........

"When I met Edward for the first time"

*shows you an angst of their au*

yeah that's my water mark, anyways

tw blood

well, let's see, basically this is from Henry's perspective, since from what he was informed, Edward "died" in an accident that they both suffered leaving Henry injured not only physically but emotionally and mentally, imagine being told that you accidentally killed your friend, Henry simply didn't take it well and blamed himself for what happened even though he had been told that it was the detour in the rails that failed that day, at one point Henry simply couldn't take it anymore and left, disappearing without a trace of his whereabouts

Soooo lets start off with Duck, he’s obviously Great Western and very proud of it, he’s able to tackle pretty much anything given to him, except for the possible mistreatment of him by his controller(s). ⤵️

During the time he was sent over to Sodor, (Summer of 1955 according to the wiki) Dieselization was taking over everywhere, the U.K, America, you name it, and getting rid of Steamies was a huge trend, by scrapping or just straight up abandoning them (Cue Percy going on his “They don’t repair them” speech) and it really makes me wonder, was Duck ever mistreated or worse, going to be scrapped but was saved by STH just in time? Cuz we’ve seen that GWR isn’t afraid to get rid of their steam engines like Oliver. Which brings me to another point but I’ll do that in a sec. With Duck, he seems to admire his railway so much that he just pushes those beliefs onto his peers while Oliver doesn’t really talk about his railway much, probably traumatised from his whole scrap escape.

Engines like Duck on GWR we’re probably easy to get rid of since they were so compliant and obedient. But with Duck, yes he stand up for himself to his peers, but not to STH. When he asks Duck to go to Edward's station, he does nothing, only gives him a tearful, “As you wish sir…”. It shows that Duck is still not really a suck-up to his controller, but is definitely obedient and just takes it. When Diesel tries to call STH “The Fat Controller” Duck cuts him off and corrects him. It’s very interesting how Duck is so willing to stick up for his controller, maybe even if they’re not so kind to him.

But then again, in “Diesel does it again”, Duck goes on a little strike with Percy to tell him that they refuse to work with Diesel but still Duck seems to be scared, saying “Beg pardon” and saying sir a lot. He seems even more scared when the narrator says, “In a quiet, hurt voice” which gives me the assumption that he feels betrayed, maybe thinking like “Why did he do this, I thought he solved the problem?” Later in the episode, Duck and Percy say, “What will TFC say? He won’t like it!” Which Diesel retorts with “Who's going to tell him I wonder? Not some goody-two shoes like you!” Which makes Duck and Percy shut up for the rest of the episode until Diesel gets more defiant and STH gets rid of him anyway. It really shows how even STH engines can be swayed by characters like Diesel, or maybe other bullies that they’ve had to face. With Duck informing STH about how others would say he “waddles” probably so which is why he doesn’t take shit from others now.

All in all, Duck is a very interesting character when you get past the GWR loving side of him. He’s not all rules and order, he’s also a dreamer, wanting to explore other lands or a bit of a mischievous character, messing with Diesel when he first arrives or with Henry and his 6 tender. I wish they did more with Duck instead of going with “He loves the GWR”

But for characters like Oliver who’ve had a bad experience with his railway, he probably isn't too fond of them, and doesn’t really talk about them much, but one thing Oliver has that Duck doesn’t is being swayed by the opinions of others so much he gets too cocky and ends up in the turntable, which Duck probably made fun of him for years. Although Oliver may have been jaded by his railway, he was quickly humbled by the next. But Oliver and Duck are both kinda scared of their controllers, with Duck being obedient and Oliver being scared he'll get sent away again by STH after ripping Scruffy apart. There’s that sense of fear for those above you with them and I wish we got more on their background and why that fear is always there. Even thought Oliver probably wants nothing more to do with GWR, he's still painted in their colors after being saved. He seems happy but honestly if I was him, I would’ve chosen literally any other color than the one from the railway that was going to kill me.

I wonder if Oliver feels betrayed by his railway, does he still respect them, does he hate them? It just makes me wonder what are his feelings for them now? I’m sure Duck and Oliver get into fights about how the GWR is or isn’t as good as the other thinks. We’ve seen Oliver retort back to Duck with “The Great Western Way, I know! And you’re doing it the wrong way.” So unlike Duck, Oliver isn't afraid to give a little clap-back to his railway.

Oliver is also an interesting character, we never really know about his time on the GWR besides that he was going to be scrapped by them, and we never really get any more info about the GWR. We see characters like Mr. Percival who runs the Skarloey Railway and such, but never the GWR. It’s all up for the fans like me I guess

𝑨 𝒎𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒚 𝒎𝒆𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒚~♪

𝐺𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑃𝑢𝑝 = 𝐶𝑜𝑑𝑦

It's not really something different from most humanization creators. Saw Emma's art when I first discovered this side of ttte, wanting to expand on that concept, making them more mechanical while keeping that friendly look. To add more wheels on the limbs for the illusion of technological realism, taking steampunk as a reference.

With regular human limbs it made things too crowded to I elongates the arms and gave them running blades siderods. Later on putting more aspects of their engine to them.

Thus inventing trainpunk

Here's the "definite" guide to the humanoid wheel arrangement

So, let's start at the beginning,

In history, before the invention of the engine, horses were used to pull carts. So hypothetically, the blueprint of a humanoid engine would be: mammalian, w/wheels fixed on the joints.

something I forgot to add: engines are toons. they are dolls. they are puppets. they are able to squash and stretch themselves in ways impossible.

a good comparison to them is Pinocchio!

Image ID: Engines gain sentience from gold dust. Lady is the supplier of gold dust.

there is no physical difference between steam and diesel, but an internal one; all diesels emit oil.

Engines no longer have to be driven; they can drive themselves! But they still need a driver and fireman to guide them, and start the day.

In my human au they’re rivals, in my swap au they’re like brothers.

In my AU, Gordon and Henry hated echother when they were children, but Gordon is the one who started this rivaly, and when he came to sodor for the first time, he saw Henry and Edward as friends, and Gordon didn't like that at all

Edward is the one who was protecting Henry and Henry has a weak personality and he can't defend himself, and when Edward isn't around, Gordon gets his chance and starts to bully Henry and beat him up, but Henry can't tell anyone about what's happening between him and Gordon because he didn't want to cause problems for Gordon.

And all this went on for a long time, until Sir topham hatt knew about this, and he reprimanded Gordon and told him that what he was doing was wrong towards his relative, and after that, Gordon decided to start a new page with Henry and become friends, so he apolozied to Henry, and Henry accepted his apology and they became friends.