MOD: 70 Years of the Railway Series - The Fat Controller's Engines

[Sir E Fullner]

Hello, all. It has been a very long time since I have started a new topic in Eurobricks, what with university and all, but this new creation of mine just deserves mentioning. This year, coming May 12, will mark seventy years since the publish date of the first Railway Series book by the Rev. W. Awdry: The Three Railway Engines. In honor of this auspicious occasion, I have decided to build in LDD the first eight of The Fat Conroller's engines, getting inspiration from real-life engines, the illustrations of the books, and some features of the TV series. So, without further ado, may I present to you Thomas the Tank Engine, Edward the Blue Engine, Henry the Green Engine, Gordon the Big Engine, James the Red Engine, Percy the Small Engine, Toby the Tram Engine, and Duck the Great Western Engine!

Making these engines took a little over a month, starting with Thomas and ending with Gordon. Also included are Thomas' coaches Annie and Clarabel, and Toby's carriage Henrietta and baggage van Elsie. All of the engines are able to couple up with each other, and feature enough cab room to accommodate a full engine crew. The easiest of the engines to construct was Toby, but by far the hardest was Gordon. Thankfully, his class of locomotive is extremely close to that of the Emerald Night, and with a spare model around to tinker with, I eventually found a good boiler shape. Duck was slightly difficult, being a Great Western Pannier tank, and I am more or less content with the design. More pictures of the engines up close can be found at this link: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=555289

For more information on the Railway Series' seventy year history, please visit http://www.sodor-island.net/

As usual, any comments, criticisms, or questions are quite welcome. Thank you for looking!

Always entertaining, always inspiring, always:

[zephyr1934]

That collection is fantastic and well fitting for the fine occasion, great work!

[ScotNick]

You have some great models and you're right that we have to celebrate this anniversary!

I especially like Edward and James, which look more realistic than their TV-series counterparts.

I myself have designed some Thomas engines some time ago and will improve them for this occasion. May I post my models in this thread as well?

[Pizzareno]

This is fantastic This is great to see. I have been a Railway Series fan for nearly 30 years. I sometimes wonder if people remember or know where Thomas originally came from. This young generation watching the CGI stuff on TV are watching, in my opinion, a different character to the one in the books.

Can I make just one small suggestion? Yes? Thank you. Gordon's buffers are oblong or square, not round But this is a super collection of models you have built here. Do you have a LDD file you are willing to share?

[Sir E Fullner]

You have some great models and you're right that we have to celebrate this anniversary!

I especially like Edward and James, which look more realistic than their TV-series counterparts.

I myself have designed some Thomas engines some time ago and will improve them for this occasion. May I post my models in this thread as well?

Fine by me.

This is fantastic This is great to see. I have been a Railway Series fan for nearly 30 years. I sometimes wonder if people remember or know where Thomas originally came from. This young generation watching the CGI stuff on TV are watching, in my opinion, a different character to the one in the books.

Can I make just one small suggestion? Yes? Thank you. Gordon's buffers are oblong or square, not round But this is a super collection of models you have built here. Do you have a LDD file you are willing to share?

The LDD file is located in the Brickshelf link, and now that I think about it, Gordon does have square buffers. Oops!

[ScotNick]

So here are my models, I made the pics smaller to not spoil your thread entirely

Here are most of the Thomas and friends models I designed, only the last two aren't my own work, but rather copied - I just wanted to include them to show you what is possible

Some engines are based more on their TV-series model, others were based on their real-life counterpart, but I tried to make all look somehow realistic (I tried )

Here are engines 1-11

Here are some other engines I designed

And two buses I made:

The next 2 designs aren't my designs - they were both designed by Carl Greatrix, the lxf for the LNER A4 was once here on Eurobricks, and the Terrier is also his work, I just copied his engine into LDD (nearly 1:1)

Edited April 22, 2015 by ScotNick

[Sir E Fullner]

Here are most of the Thomas and friends models I designed, only the last two aren't my own work, but rather copied - I just wanted to include them to show you what is possible

Some engines are based more on their TV-series model, others were based on their real-life counterpart, but I tried to make all look somehow realistic (I tried )

Not too bad. The Edward, Henry, and Gordon models, in my opinion, look slightly too infantile, but I would like to admit that I borrowed a bit of your Toby and Henrietta design in my creation.

