The Christmas season of 2014 is one that the citizens of Sodor will never forget.
On the evening of December 23, a prison break took place at Ballahoo Penitentiary. The bank robbery and criminal mastermind William Tockman (known to the public as Clock King) was freed by an explosives expert named Mark Scheffer, aka Shrapnel. What was presented to the public as the rampage of two master criminals was actually a scheme concocted by the American government agency ARGUS, who employed both Tockman and Scheffer. The order to enact the prison break was given by the agency's director Amanda Waller, but it couldn't have happened without the aid of the Sudrian military general Malus Foris, who hacked into the servers of the private security company HAWK and disabled the penitentiary's defense systems.
The next day, Foris ordered Tockman and Scheffer to continue their campaign of causing confusion and delay on the North Western Railway, with the general intention of causing Sir Topham Hatt to look bad to the public (This was part of a long-standing scheme to eventually depose Hatt, but we'll get into that some other time.) Tockman and Scheffer got a little too creative with their orders, and decided to cause mass hysteria by planting a bomb on a freight train being hauled by the narrow gauge engine Duncan. This, in combination with Duncan's rough riding on the rails, resulted in the bomb detonating atop Maron Viaduct. Duncan and his crew were able to escape safely, but the viaduct collapsed, resulting in another scandal for the railway.
Although this did technically accomplish Foris' order of causing chaos for the railway, his superiors weren't happy with the very public and obvious sabotage that the agents had committed. Another one of Waller's agents scolded Scheffer and Tockman when they requested to be extracted from the island, and this interaction was secretly monitored by HAWK and its leader Sir Daniel Moriarty. Moriarty decided to recruit the two agents for his own causes, but his plotting was interrupted by the discovery that HAWK had been hacked. The investigation into HAWK's hacking would eventually lead to great chaos and tragedy for the Island of Sodor, but again, we'll get to that some other time.
As for Duncan, the poor engine really hadn't been at fault for the destruction of the viaduct, but his poor attitude resulted in him being shut up in the shed in the late hours of Christmas Eve. He would eventually be let out by Sir Topham Hatt on New Year's Eve, with his time in the sheds providing him with a slightly more positive outlook on life. Duncan would go on to become a much more cooperative and helpful member of the Skarloey Railway, although his sassy demeanor would never truly go away.
The destruction of the viaduct was cited by the Railway Board as yet another example of the chaos that Sir Topham Hatt was allowing to happen on his railway, and they began to make plans to replace him as the controller of the North Western Railway. Unfortunately for them, they would never get to act on these plans, as the machinations of Sir Daniel Moriarty and his benefactor, the mysterious Peter Sam, would soon throw the entire Island of Sodor into utter chaos. #SudrianTales
Smudger was a show-off. He rode roughly and often came off the rails. But he didn't deserve what happened to him after HAWK discovered him in the rubble of the Cas-ny-Hawin Mine. #SudrianTales
Let's talk about the Mid Sodor Railway. Back in the 1910s, the Mid Sodor Railway was one of the five big railways on the island, alongside the Lakeside Railway, the Arlesdale Railway, the Culdee Fell Railway and the Harwick-Loey Machan Railway. It was the biggest of the railways, and it was home to engines like Duke, Stuart, Falcon and Smudger. Its controller was a man named Felix Humperdinck. Because of its relative closeness to the ancient medieval fortress Ulfstead Castle, the Mid Sodor Railway was a popular vacation choice for tourists and visitors from all over Sodor and beyond.
One of the most important destinations of the Mid Sodor Railway was the Cas-ny-Hawin Mine, which provided the railway with the majority of its revenue. There was a yellow rail-crane who worked at the mine, a gregarious fellow who was nicknamed "Old Reliable" by the workers. For decades, the Cas-ny-Hawin Mine provided jobs and greatly helped boost the economy for the local population, but things took a turn when World War 2 broke out. The war effort greatly increased the demand for supplies, and the mine was essentially stripped bare and eventually forced to close.
As a result of the mine's closure, the Mid Sodor Railway began to suffer greatly. Additionally, the fact that a war was going on meant that very few tourists wished to vacation there. Because of all this, the Mid Sodor Railway was eventually forced to close down. The engines Stuart and Falcon were sold to the newly developing Skarloey Railway, while Duke, Smudger and the yellow crane Old Reliable were left behind and forgotten about as the Mid Sodor Railway was slowly retaken by nature.
