... They seek meaning and joy in a Stakhanovite desire to be “really useful engines”. The great trick of Sir Topham is to employ engines who essentially evoke the image of the New Soviet man in the service of a proto-capitalist, semi-feudal enterprise.
Like startups who want their employees to be "passionate" about the business. Even if it's a banal business.
Cruel and unusual punishment, public shaming, steeling oneself against the suffering of another, mocking of the obsolete, the (feigned) pretense that you yourself could not be the one locked up next time, etc etc.
One must take that in context. Despite the engines possesing powers of reasoning and critical thinking, it's important to recognise that those aren't as advanced as a human. It is likely that they also don't feel emotions like shame as strongly. The engines appear to have the intellectual and emotional capacity of an 8 year old human.
Sodor is a play on the words south and "sudor", which means sweat in Spanish. A tropical island with a colony that extracts its resources using the available power source: charcoal from trees.
Er, no. There's a diocese of Sodor and Man (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diocese_of_Sodor_and_Man), and that's where Awdry got the name from. The Isle of Man you'll be familiar with. IRL, Sodor is the the Hebrides, Suðreyjar in Norse, Southern Isles in English. The Northern Isles are Orkney and Shetland.
I think this may have been inspired by “Thomas Gon’ Give It To Ya” which came out two years earlier: https://youtu.be/xFSwIw-_-as
Pretty sure this one inspired a whole bunch of rap songs mixed with the Thomas theme song. They all sound pretty good but still think this one is the best
At this point, I think I need to mention Frederick Crews's book The Pooh Perplex, with Freudian, Marxian, Anglo-Catholic, Leavisite, etc. readings of A.A. Milne. He updated this with Post-Modern Pooh a few years back, which undoubtedly deconstructs it, but I haven't caught up with that one.
A point overlooked in the article is the Fat Controllers' complete disregard of environmental concerns. The fact that he continues to operate polluting steam trains with impunity suggests that any environmental lobby groups that may exist on the island have very little power. This also suggests that he has a lot of power over whatever form of government exists on the island. Likewise he has the support of the locals, possibly due to his being a major source of employment on the island. No doubt his sentient engines are also a major draw for tourists.
There is a strong antipathy towards industrialism in the series despite the facts that it is the main profit source for the rail company and steam engines being the symbol of the industrial revolution. Take for example the dreaded Trucks who are universally despised and the crane in the dockyard who is nasty to everyone. An example of nostalgia trumping rational considerations is the story of Toby. An obsolete tram is finally retired from service only to be recomissioned by the Fat Controller to operate on the railway. Clearly a tram on a railway is impractical and inefficient.
I think it originally came from the fact the book series dates to the 1940s. The earliest ones actually predate the 1946 nationalization of British railways. Diesel locomotives were strange and disruptive to the steam-based world that was the baseline.
What gets me is that a tiny island with only trivial industry has acquired an incredibly random fleet of locomotives. In practice, you'd expect to see either a small number of engines built as a fleet, or still relatively similar engines built over time with incremental enhancements.
I could sort of rationalize it if it were being ran as a "hobby business"-- not necessarily based on economic needs, but because the operators are just pathological locomotive collectors, perhaps collecting what British Rail shed at scrap prices as it dieselized.
I’d really love to have a Proper Uk ordnance survey map of Sodor - I’d thought about doing it myself but unsure if the required “toolkits” are available for imaginary locations.
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[ 4.2 ms ] story [ 65.9 ms ] threadLike startups who want their employees to be "passionate" about the business. Even if it's a banal business.
In the UK, everyone knows deep down the Fat Controller could come for them too and you couldn't do anything about it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzmWzXLPa6I
Pretty sure this one inspired a whole bunch of rap songs mixed with the Thomas theme song. They all sound pretty good but still think this one is the best
I’m not sure if this was intentional and self-aware commentary, or if the series was really trying to espouse the idea that the old ways are better.
What gets me is that a tiny island with only trivial industry has acquired an incredibly random fleet of locomotives. In practice, you'd expect to see either a small number of engines built as a fleet, or still relatively similar engines built over time with incremental enhancements.
I could sort of rationalize it if it were being ran as a "hobby business"-- not necessarily based on economic needs, but because the operators are just pathological locomotive collectors, perhaps collecting what British Rail shed at scrap prices as it dieselized.
It’s a somewhat darker, modern take on the story.
Sorry, but I'm a Thomas purist.
for more deep dives into the world of Thomas, see https://www.youtube.com/@TheUnluckyTug_official