Fanfic / Tales from the Other Railway

"Whatever happened to all the diesels, good or bad, who were rejected from Sodor after one story/episode and never seen again? They went to the Other Railway."

Tales from the Other Railway is a Thomas & Friends fanfic taking place on The Other Railway, which in the TTTE universe was slang for British Rail but in this fanfic is a sort of Bizarro Universe version of the North Western Railway. While the Island of Sodor is a magical place where dreams come true, the Other Railway is a run-down hellhole where nightmares go to die. While the Steam Team are the heroes of most TTTE stories, the diesels on the Other Railway are the Villain Protagonists of most Tales from the Other Railway stories. The stories revolve around the misadventures of Diesel and his associates as they "work together" under the incompetent Thin Git. Their adventures are often based on stories that took place on Sodor in Thomas the Tank Engine and The Railway Series, but "while clouds never last long on Sodor, they hang over The Other Railway continuously!"

ProfessorVengeance wrote most of the stories while some other fan-fics based on the concept have also been written by other writers such as 9 on Sodor Island Forum, they will be listed here for consistency.

Some of the series is viewable here: https://web.archive.org/web/20170616132057/http://www.sodor-island.net/talesfromtheotherrailway/index.html

The rest is viewable here: https://sodor.proboards.com/board/34/sif-ellaneous, just note that it helps if you make an account first.

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You're a really useless trope!

• Accidental Misnaming: The Thin Git regularly calls Pip and Emma "Candy and Sugar".
• Ace Pilot: Private Parts was back in the day before his discharge from the army.
• Achilles in His Tent: Bowler refusing to leave the tunnel in “The Not-So-Sad Story of Bowler”.
• Acquired Situational Narcissism: Derek after the dump is destroyed in “Derek’s Dump”.
• Adaptational Wimp: Derek’s teething troubles are a much more common occurrence in this series.
• Aesop Amnesia: Played for Laughs in "Frolics Going Forward", BoZo says that he’ll enjoy the life he lives, only to start complaining once again the next day.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: In "Diesel and the Community Service" the Thin Git's crimes include; unpaid parking tickets, uncompensated property damage, and unapologetic name calling.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: “Smokey and the Apocalypse” deals with Koblimi, a giant mutated lizard.

