I can sort of understand giving the engines sentience, but why

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And when they scrap one, what happens with the face? Do they cut it off, and that's what kills the engine? Or do they just cut the engine up ignoring the face, and at some point the engine will succumb to it's injuries and die? And then what happens to the faces? Are they flesh? Do they bury them somewhere or burn them? Are they metal? Do they melt them down too?
WHERE is the sentience of the engine? Is it contained entirely within the face itself? Is there a brain and shit behind it protruding into the boiler area?

I haven't seen a shed 17 thread in ages.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=462KBuAhncU

>>88310259

Telephone

>>88310363
I'm not talking about fanfic. I'm talking real Thomas canon.

>>88310259
Th trucks are just fucking planks of wood on wheels. What would happen if some cargo cracked one of the wooden boards behind their face, would their brains leak out?
I love overthinking shows like Thomas, this shit is so fucked up.

>>88310259
They look like member berrys

>>88311480
Look up S.C. Ruffey

>>88310294

The humans don't see the faces, so they cut them up into scrap as if there wasn't a face.

At some point the engine "dies", I guess whenever it doesn't resemble an engine anymore.

The real question is if they feel pain.

What if it's all in the Fat Controller's head?

>he wants us to pull up the rails and brick in the tunnel again, he said the big green one was rude to him again

>>88310259
As Thomas autist, let me give you a serous answer OP. Basically, in the books - which the TV series is based off of - EVERY piece of rolling stock (trucks, coaches, etc) is sentient. Same goes for vehicles, cars boats and so on. The TV series doesn't give them all faces because it would have saved money on face molds, I guess. (In the newer, CGI seasons, it's becoming more common for coaches to be given faces too).

Given this, I assume it's not so much that the manufacturers GIVE them sentience, but that all vehicles NATURALLY have sentience in the Thomas universe, for whatever reason. The author's original idea was for only engines & vehicles on the island of Sodor to have faces, and everywhere else not - but this was later changed. If that had been the case that would imply the island itself is magic, but as it stands, it just seems to be a law of physics in their world that no-one questions.

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>>88312027
(con't)

>>88310294
Engines and rolling stock are only ever mentioned to possess the mechanical parts that any normal one in "our world" would; there is never mention of brains or other organs.

I believe that the face is simply part of the magic, in that any engine that is alive has one, and when they die it disappears. Scrapped engine parts have been seen without a face, implying they are dead, but in the case of http://ttte.wikia.com/wiki/Stanley_(narrow_gauge) even though it was repurposed into something other than a steam engine - it still functioned, and was therefore still 'alive' - the face remained.

Although, curiously, there was once an incident when an engine that was hit in the eye with a tree branch had to wear an eyepatch for a while (see pic) as well as one machine which had a face but also wore glasses. Which would imply that their eyes to some extent function as other organic beings' do.

>>88310363
What is it with TTE autists making edgy and creepy shit like this? Nearly all thomas fan stuff I see is creepy as shit.

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>>88312390
Because like >>88311480 said, the more you overthink Thomas the more fucked up it all seems

>>88311890
They do indeed feel pain, mentioned a number of times in the books whenever an engine experiences some kind of mechanical problems

One of the worst has to be pic related, a coupling rod came loose and swung up into the engine's boiler, cracking it
The human equivalent would be like a leg bone somehow breaking free and stabbing you in the abdomen

>>88312445
Fair enough I guess. Learns me to not google shit like this again.

>>88310363
still waiting on the sequel

>>88312027
>>88312136
>>88312445
this autism pleases me

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>>88313692
If anyone cares, I shall use my autism to post some of the series' darker moments. Pic related is S. C. Ruffey, a truck that was literally torn apart, and unlike the TV series he wasn't rebuilt.


The thing about TTTE is that although vehicles are sentient, they're still treated as callously as people treat vehicles IRL. If they can't do the job they were built for, they are abandoned or scrapped. People don't have sympathy for machines that don't work. This is why being a "really useful engine" is so important.

