#ttte marklin

Subject 3a, the Steam Elephant, (or Eleanor) as they all call her, was built in 1815 for work at the Wallsend Waggonway, designed by John Buddle and William Chapman (not George Stephenson as was originally assumed!) She was the first locomotive available to the CRLM in 1842, and had her eyes removed to study the optical mechanisms. Experiments on her continued till WW1, and then they just left her there. She sits dilapidated and forgotten in her corner of the building, but, being a stern, stubborn old grandma, still seeks out and forms connections with the many engines who have come and gone in the the CRLM building. However short they may be....

Notes: Originally conceived as a Precedent Class for another story, Eleanor is my first OC.

SUBJECT 3b1/5b 'Swiftsure': Or 'Rowan', as the subject only answers to (if she answers at all, he is unpredictable in that way) Is a Forrester Single built in 1834 by George Forrester and Company for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. She was acquired in 1842 and has a prosthetic iron jaw fitted as of Expiriment Trial 5b of 1851. A rather unpredictable engine, don't be alarmed if he is heard cackling with irregularity... to keep the dreadful scientists guessing at what goes on in a locomotive's mind.

She remained more or less in the same condition he was in since then, except her jaw, which was replaced with a crude prosthetic he had no other choice but to learn to use as part of Experiment 3b1.

Once a dainty and eager to please engine, the scientists forced her onto the side of insanity. He still appears to care for the younger lab locos, and especially Eleanor, (she's kind of in a love/hate relationship with the Steam Elephant.)

Notes: I'm gonna brag for a bit, I adore this old grandparent of a loco. (which is why he has one of the nicest ref sheets) Like Eleanor, she was also conceived as a different class for a different story, but after some research to incorporate her into this fic, he finally clicked into place. Just like that metal jaw of hers.

Subject 12a, Soledad. Built for Ferrocarril de Langreo in the mid 1800s, she was retired after years of work, and bought for cheap by the CRLM. And was deafened and blinded.... Eleanor attempted to get through to her, but very little communication was possible. The others don't even know her name is Soledad, or the strange Spanish words she shrieks every time she feels the hands of Dr. Belmont.

Notes: Now I'm gonna admit, there is not much information on this exact locomotive. Just some images on Wikipedia as part of an article on her railway. So a lot of her later backstory revealed will be speculative.

Subject 14c, Galéne, former MSR number 9, better known by her former MSR comrades as 'the mine engine' because she worked on her own little section of the railroad in Cas-ny-Hawin that served the lead mines there. There, she came across an engine who had been turned into a pumping engine there, and the two got used to each other. Galéne failed to sympathize with him. After all, such a thing, being immobilized and isolated, could never happen to her, could it.

But it did. After the Mid-Sodor began selling their remaining locomotives, she fell into the hands of the then-chairman, for an isolation study.

Notes: I just had to incorporate the mine engine, (even though she doesn't have a proper ref sheet...) She's the first narrow gauge character to be part of the CRLM roster.

Subject Isadora, a Great Western Railway 2301 'Dean Goods' Class, was built in 1896, along with her triplet siblings 2488 'Kingsley' and 2489 'Brunel', for goods work all across the GWR network. In 1917, she and 61 of her siblings, including Kingsley and Brunel, were reaquisitioned by the Railway Operating Division (ROD) and sent to France. They hoped to return to England in the early summer of 1919, but were sent on to Salonika at the beginning of 1918. Isadora promised to look after them. On the 15th of September, 1918, Kingsley was caught in a blast and killed in the Allied Vardar Offensive. Isadora was devastated and enraged, as she had 'promised to keep him safe' She, Brunel, and eight other of their siblings returned to England in April 1921. When they got back, they were considered dated, and were bought by Dr. Richard Morrison, then chairman of the Committee for the Research of Living Machines (CRLM). He decided to by them to run studies of the similarities between triplets. It was, however, 'a shame they couldn't acquire 2488.'  Isadora instantly hated him. She hated him even more when he began his experiments on her and her younger sibling, and was the engine involved in 'Belmont's Bite'. By 1944, Dr. Morrison decided he didn't need Isadora and Brunel, and the two were taken in war service again for WW2. But that's another story...

Notes: Here is another favourite OC of mine. Dora's personality (although she is hard to get along with.) Fun fact, her and her siblings names, Isadora, Kingsley and Brunel (now Brunelli but whatever) are a play on the name 'Isambard Kingdom Brunel'

Subject 41c Brunel. His backstory is identical to his sister's backstory, up to the Vardar offensive. He was in the same area as Kingsley when they were blown by a stray shell, and he was disfigured and half-blinded by the blast. Horribly shaken, he and his sister returned to England after the War's end, but she was taken into CRLM ownership, while he eventually went back overseas, to his horror, when WW2 began. Though undamged, he remained on Deutsche Reichsbahn until 1958, when he (and a tank engine called Märklin) joined Isadora as subjects of the CRLM.) He was sedated to examine the effects of the trauma on his mind (and later vivsected), but Isadora still watches over him...