• Blatant Lies: Arry and Bert claim to come from Fakey and Madeup’s workshop in "Hell, More Twins!". Subverted, as Fakey and Madeup are real engine dealers, albeit out of stock when Arry and Bert arrive.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Mr Bottomsly is revealed in “Blokey” to have been brainwashed by the Fat Controller, who plans to bring Cromwell back to Sodor.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: In "Steamie Does Sh*t Again", Davey T. Narrator demands you listen to the audio story where Steamie debuted.
• Break the Cutie: The Lackies in “Happy Lackies” start out eager and ready to work, but quickly become as bitter and hate-filled as the rest of the Other Railway’s inhabitants.
• Brief Accent Imitation: Diesel picks up Bernard’s Irish to mock him in “Diesel & Bernard”.
• Broken Ace: Private Parts was once a brave military helicopter, but nowadays he can’t tell a German tank from an ice cream van.
• Chick Magnet: Peter Fonda after he gets his hot pink fenders in “Special Fenders”.
• Conspiracy Theorist: Pepper is this in spades. Most of her theories involve lizard people and she wears a tinfoil hat over her cab.
• Crapsack World: Barrow-in-Furness (according to "Diesel & The Spoilers"), a real-life location in the U.K. that's a changeover point between the NWR and British Rail in the Railway Series, is portrayed as this in this fanfic series.
• Crazy Homeless People: The Big Fat Station has this problem. In “Diesel & The Spoilers”, a crazy religious one tells Diesel that he has "predicted" the end of days... which Diesel interprets as the threat of Pip & Emma getting stuck on Sodor.
• Crossover: ”Yard of the Daleks” unsurprisingly features the Daleks from Doctor Who.
• A Day in the Limelight:
  • Blokey in “Blokey”.
  • Bernard in “Bernard’s Run”.
  • Peter Fonda in “Special Fenders”.
  • Dame Edna in “Excavator”.
  • Renegade in “Grumpy Auld Eejit”.
  • Mrs Cruelly in “Mrs Cruelly’s Deathday Party”.
  • BoZo in “Frolics Going Forwards”.
• Deadpan Snarker: Davey T. Narrator, often breaks the forth wall to argue with the engines and is quite likely to quip.
  Davey: Suddenly there was bad news.
  Thin Git: I'm afraid I have bad news...
  Davey: Told you so. Bloody psychic I am.
• Didn't Think This Through: Spoken word for word by Pip and Emma at the end of "Helen to the Rescue?" when they realize that they are now stranded since there is no crane to put them back on the track.
• Disguised in Drag: “Helen to the Rescue?” reveals that Helen, a beautiful diesel crane, is really a small steam engine named Igor.
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • "Children of the Tram" and "Reality Check", both from Series 1, are the only stories, excluding audio specials, that are not based on an existing Thomas and Friends episode/story.
  • Series 1 and 2 have only about half of their stories come from Series 1 and 2 of Thomas and Friends respectively. Later series would have a majority of stories come from their respective Thomas series.
• Epic Fail: "An Awful View of Stuck-Up" has Old Stuck-Up's head inflate so much that he destroys his own private station.
• Evil Old Folks: Mrs Cruelly, such highlights include causing the biggest pileup in railway history, throwing shampoo in Diesel's eyes and then punching him in the face for nearly three hours when he crashed into a salon and nearly gave her a heart attack. and she was a increasingly nasty Gunnery Sergeant to the third Controller in the railways history.
• Expy: Most of the original characters are to characters from The Railway Series and Thomas & Friends:
  • The Thin Git is to the Fat Controller.
  • Scrappy is to Scruffey.
  • Mrs Cruelly is to Mrs Kyndley.
  • Bernard is to Bertie.
  • Dick is to Duck.
  • Steamie is to Diesel.
  • BoZo is to BoCo.
  • Blokey is to Bulgy.
  • Private Parts is to Harold.
  • The Wee B***d is to the Thin Controller.
  • Scarface is to Skarloey.
  • Renegade is to Rheneas.
  • Dame Edna is to Sir Handel.
  • Peter Fonda is to Peter Sam.
  • Smokey is to Rusty.
  • Dinsdale is to Duncan.
  • Queenie is to Duke.
  • General Panic is to Tiger Moth.
  • Bambi is to Thumper.
  • Ginny Cotton is to Jenny Packard.
  • ‘Dax’ is to Jack.
  • Derek is to Oliver.
  • Don Juan is to Byron.
  • Kim is to Kelly.
  • Rossellini is to Isobella.
  • Carter is to Alfie.
  • The Van Clan are to Max and Monty.
  • Lenny is to Ned.
• Fat Bastard:
  • Diesel (often described as short and fat) is incredibly rude and unpleasant.
  • Renegade is the fattest of the Wee B***d’s engines and spends most of Series 4 in prison.
• Fate Worse than Death: Working with Steamie is this for most engines. Subverted when Diesel develops a friendship with him in “Diesel, Steamie & the Fuel”, but quickly played straight in “The World’s Biggest Drip” when Steamie tries to kill everyone and falls to his death in a pit of molten lead.
• Flanderization: Professor Vengeance talks about doing this for several characters in the about section on the website.
  • Derek’s teething troubles occur much more frequently than they ever did in the original show.
  • Bowler only ever made a single comment about the steam engines being clean led to him being characterized complete and utter germaphobe.
• Flat Character: Don Juan and the Van Clan are all described as being generic stereotypes in “Dax Derps Up”.
• For Great Justice / Extreme Mêlée Revenge: "Arsonist Arry" has Arry and Bert torching half the Island of Sodor in an attempt to save Pip & Emma from the Dieselworks.
• Gender-Blender Name: Dame Edna is a male diesel.
• Googling the New Acquaintance: Bowler, Spamcan, and Stuck-Up look up information about Pip and Emma in “A Woman’s Touch” in order to embarrass them.
• Got Volunteered:
  • Derek ends up being the one forced to blackmail the Thin Git in "The Deportation".
  • Dame Edna uses ventriloquism to make it seem like Scarface volunteered to pull his train in "Four Little Eejits".
• He-Man Woman Hater: Spamcan, Bowler, and Stuck-Up all refuse to work with Pip and Emma in “We Need Another Engine By Court Order!” due to them being female.
• Hostile Show Takeover: Done by Mr. Personal in Series 4 when he kidnaps the Other Railway diesels so the Scarface Railway has no competition.
• I Have Many Names:
  • According to "The Not-So-Sad Story of Bowler", Bowler’s real number is D4711, and D261 when he’s bored.
  • Dame Edna and Peter Fonda used to be called Ferret and Stoat.
• Identical Twin ID Tag:
  • As with the canon series, Arry and Bert can be told apart by Arry’s lack of stubble.
  • While not siblings, Spamcan and Stuck-Up both look very similar which has caused the former to refuse to shave or bathe so they won’t be mistaken for one another.

