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Heyday of the NWR, Part 1
Written and Researched by BNSF1995
Proofread and Corrected by Broa Island
On September 1, 1914, under the auspices of an Act of Parliament, Sodor's two major standard-gauge railways (the Tidmouth, Wellsworth, and Suddery Railway, and the Sodor & Mainland Railway) were merged to form the North Western Railway. Feelings on this action were mixed, with many welcoming the move, while others saw it as a waste of time, money, and resources, especially when surveyors discovered the Hawin Ab valley.
Passengers were also concerned that new management would come in and make unnecessary timetable changes. Their fears were allayed when former TW&S chief engineer Topham Hatt was unanimously voted to be Director of the North Western Railway. With his portly figure, he quickly became known to sentient and non-faceless vehicles (and their crews) as The Fat Director, a title he thought was an accurate description given his legendary appetite.
The combined railway stood separated, and wartime rationing did little to help. Construction began on January 4, 1915 to connect the two railways, a task carried out by what was then known as the Western Division (which comprised the old TK&E and W&S lines). Aside from the Hawin Ab valley, crews also had to deal with a rather steep hill. At a gradient of 1:75, and a climb of 280 feet, it remains one of the steepest railway grades in the United Kingdom. At the time of its construction, it was known as the Preston Incline, after W&S founder Nathaniel Preston.
After the hill, it was a straight shot to Maron, a small village that was due to become a major junction for the mainline. After reaching Maron, construction on two additional routes began, one a branch line, the other a secondary route. The branch line was built toward Ulfstead to serve the various farms, though it ultimately only attracted a single farm, this being the High Farm. The secondary route, meanwhile, came to be known as the Main Line Loop, and serves the towns of Killaban and Cabalnoo. The line attracted a major goods client in Sodor Flour Mills. The next station was at Killdane, which was already served by the short-lived Killdane & Cronk Light Railway (K&CLR), which was operated by a single non-faceless engine named Joey (who also carried the number 13). After the Western Division reached Killdane, the K&CLR protested the extension and attempted to block construction, but ultimately, an Act of Parliament saw the small railway and its infrastructure absorbed into the NWR. Joey saw the NWR as a blight upon Killdane, and to that end, attempted to run a construction train pulled by Kate off the rails, but failed and fell off the Hawin Ab viaduct to an explosive death.
After Killdane, the railway passed through the hamlets of Balladrine and Kellaby en route to the connection with the Eastern Division at Kellsthorpe Road. This connection was achieved on November 11, 1918, the same day the Great War concluded. At last, Sodor's two railways were one.
A year before the connection was made, the Eastern Division saw the construction of a Schertzer Rolling Lift Bridge over the Walney Channel, connecting Vicarstwon to the Furness Railway station at Barrow-In-Furness, and achieving the S&Ms dream for a mainland connection. It also connected the NWR to the larger British railway network.
1916 saw the addition of several more lines on the western side of Sodor. The biggest of them all was the Arlesburgh Branch Line, which travelled up the coast from Tidmouth to Arlesburgh, where it made the connection with the Mid-Sodor Railway. Arlesburgh also had a harbor, thus giving the NWR no less than five dockyards, at Knapford, Tidmouth, Arlesburgh, Brendam, and Kirk Ronan. Another line built during this period was the Loop Line, which split off at Crosby, serving one of the only coal fields on Sodor, before connecting with the former TK&E mainline at Elsbridge, then going west to Tidmouth, thus forming a circular route. In later years, the Loop Line would be nicknamed "The Beltway".
It was on the Arlesburgh Branch Line that the NWR gained a connection with the last independent standard-gauge railway on Sodor, the Sodor Tramway. Built in 1902, the line ran between Bluff's Cove and Chibbyr Ulf, and was originally operated by a faceless GER Class C15, which was sold in 1914 upon the formation of the NWR. The Sodor Tramway, which suffered from gross mismanagement in its final years, was annexed by the NWR in 1915, now run by Glynn.
Existing lines were extended, as well. The former TK&E mainline to Elsbridge and Hackenbeck was extended to the quarry town of Ffarquhar in 1915, followed shortly thereafter by an extension to Ulfstead, where the line connected to the Sodor Tramway. It was also at Ffarquhar that a quarry tramway was built up to the stone quarries at Anopha. 1918 saw the opening of the Sodor China Clay Works west of Brendam. Initially, the clay pits had no dedicated shunter, and engines had to marshal their own trains.
The NWR had inherited a mixed bag of locomotives, from box tanks and a coffee pot, to a motley crew of locomotives acquired second-hand from other railways such as the L&YR, LBSCR, GNR, and LSWR. The notion that the NWR had borrowed seven locomotives from the Midland Railway simply isn't true, made up by the Awdrys to pad out the railways' early numbers. The NWR was in need of new locomotives, and fast, in anticipation of the connection with the mainland that would certainly herald a crush of traffic. To that end, in 1915, the first locomotive acquisitions were made under the combined network, one of whom would go on to become the single-most famous locomotive in the world:
Thomas the Tank Engine!
Everything you thought you knew about Thomas is WRONG. For one, he has never been, and never will be, a cheeky engine. Of all the E2 tank engines, Thomas and his sister Jenny were the best-behaved of the bunch, the others being a bunch of immature hooligans who frequently complained about their lot in life (all of the E2s were non-faceless). Thomas, from the day of his First Firing, was a very mature, professional, yet kind and compassionate engine, same with Jenny. The bigger engines respected him, and he was often a peacemaker in the sheds. It got to the point that other tank engines and even some of the larger tender engines saw him as de facto leader of the engines in shed. When the NWR tendered offers for locomotives, LBSCR management decided to send Thomas to Sodor, mainly because the other E2s were bullying him for "kissing up to the big engines", and they felt he deserved better for all his hard work. This proved to be a bad decision for the LBSCR, as operating efficiency at London Bridge station (where Thomas was allocated) fell sharply in an event known as the "E2 Rebellion", which didn't stop until Jenny put them in their place, and troublemakers were banished to Southampton Docks, where they spent the rest of their careers before falling victim to the Steam Holocaust in 1964 (the Steam Holocaust is a story for another day, but I think you already know what it entails). As the one who put an end to the trouble, Jenny got to stay at London Bridge, but was transferred to Southampton Docks once the other E2s began acting up again.
Upon his arrival on Sodor, Thomas expected to be put to work as a station pilot, only to be told by the Fat Director that the newly-extended Ffarquhar Branch Line was in need of an engine to run passenger services, and as part of the second order of E2s, he fit the bill perfectly. After being repainted to NWR Blue, Thomas was introduced to Annie and Clarabel, the only non-faceless S&M bogie coaches, and to this day, has remained on the Ffarquhar Branch Line.
Edward came on the same ship as Thomas, where they immediately hit it off, bonding over difficulties with immature hooligan engines. Edward was repainted at the same time as Thomas, and put to work in mixed-traffic service on the mainline.
The two were welcomed by the other engines with open arms. Edward struck up a friendship with Eagle and Neil, while Thomas naturally fell in with Preston and Yang, who had also come from the LBSCR, and also immediately hit it off with Emily. But even then, the NWR still needed more motive power to meet demand, leading Topham Hatt to make a dangerous gamble in 1919. But that's a story for another day...