The Island of Sodor is a fictional island that is the primary setting for ''

The Railway Series ''The Railway Series'' is a series of British books about a railway known as the North Western Railway, located on the fictional Sodor (fictional island), Island of Sodor. There are 42 books in the series, the first published in May 1945 by Wi ...

'' books by

Wilbert Awdry Wilbert Vere Awdry (15 June 1911 – 21 March 1997), often credited as Rev. W. Awdry, was an English Anglican minister, railway enthusiast, and children's author. He is best remembered as the creator of Thomas the Tank Engine and several other ...

and its television adaptation ''

Thomas & Friends ''Thomas & Friends'' is a British children's television series which aired from 9 October 1984 to 20 January 2021. Based on ''The Railway Series'' books by Wilbert Awdry and his son Christopher Awdry, Christopher, the series was developed for ...

''. It lies in the

Irish Sea The Irish Sea is a body of water that separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is linked to the Celtic Sea in the south by St George's Channel and to the Inner Seas off the West Coast of Scotland in the north by the North Ch ...

between

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders the Scottish council areas of Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders to the north, Northumberland and County Durham to the east, North Yorkshire to the south-east, Lancash ...

and the

Isle of Man The Isle of Man ( , also ), or Mann ( ), is a self-governing British Crown Dependency in the Irish Sea, between Great Britain and Ireland. As head of state, Charles III holds the title Lord of Mann and is represented by a Lieutenant Govern ...

Inspiration and creation

Awdry wanted a consistent set of locations for ''The Railway Series''. He wanted them to be in

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

, but sufficiently isolated from

British Railways British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Commis ...

to allow him to write the stories he wanted. He was inspired during a 1950 visit to the

, which forms the Diocese of Sodor and Man. Awdry, a

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

cleric, noted that while there was an Isle of Man, there was no island of Sodor. He decided to create a fictional island of "Sodor" as the setting for his books. Sodor would be between England and the Isle of Man, isolated from the British railway system, but somewhere that readers could easily imagine. Awdry and his younger brother George worked out Sodor's history, geography, industry and language ("Sudric"). Inspiration came from various sources. Dryaw was an anagram of Awdry. Elsbridge was named after Wilbert's parish of Elsworth in

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfor ...

. Some place-names were Sudric equivalents or near-equivalents of those in the real world (for instance, Skarloey was a rough Sudric equivalent of the Welsh Talyllyn: ''logh'' and ''llyn'' mean "lake" in Manx and Welsh respectively). They created more details of Sodor than would ever be used in ''The Railway Series'' stories. Their abridged notes were published in 1987 in a book titled: '' The Island of Sodor: Its People, History and Railways'' (republished with some minor modifications by Christopher Awdry in 1992 under the title ''Sodor: Reading Between the Lines'').

Language

The fictional native language of Sodor is "Sudric" or "Sudrian", a Goidelic language similar to Manx. Many of the place names are based on Manx words, but often conforming to English word order, e.g. Killdane, which comes from "Keeill-y-Deighan" (Church of the Devil), and the hills, called Knock and Cronk. The names of some of the "historical" characters – used in the background but not appearing in the stories – were taken from locations on the Isle of Man, such as Sir Crosby Marown ( Crosby is a village in the parish of Marown) and Harold Regaby (Regaby is a tiny hamlet on the parish boundary between

Andreas Andreas () is a name derived from the Greek noun ἀνήρ ''anēr'', with genitive ἀνδρός ''andros'', which means "man". See the article on Andrew for more information. The Scandinavian name is earliest attested as antreos in a runeston ...

and

Bride A bride is a woman who is about to be married or who is a newlywed. When marrying, if the bride's future spouse is a man, he is usually referred to as the ''bridegroom'' or just ''groom''. In Western culture, a bride may be attended by a maid, ...

Below are some words and phrases, and place-names translated into English:

Geography

Sodor is usually shown as much larger than the Isle of Man. The island is roughly

diamond Diamond is a Allotropes of carbon, solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Diamond is tasteless, odourless, strong, brittle solid, colourless in pure form, a poor conductor of e ...

-shaped, wide east to west and long north to south. Its north-west coast is separated from the Isle of Man by a

strait A strait is a water body connecting two seas or water basins. The surface water is, for the most part, at the same elevation on both sides and flows through the strait in both directions, even though the topography generally constricts the ...

called the Sudrian Sea (Faarkey-y-Sudragh), four miles (6 km) wide. In the north-east, it overrides and replaces the real Walney Island. Its highest mountain is Culdee Fell, which was modelled on

Snowdon Snowdon (), or (), is a mountain in Snowdonia in North Wales. It has an elevation of above sea level, which makes it both the highest mountain in Wales and the highest in the British Isles south of the Scottish Highlands. Snowdon i ...

: the ridge of Devil's Back copies the Clogwyn ridge on Snowdon. The summit is reached by the Culdee Fell Railway, which is based on the Snowdon Mountain Railway in Wales. The capital and administrative centre of Sodor is the city of Suddery; Tidmouth is the largest town on the island. One of the more famous settlements on Sodor is Ffarquhar, the terminus of Thomas's branch line.

