YMMV / Sodor: The True Stories

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Several characters have had their classes changed from canon:
  • In canon, Percy's class is never defined. In S:TTS, he is specifically said to have been GWR No. 1340 Trojan.
  • Hank is a Pennsylvania Railroad Class K4 in canon. In this fic, he's been changed to a USATC Class S160.
  • Bash and Dash are based on the Bear Harbor Lumber Company's locomotive #1, while Ferdinand is a Class C Climax in canon. Here, Bash and Dash are L&YR Class 23 tank engines, while Ferdinand is an LMS Fowler 4F.
  • Philip, in canon, is a PRR Class A5 boxcab. This series describes him as a diesel shunter whose design was based on the LNER Class Y1.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Invoked in "Sent Packing" with a direct shout-out to the talking eggplant scene from the Earthworm Jim cartoon. The narration even breaks the fourth wall by admitting BNSF1995 wanted to see if Broa Island would notice and delete it, which it wasn't.
• Heartwarming Moments: Bear selflessly offering to give up the place on Sodor the Fat Controller was going to give him so that Oliver can stay, even though Bear isn't treated very well on his own railway. Upon hearing this, the Fat Controller is so moved by Bear's generosity that he decides there and then to keep both engines.
• Shown Their Work: A lot of the details in the story are very well-researched, which shows in a series of Google Sheets made by the production staff that give the full rosters for all railways on Sodor, plus Sodor Roadways, Packard Construction Co., and even the Star Fleet and Z-Stacks, including weights, fuel capacities, power ratings, TOPS numbers, origins, allocations (as in, which shed they generally live in), year of acqusition, liveries, and notes on how the fuel capacity for locomotives with deficient data was discerned.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Tim, Ruby, and the rest of the Knapford Harbor Crew come off as this to James, especially in more recent chapters. While what he did to Ruby during the strike was horrible, he has been shown multiple times to regret it, but they refuse to move past it. Even when he isn't directly antagonizing them they're hostile, and it takes Sir Topham Hatt spelling out how destructive their narrow minded view is after they play a nasty trick on him to make them rethink their grudge.