• In-Series Nickname: Class 40/D4711/D261 was never called Bowler in the source material, The Thin Git calling Pip and Emma "Candy and Sugar" also qualifies.
• It's Raining Men: A skydiver gets blasted back into the sky by Old Stuck-Up in “Stuck-Up and the Space Balloon”.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Rossellini describes herself as one in “Dax Derps Up”.
• Karmic Thief: Old Stuck-Up's driver takes out a massive loan under the Thin Git's name to build Old-Stuck Up his own private station in "An Awful View of Stuck-Up".
• Lemony Narrator: Davey T. Narrator, Full Stop. He does not even try to pretend that the Other Railway is anything but a barely functional shambles.
• Merchandise-Driven:
  • Miss Ginny’s demolition crew primarily exists in order to sell toys.
  • To a lesser extent the Scarface Railway too since it’s designed to be a tourist trap.
• Mistaken Identity: The Brakefather mistakes Spamcan for Diesel 10 in "Spamcan Sits Back".
• Mockumentary: History of the Other Railway, which takes a look at Controllers just as if not more Vile, Nasty and Incompetent as Sir Wyatt.
• The Mole: Blokey is one for HiT Entertainment. So is Mr Bottomsly when brainwashed.
• Multi-Track Drifting: A shunting mishap in “Two Cabs Good, One Cab Bad!” results in Old Stuck-Up travelling across two lines and demolishing a satellite tower.
• Mythology Gag: Several to Thomas & Friends.
  • Bowler’s real number is D4711, but he is said to also go by D261 when he is bored. This is a reference to how his number was changed when he appeared Thomas & Friends.
  • The Brakefather mistakes Spamcan for Diesel 10.
  • In "Diesel, Derek, and the Wicker Man", Derek’s guesses for what the unusual delivery could be are all references to episodes of Thomas and Friends, specifically ones from the HiT Era.
• Named After Someone Famous: Scarface, Dame Edna, and Peter Fonda.
• Neat Freak: Bowler suffers from ‘’extreme’’ hypocondria. In “Bowler Takes the Piss”, his wheels are so polished they disintegrate the rails.
• Nice Guy / Token Good Teammate:
  • Derek, Pip & Emma are all the nicest engines on The Other Railway.
  • Smokey is this for the Scarface Railway.
• Non-Indicative Name: A few stories have titles that are not related to the Thomas story being parodied. For instance; "Saved From Crap" is based on "Escape" rather than "Saved From Scrap" and "Bowler Takes the Piss" is based on a combination of the Railway Series story "Eels on Wheels" and Series 6 episode “Gordon Takes a Tumble” rather than "Percy Takes the Plunge".
• Noodle Incident: The opening narration to “No Shame for Spamcan” mentions Spamcan isn’t allowed to pull coaches anymore after an incident involving the fireworks factory, a tanker of expired cream and the Duchess of York.
• No OSHA Compliance: The Other Railway. "Diesel, Spamcan and Young Sexybuffers" by 9 reveals that the coaches are held together with tape and blu-tack, and ProfessorVengeance's story "Smokey Screws The Deal" states that when the World Health Organization visited Barrow, their inspection gave a final grade of "D triple minus" and adding that it is "An accident waiting to stop happening".
• Notzilla: Koblimi from "Smokey and the Apocalypse" is a giant lizard that was mutated by radioactive waste. He can even breathe fire.
• One-Steve Limit: Played for Laughs, a confusion between the two Dereks leads to Ginny Cotton’s toy factory being blown up in “Dax Derps Up”.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Diesel’s disguise as Dax in “Dax Derps Up” involves him having a pig trough nailed to his front and some caterpillar tracks thrown around his wheels.
• Patchwork Fic: Characters from both the Railway Series, Old Stuck-Up and Spamcan, and Thomas & Friends, Arry and Bert, are featured.
• The Pig-Pen:
  • Spamcan refuses to bathe or shave. In "Spamcan’s Bathsoap Brunch" he is very annoyed when the Thin Git requires all the engines to have 14 wash downs everyday.
  • Carter is constantly caked in dirt and other unmentionable substances.
• Place Worse Than Death: The Island of Sodor is this to the Thin Git’s engines. Spamcan ends up at Brendam Docks in “Spamcan, Get Lost!” and instantly goes into Oh, Crap! mode.
• Punny Name:
  • Nearly everyone who isn't from the official source material has one, Such as The Thin Git/Sir Wyatt Fronts, Mrs Cruelly, BoZo and Private Parts.
  • Exaggerated in History of the Other Railway, not only with each of the controllers before Wyatt being an underwear pun (i.e. Sir Louis Boxington Shorts, Jock Strap and Lee Vanderhosin) and every character in the documentary having one, such as Dom(inic) Atrix, Hank Youmaam and William O Nare.
• Rage Against the Author:
  • The Thin Git and his engines all abuse the author at the end of "Catastrophe!”.
  • The Thin Git punches the author in the face at the end of "Smokey to the Rescue" for writing about the Scarface Railway.
• Railway Tracks of Doom:
  • Diesel rams Bernard at a level crossing in “Diesel & Bernard”.
  • Pip and Emma smash through Scrappy’s grass cuttings cart at a level crossing in “What the Bloody Hell's the Matter With Derek Now?”.
• Scatterbrained Senior: Private Parts still thinks the war is on and accuses random people of being Communists.
• "Scooby-Doo" Hoax: The bog monster in "Bowler Bewitched" is revealed to be a janitor called Mr. Jenkins who made the creature up in order to scare people away from his hiding spot for some gold that he found while cleaning toilets.
• Screw Politeness, I'm a Senior!: Queenie already spent most of her time bossing around Ferret and Stoat, but special mention goes to bribing their drivers to throw them down a mineshaft in “Snooty B***d”.
• Self-Deprecation: In "Dax Derps Up", Derek says that he can "honk and self-destruct".
• Ship Tease:
  • Davey T. Narrator hints that Diesel has a thing for Mavis in “We Need Another Engine By Court Order!”.
  • Dame Edna tries to hook up with Georgina in “Excavator”.
  • Rossellini hits on Dax (Diesel in disguise) and Don Juan in “Dax Derps Up”.
• Shout-Out:
  • Part of Bernard's vocabulary is the word feck.
  • In "Plop Goes the Steamie", Steamie sings the "I Love You" song.
  • "Steamie is a D*ck" is sung to the tune of The Addams Family theme.
• Shrinking Violet: Dinsdale (even if he never actually fought in any wars).

