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Nationalization

Written and Researched by BNSF1995

Proofread and Corrected by Broa Island

In early 1947, the engines of Sodor began hearing rumblings of big changes to Britain's rail network, in that the Big Four were going to be rolled into one company owned and operated by the government. In other words: nationalization. They already knew that the mail and coal industries were going to be nationalized as Royal Mail and the National Coal Board, respectively, and now, it seemed, so were the railways, which were now utterly bankrupt. The North Western Railway wasn't bankrupt at all, remaining the strong link in the national network, and tourism on the Culdee Fell Railway was picking up. However, the Skarloey Railway was experiencing hard times now that they were down to Rheneas, and the Mid-Sodor Railway had already shut down and been ripped up by scrappers.

Their worst fears were realized on August 6, 1947, when the Transport Act 1947 (c. 49) was passed by Parliament, authorizing the nationalization of the railways, as well as road haulage and buses. The new nationalized network was to be called "British Railways", with the network split into multiple regions:

* Southern Region, consisting of all former SR lines (that is until some of those lines broke off from BR to form the London & Kent Despondos)

* Western Region, consisting of all former GWR lines

* London Midland Region, consisting of all former LMS lines in England and Wales

* Eastern Region, consisting of all former LNER lines south of York

* North Eastern Region, consisting of all former LNER lines north of York in England

* Scottish Region, consisting of all lines in Scotland regardless of original company

* North Western Region, consisting of all former NWR lines (the original plan was for Sodor to be annexed by the London Midland Region, but this fell through due to strong pushback by the NWR)

In addition, the myriad of joint railways were also nationalized, as were several minor and light railways; the narrow gauge Vale of Rheidol Railway (which by this point was catering primarily to tourists) was also affected by nationalization, while other narrow gauge lines still in existence at the time including the Talyllyn Railway, Corris Railway, Bala Lake Railway, and Skarloey Railway remained independent.

On January 1, 1948, British Railways was officially formed. The North Western Railway became the North Western Region of British Railways, Sir Topham Hatt became the regional controller (and as a result became known as The Fat Controller), and that was about it. Operations in the region didn't change at all, and it was business as usual for the Sudrian engines.

In 1949, Topham Hatt was contacted by former Chief Mechanical Engineer of the SR Oliver Bulleid and invited to Brighton. Bulleid wanted the North Western Region to be the testing ground for new locomotive designs and had him choose three locomotives to test.

The first was a non-faceless SR Leader Class locomotive named William. He proved to be an embarrassing failure (through no fault of his own), resulting in the Leader program being scrapped. William himself, though, was donated to the upstart Vicarstown Railway Museum being built at the old Vicarstown Sheds site. He is still there to this day.

The second was a non-faceless diesel, numbered 11001 and named Dennis. Initially, he was lazy and rude, but unlike other engines in the past, learned his lesson and changed for good. After his behavioural issues were ironed out, attention was next turned to his poor brakes, which, too, were fixed. After the trials were complete, Topham opted to keep Dennis as a utility engine, becoming the first diesel on Sodor.

The third locomotive proved to be a smashing success. An SR Q1 named Neville, his first impression was that he was loud. Very loud. Like Brian Blessed loud. This was because he had to talk loudly to make himself heard during the war. He was warmly received by every engine and proved to be a reliable worker aside from his tender brakes, which were fixed. He, too, was kept by Hatt as a utility engine.

1950 saw Preston and his autocoaches return to Sodor as part of the Vicarstown Railway Museum. The next year, Glynn disappeared without a trace, with rumours stating he was hidden away by Hatt after BR tried to make up non-existent issues to justify giving him the Final Firing, since he was the one vertical boiler locomotive in service on the entire network.

1951 also saw a new locomotive added to the roster. Thomas had been ticketed by an overzealous police constable, who claimed he was a danger to the public for running next to public roads without side plates or cowcatchers. This law had been repealed by the Ministry of Transportation years ago, but the constable didn't care, being too eager to impress his boss. Sir Topham Hatt had met a steam tram while on vacation to East Anglia and had met a non-faceless engine on the Wisbech and Upwell Tramway.

The locomotive, a J70 tram named Toby, was immediately bought after he had become surplus due to the sharp decline in goods traffic. Along with his coach Henrietta and luggage van Elsie, Toby was welcomed with open arms by Thomas, who could now focus on his passenger runs full-time. Not only was Toby put in charge of the line to Anopha Quarry, he also took charge of the Sodor Tramway, which was short a locomotive after Glynn disappeared.

In 1953, Sodor had its biggest day in the limelight thus far when recently-coronated Queen Elizabeth II visited Sodor.

The next major event occurred in 1954, when Topham Hatt stepped down as controller of the North Western Region, and gave control to his son, Sir Charles Topham Hatt II. Hatt I passed away in his sleep on September 22, 1956 at the age of 76 and was given a state funeral by Sodor.

1955 saw another addition to the roster. Percy was becoming overworked as the Knapford station pilot, leading Charles Hatt to conclude a larger tank engine was needed. Percy was therefore promoted to the primary goods engine on the Ffarquhar Branch Line, much to Thomas' delight, while the new tank engine took over.

