Why else would a grown man play with trains?

[Bill_Sudbrink]

Did it bother anyone else that the “Troublesome Trucks” and brakevans were personified like the other machines but destroyed (murdered?) without any sentiment?

[Mangochin]

That gives me flashbacks to an early rock operetta from The Who, “Quick One While He is Away”
Ivor the engine driver comes in at 8:30

[beep54orama]

I’ve actually seen Thomas the Tank Engine live and in, er, ‘person’. Not a model; the real thing. He’s just as creepy live as he is on TV!

[beep54orama]

My favorite line is that the train remained in the river until WWII when it was salvaged for scrap metal.

[the_borderer]

I think that fits with my personal theory about Sodor

@the_borderer

The discourse on Sodor-as-totalitarian-regime is also fine reading.

I have to take issue with the conclusion that Sodor is a communist state.

It’s The Other Railway that is the socialist nationalised British Railways. Also, I remember there being fear and anger at the possibility that the engines would be replaced by diesel or electric engines who would pull their carriages (who were all female back when I read the books last). The few diesel and electric engines that are on Sodor are treated as a lower class than the steam engines.

So, we have an island where there is propaganda causing a strong hatred of socialism, and a belief that immigrants will come to take their jobs and women. Sodor is clearly a fascist regime, not a communist one.

Sorry, Thomas and Friends are all Nazis.

I’ll be back later to destroy another treasured childhood memory.

[jonboy_nemo]

“is this susquehanna 2222?”

[HMSGoose]

and just cuz I’ve been re-listening to it lately, trying to learn a new lullaby for bedtime…

[sosumi]

@jlw

I firmly believe Sir Topham Hatt is up to no good.

Shed 17

…the truth behind Thomas and his friends is no childrens story. It is a story that begins in wartime Germany, and ends with a discovery that would change Thomas, and his friends, lives forever.

ETA @beep54orama, this vid is the real creepy Thomas stuff.

[Mangochin]

oh and the Smurfs are insects.

[Mangochin]

It could be worse. Thomas’s buddy Gunter was transporting people to Auschwitz.

[euansmith]

[the_borderer]

Insects that are three apples high? I’m going to have nightmares from that.

[Mangochin]

Not all Bugs

[Jorpho]

Reckon we need the xkcd.

Model Rail

[TheyCallMeMrPibb]

John Astin as Gomez Addams. The best casting decision in the history of American television.

And having got that out of the way, here’s the best 1:1 scale train crash in any movie ever.

(Skip ahead to 2:30 if you must, but the setup is worth watching)

[tuhu]

@beep54orama

He’s just as creepy live as he is on TV!

[Mindysan33]

I’m hearing that in George Carlin’s voice…

[AndrewTF]

You can go for rides pulled by the full-size locomotive used in that movie at Railtown 1897 State Park up in the Sierra Foothills. It’s pretty awesome. Highly recommended if you’re in California.

[coherent_light]

I love trains. I have many of my Dad’s childhood O-guage units, unfortunately, in boxes behind my workstation here. After he had us, he got more into HO-scale railroading, and I was able to build him a table a few years ago.

I should get all that set up again. It’s been too long, and sometimes it’s nice having a distraction from the climate of nightmares we live in now.

[Bill_Sudbrink]

I find it funnier in Ringo’s voice.