The Turtle Outta Time (or Petra, as she is called) is a W.D.L.R No. 2185, a 40hp Armoured Simplex, a tiny 600 mm (1 ft 11+5⁄8 in) gauge petrol locomotive built in 1917 by Motor Rail for the War Department Light Railways. 

She worked transporting injured soldiers and war equipment on the front lines of Europe, particularly the trenches of Ypres, shielding her men from the relentless shelling. 

When the Great War ended, Petra was put up for auction as army surplus, eventually going back to Britain after being purchased by the Committee for the Research of Living Machines (CRLM). 

However, she assumed she had placed in a P.O.W camp by the 'damn Huns'. The other test subjects rarely speak to her, as she is nearly impossible to get through to. On a average day in the sterile gray building that is the CRLM foundry/lab, she can still be heard muttering about the Germans.

Notes: her name is a play on the word 'petrol' her fuel type.

Subject 45a, formerly GWR Class 8000 'Cathedral Class' number 8001, built in 1926, being designed by Collett as a sort of 'superb castle' in Swindon. However, when the GWR was invited to send a locomotive to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Centenary celebrations. Felix Pole realised that a 'Cathedral' would not impress the Americans, and instead got permission from the King to use his name for the King Class, instead, to Exeter's dismay. The only other Pacific, the Great Bear, sympathized with Exeter, and convinced her to join in with him in bullying other engines- particularly Edward during their brief stint on Sodor (they were the two engines who were sent away.) After being sent away, she was snatched up by the CRLM, eager to study a one-of-a-kind locomotive. She felt she deserved it, and spends much of her days full of woe, which made Isadora, who is one spot away from her in the building, look down on her fellow Great Westerner, especially as she was 'never even built' according the the GWR's records.

Notes: Originally conceived as a Castle prototype, I stumbled upon the Cathedrals on Wikipedia and knew this was the right basis. Another fact about Exeter is that she is a MtF lady, in a way. Though engines of course have no biological sex, their faces and vocal tones are often used to judge 'femininity' or 'masculinity'.

Subject 44b, Märklin. A hefty tank engine built in the late 40s, they eventually went to East Germany's Deutsche Reichsbahn with 19 of their siblings, and worked as a shunted in an Ostbahn region alongside a nervous British engine called Brunelli. Though a quiet sort who keeps their head down, they decided to take the misplaced Dean Goods under their wing, so to speak, and taught him a few words of German so that he could understand the commands his crew was giving him. They joined Brunelli at the CRLM, as a package deal.

Subject 51, Manon. An ALCO RSC-2 built in the late 40s specifically for the Office de Chemins de fer Algeriens, (OCFA), one of the two major railroads in Algeria's post-WW2 system. They're the type to go along with everyone else, which is good when working, but bad on a personal level when some mean garratts were mocking a blind freighter from Germany. They went along to avoid Reyhan, the ringleader, turning on them for their own facial scars. The freighter, Habicht (Heimchen's OC) despised their efforts to apologize on their behalf and dismissed them as pity, before eventually accepting their apology, when Manon finally stopped being friends with the cruel Reyhan and Rauf. When the Algerien revolutionary war rolled around, they were pressed into service, while Habicht, by then a close friend, was taken out of service after the bloody war, and they never saw him again. OCFA became SNCFA, and as Algeria began focusing on road transport postwar, they were sold to the CRLM.

Notes: Put a lot of myself into this background character, they were originally conceived as a USATC S160, but I made them a diesel because well, I like obscure ALCO diesels and they provides good visual contrast to her freighter friend.

Subject 52 Nikita, a TU2. The other test subjects wonder what railroad he once served, and what goes on in his tearful eyes, in constant pain from the skin that was pulled off as part of Ex. 52. They try to speak, but he speaks only Russian. His tears sting the raw flesh, and the cycle starts again.... Maybe someday he'll break this curse.

Subject 98, the largest and most powerful engine ever tested by the CRLM. But bought for less than scrapping price.... Dr. Caldwell couldn't resist snatching up a NYC 'Niagara', an incredibly powerful 4-8-4 , to see how that power affects her bite force, facial durability, and mental strength.... Proud of her abilities, she is always extremely competitive, especially around diesels. (A product of the 1946 Steam Vs. Diesel Trials, no doubt..) Except Dov, as who could take a McGinnis era diesel with anything but a condescending smirk. When Nyx isn't competitive, she shows a gentle, rich warmth to those she deems her comrades, on the NYC or in the darkness of the CRLM Institute. They call her the Silent Giant. If only they could hear her air horn...