[GSD Jerrys]

wow to both of you. Those trains look really nice. Anyone mind sharing lxf files.

[Steph 104th]

Really wonderful creations!

I loved the franchise as a child and it still holds a special place in my heart, and I love how you did it justice.

Duck was my favourite and I love how you recreated him.

[Sir E Fullner]

wow to both of you. Those trains look really nice. Anyone mind sharing lxf files.

You can find the lxf file in the Brickshelf link I placed in the original post.

[GSD Jerrys]

Ok thanks alot

[Sir E Fullner]

Well, just in time for the 70th anniversary I got my own collection of the Railway Series stories.

I think I might make some more RWS-inspired MOCs in the next few weeks...

[Murdoch17]

Well, just in time for the 70th anniversary I got my own collection of the Railway Series stories.

SNIP

I think I might make some more RWS-inspired MOCs in the next few weeks...

I had that book when i was little! I read it so many times the covers fell off, and then the book eventually split into five sections. Same thing happened to my Great Book of Trains paperback...

Great models by the way!

Edited May 5, 2015 by Murdoch17

[locoworks]

nice work. annoyingly Gordon is an A3 but they only gave him a 6 wheel tender!! should be 8.

[Pizzareno]

nice work. annoyingly Gordon is an A3 but they only gave him a 6 wheel tender!! should be 8.

Have a look at this page - http://www.pegnsean....ries/gordon.htm And if you scroll down to the "Fandom Corner" and click through and look at the kit bashing done by Gavin Rose it all explains quite nicely why Gordon has a 3 axle tender rather than 4.

Or just check out this page - http://www.pegnsean....avin-gordon.htm

But it shows that he wasn't purely an A3. He wasn't purely anything by the looks of it. But very interesting nonetheless.

Edited May 5, 2015 by Pizzareno

[Sir E Fullner]

But it shows that he wasn't purely an A3. He wasn't purely anything by the looks of it. But very interesting nonetheless.

In fact, the Rev. W Awdry placed Gordon's basis on the prototype A1/A3 Pacifics. A good reason why the Fat Conroller got him cheap.

[monai]

Very nice projects indeed, but have you produced something real up to now? We are fan of Sodor railways since my son Eros (7 y.o.) discovered them on tv, here is the result:

http://www.brickshel...ry.cgi?f=546967

with our best compliments

Sergio and Eros

Edited May 6, 2015 by monai

[Sir E Fullner]

Very nice projects indeed, but have you produced something real up to now? We are fan of Sodor railways since my son Eros (7 y.o.) discovered them on tv, here is the result:

http://www.brickshel...ry.cgi?f=546967

with our best compliments

Sergio and Eros

For the parts used, those are some excellent MOCs, slightly reminiscent of the old TOMY Thomas and Friends sets.

[THERIZE]

So here are my models, I made the pics smaller to not spoil your thread entirely

Here are most of the Thomas and friends models I designed, only the last two aren't my own work, but rather copied - I just wanted to include them to show you what is possible

Some engines are based more on their TV-series model, others were based on their real-life counterpart, but I tried to make all look somehow realistic (I tried )

Here are engines 1-11

Here are some other engines I designed

And two buses I made:

The next 2 designs aren't my designs - they were both designed by Carl Greatrix, the lxf for the LNER A4 was once here on Eurobricks, and the Terrier is also his work, I just copied his engine into LDD (nearly 1:1)

I love your design for Bil/Ben but the model looks 'tall'. Just because their real life counterparts are twice as small as a normal steam locomotive.