Decades later, a search party discovered Duke slumbering in a shed, and he was rescued and brought to the Skarloey Railway. The discovery of the Mid Sodor Railway was a huge moment in the Island's history, and a bidding war broke out for the rights to the land. Ultimately, the up-and-coming businessman Sir Daniel Moriarty was the one who won out, and the Mid Sodor Railway (as well as the land surrounding it) became his property. Supposedly Moriarty had plans to reinvigorate and modernize the railway, and rumors swirled that he had been working on some sort of agreement with Sir Robert Norramby to include Ulfstead Castle in his plans.
That all changed when a massive storm caused a huge landslide that essentially buried Ulfstead Castle, reducing the once-great fortress to ruins and causing Norramby's death. Following the destruction of the castle, Moriarty sent his right-hand man Derek Creed to investigate the area along with the Mid Sodor Railway. Creed came back missing a hand and raving about an encounter with a ghostly yellow engine.
In a public statement following this devastating incident, Moriarty announced that the area surrounding the Mid Sodor Railway was currently too dangerous for any sort of construction or rebuilding, and that he was putting his plans on hold. However, a few years later, Thomas the Tank Engine was chugging through the northern mountains of Sodor and found himself accidentally diverted into the area that used to be the Mid Sodor Railway. There, he and his crew were surprised to discover that the area was really not in that bad of a state of disrepair... and as a matter of fact, it appeared that Sir Daniel Moriarty had crews of men there, working to do... something.
Before they could investigate further, Thomas and his crew were distracted by the discovery of the yellow crane Old Reliable, who'd been slumbering in a siding for decades similarly to Duke. The crane was brought to the North Western Railway, given the name Reg, and eventually sent to work at the Vicarstown Dieselworks under the watchful eye of P.T. Boomer.
But if Thomas and his crew had pushed on and investigated a bit further, they would have discovered that Sir Daniel Moriarty's men were in the process of excavating the Cas-ny-Hawin Mine. Down in the tunnels beneath the Mid Sodor Railway, they'd discovered Smudger, who'd been turned into a generator decades ago. And they were using him to power their expedition as they dug towards the remains of Ulfstead Castle... #SudrianTales
There once was a cargo ship nicknamed "The Salty Dog". Its duty was to deliver goods and other cargo to the Island of Sodor from the mainland, and vice-versa.
The ship's captain, John Illiam, was a decorated captain in the Sodor Navy. During his time in the service he trained Malus Foris, the man who would eventually become the head of the British Armed Forces' presence on Sodor. After forty years, Illiam left the service at age 56, instead opting to take a more peaceful job as the captain of the Salty Dog. He was well-respected by his fellow sailors, who gave him the nickname "Sailor John".
One particularly stormy night, the Salty Dog was delivering a new high-speed steam engine to Sodor from the mainland. The waves were fierce and the wind battered the ship, which was struggling to stay afloat. One of the ropes holding the steam engine to the ship was loose, and it rolled backwards and smashed through the ship's cab. Many workers were killed as the engine rolled out the back of the cab, falling into the sea, but Sailor John braved the storm and personally steered what remained of the ship into Brendam Harbor.
As it turned out, the Salty Dog was so badly damaged that it had to be destroyed, and it was sunk to the bottom of the sea in a powerful memorial ceremony. During this ceremony, Sailor John was rewarded for his bravery by being given the position of Dockmaster at Brendam. Despite this great honor, Illiam was never able to let go of the memory of that tragic night where over thirty of his men, along with his boat, met their dooms.
It was around this time that Illiam was approached by a man known as Peter Sam. Recognizing John's inability to forget the horrible tragedy in his past, this mysterious figure seized on his hatred of the steam engine that had brought down his ship and used it to twist him into a vengeful shell of a man. With Sailor John at the forefront, Peter Sam formed a group dedicated to tearing down railways, calling it the Anti-Rail League.
When a number of important shipments meant for the Narrow Gauge Expansion project began to disappear from Brendam Docks, Salty, Gator and Captain set a trap to catch the perpetrator. This turned out to be none other than Sailor John, who had been aiding the League in stealing these shipments to disrupt the project.
