The Thomas the Tank Engine Crackfic Collab
By Memesandtreasure and Seaboarder
Published by Derby Locomotive Works on FanFiction
Prologue: Part 2. Military Men
Now, in spite of this Earth's radical differences from ours, those being Sodor's existence and the concept of sentient trains being a thing, war will always be a constant in human history, no matter what rules your world follows. There aren't any major changes with this Earth's Great War and World War 2, sans the involvement of non-faceless locomotives and rolling stock as soldiers. Now, with non-faceless locomotives existing, the death toll will be higher, and certain events do change, like Luxembourg being able to hold up for a month, thanks to the efforts and sacrifices of over 100 non-faceless engines. But apart from that, there's nothing much to say about the war as a whole, sans the likes of there being individual experiences to hear of, specifically from the sentient trains and rolling stock who took part.
A major change, for instance, is how the Luftwaffe targeted trains in Operation Chariot, an evacuation mission meant to bring citizens away from the major cities, since they were massive targets for the Germans at the time, and into the countryside. The reason why they were able to target them so well? A certain green stirling single who would one day be part of the NWR, or as you all may know her, Emily.
Emily was a GNR Stirling Single Class steam locomotive, and generally led an average working life. She hadn't gotten into many accidents, she made her passenger runs as smooth as possible, and she was generally a quiet engine. Then again, one's personality on the job doesn't exactly translate to their personality off the clock. Emily is actually a sociopath, and revels in destruction and death, but is never allowed to do it, lest she get caught, in which she would probably receive the death sentence and get pumped full of black-water, before being cut down and melted into a refrigerator as a punishment. So, she had learned to put on an act of a quiet, yet very hard working tender engine, until she could find a way to do what she wanted.
After all, running over dogs and cats just doesn't give the same excitement it usually did, but then again, doing the same thing for 13 years straight would eventually bore anyone. On a related note, towns and cities along the GNR had reported a total of over 400 missing pets over the course of 13 years as well, but the supposed culprit had never been caught. What a shame.
Anyway, she had finally been able to find an outlet for her desires upon a certain global event known as WORLD WAR 2, where she chose to partake in the war effort to satisfy her bloodlust. The thing is, she chose to serve the Nazis, not for their ideals, but seeing them as the best way for her to finally take up her own personal quest of getting to kill everything and everyone. She was made into a spy, and her work in helping to map out the routes that the other engines were to take for evacuating citizens in Operation Chariot made her an invaluable resource for the Nazis. However, fortune favored the Allies, as Britain was more than prepared to face an assault of this magnitude. In fact, they sent engines with anti-aircraft artillery to work alongside the airforce and the evacuation trains in order to make sure that as few lives as possible would be lost. When the evacuation operations were all over, she would then be put to work with trying to uncover the other strategies of the Allies, but her efforts would be for naught, as the allies would still be able to win WW2, forcing her to cut her ties with Nazis altogether, and whenever she was asked about what her involvement in the second Great War was like, she simply replied, "Just like the normal work life of any engine for me, but more intense and strenuous.".
She led a quiet working life, got to kill some more cats and dogs, and was never caught for her actions in the war. Unfortunately, she had enough of bottling up her desires, and chose to burn down one of the stations she usually stops at for her passenger runs. Everyone in that station almost died, but survived with scars that they would have to carry for years, while Emily would be taken off of service and sentenced to working on the NWR instead, a retirement home/insane asylum for engines who are either old, insane, or both. There, she led an equally productive working life, but with nowhere near the death and destruction of her time on the GNR, since she was not only being watched by the famous eight's military trio, but also has her mind occupied by Percy, who she treats like a two year old still drinking out of a sippy cup, just like Rebecca. Whether or not this treatment comes from a genuine belief is still unknown.
While she is the only engine on the island to have worked for the Nazis, she is not the only engine on the island to have been involved in the military. For instance, take a look at one of the most famous engines of the famous eight, the NWR #1.
Thomas is an LB&SCR E2 class locomotive, which were designed by engineer L.B. Billington, and was built as the last of his kind. He was a part of the second batch of E2's built with extended side tanks in order to increase their water carrying capacity, but would still be plagued with his classes below-average coal capacities, and like his siblings, was unable to handle passenger trains as a result. He had his cheeky attitude at first, and he and his other siblings would lead productive careers as shunters. After the war was over, they kept at their jobs for a good while. Then, World War 2 came about, and Thomas was roped into the horror of the frontlines, his cheeky attitude dying with the very first death he ever witnessed. From there, he had hardened up, and led a very fruitful career, with remarkable events in his career including that time he used a missile to rush past a Japanese battalion, yelling something along the lines of, in fluent Japanese, "Beep Beep Lettuce Motherfuckers" as a distraction, one that worked long enough for other troops to surround them, and take them prisoner.
