Sodor: Fallout was a horror fan-fiction story set in an alternate universe of theThomas & Friends series.
The story follows Sidney Herver, Edward's fireman, as he documents the ongoings and events happening on the post-nuclear Island of Sodor, witnessing death, violence, mutant creatures, and a conspiracy threatening to bring down the whole railway, all while a terrifying beast has broken loose through the fallout.
The initial creation of the series technically began development in 2019, when Twitter User TidmouthThunderbolt(AKA Connor), began posting disturbing, photoshopped images of Thomas characters with mutilated and scarred faces to his account. The thread of images were initially met with overwhelming positivity and intrigue from the online Thomas community, so much so that Connor began writing a series of stories and a larger, cohesive narrative about his photoshops into a fanfiction document on Wattpad… What followed was a fanfic that took the Thomas Fandom by storm… Sodor: Fallout .
The fanfic (as it stands) is still available on Wattpad and can be read here. Connor’s You Tube channel can be found here, containing several videos of the official visual adaptation of the series.
The series garnered a somewhat positive reception from the Thomas community, but nowadays Connor considers it an Old Shame and isn’t too enthusiastic about it’s popularity, so much so that he actually left the Online Thomas fandom in 2021 due to it being incredibly overwhelming for him to manage, and him losing interest with the series as a whole.
Sodor Fallout was never completed by Connor and is generally considered to be a Dead Fic. He’s occasionally talked about how the story would have concluded, such as this Tweet explaining basic plot of the original first draft of the story, but a lot of things were never given a proper explanation and is up to interpretation. Any tropes mentioned further could possibly be risking being a bit inaccurate because of this, so proceed with caution!
Sodor Fallout provides examples of:
- Adaptational Badass: A lot of characters end up stepping up to the plate compared to their canon versions.
- Henry in canon was a well-behaved and friendly engine. Here, is a part of the refugee group looking for survivors. He's now equipped with a shield in front of his buffers and is even given a new nickname: The Knight Walker.
- Sir Topham Hatt in canon was a stern but a fair controller that wasn't afraid to put an unruly engine in their place. In Sodor Fallout, he has no problem beating and torturing one of PT Boomer's men before blowing his head off.
- Mavis manages to survive PT Boomer's attack on the Quarry and escape by running some of them over. Her picture on the wiki even has her cowcatchers covered in blood. Later she's given a shield made from a truck similar to Henry.
- After being rescued by Mavis, Daisy forgoes any of her makeup and now looks like a commando ready for war, complete with black marks under her face.
- Alternate Universe: Fallout Sodor takes place during Season 7 of the show.
- Anyone Can Die: Since the story is being told through notes on a journal that have already been written, the final state of the characters could be anything. If the deaths of Percy and Toby are anything to go by, literally anyone could die.
- Apocalyptic Log: The entire series is told through Sidney’s notes and logs he writes in his journal.
- Beyond the Impossible: Edward when the nuclear powerplant explodes. In order to run that far within that time before the shockwave catches up to him, he'd have to be moving at speeds nearing the speed of sound (around 765 MPH). This was obviously not the intention.
- Big Bad: PT Boomer.
- Darker and Edgier: The series is obviously a lot darker than base-Thomas due to its concept, characters, language, and horror.
- Dark Fic: About a holocaust filled with horrific deaths and mutations galore, and based off a franchise about talking locomotives and other vehicles.
- Determinator: The Beast is hell-bent on killing (and presumably eating) anything it comes into contact with. The only instance when it doesn't stick to a murder is when it gets distracted from killing off Percy when Gordon thunders past them.
- Driven to Suicide: Toby rams himself into the breakdown crane following his mutation, as well as various troublesome trucks intentionally launching themselves into a turntable well.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: As the name implies, Sodor Fallout answers what would happen if the Island of Sodor was hit by a nuclear disaster.
- The Faceless: We never actually see PT Boomer.
- Genetic Abomination: Techinally this applies to a lot of the characters since they got heavily mutated. However there is one that stands out from the rest, Oliver (typically referred to as The Beast).
- Good is Not Nice: Sir Topham Hatt executes one of Boomer's goons after interrogating him. Not that he didn't have it coming to him, considering how he works for PT Boomer and goes along with his plan to ruin Sir Topham Hatt's railway.
