The Island of Sodor: The New Stories.

The West Sodor Railways (1884-1912)

There were many different railways on the west side of Sodor. The first one was the Elsbridge & Knapford Railway. Like the Railroad of old it started as a horse drawn plateway and was replaced with rails. The line was run by the A.W. Dry Company and was used to service the lead mine at Toryreck, the small town of Elsbridge and the small harbor at Knapford. Soon they hired an 18-year-old Topham Hatt to build them some engines. The first engine he built became the blueprint for the others and was named Glynn. All of the coffee-pot engines were named after some of the cats the Hatt family owned. This idea came from Mrs. Elenora Hatt, who was soon to become a dowager. The original engines were named as follows: No. 1 "Glynn", No.2 "Sandy", No. 3 "Sampson", No. 4 "Alfred" and No. 5 "Cleo". The building of the coffee-pots also tied into the extension to Tidmouth. After a storm washed away the track bed on the coast, a tunnel was built to reach Tidmouth. Once this was done the line became the Tidmouth, Knapford & Elsbridge Light Railway. The coffee-pots were rebuilt with slightly larger boilers to cope with the work. This allowed them to continue working and even help with the extension to connect with the W&SR with a tunnel through Crosby. The title of this section was actually a name considered for the merger. This was mostly so the W&SR wouldn't have to change their lettering as much, but this idea was dropped in favor of the Tidmouth, Wellsworth & Suddery Railway. They operated like this until 1914, when they were absorbed by the NWR. While the old S&MR started work on a lift bridge near Vicarstown, the western crew started work on an extension up the coast to Arlesburgh. This was commissioned by the government with the intent of patrolling the line with armored trains. This plan didn't go anywhere, so the newly built line didn't see much use during World War 1. Since it connected with the Mid Sodor Railway, the NWR started running a goods service from the port up at Arlesburgh down to Tidmouth. This was a great stream of revenue for the young railway. Since the NWR couldn't spare any of its engines to work on the line, they relied on loaned engines to run it. Tidmouth was becoming a larger port as time went on. The main source of fuel was coal, so there needed to be an easier way to get it. Since Great Waterton was too far at the time, some men did some surveying to try and find any coal veins. They found a very large vein up near Tidmouth, so they proposed to build a line up to it. After the line up to the mine was done, plans were immediately made to build a loop to create a line to bypass Knapford in case of emergency or to turn trains around if there's an obstruction at the Crosby Tunnel. This was one of the final projects that the early NWR carried out. The railway focused more on maintaining the current track instead of laying more. As for the coffee-pots, they continued to work in the area, but as mostly secondary engines. They shunted around the yards and harbors. Glynn and Sandy even continued to work the line to Elsbridge until it was extended to Ffarquhar. Since the line proved too much for them, they were sent to the Anopha Quarry, which the line was extended to service. The rails crossed the roads in several places, so they were fitted with tram skirts and cowcatchers. The rest of the coffee pots were withdrawn and scrapped long ago. Eventually things got so bad that Sandy, who was mostly worn out, had to be dismantled for spare parts to keep Glynn running. Though it was sad, this overhaul helped Glynn stay in service long enough to be preserved. During the 1950's, the quarry was without a permanent engine. The FQC couldn't afford it at the time and the NWR couldn't spare Toby as much as they needed. It wasn't until they bought Mavis that the problem became less drastic. Another problem that came up was the coal mine. It started as a small operation but eventually became bigger. Weirdly, none of the Fat Controllers ever bought a permanent engine for the mine. Whenever a big order was needed, Rosie, Percy or one of the Little Western engines would help out for a while. The need for an engine became less once the NWR broke away from British Railways in the 70s. Eventually the mining company bought an Andrew Barclay named Barbara. She helps shunt the coal trains and even sometimes helps shunt at Tidmouth harbor. They also had Dahlia built at Crovan's Gate for more flexible operations. The last major project on this side of the island is the reopening of Arlesburgh. Even though the nearby Arlesdale Railway connected to the NWR west of it, Arlesburgh was opened as another supplementary harbor for Tidmouth and a connection to the Isle of Man. It is clear that the west of Sodor is the more developed section based on just how much is here.