RAILWAY PROPAGANDIST

I can't believe I never posted this here! I illustrated this scene from Crosspatch last year in honor of the 80th Anniversary. It was for an art collab, and Very Old Engines was the book I was assigned!

There was always something about this scene that stuck out to me for some reason... maybe it was the quiet humanity of gathering together to hear a story from an elder, but the cool cultural aspect of the TTTE universe is that the elder might be a machine which has lived for a century.

Duchess of Boxford is not thrilled upon learning she is being lent to a tiny island railway no bigger than 80 miles across. She is a mighty express engine who is used to doing 7 hour cross-country journeys with 15 coaches in tow. The main line of the North Western Railway, however, can be cleared round trip in under 2 hours. Never allowed more than 5 coaches, Duchess believes the work on this railway is a waste of her strength.

However, once she discovers the designated express engine for the NWR is a Gresley A1, the flagship engine of her home railway's bitter rival, she decides she will make some fun out of the trip by teaching him a lesson.

Your latest doodles showed Duke winking/teasing Duchess; do you have any thoughts on how they first met and how their dynamic develops overtime? What draws them to each other?

The doodle in question! ^

Honestly this doodle was more of a gag than anything 😂, but if I was to actually flesh it out, this is how I would write Duke and Duchess:

~

Duchess of Boxford has been living with her namesake Duke and Duchess for some time now. Every so often she takes them to Sodor, and she bunks overnight with her friends, the Fat Controller's engines.

One night, they are telling her all about their hero, Duke the Lost Engine. They use words like 'brave, fearless, valiant,' and Duchess' imagination starts running wild. She pictures a large, strapping, stoic engine (perhaps an LNER Duke) that has been beaten and worked to death and still come out chuffing. Highly impressed, Duchess insists that she must Meet This Engine Herself.

The engines are happy to direct her to Crovan's Gate, where he is currently being repaired.

"He's brown," says Thomas. "And he's the one with the tender. You can't miss him!"

Duchess, thinking Thomas' comment odd, gets steamed up to return to the mainland. She stops at Crovan's Gate and scans the place for Duke. She sees no brown engine in the workshop, or anywhere else for that matter.

She begins to pout. Beside her, one of the little engines puffs up. He is brown, with a tender, and he is Duke. His repairs had finished faster than expected.

Duke has seen many an engine in his day, but he has never seen one quite as striking as the one across the platform from him. He'd heard the tale of the big engine from the LMS who'd somehow befriended Gordon, including the bit about how supposedly gorgeous she was.

"Who cares about a pretty face?" He used to say. "It's the inside that matters. Just look at me! I'm no Sean Connery, but I still run circles around you scallywags!"

But now he understands. He's never seen an engine with lines and curves like that.

Duchess notices him and glumly asks, "Excuse me, but have you seen an engine called-" but she doesn't finish, as she realizes the very engine is idling right next to her.

She is taken aback at how different the real Duke is from her imagined version of him. He is certainly beaten up, but that was the only thing she got right.

"I beg your pardon, but are you... Duke?" She asks, bewildered.

Duke is a bit tickled at learning this handsome engine knows who he is.

"You bet, sweetheart." He answers with a cheeky wink.

"Oh!" Duchess cries. She goes a bit red despite herself. "I, uh... a-and you're the one whom these engines call a 'hero?'"

"Ah, that's what the younger engines say, I hear." Duke answers modestly. "I've got a few different names. I've been called Sleeping Beauty, Granpuff, Bulldog... but you can call me whatever you like." He gives her a smirk, eyebrow piqued.

"Heavens!" Duchess cries indignantly, red as a signal.

"But enough about me, dear. What's your name?"

Duchess has trouble forming a response. "Er... well, um... it's-"

Before she can respond, her guard's whistle blows, and her driver opens the regulator. Soon, she is puffing gamely out of the station, totally stunned.

As she leaves, Duke spots her nameplate as it glints in the sunlight.

"A Duchess!" He laughs. "She's named after a Duchess! If I didn't know any better, I'd say were meant to meet..."

All the while, the other little engines in the yard have been watching.

Peter Sam is agape. Duncan, beside him, is physically uncomfortable.

"I guess they call him 'Bulldog' for a reason, eh?" Skarloey jokes.

The next time Duchess returns to Sodor, she tells her friends about Duke. They are very entertained.

"You lot might have warned me that he was so cheeky!" She scolds. "All he did was chat me up! Of course, it was no surprise. I'm quite used to being called beautiful." She says airily.

"The little engines say different!" James interjects. "They say your face was the same shade as your lips!"

"Now- now- just a minute! He only caught me off guard!" Duchess argues.

But the others are too busy laughing and carrying on to listen.

"That's our hero! Leave it to a Duke to charm a Duchess!" Gordon teases.

Annie and Clannie!!