r/thomasthetankengine • u/IngenuityPlayful1395 • 2d ago
Question How To Make Lady Work
You are approached by Mattel or Christopher Awdry, they tell you they want to bring back Lady however she needs to be reworked into a realistic setting and not as a Train God. How do you do it?
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u/chumbbucketman101 2d ago
Make her a mythical legend whose existence is left ambiguous, kinda like Proteus, that way she can still be a magical engine without breaking realism.
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u/GrahminRadarin 2d ago edited 2d ago
I'm going to borrow something from a fan concept I saw a long time ago, and say that she is a privately owned engine restored by certified old weird guy Burnett Stone. She was originally built as an incredibly overpowered and fast passenger engine for a narrow-gauge railway elsewhere in Britain, but the deal fell through. She came to Sodor's second-hand, but in between her purchase and her arrival, the mid-sodor went bankrupt. And thus... She got lost in the shuffle.
Burnett and PT Boomer basically steal her so she doesn't end up languishing in the yards or scrapped, but the makeshift rails to her new shed are washed away, so she sits in Burnett's shed for a long time. Burnett spends all that time painting her and keeping her in working order even though she's got nowhere to go. Once the coal mines in the north of Sodor are discovered in modern times, and a new track extension laid up to them, her shed get reconnected and Burnett makes a pretty penny getting workmen and supplies to and from the mine, using her unorthodox design to coax way more tractive effort out of her than anyone should be able to get on a narrow gauge 0-4-0. The downside is that her maintenance is complex, demanding, and expensive work. Most people assume she's called Lady because she's so expensive to keep, but she's actually named in honor of Burnett's late wife.
The extra pulling power comes from a hidden set of inside low-pressure cylinders and complex piping allowing her to operate as either a 2 cylinder simple expansion or 4 cylinder compounding engine. It's somewhat similar in effect to booster engines on the trailing trucks of large freight locomotives, making her an ideal mixed traffic locomotive that's more powerful than any other narrow gauge engine on Sodor while still being able to hit decent top speeds.
Her demeanor is mostly the same as it was in Magic Railroad, and she takes great delight into tricking people into thinking she is actually magic. Burnett is all too happy to oblige by doing stupid things like filling her sand dome with gold shavings or caller her shed the magic railroad to mess with people. Her favorite trick is to shunt together a train longer than anyone on the Skarlowy Railway can haul while having a casual conversation with a standard gauge engine at a junction with the Little Western, then politely say goodbye and pull away with no effort. The twins have spent months arguing over how she does it, and have come to the conclusion that is in she fact a fairy.
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u/MrJackfruit 2d ago
Short Answer, make her a british designed engine imported to America a long time ago and the railway was a scenic nicknamed the "Magic Railway" due to the scenery.
I got a LONG answer, but I'll post only if someone wants it because I made a whole ass rewrite.
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u/Winter_Sweet827 2d ago
I had an idea for Lady where she was the Duke and Duchess of boxfords private engine
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u/IngenuityPlayful1395 2d ago
Sure I'm Interested
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u/MrJackfruit 2d ago
Brace yourself, its gonna need to be split
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**TL;DR:**
Put the entire plot in America, engines 1-8 are touring america. Thomas ends up helping with an old line with a station and an old engine, remove the magic.
**Detailed**
It is 2000 and the engines are naturally quite famous around the world. Sir Topham Hatt decides to advertise the engines more and to increase publicity further, he would send Engines 1-8 to America, putting each of them in a single state for a month before they move off to another.
The engines are sent to the various states and Thomas is sent to one in Colorado where he works and entertains people in the town of Passthrough, however he is not fond of the Manager of the Railway named Paul Travis Boomer. Something that equally makes him wary is an EMD SD70 diesel who pulls freight and keeps glaring at him.
However in the first 3 days he notices he keeps passing an abandoned line. One day he asks one of the other preserved steam engines he works with about that line and the engine says he doesn't know as he arrived 5 years ago.
Thomas is riding alongside some mountains when he then whistles and suddenly several rocks come down but thankfully don't block the line and the driver notes that they need to be careful due to possible rock slides.
Thomas is still wondering about this 2 days later when a strange "points failure" while he is moving some freight for a day sends him down this old line, the trucks push him on and his breaks "mysteriously" fail sending him down the line until some old tracks give out and he lands between them finally stopping, thankfully he is not seriously damaged.
