A magical land where dreams come true...
North Western Railway Tales is a Thomas & Friends YouTube series created by Thomas Stansfield, better known as NWR1991.
The series is mostly set in The Present Day, following the engines and staff of the North Western Railway. While not exactly grounded in reality, the series does have realistic undertones and the stories are often framed as 'slice of life' episodes typical of the Railway Series. The stories intersect with real-life occurrences also as in the books; such as a few episodes featuring Flying Scotsman visiting again, after his return to steam in 2016.
Overall, it aims to be a more realistic take on the adventures of Thomas and his crew, compared to the television series. NWR1991 has even posted a timeline on DeviantArt
to tie up loose ends. In 2022 to celebrate the series’ tenth anniversary, NWR1991 decided to have the timeline on his main channel to fully explain the lore in ten parts. In 2024, a spin-off called NWR FLASBACK Tales was made to celebrate the 35th anniversary of Shining Time Station.
Tropes of the North Western Railway:
- Adaptational Expansion: The Fat Controller’s Bad Hair Day reveals why the Fat Controller was harsh towards Douglas in Buffer Bashing as he had an chaotic morning where he woke up late, his car broke down and most of his attempts to get to Knapford ended in failure.
- Adaptational Jerkass: The kind hearted Flora is reimagined as a more bitter engine who hates road vehicles and even tries to crash into Bertie while she has passengers.
- Adaptational Karma: The cleaner who caused Thomas to crash into a stationmaster’s house was never punished in both the story and tv show while here, he’s suspended from his job a year after the accident.
- Alternate Universe: Downplayed heavily; a few events and characters have been changed to fit the series' realism:
- Diesel 10's claw is an experimental fitting that never worked out.
- Characters like Lily and Alice do not run as working engines, but are kept at a railway museum in Vicarstown.
- Emily was purchased by the Sodor & Mainland Railway for a proposed express service to the Mainland, and thus is older than even Edward.
- Stephen is not the original Rocket, but the replica built by the National Railway Museum in 1979.
- The Skarloey Railway fleet is repainted to match their TV series liveries. (Rheneas is, begrudgingly, the last to do so, because he is rightly irritated at being confused for Skarloey all the time.)
- The Great Railway Show was not a competition like in The Great Race special, but instead a celebration of railway technology from steam to electricity.
- Certain events of the TV series, in some cases entire seasons, are left out.
- The Bus Came Back: Usually applies to engines who had a minor one-time appearance in the Railway Series.
- D199, last seen heading back to the Other Railway in disgrace in 1967, makes a surprise reappearance in Diesel Returns. He is now preserved and has come to the NWR on a railtour. Not that he's any less of a jerkass.
- Stanley the MSR No. 2, last seen turned into a pumping engine behind the engine shed, is rescued by Sir Robert Norramby for use on the Earl's estate railway. His story is recounted in Lost and Found.
- Butt-Monkey: Shane the Class 67 has two crashes in three episodes: first in Technology, his hand and airbrakes are not applied, resulting in him rolling away into some coaches. Then in The Importance of Brake Vans, his electrics short out while pulling a train without a brake van, and he ends up derailing in the sidings at Cronk.note
- Darker and Edgier: The Sodor Blitz, framed as a story told by a veteran to an indignant Shane. At one point, the bombing results in a goods van full of ammunition catching fire; before Edward can start off to do something, an explosion rings out in the distance...Veteran: Don... Arnold... NOOOOO!
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The series started out in 2012, with the only available T&F models at the time being low-quality, with few details and cut-and-paste faces. From Season 5, new highly-detailed models are used, and even some of WildNorWester's original characters are included.
- Heel–Face Turn: After a forced visit to the National Railway Muesum, Diesel slowly but surely sheds his devious personality. By the time of "Rumors And Reveals" he’s an completely changed engine.
- I Owe You My Life: Arry and Bert state that they owe Toby one after the tram saves their lives in "Respect For Toby".
- Jerkass: The enthusiast in Oliver and the Enthusiast. He pushes others aside in order to get pictures and is an impatient sort of man.
- D199 or Spamcan is an arrogant engine who still thinks he’s modern and is happy insult any engine he pleases including fellow diesels.
- Jerkass Has a Point: In Tender Engines Don’t Shunt, while Gordon has a point about engines like him not shunting, this is due to lack of experience rather than pride. Furthermore nothing justifies Gordon’s rudeness towards the other engines.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Diesel starts out as his usual magnanimous, steamie-taunting self; however, after a visit to the National Railway Museum, he slowly starts to shed this personality. He even defends Edward when D199 insults his old age in Diesel Returns.
- Killed Off for Real: Farewell, Old Friend deals with Mrs Kyndley passing away.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Several characters face the comeuppances of their brash actions throughout the series, some more than once.
- Obligatory Swearing: In 2022, after getting tired of YouTube flagging his videos as made for kids, NWR1991 added a message in subsequent video descriptions for viewers to “comment while they can before YouTube's fucking COPPA bots.” This trope has been a similar key that most Thomas fans have done lately following a key of mass-flagging by the site on Thomas-related videos.
- When this didn’t work (as well as a later rule the site applied where users can't add swear words in the description to bypass the "Made for Kids" rules), a sequence was added in Episode 6 of Series 11, where Thomas the Tank Engine warns viewers that the video is "not made for kids":
Thomas: To all those people watching, I'd like to remind everyone that this video is not made for kids. It's for older fans and adults. Enjoy the fucking video! - Police Are Useless: Averted heavily. In Kidnapped!, they arrive quickly to arrest the thieves who stole Oliver.
- Constable Barnaby, on the other hand, is a police officer who is useless. His travails are recounted by Thomas in The Ffarquhar Constable: he enforces the outdated law that got Thomas in trouble (that literally nobody else is implied to have cared about). Then he is demoted after booking cars parked outside Ffarquhar Church. Including his sergeant's car.note
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: A hallmark of the series is when characters do something without thinking it through, and it backfires hard on them. This was a hallmark of the original Thomas and Friends series, but here the Fat Controller doesn't just mouth off about confusion and delay, he gets incredibly cross depending on the severity of the offender's actions, and his punishments are more severe.
- You Keep Using That Word: In Troublesome Tourists, Sir Handel is outraged at being called a "train" by a couple taking some pictures.Sir Handel: Train?! The coaches that I'm pulling are a train! I'm an engine!
