Thomas OCs (sort of): Todd
Number: 47191 (D1841, pre-TOPS)
Class: BR Class 47 Co-Co
Built: 1965
First visted Sodor: Around 1980/81
Service on Sodor (Shed): NWR Utility (Crovan's Gate)
Livery: BR Diesel Blue
The NWR has seen its fair share of visiting BR engines over the years, and from the 1960s onwards, almost all of these have been diesels. Most of them simply stay for a night or two and then head home, without making much of an impression. A select few end up going native and joining the NWR's ranks. And then there are some who aren't permanent Sodor residents, but might as well be, considering how often they visit the island. Todd fits squarely into this last category.
Todd is one of a number of Class 47s who travels onto NWR metals on a regular basis - usually with trains he's brought from other BR regions. He generally stays on Sodor for a few days at a time, does any odd jobs that crop up, and then heads back to the Mainland - all without much in the way of fanfare or recognition. Not that Todd would know what to do with a thank you if he received one - the satisfaction of a job well done is reward enough for him, and as a 47, he's used to quietly going about his work without anyone taking any notice of him.
In fact, that seems to be what Todd's all about. Like most of his brothers and sisters (all five hundred-odd of them!), he's content to think of himself as one of the backroom boys - doing whatever work comes his way, going wherever that work takes him, and quietly going about it in the background, unseen and unsung. Not for him, the whole business of trying to stand out from the crowd.
But Todd does stand out, in his own small way. He's got a certain something which sets him apart from his siblings - a sort of charisma that makes it difficult not to like him. Even the most uptight or prejudiced engines can't help but befriend him after a short while. Todd also likes to keep busy, and can get restless if he's got nothing to do - which is probably why he's always taking on odd jobs whenever he's on Sodor.
Todd began life as D1841, and entered service in April 1965. He was allocated to Crewe North shed, from which he ran all manner of trains right across the north of England. For the first month of his life, Todd shared the shed with what few steam engines were still based there. Even so early on, he had a natural charisma, which allowed him to build up a good rapport with the steam engines in the short time they were around - something which was to stand Todd in good stead later on in his life.
Like with so many of his siblings, Todd's existence was to be one of remarkable consistency. For example, he has been based at Crewe for almost his entire life - I say almost, because he was inexplicably transferred to the Birmingham area for a few months in 1968, before returning to Crewe just as suddenly. His pattern of work has also remained much the same - travel to some distant depot, spend a night or two there, and then make his way back to Crewe.
If you were to ask Todd (as indeed we did), he'd be the first to admit that his early life wasn't all that exciting. In fact, the most interesting thing to happen to him, so he says, was when he was given his current number of 47191 under the TOPS scheme of the early-1970s. Oh yes, and there was that one time he was left idling in a siding during a trip working, and a fox somehow got into his rear cab and stole half his driver's lunch! It was a young tod that did the deed, and this is allegedly how 47191 came to be known as Todd.
Yes, very interesting stuff, but let's skip forward a bit to the winter of 1980/81, seeing as that was when Todd paid his first visit to the NWR. That day had seen him arriving at Vicarstown with an ordinary semi-fast service from Manchester, and handing the train over to an NWR engine - Todd remembers it being Henry - to complete the journey to Tidmouth. He'd then made his way to Crovan's Gate for refuelling and servicing - BR diesels having special permission to make use of NWR facilities when visiting Sodor.
As usual, Todd spent a couple of days hanging around Crovan's Gate, and this meant he was on hand to rescue James when his injectors failed just outside Ballahoo. His past rapport with steam engines came in useful here, as his friendly conversation with James played a great part in finally dispelling the red engine's longstanding prejudices against diesels. As a result of this encounter, James is now one of Todd's closest friends among the Sodor engines.
Todd left Sodor for home soon after, but one way or another, he just kept on coming back throughout most of the 80s. While not a constant presence, he returned just often enough that the Sodor engines began to recognise him, and got to know him better. He always stayed at Crovan's Gate during his visits, so the others affectionately referred to him as The Works Diesel - at least, until someone finally thought to ask what his actual name was!
As mentioned above, Todd was not the only 47 to visit Sodor on a regular basis - in fact, he was one of about half a dozen who frequently ventured onto NWR metals. This fact was frequently forgotten by the Sodor engines, who naturally had trouble telling at a glance just which one of the visiting diesels they were dealing with. Sometimes they would just guess, and end up being completely wrong - many was the time when an NWR engine would strike up a conversation with Todd, only to realise too late that they were actually talking to a Damien, or even a Gemma!
Todd, for his part, was always patient when correcting others and explaining how to tell him apart from his fellow 47s. (In short, it's all in the numbers - Todd is 47191, Gemma is 47166, Damien is 47304, and so on...) He often explained it in a strained voice, though, so we can assume it annoyed him just as much as it did the others - indeed, it's probably one of the only things to get under the skin of the otherwise-unflappable Todd.
Todd's visits to Sodor continued into the 1990s, but became more sporadic from about 1993 onwards. All we know about Todd's history after this point is what he's shared during his subsequent visits. In short, he was caught up in the madness of privatisation, and ended up with a spot-hire firm offering engines to freight operating companies on a short-term basis. One of these companies had a contract to run freight trains between Britain and Sodor, and it is while pulling some of these trains that Todd has made his most recent ventures onto NWR metals.
To this day, Todd remains a welcome sight - if not a regular one - on the rails of Sodor. He always enjoys catching up with the friends he's made there, and he is forever impressed by how much the island has managed to stay the same, even as the rest of the world has changed beyond recognition. The Sodor engines, too, are impressed by how much Todd has managed to stay the same: after all the changes he's witnessed and experienced, he's still the same friendly, charismatic, hard-working Todd they first got to know back in 1980 - one simply has to marvel at his consistency!
As you might have worked out, Todd is my take on the unnamed Class 47 who helped change James' perception of diesels by coming to his aid in Deep Freeze, and turned up in a couple of other places. He's never been given an official name, which gives the fandom carte-blanche to call him whatever they like - the ERS, for instance, calls him Wendell. Most fans don't bother, though, simply referring to him as The Works Diesel.
Why did I go with Todd as a name? Well, I once read that the Class 47s are sometimes nicknamed Brushes after their manufacturer, and I thought, "Hmm, Brush is also the name for a fox's tail - so why don't I name all my Class 47 OCs after fictional foxes or fox-related individuals?" I loved this idea for two reasons: it helped narrow down the potential options to a manageable number, and it would allow me to indulge my weakness for terrible puns.
Tod, by the way, is a popular name for fictional foxes - it being the traditional term for a male fox - but I can't remember which one I specifically named this Todd after.
There was no real rhyme or reason to Todd specifically being 47191. My only requirements were that he was a bog-standard 47, based at Crewe around the time Deep Freeze takes place, and withdrawn early enough that I could extend his fictional history without clashing with real life - it took a lot of trawling through BRDatabase to find an example that fit the bill on all three counts.