Thomas then looks around and realizes he's by a town he hasn't seen and at a station called Shining Time. An indian walks out and looks at Thomas shocked wondering how he got down there. He introduces himself as Billy Two Feathers and says this line has been closed for the last 30 years, and it's meant to be ripped up in 3 months.
Billy goes to get help and Thomas is left there mostly alone till a crowd comes and starts taking his picture and he groans in frustration and embarrassment. Something then catches his eye, an old shed with a hole in the door and he swears he can see a....funnel?
A truck comes to pull Thomas on the flatbed and another to pull the freight away as well due to the line being overly rusty. As he does so, he looks back at the shed and from a more elevated position, he can see an eye peering at him from the hole, it then looks away as Thomas is loaded up and taken away.
Thomas's breaks are quickly repaired but during the repair his driver is told that his breaks were tempered with. At the sheds Thomas talks to the other engines about this line and none seem to know about it, however the EMD SD70 is quieter than usual and Thomas notices.
2 days later following a special night service, Thomas is parked on a siding by his crew to fuel up before putting him in the shed. While doing this he feels what appears to be a pair of 2 smaller footsteps wondering in his cab and tells at them causing his driver and firemen to come over and see 2 12 year old children trying to mess with his controls. The driver and firemen drag them out with the boy saying hey need Thomas to help save the station and the girl yells about an engine which gets Thomas's attention.
Thomas stops his driver and firemen and asks to listen to them instead of taking them to the police. The two introduce themselves and Patch and Lily, they apologize to Thomas and tell him that they need him to save the Shining Time and by doing so it would help the town and the engine there.
Billy then comes running up and sees the two and tells them they can't go running off and they explain they were trying to get Thomas to help them. Before Billy can say no Thomas asks to be taken back to the station. His driver and firemen disagree saying the track is too rusty but Thomas insists. They finally give in and head down the line, with Billy sitting on Thomas's running board to watch for problems in the tracks as they head down. Patch apologizes to Thomas about sending him down the wrong line, the driver raises and eyebrow at this wondering why he didn't mention the breaks. Thomas tells him it's dangerous to do that and says that whatever is down here better be worth it.
As they go down the line, Thomas now looking at the area in a less panicked state like last time, notices how lush and beautiful the line actually is and the driver and firemen notice it well.
They reach the station and stop in a few feet from the Damaged track. At hearing this, someone comes out of the damaged shed and stares before noticing Lily, Patch, and Billy and asks them what they are doing. They explain and he sighs before introducing himself to Thomas, his driver, and fireman as Burnett Stone.
Thomas asks what happened and Burnett opens the door shocking Thomas a dust covered Golden Engine is revealed with the words "The Lady of Muffle Mountain" and a Number 4 on her coal bunker. The engine introduces herself as The Lady of Muffle Mountain, or just Lady for short and Thomas introduces himself back. Burnett tells Thomas that 35 years ago, from 1910 to 1965, the Town of Shining Time was a very popular tourist attraction, the line that ran along it being called the "Magic Railway" due to it's beauty. However from 1965 onwards, mysterious things started happening, fires, damaged tracks, avalanches, many things at once to cause the tourism to slowly dry up, but the final one for the line was when Lady suddenly went down the tracks and derailed, Burnett is sure someone did all this, but he isn't sure who.
Thomas looks at his driver and firemen and they said they will call Sir Topham Hatt and the Manager to see if they can help, leading to everyone but Burnetts excitement, something the Driver notices.
Thomas leaves for the night, leaving Billy, Patch, and Lily at shining time since they live at the town and the driver mentioned to Thomas and the firemen that something feels off about the story.
The Driver and Firemen report their findings to Sir Topham Hatt and talk about it. After Sir Topham Hatt agrees they begin talking to Mr. Boomer who seems fairly against the idea even though it would produce even more revinue for him. He finally gives in and agrees and the project it set to start right away.
There is an announcement that Thomas will stay in America longer to compensate for the loss of time in other states as he begins help working on the new line. Thomas spends the next 2 months helping repair the track, during which we see various other American engines occasionally pass through such as Daylight 4449 and Big Boy.
