Thomas The Tank Engine and the coming fascism?

[Patrick Thistle]

Re Henry getting walled into the tunnel. There are legends of the "strategic reserve", basically a load of engines that were walled up in abandoned tunnels to protect them from bombing raids, and then forgotten about after World War II. I might be wrong but I have a feeling walling an engine into an unused tunnel was standard practice to mothball it.

[Various Artist]

That's a fantastic thought that they could still be out there somewhere, buried under forgotten hillsides in overgrown cuttings. Aren't there legends of Second World War trains(?) being similarly walled up with hoards of treasure/Nazi gold/whatever on board, somewhere on the continent, and never found to this day either?


In defence of the Rev. Awdry's alleged allegories, meanwhile, I happened to be reading a bunch of stuff online about The Railway Series the other week and by all accounts he (and later his son Christopher) was always dead set on only including stories based around real-life happenings on the railway network. The fact that the flow of new books basically ceased in the early-'90s was largely due to how, with the age of steam long over and with preserved railways having to abide by strict codes of operational probity and safety, the well of incidents to take for inspiration simply dried up.

Oh, and:

He's been renamed in later media as Sir Toppham Hatt

He was first named as Sir Topham Hatt by Awdry in Henry the Green Engine in 1951!

[Levin]

There is a mythical Nazi gold train in Poland.

[Various Artist]

Ahh! Yes, that's exactly the one I must've been thinking of, thanks Levin. I came across mention of it in documentary two or three years ago – thinking about it now, actually, it was probably almost certainly watching one of Michael Portillo's travels by rail.

[Kevin S]

In fairness to Hatt, Percy really is an irritating little twat.

[longeared]

There's allegedly a national strategic reserve of steam locomotives stored somewhere near Box tunnel in Wiltshire - they're retained should we ever experience a war or other national emergency where there's no ability to run diesel or electric trains. This whole theory does fall down a bit when you remember there are shitloads of steam locos kept fully operational and active (well, pre-Covid anyway) on numerous preserved railways around the country.

[Levin]

Well also, no point having all those steam engines if you can't water them.

[Ginger Yellow]

Is there a strategic reserve of steam locomotive engineers?

[ursus arctos]

Hiding in plain sight at heritage railways

[Patrick Thistle]

Oh, and:
He was first named as Sir Topham Hatt by Awdry in Henry the Green Engine in 1951!

Ooh good Thomas knowledge. I think the phrase "Fat Controller" (originally Fat Director) has been edited out of the books now.

At secondary school we had a dinner lady nicknamed the Fat Controller. (And another one nicknamed Hitler.)

[3 Colours Red]

Didn't every school have a dinner lady nicknamed Hitler?

[Capybara]

Ours didn't. Hitler was the school 'bus driver. He lived round the corner from my grandmother.

[3 Colours Red]

Our bus driver was nicknamed Beavis because he had a blond quiff and massive forehead. He also spoke like an alien who had been badly trained in human behaviour - instead of saying "who's lit a match?" if someone was trying to sneak a crafty cigarette, he'd go "... I smell ...phosphorussssssss".

[pebblethefish]

Our school bus driver was called Big Fat Slobso.

One of the Famous Five books revolves around a walled up train that is secretly used by smugglers, until our intrepid adventurers foil the dastardly villains.

[Eggchaser]

I was upset as a kid that Toad was sent to prison for 20 years for repeated instances of reckless driving.

I often wonder whether Toad was just a twat or whether he was suffering from some undiagnosed mental health issues. I know that the character was very much intertwined with the problems Kenneth Grahame's son had.

[Come along, Min]

my school bus driver was called Les

[Nefertiti2]

Oliver Postgate co-creator of Ivor the Engine came from a well known socialist family

His aunt Margaret Cole (1893–1980) was married in 1918 to the socialist economist and writer G. D. H. Cole. his father Raymond Postgate (1896 –1971) was a socialist journalist and editor, who founded The Good Food Guide.

His mother Daisy Lansbury (1892–1971), daughter of, and secretary to, the politician George Lansbury (1859–1940) who led the Labour Party from 1932 to 1935,

[Benjm]

He was Angela Lansbury's cousin. She shares the family political orientation too.

[Patrick Thistle]

Oliver Postgate co-creator of Ivor the Engine came from a well known socialist family

His aunt Margaret Cole (1893–1980) was married in 1918 to the socialist economist and writer G. D. H. Cole. his father Raymond Postgate (1896 –1971) was a socialist journalist and editor, who founded The Good Food Guide.

His mother Daisy Lansbury (1892–1971), daughter of, and secretary to, the politician George Lansbury (1859–1940) who led the Labour Party from 1932 to 1935,

I've read his autobiography. He was a conscientious objector in World War II. He also was a speaker for CND and used to tour the country showing the last episode of the Clangers that was never broadcast which featured the Clangers engaging in some kind of arms race that resulted in them blowing up their planet.

Tbh he's a bit of a hero of mine.

Noggin the Nog was ace as well. With Noggin, Ivor, Bagpuss and the Clangers his creative legacy is second to none imo.

[Stumpy Pepys]

I think assigning adult values to children's programmes is a bit of a rabbit-hole (don't start me off on Paw Patrol).

[Patrick Thistle]

I disagree. I think we need to be more critical of media aimed at children because of what children absorb as "normal" and how it socialises them. Disney movies have been rightly called out for making princesses dependent on male rescuers and have reversed that trope recently (leading to much better stories all round imo).

[jason voorhees]

Didn't every school have a dinner lady nicknamed Hitler?

We had Yoda. One grade named her "Chewie".

[Gangster Octopus]

Do dinner ladies still say "woe betide"?

[Patrick Thistle]

Going back to the scrapyard storyline, another way of looking at that is Awdry was trying to elicit sympathy for these lovely pieces of engineering that were being sold en masse to breakers in one of the great industrial swings of the mid 20th century. It's not unlike Dara O'Briain's bit about diggers being left in house foundations or the channel tunnel machines being bricked up and left. We are meant to feel horrified at the fate awaiting these engines in a bid to preserve them from being cut up and lost forever.

[Guy Profumo]

In the books I read 40+ years ago, there was also a Thin Controller, who I remember as a nasty piece of work, unlike the Fat one, who was firm but sort of fair.

They were just The Railway Stories then, Thomas didn't get star billing, in fact I remember James, Henry, Edward more than him. And Gordon the express, who I liked although he was stuck up and wouldn't pull dirty carriages.

The (complaining, difficult) carriages were all female, weren't they? It's about gender politics as well as fascism.

The Thin Controller ran the narrow gauge railway, didn't he?