• Small Name, Big Ego: Just about every character in the fic is a giant egotist.
• Smurfette Principle:
  • The Thin Git had to buy Pip and Emma because he was required to have at least one female engine working for him.
  • Queenie is the only female engine on the Scarface railway.
  • Rossellini is the only female in Ginny Cotton’s demolition crew.
• Snap Back: Cromwell is nearly destroyed at the end of "Cromwell the Jet Turbine Engine". He gets better.
• Sore Loser: Diesel smashes into Bernard after being beaten in a race by him in “Diesel & Bernard”.
• Springtime for Hitler: Smokey attempts to purposely screw-up the new line in "Smokey Screws the Deal" so Mr. Personal won’t open it. Unfortunately, he instead winds up deciding to quadruple the length so he can film Smokey not doing his work and make even more cash.
• Take That!:
  • Cromwell was saved from being another Merchandise-Driven character for HIT.
  • Arry tells Bert to stop speaking in rhyme in "Arsonist Arry".
• Those Two Guys:
  • Arry and Bert.
  • Pip and Emma.
  • Scarface and Renegade after Renegade is released from prison.
  • Dame Edna and Peter Fonda back when they were Ferret and Stoat.
• Token Minority: A few in the series:
  • Smokey is the only steam engine on the Scarface Railway. This was purposely done as Mr. Personal realized having a steam engine on the roster could be very marketable.
  • Don Juan is explicitly mentioned to be one for Ginny Cotton’s demolition team in “Dax Derps Up”.
  • Igor is the only purely steam-powered engine owned by The Thin Git (BoZo is only half steam).
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Many of the canon characters like Diesel and D199 are much ruder than they were in the Railway Series.
• Violent Glaswegian: Jock Strap. If the mockumentary detailing his tenure as Other Railway controller is anything to go by.
• Welcome Episode:
  • Pip and Emma in “We Need Another Engine By Court Order!”
  • Arry and Bert in “Hell, More Twins!”.
  • Dick in “Dick Takes Over”.
  • BoZo in “Swots and Steamies”.
  • Cromwell and Mr Bottomsly in “Saved From Crap”.
  • Smokey in “Special Fenders”.
  • Dinsdale in “The Rock ‘n’ Roll Horror Picture Show”.
  • Cheeky in “Cheeky Buddies”.
  • ‘Dax’ in “Dax Derps Up”.
  • Pepper in “Pepper’s Paranoia”.
  • ‘Helen’ and Igor in “Helen to the Rescue?”.

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