The new engine turned out to be a non-faceless GWR 57xx named Montague, though everyone called him Duck because uneven track at Paddington had made it look like he waddled; he prefers Duck. His arrival proved to be a godsend to Knapford, as he could not only shunt trains faster than Percy, he could pull longer cuts of wagons, and was so efficient he could often be found taking trains of empty wagons between Knapford and Tidmouth when the yards at either station became too full.

Duck wasn't the only engine who came to Sodor in 1955. A non-faceless Claud Hamilton named Molly also arrived on Sodor the same day to work various passenger services, including the Wild Nor' Wester on occasion.

In the months before the formation of BR, the NWR formed a consortium with A.W. Dry & Co. to form the Sodor China Clay Co. Created to better exploit the largely untapped source of china clay in the hills west of Brendam, the company greatly expanded the pits, and thus needed more tracks. This proved to be a massive payday for the NWR, as traffic hit critical mass, and with no dedicated shunter at the pits, backlogs piled up.

Bill and Ben, the tank engine twins, arrived from W.F. Bagnall in 1948, and quickly proved to be a handful, as they were a pair of pranksters. Their prankish nature, though, is often exaggerated for the sake of storytelling, as they only joke around on their off time, being professional shunters otherwise.

In 1956, Charles Hatt received a letter from a boy in London inquiring as to whether Sodor was real. He announced he would be taking engines 1-8 (Thomas, Edward, Henry, Gordon, James, Percy, Toby, and Duck), as well as Annie, Clarabel, Henrietta, and Elsie, to an exhibition in London. To that end, eight engines were borrowed from the mainland to fill in for them. These engines (who were all non-faceless (of course)) were a LMS 3F Jinty (who was rather creatively named Jinty), a ECR C Class named Megan, a SR S15 named Harrison, a LNER J39 named Allison, a non-faceless LMS Kitson named Pug, a GWR 4574 Class named Benjamin, a BR 4MT named Belle, and Jenny, who had previously visited Sodor during World War II.

After the main eight engines returned to Sodor, the substitutes returned to the mainland. Except one.

Belle, as it turns out, had been built specifically for the North Western Region, becoming the first locomotive who wasn't acquired second-hand or via mergers. As you might have guessed, Belle is a passenger engine, NOT a firefighting engine, having been made so by HiT Entertainment because they wanted a gimmicky character to merchandise; NWR officials do not endorse this portrayal, and have made it a point to sell Belle toys with the water cannons removed.

1957 marked a rude awakening for Sodor, when BR forced a Class D3/2 shunter on Charles Hatt to hopefully convince him diesel traction was inherently superior to steam. The non-faceless locomotive was named Bruce, but he went by Diesel. Upon his arrival, he attempted to pull a train of old wagons out of a siding, but their brakes were hard on, and they derailed. After witnessing this, the non-faceless wagons at Tidmouth Harbor at the time began singing a song to the tune of "Pop Goes the Weasel", aptly titled "Pop Goes the Diesel". Diesel thought Duck had done this on purpose, and began making plans to have him sent away, preferably for scrap. And so, he set to work, spreading lies amongst the trucks that Duck had been making malicious nicknames for the engines, such as "Galloping Sausage" for Gordon, "Rusty Red Scrap Iron" for James, "Old Square Wheels" for Henry, "Garden Shed on Wheels" for Toby, and "Little Black Riding Hood" for Ruby. While Toby and Ruby saw right through these lies, Gordon, James, and Henry bought them hook, line, and sinker, and refused to let Duck into Tidmouth Sheds one day. Charles Hatt heard both sides of the story, and immediately concluded Diesel was lying, but didn't want to say it in front of the others lest the big engines go on strike again. So, he pretended to side with Diesel and "punish" Duck by sending him away to Wellsworth to lull Diesel into a false sense of security.

Diesel thought his plan to dieselize Sodor was working, so next he began telling lies about Henry. However, he was soon confronted by Charles Hatt.

Hatt sent Diesel packing, but Diesel refused to leave, screaming his "head" off at Hatt and ranting about his plan to send steam locomotives, including the non-faceless ones, to extinction for being expensive, dirty, and overall inferior to diesels, going as far as to state he would kill Hatt and make it look like an accident so a more progressive controller could replace him.

Unfortunately for Diesel, Thomas, Percy, Ruby, and Yang were hiding around the harbor and surrounded him. Thomas and Percy took issue with Diesel insulting Toby, while Yang was utterly pissed that he would say such things about her surrogate sister.

It was at this moment, Diesel knew... he fucked up.

Diesel was sent back to the mainland in disgrace and served a full thirty-day sentence in Rail Gate for intimidation of a human and conspiring to instigate the genocide of non-faceless steam locomotives by framing. Duck, meanwhile, became a hero when he stopped a runaway goods train from crashing into a passenger train pulled by Belle at Crosby, crashing into a barber shop that had inconveniently been built at the end of one of the yard tracks normally used for exchanging open wagons to and from the Coaling Plant on the Loop Line. Nobody was hurt, yet the barber cared more that Duck had frightened his customers and lathered his face with shaving cream. After learning the truth, the barber apologized, and Charles Hatt informed Duck that Diesel had been sent to Rail Gate. After being mended at Crovan's Gate Works, there was a rousing welcome for him, and he resumed his position as Knapford station pilot.