Illiam was promptly arrested and interrogated. He gladly admitted that he was the leader of the Anti-Rail League, as well as revealing that he'd been bankrolled by Peter Sam. Despite their best efforts, the police were unable to extract any more information about this mysterious man from Sailor John. The disgraced captain was tried, found guilty and sentenced to serve time in the Misty Island Maximum Security Prison.
The Sodor police force and many of Sir Topham Hatt's allies dismissed this Peter Sam as a product of John's PTSD-riddled mind. But Sir Topham Hatt recognized the name, and not just from the kindly Narrow Gauge engine that shared it.
He recognized the name as belonging to a man who had disappeared from the Island of Sodor long ago. #SudrianTales
New Sudrian Tales lore video dropping Friday where I talk about Richard Hatt, the Pack, the Anti-Rail League, Burnett Stone and so much more! I was very pleasantly surprised by all the positive feedback to the first part so thank you all very much for that.
I'd like to make it known that these two lore explainer videos only encompass Season 1 of Sudrian Tales. TEHGJPTDDDO and I had roughly planned out story beats for a Season 2 as well, with a lot of seemingly minor seeds being planted in S1 to set it up. Sir Daniel Moriarty still would've been a major character, but the end of S1 would've gone a long way to establish the true overarching threat (and end goal) of the series. I honestly didn't really have any ideas for a Season 3, but I knew where I wanted the characters to end up in the S2 finale, and you can kind of extrapolate their futures from that. I'll get into all of that eventually.
In these videos I realize that I don't really talk much about the Narrow Gauge Expansion project that so much of the plot revolves around. I should probably get into that in my next lore video. Let me know if there's anything else you'd like to hear me talk about from the series.
MrMPS2002
SUDRIAN TALES LORE POST:
The Christmas season of 2014 is one that the citizens of Sodor will never forget.
On the evening of December 23, a prison break took place at Ballahoo Penitentiary. The bank robbery and criminal mastermind William Tockman (known to the public as Clock King) was freed by an explosives expert named Mark Scheffer, aka Shrapnel. What was presented to the public as the rampage of two master criminals was actually a scheme concocted by the American government agency ARGUS, who employed both Tockman and Scheffer. The order to enact the prison break was given by the agency's director Amanda Waller, but it couldn't have happened without the aid of the Sudrian military general Malus Foris, who hacked into the servers of the private security company HAWK and disabled the penitentiary's defense systems.
The next day, Foris ordered Tockman and Scheffer to continue their campaign of causing confusion and delay on the North Western Railway, with the general intention of causing Sir Topham Hatt to look bad to the public (This was part of a long-standing scheme to eventually depose Hatt, but we'll get into that some other time.) Tockman and Scheffer got a little too creative with their orders, and decided to cause mass hysteria by planting a bomb on a freight train being hauled by the narrow gauge engine Duncan. This, in combination with Duncan's rough riding on the rails, resulted in the bomb detonating atop Maron Viaduct. Duncan and his crew were able to escape safely, but the viaduct collapsed, resulting in another scandal for the railway.
Although this did technically accomplish Foris' order of causing chaos for the railway, his superiors weren't happy with the very public and obvious sabotage that the agents had committed. Another one of Waller's agents scolded Scheffer and Tockman when they requested to be extracted from the island, and this interaction was secretly monitored by HAWK and its leader Sir Daniel Moriarty. Moriarty decided to recruit the two agents for his own causes, but his plotting was interrupted by the discovery that HAWK had been hacked. The investigation into HAWK's hacking would eventually lead to great chaos and tragedy for the Island of Sodor, but again, we'll get to that some other time.
As for Duncan, the poor engine really hadn't been at fault for the destruction of the viaduct, but his poor attitude resulted in him being shut up in the shed in the late hours of Christmas Eve. He would eventually be let out by Sir Topham Hatt on New Year's Eve, with his time in the sheds providing him with a slightly more positive outlook on life. Duncan would go on to become a much more cooperative and helpful member of the Skarloey Railway, although his sassy demeanor would never truly go away.
