"Everybody knew that there was an Isle of Man, but we decided to 'discover' another island – the Island of Sodor – and so give the poor deprived Bishop the other half of his diocese!" (Rev. W. Awdry) Awdry decided to create Sodor in the Irish Sea, between the Isle of Man and Barrow-in-Furness in Lancashire (Barrow later became part of the new county of Cumbria during the 1974 re-organisation). "Sudreys" became "Sodor", in the name of the Diocese, and retained it long after it ceased to have any authority over the Scottish Islands.Īwdry noted that although the Bishop had the title "Sodor and Man", he had only Man for his diocese. Orkney and Shetland (also known as Zetland). "Southern Isles" compared to Norðreyjar ("The Nordreys" ), or the " Northern Isles", i.e. This is because the Isle of Man was part of the Kingdom of Mann and the Isles, which included the Hebrides, known in Old Norse as the Suðreyjar, (anglicised as "The Sudreys" ) i.e. The bishop of the Isle of Man is known as Bishop of "Sodor and Man". 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) They created more details of Sodor than would ever be used in The Railway Series stories. 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 (Manx) = llyn (Welsh) = "lake"). Elsbridge was named after Wilbert's parish of Elsworth in Cambridgeshire. Sodor would be between England and the Isle of Man, isolated from British railway system, but somewhere that readers could easily imagine.Īwdry and his younger brother George worked out Sodor's history, geography, industry and language ("Sudric"). He decided to create a fictional island of "Sodor" as the setting for his books. Awdry noted that while there was an Isle of Man, there was no island of Sodor. He was inspired during a 1950 visit to the Isle of Man, which forms the Diocese of Sodor and Man. He wanted them to be in Great Britain, but sufficiently isolated from British Railways to allow him to write the stories he wanted. Sodor is depicted in the Irish Sea between the British Crown Dependency of the Isle of Man and the United Kingdom's English mainland, near Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria the real-life Walney Island is included in Sodor.Īwdry wanted a consistent set of locations for The Railway Series. It is also the setting of the Thomas & Friends television series, though it is significantly different from the island in the books. The Island of Sodor is a fictional island that is the setting for The Railway Series books by the Rev. The flag of Sodor, as depicted in Thomas & Friends: The Great Race 2016 movie. " Thomas and the Royal Engine" ( Thomas & Friends)īetween the Isle of Man and Barrow-in-Furness Thomas and his Friends ( The Railway Series) The Three Railway Engines ( The Railway Series) They are owned by the Awdry Family, HiT Entertainment and Mattel.A map of the Island of Sodor showing the railway system I do not own Thomas the Tank Engine or the Railway Series. Not many people I've seen talk about it or seem to have it anymore so I thought I'd post a little tribute to it after finding this model in my archives. Sadly, this model has long since been forgotten. However, the model saw a short-lived unoffical release when an individual included it in a reskin of Mstnoodle's Henry to represent the character Hank the American Engine, which utilized a reskin of Gwion's snowplough, which he created with his Thomas model. When UKBL stopped creating Thomas models and Sodor Island 3D came into existence in 2009, this model was quickly supplanted by the higher quality models Skarloey123 and Seanoc17 created together. However, this model was never officially released and instead passed down to certain individuals who were trustworthy enough to use it. This model is historically significant as the very first Thomas model to be created outside of UKBL's support. In the days of old, when Magandy and Mstnoodle were both collaborating to make Thomas models for UKBL, there was one individual known to all as Gwion123, who went and made his own Thomas model. Only those who have lived long enough to see the UKBL days will remember this model.
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