Thomas and Friends: The Adventure Begins

A Historical Journey

May 12, 1915

The Cunard Line had been vulnerable to bad publicity following the loss of RMS Lusitania to the German submarine U-20 just five days ago. On May 9, during the second battle of Artois, the French forces advanced against the Germans in Notre Dame de Lorette and dealt a hard blow of over 100,000 casualties. From a later point on, America would be entering the Great War out of honor, respect and loyalty to their European allies with extra safety measures and unique army practices. But while most of this was happening, Thomas was preparing for his journey to Sodor in Brighton, about to pull a special, but long and heavy train of twenty trucks and a special saloon coach in the front.

Last night, after bidding his fellow engines and Brighton brothers goodbye, Thomas went off to collect the trucks needed for his "special train". The LBSCR officials recruited the necessary troops, doctors and nurses for the Sodor Regiment. With his father on leave for the war, young Wilbert wanted to go as well, even though his mother Lucy wouldn't let him. With nothing else to do, he needed a larger amount of company besides his younger brother George and older siblings Bridget and Carol Edward. In total, the single 60ft carriage would carry over thirty people, including twenty five soldiers, one commander, two doctors and two nurses. That same day, the train was ready to be loaded with 20 tons of practical items like coal, minerals, rations, ballast, parcels, a crate of rifles and four flatbeds of tracks and sleepers among the unusual things like golf clubs and tennis balls for men, books and letters for women, toys for children and an 18-pounder gun.

In order for Thomas to travel, he needed to stop at every station to take on water, about 1,256 gallons of it. Normally, this would be easy, but Thomas' class was not built for long distance duties, so his water tanks needed to be extended. Already having enough coal ensured via the six coal trucks, the LBSCR stepped in to modify the side tanks in the precise measurements, designs and workings of the later batch of E2 engines from L. B. Billinton's resources. Because of this, Thomas' journey would be delayed by two months and when he would puff his way onto the main line, a quarter of his passengers would be the Brighton residents who had already worked on the previous numbers.

For the people who had signed on to form the Sodor Regiment, Thomas was a most agreeably cheeky engine unlike some of the more stricter and pompous locomotives that they had worked with and traveled on before. But it had soon proved to be a challenge when Thomas' fussy attitude settled in about remembering the names and loads aboard his special train. The previous day, when Wilbert, George, Bridget, Carol and their mother came to visit the passengers at the Bedford Hotel restaurant on the West Pier, Commandant C. G. Yates of the Brighton Division was the first to state his opinion.

"It is difficult to say as to whether or not this little engine has had some difficulty among his piers. I hear he deliberately pushed an engine off the rails once and that was only fourteen days after he was built, but I can assure that it's just a rumor. Another thing is that it took him another two weeks to remember which coaches belonged to which engine and which yard to take them back to after the larger engines have returned."

Charles Henry Norramby, the Duke of Sodor, was also present in the dining room of the hotel. He was visiting Brighton to oversee the new recruits with Commander Yates. He had a pleasant attitude that was well respected among the people who knew him and saw his charming wit and ever-learning record as the ideal soldier for an international war. Some would even switch their bookings to Thomas' special train when learning that he would be aboard. When Mrs. Awdry asked about his father Henry John Norramby's current career as a commander in the Royal Army, he explained that recruits often felt safe when under the command of a veteran who would teach these newcomers about the dangers of war and how to avoid them.

"Well...when anyone asks about my father and his life as an Earl, or as we on the island call them Duke, and his fifty year career in the military, all I can say is uneventful. Not to offend my father in anyway, but even he claims that his life was uneventful. Sure he has been through storms and plagues, but those were only small events compared to his experience and he has been in only one accident at sea when his ship ran aground. That was the Suevic. Terrible business, it was. But, no one was hurt and the rescue proved to be quite extraordinary despite the fog and all that. If there is anything worth speaking about, it is that my father was a very lucky man to take part in this war."