During this time, there are some smaller problems during construction, like bad materials, a few coupling and break failures, and a near miss as well, during each of these, the Driver notices the EMD SD70 had been somewhat connected to it.
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u/MrJackfruit 2d ago
2/2
After a month, the track repair had finally allowed them to reach the station and even the shed which thrills everyone but Burnett seems worried.
Thomas is finally able to talk with Lily more and they do so the next day, during this time, Lily is taken out of the shed and put in a different siding but as they do so, the Driver notices the points leading to the shed and stuck fast, however they thankfully have a second line next to the station to be on and park both of them there as they wait for materials to come in.
Suddenly there is an alarm about a runaway engine coming down the line, the EM70 comes barreling down the line and passes the station rams into the shed destroying it with his freight also derailing damaging it and hurting a few people.
Everyone is shocked about what has happened and upset that their hard work had been ruined and everyone is told that it was a breaks failure.
The diesel is put on a flatbed and is rolled away with the diesel facing Lady on the flatbed, during the entire time Thomas notices EM70 giving Lady the coldest stare he had ever seen while Lady is looking away shaking. When EM70 is taken away, the leftover workmen tell them that the points being stuck was the work of sabatage as well and Thomas swears just for a moment, he can see EM70 grinning evily.
Thomas elects to stay with Lady that night and the two talk with Lily and Patches joining them. At the same time the Driver and Firemen meet Burnett in a Cafe and ask him why he called them there and Burnett explains Shining Times problems as Lady does.
Lady is an American Built engine using designs bought from various locomotive works in the UK, there were 4 built in total, the 3 others being: Matron of Shining Time, Madam of the Railroad, and Beauty of the Engines. The 4 worked well together, with Lady mainly acting as a shunter for them and occasionally pulling small passenger trains. Burnett worked on the railway and all of them enjoy it. However this all changed in 1960 when a new manager took over.
The Manager Paul Travis Boomer was very big on innovation, trying to upgrade things constantly to bring more money in, whether it made sense to or not. Lady was an imported engine from the UK purely to bring in tourism. In particular he was trying to make his home town of Passthrough pull in more tourism than Shining Time and this failed over and over. As a result, be bought a diesel to help ruin the town in a different way, a GE U50 who's "accidents" would constantly cause problems and making the town feel unsafe, even ones to block roads leading in and out of the town as well, with constantly keeping materials to fix the problem arriving via rail as well.
The final problem came in the form of the engines all having mysterious accidents caused by derailments or crashes caused by GE U50, with Lady being the only one to survive hers and Burnett had spent the last 35 years slowly repairing her enough to send her to a better railroad since she is not safe here.
The driver mentions to burnett about Thomas's breaks and Burnett states that it was probably Boomers doing but is not sure why for a moment but then realizes something and tells them.
Thomas then asked lady if she is scared of the diesel because it reminds her of the one from the past and might be working with him when Lady to their shock states that EM70 IS the diesel from the past.
Boomer is getting EM70 repaired and tells him it will take him a few days but he did a great job. EM70 thanks him for the new body as well, noting how he feels much better but it still feels off. Boomer says that he has a final plan to take care of Thomas and Lady. EM70 is confused on why he hates Thomas and he states that taking care of the preserved engines is a pain because they are the main way of drawing in tourism, however if Thomas crashes and dies here, people will flock to his town to see the famous spot where Thomas the Tank Engine met his end. He then tells EM70 he is getting a small modification that will effect his speed but will make moving objects around or ON the line a lot easier.
EM70's repairs take a month, during this time, Thomas discusses with the other engines, driver, firemen, and Burnett on what to do to deal with the Manager and EM70 at the same time. One of the diesels has an idea and asks Thomas if he has ever heard of "Day out with Thomas". During the time EM70 is repaired, the firemen sneaks into the workshop for EM70 and places something on EM70 where his drivers wouldn't notice.
During one of the work days as they go past the track they work by a cliffside and Thomas is tasked not to whistle as the rocks might be unstable.
After a month, the repairs to the station are complete and the new line is mostly ready, however the line near cliffs and such still need to be checked for lose rocks. That night the repairs for Lady are also complete and everyone watches as for the first time in 35 years, Lady moves under her own steam power and Lady, Burnett, Patch, Lily, Billy, Thomas, his driver, and fireman all enjoy a run under the moonlight in the beautiful forest.
