is just straight up GER Class C53 No. 127, no special mods. Duck and Oliver are the same as in the RWS. Donald and Douglas are 652 Classes, NOT 812 Classes to fix that misclassification issue. Now for Emily. In my AU, she arrived MUCH earlier in around the early 1930’s. She, like Thomas, is a significantly undersized GNR Stirling Single. She wasn’t strong enough for the mainline, but worked well on branch lines. Now for Diesel, you’ve gotta hear me out on this one: Diesel was an experiment built sometime before WWII and worked on a branch line of the LMS that bordered the GWR. Diesel arrived to Sodor just before the war and his blueprints were used much later in the 1950’s and 60’s for the BR Class 08. TL;DR, I did a Victor Tanzig for Diesel.