After the war, he was honorably discharged as a Gunnery Sergeant, receiving a Victoria's Cross and US Medal of Honor. He returns back to his life as a shunter, and for a time, things would stay the same, at least for a time, since a month after World War 2's end, Sir Topham Hatt came to the harbor that Thomas was shunting at, going around with the LB&SCR's controller at the time to look for more engines to act as extra motor power for the Ffarquhar branch line, since Percy was struggling with juggling his duties as Ffarquhar's goods and passenger engine at the same time, often having to pull mixed trains as a result. The green saddle tank engine also had to fulfill his duties as a station pilot for Knapford on top of his assignments to Ffarquhar, and was being run ragged physically and mentally. So, he had been on a search for more engines, with Thomas being the first one shown to him.
The tank engine's shunting capabilities were observed from afar, and while they were quite impressive, he also needed to show his capabilities as a mixed-traffic engine for Ffarquhar as well. So, in order to gauge his performance as a branch line engine, Thomas would be given three coaches, two similar in size to Annie and Clarabel, and a coach similar in size to the extra coach found on Gordon's express, designated for those of his passengers who wanted to go to Ffarquhar from one of his stops. He was also given some spare freight cars as well, which were filled with any extra goods that the dockyard workers could find. He performed quite well, and was able to pull the train with ease, but he could only go so far before he'd need to restock on coal. Sir Topham Hatt told the other controller, as well as Thomas, that he'd need to think about the choice that he would make, and after approximately three days, he came to the decision of buying Thomas, on the condition that he'd agree to modifications of him him by the NWR on Sodor. The tank engine agreed, albeit with a bit of hesitation, as he didn't know what Sir Topham meant by having him be modified, only hoping that these upgrades wouldn't be an inhibitor to his performance.
A few days later, he was loaded onto a boat alongside Toby and Edward, who had also fought on the frontlines as part of the Navy as well, the latter being on the boat in order to return back to his home on Sodor, while the former was also bought as extra motive power for Ffarqhar too. This is because the branch line was to undergo an extension, in order to be able to reach more people, and also gain access to recently discovered pockets of iron and copper. While Toby would simply have his cowcatchers be painted with a light sky blue, Thomas would be put under by green water, an anaesthetic for trains. When he awoke, he found that he had been given two pairs of trailing wheels the size of his driving ones, in order to be able to extend his bunker as far back as they possibly could to increase his coal-carrying capacity. As a result, he became a subclass of E2 tank engines, but not a new steam locomotive type altogether, becoming the first of the LB&SCR & NWR E2-4D class locomotives, or E2-4D's for short. The 4D has two parts and two meanings to each part, with the four standing for the number of trailing wheels added onto an E2, and the D being there since it's the fourth letter of the alphabet. All of Thomas' wheels, trailing and driving, were equally spaced out from each other to maximise the bunker's possible size increase. From that day forward, Thomas led a working career as Ffarquhar's main passenger and goods engine, with the occasional stint as Knapford's shunter, provided he has the time and Percy's out sick, or in the middle of another job. He leads a good life on Sodor, and is at least on amicable terms with a majority of the other engines, but is always on guard whenever Rebecca and Emily are around, especially when they're found with each other.
The next integer after one is two, and just so happens to be the number of our next engine, Edward. Edward is a Furness Railway K2 class steam locomotive, who generally leads the same life he had in canon. The FR's Number 37, he would be fitted with a superheater, but unlike our version of No. 37, he got to keep the superheater instead, since he's non-faceless and could give his opinion on whether or not he wants it to be removed. He was built in 1896, and led a life on the FR that, while it had its downs, was otherwise pleasant, up until he was enlisted in 1916, and into the Royal Navy, staying as part of the military ever since. He often manned the cannons on the ship he was assigned to, but occasionally went in with rail artillery as an infantry engine. He also moved around supplies, soldiers, and even helped with the evacuation of citizens who would often be caught in the crossfire. When the war had finally ended, he went back to work on the Furness Railway, until he was sold to the NWR in 1921.
The beginning lineup is the exact same as what is shown in the beginning of the RWS, but since Eagle doesn't exist, there's instead one of Alfred's siblings, a male B12 class steam engine named Cecil. The three were generally on amicable terms with each other, and while they all had moments of a superiority complex, they were generally reliable steam locomotives. Percy, meanwhile, would take Thomas' place as the first tank engine of the famous 8 to arrive on Sodor, and taught Edward everything he knew about shunting trucks and pulling coaches. The latter was something that Edward already knew, but he did come to greatly benefit under Percy's tutelage. Generally, everything that was supposed to happen to Thomas happens to Percy, and for the most part, the NWR is peaceful. Then, World War 2 happens, and the engines all have to work as hard as they can to keep up with the workload, while avoiding death by either the Kriegsmarine or the Luftwaffe. Edward gets dragged back into the frontlines, while everyone else gets to work supplying the Allies' men with whatever resources they possibly could, and he generally has to go through the same sorts of things that he did in the last war, such as evacuating civilians from possible targets, manning the cannons on the ship he was assigned to, and moving supplies along the rails to other locations. It's there that he meets the NWR #7, that being none other than Toby himself.