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The episode "Thomas comes to Breakfast" where Thomas crashes through the wall of a house. It's treated quite humorously within the story (the only complaint comes from the wife who says he's ruined the food she cooked) but imagine how fucking terrifying it would be to have a steam engine smash through the wall as you're eating breakfast

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'Godred' was a book-only character who worked on a mountain railway. Arrogant and reckless, one day he fell off the rails and down a fucking mountain (pic related). What follows is a direct quote from the book:

""We have no money to mend you," said our manager, "so you'll go to the back of the shed!" As time went on, poor Godred got smaller and smaller, until nothing was left."
"What, What, What happened?" asked Duncan anxiously.
"It's not nice to talk about," said Culdee.
"But what happened?! Why isn't it nice?"
"Our drivers used Godred's parts to mend us," answered Culdee mournfully.

>>88314133
Shed17 seems a lot less twisted and more plausible now.

>>88313979
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2TLZ9Q522Q

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Another example which suggests that the faces have some sort of "real" physiology; James gets stung on the nose by a bee at one point

Sure is /sif/ in here.

Remember that time Oliver (I think) was over at the smelters and his driver and fireman had to leave for some reason and then those 2 asshole diesels came and took him to the big claw to lift him up and drop him in the smelter?
Remember how those diesels both had their drivers in them and at no point did they try to stop it from happening and none of them ever got punished?

The train operators never get punished, even though it's been shown the engines can't operate by themselves.

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The books began in the 1940s; at the time steam engines were widely used and 'modern'. However new-fangled diesel locomotives were being introduced over the coming years, which is why a lot of early diesel characters (including the lazily-named "Diesel") are generally antagonistic, as at the time they were new and untrustworthy compared to old reliable steam. In 1965 steam was abolished on British Railways. Over the course of several books the engines basically learn that their steam brothers are being scrapped nationwide and that they are the only ones of their kind left.

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>>88312136
This was based on a real incident at the Talyllyn Railway where they run Little Railway Trains using repainted engines and faces. A branch broke one of them once and they fixed it up by eyepatching it.

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>>88314460
This led to a character named Oliver, a steam engine due to be scrapped who was literally on the run from diesels, coming to take refuge on the island of Sodor. And the Fat Controller takes him on, essentially granting him asylum.

>>88314398
It was Stepney actually.

>The train operators never get punished, even though it's been shown the engines can't operate by themselves.
I had a theory about this. That the driver/fireman are basically manifestations of the engine's subconscious, and therefore don't really exist as separate entities. They always advise the engine on the best/right thing to do, but the engine has the ability to defy them sometimes. Kind of like ignoring a gut instinct. This TV-series only though' the books they are more independent and 'human'.

>>88314460
>tfw you realise the steam engines and diesels are basically engaged in a low-key race war that the steam engines lose

>>88314480
I knew it was based off a real incident (all the book stories are, to some extent) but I never knew that they eyepatched it IRL. That's cute.

I came here expecting a joke thread, but this stuff is actually fascinating. Whoever's posting about weird TTTE, please continue

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Do you think the engines ever see those scrap engines scattered all over the place and think "oh yeah there's old mate jimmy I remember him". I'd like to see back story of them all 2bh.

And let's not forget about poor poor Marklin.

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>>88314655
Thanks, I'm glad someone is getting something out of it.

One of the most famous "classic" stories, Thomas Goes Fishing, has dark implications. In the story, Thomas is out of water so his driver uses a bucket to scoop water from a nearby river and fill his tanks. Soon Thomas begins to feel a pain in his boiler; turns out that his driver accidentally scooped up some fish too, which are blocking his feed pipe. The Fat Controller and his crew fish them out and all is well.

However, what's not outright stated is what would have happened had the fish not been removed - pressure would have continued to rise in Thomas's boiler, eventually causing him to explode.

>>88314619
>thomas is based on the LB&SCR E2 class locomotives
>every single one of them in real life has been scrapped

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>>88314806
which would look like this. A steam engine's boiler is full of tubes; that's what that "spaghetti" is. Imagine Thomas's face on that.

Wait, carriages are sentient?

Does that mean when trains get going they're all participating in some horrific Human Centipede shit?

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Iwvu-j7BuY

and for good measure

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjfwNwyhzXQ

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>>88314889
Never mind that; how do you think the brakevan in pic related felt?