The destruction of the viaduct was cited by the Railway Board as yet another example of the chaos that Sir Topham Hatt was allowing to happen on his railway, and they began to make plans to replace him as the controller of the North Western Railway. Unfortunately for them, they would never get to act on these plans, as the machinations of Sir Daniel Moriarty and his benefactor, the mysterious Peter Sam, would soon throw the entire Island of Sodor into utter chaos. #SudrianTales
1 year ago | [YT] | 28
View 2 replies
MrMPS2002
Smudger was a show-off. He rode roughly and often came off the rails. But he didn't deserve what happened to him after HAWK discovered him in the rubble of the Cas-ny-Hawin Mine. #SudrianTales
2 years ago | [YT] | 18
View 0 replies
MrMPS2002
SUDRIAN TALES LORE POST:
Let's talk about the Mid Sodor Railway. Back in the 1910s, the Mid Sodor Railway was one of the five big railways on the island, alongside the Lakeside Railway, the Arlesdale Railway, the Culdee Fell Railway and the Harwick-Loey Machan Railway. It was the biggest of the railways, and it was home to engines like Duke, Stuart, Falcon and Smudger. Its controller was a man named Felix Humperdinck. Because of its relative closeness to the ancient medieval fortress Ulfstead Castle, the Mid Sodor Railway was a popular vacation choice for tourists and visitors from all over Sodor and beyond.
One of the most important destinations of the Mid Sodor Railway was the Cas-ny-Hawin Mine, which provided the railway with the majority of its revenue. There was a yellow rail-crane who worked at the mine, a gregarious fellow who was nicknamed "Old Reliable" by the workers. For decades, the Cas-ny-Hawin Mine provided jobs and greatly helped boost the economy for the local population, but things took a turn when World War 2 broke out. The war effort greatly increased the demand for supplies, and the mine was essentially stripped bare and eventually forced to close.
As a result of the mine's closure, the Mid Sodor Railway began to suffer greatly. Additionally, the fact that a war was going on meant that very few tourists wished to vacation there. Because of all this, the Mid Sodor Railway was eventually forced to close down. The engines Stuart and Falcon were sold to the newly developing Skarloey Railway, while Duke, Smudger and the yellow crane Old Reliable were left behind and forgotten about as the Mid Sodor Railway was slowly retaken by nature.
Decades later, a search party discovered Duke slumbering in a shed, and he was rescued and brought to the Skarloey Railway. The discovery of the Mid Sodor Railway was a huge moment in the Island's history, and a bidding war broke out for the rights to the land. Ultimately, the up-and-coming businessman Sir Daniel Moriarty was the one who won out, and the Mid Sodor Railway (as well as the land surrounding it) became his property. Supposedly Moriarty had plans to reinvigorate and modernize the railway, and rumors swirled that he had been working on some sort of agreement with Sir Robert Norramby to include Ulfstead Castle in his plans.
That all changed when a massive storm caused a huge landslide that essentially buried Ulfstead Castle, reducing the once-great fortress to ruins and causing Norramby's death. Following the destruction of the castle, Moriarty sent his right-hand man Derek Creed to investigate the area along with the Mid Sodor Railway. Creed came back missing a hand and raving about an encounter with a ghostly yellow engine.
In a public statement following this devastating incident, Moriarty announced that the area surrounding the Mid Sodor Railway was currently too dangerous for any sort of construction or rebuilding, and that he was putting his plans on hold. However, a few years later, Thomas the Tank Engine was chugging through the northern mountains of Sodor and found himself accidentally diverted into the area that used to be the Mid Sodor Railway. There, he and his crew were surprised to discover that the area was really not in that bad of a state of disrepair... and as a matter of fact, it appeared that Sir Daniel Moriarty had crews of men there, working to do... something.
Before they could investigate further, Thomas and his crew were distracted by the discovery of the yellow crane Old Reliable, who'd been slumbering in a siding for decades similarly to Duke. The crane was brought to the North Western Railway, given the name Reg, and eventually sent to work at the Vicarstown Dieselworks under the watchful eye of P.T. Boomer.
But if Thomas and his crew had pushed on and investigated a bit further, they would have discovered that Sir Daniel Moriarty's men were in the process of excavating the Cas-ny-Hawin Mine. Down in the tunnels beneath the Mid Sodor Railway, they'd discovered Smudger, who'd been turned into a generator decades ago. And they were using him to power their expedition as they dug towards the remains of Ulfstead Castle... #SudrianTales
2 years ago (edited) | [YT] | 26
View 0 replies
MrMPS2002
SUDRIAN TALES LORE POST:
There once was a cargo ship nicknamed "The Salty Dog". Its duty was to deliver goods and other cargo to the Island of Sodor from the mainland, and vice-versa.