- Invincible Villain: Without a doubt, The Beast. The only one who even came close to damaging it was Diesel 10, who ended up getting obliterated in the end anyway. The Beast is so insanely OP and because it's technically not an engine, it can poke it's legs and tendrils out and traverse off-road, use those tendrils as limbs, and survive a ridiculous amount of abuse.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Quite a few characters meet their fate via getting stabbed or impaled. Among those are Toby running face-first into the breakdown crane, Donald getting impaled with his own tubes after his boiler explodes, and Diesel 10 ironically getting stabbed with his own claw after The Beast rips it off during their fight.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: James. He's absolutely pissed off, and rightfully so, considering he had to abandon half of his passengers.
- Kill the Ones You Love: Both Trevor the Traction Engine and Skarloey the Narrow-Gauge Engine are put down and shot by their owners when their mutations prove to be fatal.
- Leitmotif: Characters have various pieces of music associated with them.
- Left for Dead: Percy crashed after being chased by The Beast and his injuries were too drastic to be fixed, so the others left him to die. However this trope has a twist as he actually ends up dying instead of typically returning and seeking vengeance. Percy’s death has been confirmed by Tidmouth Thunderbolt several times.
- Multiple Head Case: Toby, following his mutation. Technically Toby's face is on his cab, not his boiler. So when he got mutated a second, grotesque face grew onto his boiler. This second face would speak to Toby and tell him all his insecurities, driving him mad and eventually causing him to... well... “punch his own ticket” out of this hellhole.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Diesel 10 ended up getting absolutely curb-stomped by The Beast during a test match. Diesel 10 actually managed to get a good hit in, but that led to The Beast ripping off his claw and shoving it through his face.
- Red Herring Twist: Sir Topham Hatt is painted in a somewhat negative light at the start of the series, with him overseeing the nuclear powerplant. However, it’s later revealed he had nothing to do with the explosion and joins the refugee team.
- Replacement Goldfish: Justified. The ending of the original script shows the engines introduced in Season 7 are brought over to replace the deceased ones; Spencer replaces Gordon, Emily replaces Percy, Arthur takes Donald's place, etc.
- Replicant Snatching: That's not Oliver. That's not him. Uh oh.
- Retcon: Thomas’ original design depicts him in a much more terrifying state, implying he was likely meant to be hostile. Considering that role has been taken by whatever the hell Oliver is now, Thomas ended up retaining his sanity despite his mutation and is a member of the refugee team.
- The Reveal:
- The entire disaster was orchestrated by PT Boomer and his underground group of followers with the sole purpose of ruining the railway.
- The Sodor Nuclear Power Plant never blew up. There was a blast, but it wasn't from a nuclear meltdown. It was multiple bombs set off to appear that it was one. The engines mutating were caused by an injection of an unknown chemical made to deform skin, rapid mutations, and temporary memory loss. Thomas, James, and the trucks would immediately forget that they were injected and, with no memories of the event, would assume that the mutations were caused by the supposed meltdown.
- Right Back at Ya!: When The Beast rips off Diesel 10's claw and stabs him in the face with it.
- Science Is Bad: The series itself seems to hinge on bio-life and pushing scientific engineering to it's limits, causing the conflict to take play. This is mainly due to the fact that PT Boomer is a renowned scientist fascinated with the engines having faces and wanting to study them himself. This is particularly why he and Sir Topham Hatt don't get along, as they appear to have a shared history with conflicting views on the engines. This trope also leads into the creation of arguably the most dangerous character, The Beast, which seems to be an artificial lifeform Boomer developed. It's a horrendous killer monster that uses Oliver's corpse as a shell, much like a crab or snail.
- Very Loosely Based on a True Story: The series was inspired by The Chernobyl Disaster... yeah.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Toby pulled one of these when he was too scared to shunt the rest of James' train when the powerplant exploded, fleeing off to try and save Henrietta. This led to James being forced to leave his passengers behind, causing them to most likely die from the heat.
- Zombie Apocalypse: Essentially what this series is all about.
- Zombie Infectee: All signs point to the conclusion that Edward himself has already been mutated. The fact he hasn’t shown any physical symptoms is probably not a good sign.