>>88314832
TUUUUUUUUUUUUBES

>>88314942
PRETTY FUCKIN' BAD

>>88314889
>>88314942
I always thought the troublesome trucks had suicidal deathwishes, they're always goading the trains to do reckless things to the point that sometimes the trucks would get wrecked and nearly destroyed.

>>88310259
You know the Human Centipede? That's what we're doing to these things. It's not because we hate them. It's because we can. Millions and millions of them, eating each others' shit, eating the engines' shit, and all the engines can do is get forcefed coal and shit into the carriages' mouths and hear the screams and try to run but they're shackled to the carriages and they have no hands and they have to run.

>>88314889
Well no, since they don't shit and can be easily uncoupled.

What it does sort of seem to imply is that coaches are kind of the engine's bitches - Thomas certainly gets mad whenever Annie and Clarabel get "pulled" by anyone else. Also no wonder Gordon was such a smug cunt, he had a whole harem. Meanwhile Toby is definitely a one coach kinda guy, him and Henrietta seem like an old married couple:

>Toby had wanted to take Henrietta, but the Fat Controller had said, "No!"...He wondered if Henrietta was lonely. Percy had promised to look after her; but Toby couldn't help worrying. "Percy doesn't understand her like I do," he said.

>Fat Controller enforcing cuckoldry on the engines

>>88314889
That'll learn me to read the thread before posting. At least I wasn't the only one.
Maybe the trains are the pre-War humans and Thomas the Tank Engine is AM's train set.

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Probably one of the more infamous ones.

"We shall take away your rails, and leave you here for always and always and always."

In all fairness, this is from the first book, all of which were originally intended to be disconnected stories, which sort of explains why the Fat Controller is such a dick here. I mean, he could just banish Henry to the shed or something. Actually rebuilding the rail system so trains can travel around him, and bricking up a perfectly good tunnel is just dickishness for the sake of dickishness.

>>88315199
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, MONTRESSOR!

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>>88315199

>>88315059
>I always thought the troublesome trucks had suicidal deathwishes
Well they are the equivalent of abused paraplegic slaves. I think that would probably make anyone long for death.

>>88314385
no one even posts on SiF anymore besides one or two severely autistic kids who are lonely enough

>>88315296
Because all the rest have moved to /co/, apparently.

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>>88315100
I always assumed it was like gender differences you get in animal species; because as far as I can remember in the books all engines are male, and all coaches are female. Daisy is a female diesel engine, but she's also technically a coach.

I like how the TV series decided to make her gender distinct by giving her the most trashy makeup

>>88315312
but now you're implying that the thomas fans who obsess over technical details and fake railway series lore are from SiF
you're not wrong, but still

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>>88315312
Believe it or not, I've never posted there.

There have been at least two incidents of a engine who, failing to be sold after their line closed, were simply locked up in their shed and abandoned. Albeit both of these incidents had a happy ending, with the engine being bought by the Fat Controller, in the case of Duke (on the right) he wasn't just abandoned but completely forgotten about; a landslide buried his shed and his old railway was ripped up. It took decades for him to be found again. Imagine being shut up on your own for all that time, and unlike Henry he didn't even do anything wrong to warrant it.

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This is TV-series only, but worth mentioning; notice how Gordon's wheels have torn away from his frame. I don't think an "injury" like that has been shown before or since. If the engines do feel pain, that's gotta hurt.

Thanks for posting these. I reread the books earlier this year and enjoyed them.

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>>88315907
>That Montparnasse reference
The original books and stories were inspired by real life events, Awdry liked the railway operations side of things to be as realistic as possible - Even if it does mean the railways on Sodor have a horrendous safety record.

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>>88315955
I think there's something pleasant about them. Like... although they're children's books, they aren't patronising. And as someone who likes railways in general the realistic illustrations can be pretty nice.


Posting this one without context.

>>88314133
they replaced him with smudger
https://youtu.be/M3LK40leyfA?t=1m45s

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>>88316384
Actually, his role in the books was largely the same, only he was called Stanley (and was a typical "arrogant American" archetype)

>>88314832
Boilers were the predecessors of the internets. Only the tubes were laid out in parallel as opposed to in series.

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>>88314889