I should clarify, when I say "crews" for the engines in this au, I'm referring to the people who perform small maintenance (not big enough for Sandy and definitely not big enough for the steamworks) and give them the coal they need if they're at their sheds, as it's heavily implied all of the engines are driver/firemanless. If their crew can't be with them and they're stopping to fuel up somewhere else, there's humans stationed there to help them out. The coal is one of the few things they can't get by themselves.

Most human railroad workers are just yard workers (and ofc those who run the passenger stations) that take care of the things that the trains can't, which isn't much, but it's still work that needs to be done.

Do Luna and Oscar ever get to ride with Gordon?

All the time! Whether they squeeze into his cab with his driver and fireman or if they're just chilling with the other express passengers, they love to join him on his runs. The joy of your family being 99% trains is that you get to go out quite a bit!

In OtH, how is Luz/Luna's real mum doing? Does Vee ever end up in the human world? (What if she ends up on Sodor?)

(Anon Orange)

Honestly, overtime I've become fonder of taking Vee the route of similar to canon rather than keeping her in the isles for who knows how long, but I've decided it happens when she's a lot younger, maybe around 4 or 5...so I can talk about them both in this! Vee had gone through the portal in a similar way to canon, saw Camila, and shifted herself to try and resemble Camila, though they didn't actually encounter each other in the woods. Vee ended up wandering around a bit and got picked up by some folks who took her to law enforcement claiming she was a lost child...but she'd shifted to look just enough like Camila that everyone had jumped to the conclusion that this was Mrs. Noceda's missing daughter, and Camila was called down to pick her up. And of course, she also assumed this was her daughter because she hasn't seen Luz since she was just a few months old, how is she meant to know exactly what she'd look like when she'd grown a bit?

Vee just kind of accept her life as Luz, taking on the name and everything, accepting Camila as her new mom and getting to go to school and such...mysteriously, she's never run out of magic. Of course nobody has investigated this because only she knows that she's a basilisk, but never once has her disguise faltered or changed. Infact, it's almost grown with her. She'd felt a presence of magic in her body constantly ever since those kind strangers had helped her find her place in this realm...and she's rarely seen those strangers since.

But as far as Camila goes, despite the few years of grief she endured over losing her family, she managed to pick herself up after "Luz" had returned to her. She goes about her days as a vet and does her best to provide for her daughter, completely unaware that she's actually fostering a basilisk child and her real daughter doesn't even know she exists.

Reblog if you’re bored and you want anons.

So I have been meaning to try my hand at drawing monster engines ...

Is this an excuse to draw a fluffy Thomas? Yeah.

I made up a concept to expand Lady's railway and make other engines for it, and I had a concept for a big blue shiny lady named Chariot, but I cannot construct a legit basis for her.

I know most hate for Nia and Rebecca is reasonable, but this is just how it feels sometimes;

(Hey, me again lol) Were the Narrow Guage engines affected at all in your monster au?

Mmm... See this is a tough one, and I've tried to give it some thought because I'm trying to put an actual storyline to this AU.

Most of the first infected were the big guys that would be located on the lower parts of Sodor, and not up in the mountains where the narrow gauges usually are. But here's the thing: those suckers can CLIMB. And climb good. They may not seem like they're made for such a thing but engines like Nia, Thomas, and Percy could straight up mountain goat across sides of mountains provided they have no cars and enough wiggle room to balance. And the bigger engines are able to effortlessly scale the railroad tracks up into higher areas, they can jump too. Lighter engines can go higher, but bigger engines have more power to go further, no matter what way you spin it, even Toby can get a bit of distance by jumping.

All this to say, the mountain engines would be safe for the length of time that the other engines were unaware of this while feral. Once it was discovered, the Skarloey Railway was advised to be on high alert, as Rebecca had found it very easy to get close to the railway all on her own...of course despite being feral, she wasn't aggro at the time. Just a very curious animal. But it still would be cause for alarm, because they retain memories from their feral periods. Were she to do so again while irritated, she could possibly cause infection in the narrow gauges herself or even bring her "siblings" (aka the tidmouth tank engines) up there (as the four have been observed sticking together more often) to take them out as a team. It's a very very big possibility that the mountain engines could be attacked at any time if they're not well guarded. But I want to say...as of right now...no? I'm not 100% certain, as you can see I've got ideas but I'm vary wishy washy on who is and who isn't, as I'm also unsure if Belle is infected. I can say with absolute certainty that the castle crew aren't infected though! They're very well protected due to historic value, and that protection was only increased when the monster epidemic started.