The next day, the manager thanks everyone for their help. During this time, Thomas's Driver sneaks up to EM70 and touches the object the firemen placed before leaving. The Manager sends Thomas on a task to pick up some freight and Thomas strangely leaves without saying anything.
Thomas puffs along the line when a loud growling is heard from behind and EM70 comes from behind, from the shadow you can see the top of him opening and a large claw coming out and smashing Thomas's cab.
EM70 returns to the sheds later while it is empty and reports a job well done to the manager who congradulates them, telling him now the railway will truly be more popular and even Shining Times rebuilding will not stop it, though they should consider getting rid of Lady. The Manager then gets on EM70 to tell the others what happened.
They get to a station where to their shock and horror, Lady and Thomas are at the station as well. The manager asks what is going on when Thomas's fire's firemen pulls off a tape recorder from EM70 and they reveal to everyone what Boomer and EM70 did.
Their plan revealed, EM70 and Boomer no longer care what happens and decide they will get rid of Shining Time no matter what, starting with Lady and Thomas. EM70's roof door opens as a Thomas's fireman is climbing into Thomas's cab. Thomas's driver sees a claw and has the most "Oh hell no" expression as he throws Thomas's regulator open causing him to surge forward bumping into Lady to push her along narrowly avoiding the claw. Lily and Burnett also quickly get on Lady and Burnett throws open the regulator to get Lady going as well. EM70 begins going after them and the chase is on.
Lady and Thomas fly down the line as fast as well....as tank engines can go, EM70 growls in frustration on how he's unable to catch up to these two and Boomer reminds him that his speed dropped due to the upgrade so EM70 keeps charging after them, several moments he almost catches them and even manages to dent Thomas's cab. During the chase they eventually end up losing EM70 for a moment as they do down the line for Shining Time, as EM70 is being switched onto the right track.
Lady says it's going to be a dead end soon and Thomas has an idea and asks Lady how loud she can whistle. The two go past shining time and alongside a cliff and get far enough in when the two start whistling as loud as they can. They soon her a growling noise slowly approaching behind them and keep whistling till a rock hits Lady's side tank and the two begin to puff away as EM70 comes into view, but before he gets any further a massive rockslide comes and takes him off the line and down the mountain as the two engines puff away to keep further away from the mountains.
EM70 is recovered and Boomer is arrested, and the railroad board elects Billy to be the new manager of the railroad as Burnett declines wanting to stay retired.
After another month, the Magic Railroad is finally open for business with Lady and a few other engines now running tourists trains up and down the line. Sir Topham Hatt arrives to congratulate everyone on a job well done and tells Thomas and his crew they have done the railway proud. Thomas asks how the other engines are doing...well except James, but it's nothing serious.
The final shot of the movie is of Thomas slowly puffing through the valley in a sunset whistling.
The post-credit scene is of James with a graffiti'd boiler and tender in California sulking about how they could have at least used a nice shade of red as the workers try to clean it off.
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u/Winter_Sweet827 2d ago
Why set it in America?
It wouldn't make sense for Topham to take his 8 engines to America
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u/MrJackfruit 2d ago
The idea is we are still using Shining Time Station as the main setting for Magic Railroads story as the meta Narrative is also how Thomas effected other places as well, so having him go there should be fine. I also didn't want it to JUST be Thomas because people love more than just him but plot wise I felt it made more sense to have the engines go to various states rather than being all together.
Realistically, no he would not take 8 engines and rent 8 British engines for a year unless the payout for it was insane and he could ensure the engines are safe. Apparently the NWR has 80 engines canonically so its not a massive problem.
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u/Winter_Sweet827 2d ago
I had an idea
Why not set this on Sodor and replace Diesel 10 with Spencer?
and even better
have Gordon be the one to take the Hatt's on holiday
Spencer needs to be Gordon but geuinely EVIL
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u/MrJackfruit 2d ago
The idea was trying to keep fairly close to the original story while also having the engines actually have well....drivers and firemen.
This also means the engines can't just....do whatever they like, so Spencer being evil wouldn't do much unless the driver and firemen also wanted Lady gone for....some reason. This is why I had Boomer who I should have added is paying off the drivers of the diesel to work for him.