Railways

The railways of Sodor include standard and

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with Minimum railw ...

railways, a rack railway and a 15-inch gauge railway. The first several stories concerned standard-gauge engines. Stories set around the narrow gauge railways soon followed. The standard-gauge railway system consists of a mainline and several branch lines. They are linked to and interoperable with each other and with the mainland system, so that the standard-gauge engines can visit locations in Britain under their own power. In ''Gordon Goes Foreign'', several of the engines recount working in London when they were younger, and later in the same story, Gordon pulls the Wild Nor’ Wester to London. In the story ''The Fat Controller's Engines'', eight of the famous engines visit London. There are three narrow-gauge railways: the Skarloey Railway, the rack-and-pinion Culdee Fell Mountain Railway, and the Arlesdale Railway. On the west side of the island, the gauge Arlesdale Railway runs from Arlesdale West along the trackbed of the abandoned Mid-Sodor Railway. In the center of the island, the Culdee Fell Mountain Railway runs west from Kirk Machan to the summit of Culdee Fell. On the eastern side of the island, the Skarloey Railway runs northwest from Crovan's Gate up the valley to its namesake, Skarloey Lake. Rolling stock is moved to and from the narrow-gauge railways on flatbed wagons on the standard-gauge system; for example, Rheneas is sent away for repairs in ''Skarloey Remembers'' and returns in ''Gallant Old Engine''. Each of the narrow-gauge railways links to the standard-gauge system at an

interchange station An interchange station or a transfer station is a train station for more than one railway route in a public transport system that allows passengers to change from one route to another, often without having to leave a station or pay an additional ...

: * the Skarloey Railway at Crovan's Gate * the Culdee Fell Railway at Kirk Machan * the Arlesdale Railway at Arlesburgh West

Description of lines

* The ''North Western Railway'' is the main railway company featured in the books. It controls the main line and many of the branch lines on Sodor and is often referred to as "the Fat Controller's Railway". ** The ''Main Line'' runs from

Barrow-in-Furness Barrow-in-Furness is a port town and civil parish (as just "Barrow") in the Westmorland and Furness district of Cumbria, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in the county of Lancashire, it was incorporated as a municipal borou ...

on the mainland, joining the island at Vicarstown and transversing the island to Tidmouth. Its main traffic is the Wild Nor' Wester, an express train from Tidmouth to London, a stopping passenger service dubbed "The Local", and freight traffic. ** ''The Ffarquhar Branch Line'' runs from Knapford to Ffarquhar. It is operated by Thomas' push-pull train and Daisy the diesel railcar. 8 trains a day are provided each way. ** ''The Brendam Branch Line'' goes all the way to Brendam from Wellsworth. It links the china-clay works at Brendam to the main line. It is run by Edward, who manages passenger traffic and possibly more engines. At peak hours, there is an extended commuter service, during which trains run back to Tidmouth. ** ''The Little Western'' runs along the

coast A coast (coastline, shoreline, seashore) is the land next to the sea or the line that forms the boundary between the land and the ocean or a lake. Coasts are influenced by the topography of the surrounding landscape and by aquatic erosion, su ...

from Tidmouth to Arlesburgh. It has an hourly service operated by Duck and Oliver with their GWR-style auto-trains. ** The ''Peel Godred Branch'' runs from Kildane to Peel Godred and connects with the Culdee Fell Railway. There are 8 trains both ways hauled by electric locomotives, being the only line on Sodor that is electrified. 4 of these trains, presumably the ones in peak hours, continue to Cronk. The line also serves the Aluminium Works at Peel Godred, and has to handle heavy freight traffic of bauxite and aluminium products. The line is technically a

light railway A light railway is a Rail transport, railway built at lower costs and to lower standards than typical "heavy rail": it uses lighter-weight track, and may have more Grade (slope), steep gradients and Minimum railway curve radius, tight curves to ...

, which means trains on it are limited to 25 mph. ** Two other ''North Western Railway branch lines'' detailed on the maps of Sodor have not featured in ''The Railway Series''. They run from: *** Vicarstown to Norramby, via Ballahoo. This line has hourly trains as well as a half-hourly suburban service at peak hours. The suburban trains are operated as a joint service between the NWR and The Other Railway (which was originally the

London, Midland and Scottish Railway The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMSIt has been argued that the initials LMSR should be used to be consistent with London and North Eastern Railway, LNER, Great Western Railway, GWR and Southern Railway (UK), SR. The London, Midland an ...

, later

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Comm ...

and currently

Northern Trains Northern Trains, Trade name, trading as Northern, is a British train operating company that operates Commuter rail, commuter and Inter-city rail, medium-distance intercity services in the North of England. It is owned by DfT Operator for the Dep ...

). *** Kellsthorpe Road to Kirk Ronan. * The ''Arlesdale Railway'' (also known as ''Small Railway''), a 15 inch gauge railway, takes waste from the mines in the hills to Arlesburgh where it could be distributed to the rest of the island. It also carries tourists. * The ''Culdee Fell Railway'', a narrow-gauge rack-and-pinion mountain railway, runs from the summit of Culdee Fell down to Kirk Machan where it links to the standard-gauge line from Kildane to Peel Godred. * The ''Mid Sodor Railway'', a narrow-gauge railway, closed in 1947. It ran from Arlesburgh to King 'Orry's Bridge. Part of its route is now on the 15-inch gauge Arlesdale Railway. * The ''Skarloey Railway'', a narrow-gauge railway, runs from Crovan's Gate (where it links to the North Western Railway) up to Skarloey, with a loop line from Rheneas to Skarloey.

Notes

References

External links

{{Authority control Fictional elements introduced in 1945 Fictional locations in the United Kingdom England in fiction Cumbria in fiction Fictional islands Fictional populated places in England Islands of Furness Thomas & Friends locations Manx language