Prologue
The year is 1915. World War I was in full swing across Europe. It was a battle between the Allied Powers - the United Kingdom, Russia, and France - and the Central Powers - Germany and Austria-Hungary. In the war, some of the supplies had to be transported via railways.
Many railways were spawned all over across the United Kingdom, some having been around since as way back as the 1830's. The United Kingdom consisted of (and it does to this day) England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and the Island of Sodor.
Now, some of you more cynical folk may be thinking, "I've never seen Sodor on a map anywhere. How do you know it exists?" And in that respect, you may have a point. Yes, Sodor does not appear on any map of the world, but it has a map of its own.
Anyway, like the other four countries in the United Kingdom, Sodor has its own railways. Those railways are the Skarloey Railway (based on the Talyllyn Railway in Wales), the Culdee Fell Mountain Railway (based on the Snowdon Mountain Railway in Wales), the Mid-Sodor Railway, and the North Western Railway.
The North Western Railway was formed in 1914, originally compromised of two standard gauge railways. They were the Tidmouth, Wellsworth and Suddery Railway, and the Sodor and Mainland Railway. The former was originally two railways that were joined 1912; the Tidmouth, Knapford and Elsbridge Light Railway, and the Wellsworth and Suddery Railway. The Sodor and Mainland Railway originally began as a railway way back in 1830 as the Crovan's Gate and Kellsthrope Road Railway, then extended to Ballahoo, and to Rolf's Castle and Kirk Ronan, and the railway was renamed in 1853.
Right now in 1915, the North Western Railway is being extended, to be brought into a complete system as a means of coastal defense for the war efforts.
These are the stories of the North Western engines, long ago...