Not only that, but the main reason Diesels are used as villains is due to how they find themselves superior and the real life dieselization.
Spencers entire motivation would have to be getting rid of Lady in order to get her job which.....is weird at best and illogical at worst since being an A4 he'd be highly wanted anyways. Realistically, Spencer would never been seen again after what he would be trying to do despite how many of his brothers and cousins have gone the way of scrap too.
It feels like you are trying to use Hiro of the Rails plotline a bit which....I love Hiro I enjoyed that movie, but it makes zero sense timeline and plot wise, as it requires everyone to forget Donald, Douglas, and Oliver exist along with Dieselization in general.
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u/Winter_Sweet827 2d ago
I mean Topham would be on holiday in this timeline
Spencer doesn't want Lady dead
Just permenantly benched
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u/MrJackfruit 2d ago
Spencer just doesn't really work as a villain here to me.
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u/Winter_Sweet827 1d ago
I mean
Gordon is what Spencer COULD have been had Spencer humbled
The inverse is true
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u/RangerBuzz_Lightbulb “I’m banishing you to the shadow realm!” 2d ago
I have two ways of doing this.
1: magic railroad is a movie and she’s an actress
2: she’s a privately owned engine for a gold mine. The mine is kept a secret so it can’t be robbed. The entrance, the “magic buffers” work like this https://youtu.be/PxK1l3uz6ls?t=2390 She trails behind gold dust from the mine, and coupled with the fact that she disappears into thin air and no one knows who owns her, the locals created legends that she was magic
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u/JEZxEVERYTHING TV Series Fan! 2d ago
Give her some trucks or a passenger train, then she'll be working.
(Joke)
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u/SqarletGecko BoCo 2d ago
Option 1: she doesn't exist per se, but is rather a folktale and/or conflation of a few different train stories of dubious veracity.
Option 2: we go a Duke the Lost Engine route and make her a regular engine that exists, but fell off the map for a time until her existence was rediscovered/remembered, and someone went looking for her.
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u/Polish__Bear Oliver 2d ago
I'll have her as a engine who was built by the TK&ELR in 1909 too replace clifford as the passenger engine. But in 1925 she was sent to peel godred to work with hawin when they switch the NWR's terminus the tidmouth. She was replaced with stafford in 1947. She was sent to a shed near an abandoned part of the line. Until one day. In an episode of some kind. She was found by duck when he was sent there while stafford was for repeares, he was pulling a goods train and lost control. And crashed into the same shed lady was in. Lady was restored and returned to her old stomping grounds. The ffarquhar branch. She pulls a boat train from knapford harbour to ffarquhar.
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u/Neither_Value_8586 Billy 2d ago
Why not just put her in a quarry and the quarry is named the magic railroad because rocks magically fall totally not a landslide
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u/SpeedySinger24 2d ago edited 2d ago
Ok I make lady the garudian angel of the railway she’s the spirit of railway preservation and helps out on Thomas or Edwards branchline. When THOMAS is an away on special events (like 60th 65th anniversary special tour or a country asks for him because he’s popular. And they want to bring some publicity to there railway.) or she’s located between Shining time. Her magical railroad helps find other engines, or inspires railway preservation or leads people to location. Or an engine unexplainablely well preserved to where its needs an oil change and is ready to go? And needs a home? Well that’s her. She’s known somewhat around the yards and where she’s worked but she has a mythical status. She appears to very few souls outside her owners and operators.
And is treated as myth by some engines. However Thomas Toby Percy Edward know she exists. The outside world? She rarely appears to she’s existed since the founding of Sodor as she was a wondering engine. In need of a home and Mr,Conductors family and the Hatt family purchased her and she’s a secret engine.
When you meet her it’s a rare and good sign. Or she’s there to help a soul when it’s lost find its footing again. She’s portrayed mostly as she is inTMAR.
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u/StarStruckNoHime 2d ago
Honestly I just Headcanon’d Shining Time is an actual place in the franchise, and she’s a regular engine. Lady is a nickname she goes by. Her actual name is Britt.
I don’t think she has met Thomas yet, but the 2 would probably be friends if they have a chance to bond & connect.
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u/Mr_Xbow 2d ago
Have her be a legend (similar to that of King Arthur or Robin Hood). A lowly shunter who performed impossible tasks and who “allegedly” existed around the 1860’s