The ship's captain, John Illiam, was a decorated captain in the Sodor Navy. During his time in the service he trained Malus Foris, the man who would eventually become the head of the British Armed Forces' presence on Sodor. After forty years, Illiam left the service at age 56, instead opting to take a more peaceful job as the captain of the Salty Dog. He was well-respected by his fellow sailors, who gave him the nickname "Sailor John".
One particularly stormy night, the Salty Dog was delivering a new high-speed steam engine to Sodor from the mainland. The waves were fierce and the wind battered the ship, which was struggling to stay afloat. One of the ropes holding the steam engine to the ship was loose, and it rolled backwards and smashed through the ship's cab. Many workers were killed as the engine rolled out the back of the cab, falling into the sea, but Sailor John braved the storm and personally steered what remained of the ship into Brendam Harbor.
As it turned out, the Salty Dog was so badly damaged that it had to be destroyed, and it was sunk to the bottom of the sea in a powerful memorial ceremony. During this ceremony, Sailor John was rewarded for his bravery by being given the position of Dockmaster at Brendam. Despite this great honor, Illiam was never able to let go of the memory of that tragic night where over thirty of his men, along with his boat, met their dooms.
It was around this time that Illiam was approached by a man known as Peter Sam. Recognizing John's inability to forget the horrible tragedy in his past, this mysterious figure seized on his hatred of the steam engine that had brought down his ship and used it to twist him into a vengeful shell of a man. With Sailor John at the forefront, Peter Sam formed a group dedicated to tearing down railways, calling it the Anti-Rail League.
When a number of important shipments meant for the Narrow Gauge Expansion project began to disappear from Brendam Docks, Salty, Gator and Captain set a trap to catch the perpetrator. This turned out to be none other than Sailor John, who had been aiding the League in stealing these shipments to disrupt the project.
Illiam was promptly arrested and interrogated. He gladly admitted that he was the leader of the Anti-Rail League, as well as revealing that he'd been bankrolled by Peter Sam. Despite their best efforts, the police were unable to extract any more information about this mysterious man from Sailor John. The disgraced captain was tried, found guilty and sentenced to serve time in the Misty Island Maximum Security Prison.
The Sodor police force and many of Sir Topham Hatt's allies dismissed this Peter Sam as a product of John's PTSD-riddled mind. But Sir Topham Hatt recognized the name, and not just from the kindly Narrow Gauge engine that shared it.
He recognized the name as belonging to a man who had disappeared from the Island of Sodor long ago. #SudrianTales
2 years ago (edited) | [YT] | 41
View 2 replies
MrMPS2002
New Sudrian Tales lore video dropping Friday where I talk about Richard Hatt, the Pack, the Anti-Rail League, Burnett Stone and so much more! I was very pleasantly surprised by all the positive feedback to the first part so thank you all very much for that.
I'd like to make it known that these two lore explainer videos only encompass Season 1 of Sudrian Tales. TEHGJPTDDDO and I had roughly planned out story beats for a Season 2 as well, with a lot of seemingly minor seeds being planted in S1 to set it up. Sir Daniel Moriarty still would've been a major character, but the end of S1 would've gone a long way to establish the true overarching threat (and end goal) of the series. I honestly didn't really have any ideas for a Season 3, but I knew where I wanted the characters to end up in the S2 finale, and you can kind of extrapolate their futures from that. I'll get into all of that eventually.
In these videos I realize that I don't really talk much about the Narrow Gauge Expansion project that so much of the plot revolves around. I should probably get into that in my next lore video. Let me know if there's anything else you'd like to hear me talk about from the series.
2 years ago (edited) | [YT] | 31
View 0 replies
MrMPS2002
Here’s my rough video upload schedule for the next few weeks:
———
June 23: MrMPS2002 Reaction Video Compilation
June 30: Exploring the Wooden Railway Forums
July 7: The Wooden Railway Meetup 2018
July 14: The Wooden Railway Meetup 2019
July 21: The Wooden Railway Meetup 2022
July 28: Sudrian Tales Lore Explainer
2 years ago (edited) | [YT] | 52
View 8 replies