I feel like talking abt monster Shane this mornin', because he's one of the few that actually attacks everything and he's very much one of the most aggressive known monster engines recorded to date. While he can be his normal very sweet (ESPECIALLY with Aubery and Aiden, his designated coaches) and gentle in his conscious form, his feral form is a literal gamble. He can me commanded and trained...but not easily, and not without putting your and everyone around you's lives at risk. He's protective of his coaches and VERY protective of his territory, but not just when it comes to other engines, it includes people too. And he's not just some cat-like creature, he's a bonafide australian crocodile, with the only difference between him and the regular animal being that his tail and legs are a LOT bigger...his teeth too. Shane has been managed well enough so far that he hasn't killed anybody, but he's managed to break bones and cause some heavy injury to anyone who tries to engage with him while he's feral. He nearly killed Ace and his driver, infact, the two crossed paths on a road one evening when Shane had escaped his yard and it very nearly ended in blood. It didn't, but it could have.

Of course, Shane feels AWFUL about these events when told about them later. Aubery and Aiden confessed they'd heard him crying over it some nights. He doesn't want to hurt people, his entire job is built around people! He loves humans! It pains him to hear he's caused them all so much pain, but he just can't help it, he can't stop himself no matter how desperately he wants to. Which is why he is part of the reason that spurred humanity to begin researching a new specialized tranquilizer that could immobilize the "organic" parts of a monster engine.

In a general sense, who was infected via bite/scratch ratter than getting the suspicious coal?

Salty - got attacked by a feral Porter. He actually doesn't mind being a reptile-like beast. It means he can go visit Rusty and crawl up Cranky's support beams to talk to him better, plus, he can swim!

Diesel - got scratched up by a feral Duck. Duck suddenly remembered the beef he had with him and just went up and scratched him, then left. He refused to elaborate.

Mavis and Daisy - got cornered by Thomas, Percy and Toby while trying to escape Ffarqhuarr.

Bertie - Got bitten while trying to keep his passengers safe.

Annie and Clarabelle - couldn't go anywhere and got a bit scratched up.

Henrietta - was attacked by a feral Toby. Tried reasoning with him, but it was too late.

Carolyn - was chased around a bit, but escaped. If she could, she would spray water at them. She now treats them like big kittens whenever they act all adorable, and treats Diesel 10 like a dinosaur if she ever sees him.

Cleo - managed to hide from the infected. She's still secretly afraid of them, and has to have Ruth reassure her that they're still the same engines she got to know before.

Ace - escaped, he still treats the engines and infected road vehicles as his friends, but he also treats them like Australian wildlife, and sometimes just pisses one of them off to see what happens. He tried that with Edward to see if he could get on the old guy's nerves. Spoiler; it worked after the 1000th time.

Paxton - got jumped by the NG engines, all at once. He's pretty unnerved now when he goes to the BM quarry and literally squeaks when an engine just suddenly pops out of one of the tunnels without warning. He also struggles to understand Rusty. That little diesel just sometimes spawns everywhere Paxton looks. Rusty's an definite enigma...

ttte as incorrect quotes part one of.. probably quite a few haha! i like to think thomas heard his driver n fireman say that to each other once and has been waiting to use it ever since heh!

So fun fact the engines that inspired Bill and Ben (Albert and Judy) live in Cornwall. They were private owned rather than GWR but there's a fair chance Duck or Oliver may have encountered them at some point and then met Bill and Ben, who are identical to them except yellow. Idk that thought just amuses me somewhat

FDdsfd omg, that's such a fun little fact.

can engines get picked up by the scruff of the neck like kittens and wolf pups?

Hey! This brings me to a topic that I've been meaning to genuinely put attention on because it's something I've been brewing on for a long while now and that is: the flexibility of these guys!

In terms of their tails and their legs and such, they are pretty flexible but...their actual engine bodies are a bit of trick territory. I've been completely unsure of how solid I wanted to keep them, especially considering how they keep their boilers and fireboxes and such, they're not really fully mechanical or biological, they're sort of like...a cyborg I guess? A mixture of two worlds that really weren't meant to be mixed.

I'd say they're kind of bendable in the areas that don't contain their still functioning machinery, but I don't think they would quite have scruff. At least not these guys (I am still *debating* the concept of pupss) that is. Thought I do believe that the bigger engines could pick up the smaller steamers by their smokestacks, even if they were puffing steam seeing as the engines don't really have insides the way most biological creatures do (even though they can breathe and smell and hear and such). They're a confusing anomaly as they still have what could be considered "skin" underneath their fur, and they have a "skeleton" though said skeleton is really just like...incredibly strong hollow metal with odd piston-like joints that the steam pumps through to help them move. Despite not having a blood circulation they still have body heat too. Like I said, these fellas are absolute anomalies and are both a biologist's and engineer's worst nightmare.

Part 2 of TTTE textposts

Bonus:

Gordon: The Express is ready to depart! Time to show the Island of Sodor just how fast I--

(Luna runs up to Gordon with a drawing)

Gordon: Luna? Sweetie? I'm working right now--

(Luna shows Gordon a drawing of him with her and Oscar)

Gordon: Oh my gosh! Did you draw this? That is so good!

FJIFIODJFDIJO YEAH THATS THEM. Gordon will ALWAYS make time for Luna no matter what.