In 1959, rising traffic levels saw Charles Hatt request the transfer of a locomotive from the mainland. BR authorized the request and dispatched a Caledonian 812 from the Scottish Region. Hatt, though, got a nasty surprise when two 812s showed up. The non-faceless locomotives stated they were twins named Donald and Douglas and had "lost" their numbers en route from Corkerhill Depot. What they didn't say was that this was all a daring plan to escape their controller, who was a cruel modernist who had already scrapped many of their brothers and sisters alive, in direct violation of the law.

The two were numbered 9 and 10, but they didn't receive nameplates. One day, after Donald accidentally shunted a through coach off the Wild Nor' Wester usually left at the bay platform for Thomas' 2:00 PM service to Ulfstead, he and Douglas swapped tenders, but Charles Hatt was on to them. Then, Donald crashed into a signal box at Tidmouth due to oily rails, after which Hatt stated he would be sending Douglas back to Corkerhill. Douglas soon proved his worth when he smashed an old non-faceless NWR brake van named Dominic while banking James' goods train up the Preston Incline, which left Hatt in a state of confusion, as he now had two very capable mixed-traffic locomotives on Sodor, but only asked for one.

By winter, the twins proved their worth in the snow after rescuing Henry, who had become trapped while pulling a suburban train. The engines, not wanting either of the twins to be sent back into the brewing storm on the mainland, sent Percy as a deputation to convince Charles Hatt not to send either back to certain death. Hatt did not appreciate the his engines meddling in his decision-making, but he had just returned from a meeting on the mainland where he found out many controllers were scrapping their non-faceless steam locomotives alive, and that night, announced his intention to keep both Donald and Douglas, and repaint them in NWR Blue. Since then, they have become the chief utility engines, serving as de facto leader of the other utility engines.

1961 saw Sodor's second diesel addition. Thomas had a bizarre accident after a cleaner moved his controls from neutral to make it look like he had done his job, and did so while Thomas was under steam, stripping him of his ability to control himself. Thomas ended up crashing into the Ffarquhar stationmasters' house, where his wife was more concerned about her breakfast being ruined than the fact a 56-ton tank engine nearly killed her and her family. Following the incident, Charles Hatt did NOT blame Thomas, even stating he would have to be insane to do so and sent him to Crovan's Gate Works to have his front mended, while at the same time finally rectifying his running plate.

In the meantime, BR had forced another diesel on him, this time an experimental single-car version of the Metro-Cammell DMU that was becoming common on the mainland. The non-faceless railcar, named Daisy, arrived two days after Thomas' crash (in the interim, Kate had done Thomas' passenger services), and soon became a headache, as she opted to sleep in the carriage shed, insulted Annie, Clarabel, Henrietta, and Elsie, and the next day, on her first run, refused to pull a milk van, claiming that her fitter said pulling was "bad for her swerves" (to this day, it's still debated as to what she meant by "swerves"). She did whatever she wanted and pawned the milk vans and tankers off on Percy, who had to take them to St. Pedroc Dairy at Toryreck on top of his regular daily pickup goods to and from Knapford Harbor.

Daisy also had a run-in with a bull, and was about to be sent back to the mainland before she assisted in cleaning up an accident involving Percy demolishing a brake van and ending up perched atop a truck after a workman overloaded the trucks at Anopha Quarry (by this time, the constable who ticketed Thomas had been transferred to Wellsworth for enforcing a law that had been repealed in 1949 saying cars couldn't be parked along the streets on Sunday, and to that end, ticketed every car around the church... including the police sergeant's). Daisy was given a second chance, and proved herself to be a reliable, if snarky, worker, who now willingly takes the milk wagons, though this practice stopped in 1977 when she was refitted with a compartment for milk churns.

As the 1960s began, so did the optimism of the decade. But it would all come crashing down for the engines of Sodor in 1963, when the British Transport Commission was dissolved and replaced by the British Railways Board, bringing with it an increase in the withdrawal of steam locomotives on the mainland, and the coming of Dr. Richard Beeching. Thankfully, in the infamous Beeching Report, Beeching had nothing but good things to say about the North Western Region, calling it the most profitable part of the network thanks to the poor road conditions and being the breadbasket of the British Isles. Only two branch lines were closed under the report, these being the Norramby Branch (due to the harbor having been bombed out during WWII) and Kirk Ronan Branch (as the Kirk Ronan Shipyards had been shut down due to stiff competition from John Brown & Company, not to mention local fishing industry having been dealt a fatal blow by new local environmental laws severely limiting the amount of fish that could be caught each month), while the remaining branch lines were actually recommended for further development, a rarity in the report.

But while the North Western Region had been spared the worst of the Beeching Axe, they would soon learn of the atrocities being committed against non-faceless steam locomotives on the mainland…

In an event now known as the Steam Holocaust...