- This is a completely revised version of the first theory because now I think the old one is terrible. Let's think about the state of the Skarloey line when Sir Handel and Peter Sam arrived. It was just getting back on it's legs after Rheneas saved it, and said engine was going on an overhaul. Skarloey was just slightly older than Rheneas and stored in the shed. Perhaps the Thin Controller was planning to send Skarloey to be overhauled as soon as Rheneas got back. Of course, Skarloey's overhaul was pushed way forward after he took Sir Handel's passengers home. Two engines are now getting repaired. I doubt it's possible for three engines to be on overhaul at the same time, considering the state of the railway at this point. So, maybe that's why Sir Handel and Peter Sam kept it quiet for a while. And, also the fact that they needed to build up Skarloey and Rheneas' trusts before talking about something this major. Then, of course, Rusty shows up, Peter Sam has an accident, Duncan shows up, Ada, Jane, Mabel, Cora, Gurtrude and Millicent get bought and Skarloey gets home, all at once pretty much. Now, with two new engines on the line and Rheneas not back yet, Sir Handel and Peter Sam have to build up their trusts as well (Rusty, it doesn't take too long because he's so friendly, Duncan... took more time). Of course, the misunderstanding with the TV train doesn't help matters. Rheneas finally comes home the third book centring the Skarloey line, so Sir Handel and Peter Sam have to build his trust up a bit. (Granted, it doesn't take very long, as Rheneas is a lot like Skarloey). And then, about 8 Salon coaches were found and restored from garden sheds, holiday chalets, summer house, you get the idea, and this keeps the works busy (not to mention Godred's story may have scarred Sir Handel so much he couldn't talk about the Mid Sodor Line). By the time Sir Handel and Peter Sam feel like they are up to telling their Mid Sodor stories, the Thin Controller announces that the Duke of Sodor's coming to Skarloey and Rheneas' 100th, and they decide to keep this a surprise, thinking that the Duke they know is coming. However, Duck's words certainly did not help and both engines were guilt stricken thinking they were too late and Duke's dead in a similar fashion to Godred. Then, after much worrying, Sir Handel and Peter Sam revealed who they were, told the engines everything about Duke, he's found, restored and the MSR family is back together.
- He can read the minds of the engines and will scold them for a particular mindset after an accident. Case in point being "Thomas Comes to Breakfast" where a cleaner had meddled with Thomas' controls but Thomas had Acquired Situational Narcissism at the time.
- More likely The Fat Controller either never found out about the cleaner, or knew what happened and decided it was more convenient to scapegoat Thomas rather than waste time hunting down and reprimanding the cleaner.
- Mrs. Kyndley saves Thomas and his train from hitting a landslide in front of a tunnel near her home by waving her red dressing gown out her cottage window - just as Bobbie and Phyllis did with their red petticoats. Either one would be about the right age to be the middle-aged to elderly Mrs. Kyndley in 1951, the year in which Mrs. Kyndley's Christmas is set. What's more, Mrs. Kyndley faints once the train is saved, just as Bobbie did. We don't learn what her first name is; one of the television adaptations gave her the name "Kitty", but that could be a nickname. Possibly verges on Contrived Coincidence, but stranger things have happened.
- The usual formula of a Railway Series story is that an engine acts pompous or obnoxious, gets shown up or humiliated by an accident or another engine, and then figuratively admits defeat, making no effort to take revenge against the engine who humiliated him/her. This formula is deconstructed in "Duck and The Diesel Engine", as Diesel deliberately antagonizes Duck after Duck tricks Diesel into pulling broken trucks. He doesn't admit defeat like the other engines when he gets shown up. This deconstruction highlights the, at least in Awdry's view, the foreign, disruptive, and dangerous nature of real life diesel engines on real life railways.
Because of Dalby's constant illustration flubs, people mistook Henry for Gordon until Awdry was forced to return the former to his original livery. He compromised by having three uniform colours: blue, red and green.