Toby also leads a similar life to what he did in canon. He is still one of the GER C53 class steam trams built by James Holden at the GER Stratford Works in, you guessed it Stratford, and he still works at Great Yarmouth Docks with his siblings. He still gets made into a special attraction at a seaside village, but the range is set to somewhere within 1939 through 1942, since 1942 is when he gets enlisted by the Royal Navy. He works in the same unit as Edward, but since he's slower and weaker, he's mostly put to work manning the cannons on the ship that both of them were set to help operate. It's during this time that Edward writes back to his home, both about his experience on the warfront, and the comrades he's made on the warfront as well, particularly Toby, saying how good of a shunter he is, and how much of a help he'd be with the Ffarquhar branch as well. Granted, he's slower and weaker than Percy, but he has a lot of experience with trucks, plus he's got two coaches and a luggage van of his own waiting for him back home. Yes, Edward's praises of Toby, and how useful of an engine he was back home and on the frontlines is what causes him to be moved to the NWR, not him being found by STH on his tramway while he's on a holiday. So, that's how Toby comes to be the NWR #7. Edward, after having gone through not one, but two wars of a global scale, would need to see a psychologist for his mental state, and so Stepney would be enlisted as another station pilot, another engine for the Ffarquhar branch, and a resident therapist for the other locomotives, particularly Edward, and more recently, Thomas.
There were other locomotives who took part in the war effort, like Rosie, Hank, Hiro, and Neville, but they aren't as remarkable as the likes of Thomas, and to a lesser extent, Edward and Toby, but they still deserve a mention. For instance, Rosie actually got together with Thomas as a cover for the shooting range, so whenever she said that they were going out, their commanding officers, subordinates, and equals all knew that meant a lot of things were gonna be blown up. Hank and Thomas had actually met, and the former became the latter's first true friend of the warfront. Neville simply served as a passenger train for soldiers who were returning home from injuries too severe for field medics to handle, so he's not gone through stuff as consistently intense as Thomas, Hank, and Rosie, but he had seen one of his siblings get bombed by the Germans, so he's got his own things to work through too. He's also an Elvis addict as well.
Oh, there is one other major player of the military engines, that being none other than the master of the railway himself, Hiro. Hiro was one of the engines on the side of the Axis, since he was Japanese, but was otherwise as good hearted as an engine can be, and since he was made for heavy goods work and passengers, he often served as an evacuation train, and then became an engine who manned heavy artillery on the frontlines. Unfortunately, he was one of many engines who needed repairs beyond what was possible on the field, and had to be sent to a workshop nearby both Nagasaki and Hiroshima. His repairs were completed after a few months, and he was about to set off on his way, and get back to work, when IT happened. Hiroshima would be the first target of two, and only two, usages of atomic weaponry in combat, then Nagasaki and its populace would be the next victims. A tragic and immediate loss of life, followed by unending agony for its survivors, was what happened, and Hiro would be one of the unlucky few who had to bear witness to it all.
He was never the same since that day, always melancholy and quiet, with an undying hatred of Americans, locomotives and all, for taking the lives of so many civilians, leaving even more to live with diseases and illnesses they received from extreme radiation exposure. He would be sent to Sodor in Japan's attempt at handing an olive branch, and while he held no real hate for the other British locomotives, such as the famous eight's military trio, he was as cold as possible to the Americans. He'd eventually warm up to the likes of Rosie and Porter with the help of Jerry, an E4X locomotive whose origins we will go over later, but is nevertheless a close friend of Hiro's. Hank and Sam saving him from rocketing off the rails after going down Murdoch's Hill with a heavy load of trucks whose brakes had stopped working also helped Hiro to warm up to them as well.
These engines, all having served in the military, would be changed by their experiences, especially compared to their canon counterparts, mostly for the better, but at times, for the worse. Then again, they don't let their pasts stop them from being useful, so the moral of the story is don't let your baggage weigh you down. Rather, work to grow beyond so that you can't be affected by it anymore, allowing for you to become an even better you. Wouldn't you agree?
*Insert American Pearl - Aut
"OH HELL NAW", Thomas yelled.
*Insert Rule Britannia here instead*