The Arlesdale Railway completely averted the uniform livery by having each engine with their own colour. It was even lampshaded that they used to be mistaken for each other when they were all painted green.
So how does the Skarloey keep ending up with such similarities to the Talyllyn? We can assume that there had to be connections between the two that already existed in universe. Perhaps the financers of the Talyllyn and Skarloey were the same, hence the same gauge and locomotive orders for the start of the line. Perhaps as the Talyllyn entered preservation; people such as Tom Rolt reached out to the Skarloey crew recognizing it as a sister railroad, and aided it getting its foot off the ground in preservation... and the Thin Clergyman (Wilbert Awdry's author avatar) being a volunteer on the Talyllyn himself and a leading historian of Sodor railways aided in informing the Skarloey crew what was happening on the Talyllyn and the two organizations collaborated jointly perhaps in some projects (eventually including the building projects that created the Tom Rolt and Ivo Hugh locomotives). Perhaps jokingly "confirmed" IRL, seeing that the Narrow Gauge Museum on the Talyllyn has an extensive collection of Railway Series artifacts; and the Talyllyn has given its visitors special lectures on "Sodor history."
The Railway Series always prided itself in being based in reality, and although its a stretch of suspension of disbelief somewhat, its possible to buy that steam was able to continue on Sodor with coal being cheap and plentiful in the UK still and stubborn nostalgia keeping it running on the North Western.
But by the 2010's; a series of real life events would begin to shake up the North Western like it did all the actual heritage railways on the UK. First, growing concerns of climate change would cause all coal power plants to gradually shut down in the nation; and following them the coal mines leading to many heritage railways being forced to buy coal from Russia and Poland.
Then in 2020 with the COVID 19 pandemic, many heritage railways would shut down due to quarantine and travel restrictions. Although its possible the North Western would be able to operate still as a vital transit link to the mainland and through all the major Suderic cities, there is no way the Skarloey, Culdee Fell and Arlesdale would be able to continue operating since their tourist excursions would be deemed "non-essential." Its likely the North Western would have to cull many steam excursions, and although there would be no danger of any locomotives being scrapped by 2020 due to their historic significance, its likely many would go into storage for at least the summer season during the pandemic; only being dusted off for special occasions.
Then by 2021 and 2022, with pandemic restrictions loosening up finally; the fuel crisis would kick into high gear with the 2022 Russian-Ukraine war cutting off much of the British heritage sector's access to Eastern European coal AND the closure of the last Welsh coal mines around the same time serving as a double whammy. In real life, many British railways are experimenting with "ecoal" and other biologically friendly coal substitutes; but these replacement fuel sources are having mixed results on some engines causing build up of clinker and poor fires. Other railroads are paying high prices to get Polish coal, or even chasing down the last of the dwindling Welsh coal reserves. In this situation, its likely the railways of The Railway Series would be struggling to operate their steam engines, and like their real life counterparts desperately experimenting with replacement fuel sources.
As if that wasn't enough, the price of diesel fuel also spiked in 2022. Combine this with the coal crisis, and there is a solid chance that if Sodor were to continue to follow real life trends; electrification would finally be considered for the railway's mainline as an eco-friendly and fuel crisis resistant solution. While its likely the historic value of many of the locomotives on Sodor would keep them safe and running as heritage pieces, the days of Sodor being almost exclusively steam hauled with minimal diesel work would certainly be finished by the 2020's. More modern diesel engines with less historic value (such as Pip and Emma) would be threatened by electrification. The smaller "heritage" lines on Sodor like the Skarloey would likely survive using ecoals, but the North Western would have to finally draw the curtain on regular steam services due to changing economic conditions; and only run steam on special occasions. Its not all doom and gloom, and steam would survive in some form... but it could no longer be Awdry's vision of a steam reliant railway and would instead be much more similar to the modern British mainline which has occasional steam specials but is regularly diesel/electric hauled.
