Talk:Island of Sodor

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On 12 May 2025, it was proposed that this article be moved from Sodor (fictional island) to Island of Sodor. The result of the discussion was moved.

Isle of

I thought it was called Isle Of Sodor. From what I've heard it's locatet just between Scotland and Ireland... True?

"Isle" and "Island" are often interchangeable terms. The article clearly states:

Sodor is supposed to be in the Irish Sea, between the Isle of Man and Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria.

--=# Amos E Wolfe ^talk #=- 11:22, 15 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

And just for the record Cumbria is in England not Scotland Penrithguy 21:13, 20 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Sodor - a Crown dependency?

Is Sodor suppossed to be a Crown dependency like the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands or is it a constituient part of the United Kingdom or even a county of England.

Also as I have never read any of the "histories" of Sodor written by the Awdry family if Sodor is a seperate entity to the UK then how is it subdivided? Or did the Awdrys never explain this? Penrithguy 20:37, 13 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Well, I think it's meant to be an island that's apart of Great Britain, but not in quite as much control as the Isle of Man or Channel Islands. I only think this because in The Railway Series, Sodor's Northwestern Railway became part of British Railways. Triviatronic9000 (talk) 03:16, 25 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Marthwaite vs. Maithwaite

Close examination of the maps on this page http://www.pegnsean.net/~railwayseries/mapsection.htm show Marthwaite to be correct. It seems that some years ago somebody mis-read it as Maithwaite and this has spread. The maps are from the original books which came before toys and TV series. -=# Amos E Wolfe ^talk #=- 13:04, 7 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Big or Small?

Is Sodor big or small? Felix 22:56, 15 July 2006

Sodor's dimensions are mentioned in the article as is the fact that the TV version seems to be larger Penrithguy 10:32, 16 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Felix, on the Sodor Island Forums site I believe there is a fan fiction section why not join up to the Forums and write your own stories about these engines you have created just one question why would a railway in the British Isles have so many American locomotives? Penrithguy 21:45, 20 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

At least it's lucky the Island of Sodor is bigger in the television show. Felix 17:18, 11 August 2006

Fictional Places

I have removed the paragraph listing the places on the island, linking it to Fictional Locations (The Railway Series). More information can be added there, as can other small places not yet mentioned - this page is primarily for the Railway Series, and not for Television info. A page for that may be created in the future. Mdcollins1984 15:12, 27 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Abandoned railway to south-east of Island?

An anon editor recently added:

There is also an abandoned line that linked the southeast coast of the island to the MoD base that is also served by the Skarloey Railway.

Now this may well be true, but I don't remember it being mentioned in the books. Can anyone shed some light on it? (and provide the necessary reference?)

EdJogg 00:44, 16 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I don't seem to recall it being mentioned in the stories but a number of maps were published (e.g. in the front of books) based on the Rev. Awdry's originals. This page has quite a few, which were used when creating the map used in the article. This close-up shows the line in question with the words "track of old railway". -=# Amos E Wolfe ^talk #=- 06:21, 16 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

On the Real lives of Thomas site [1] there is a history of the Skarloey Railway which tells of a horse drawn railway running from the slate quarries to the sea via Crovan's Gate which was replaced by the Skarloey line. I believe this is the "Track of Old Railway" shown on the maps. Penrithguy 10:33, 16 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you both. The close-up is from The Island of Sodor... book, so, having checked the map, I then looked at the Skarloey Railway section of that book. Sure enough, the first two paragraphs describe the earliest railway on the island... ...a horse-drawn, fish-belly railed, plateway with inclines -- a veritable link-fest!

Worth adding here and on the Skarloey page too. The two problems I had were regarding the "MOD base" (it certainly wasn't that at the time) and the rather vague 'south-east coast' location. Cheers

EdJogg 00:27, 17 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Singapore

is it just me, or does Sodor look like Singapore? is there any connection?--74.237.54.62 (talk) 03:19, 30 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I think Singapore (map here) looks more like the Isle of Wight than Sodor! -- EdJogg (talk) 12:39, 3 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Its not just you, it does look like Singapore. I finally sat through a full Thomas DVD with my young son and it hit me straight way, mainly because I'm FROM Singapore! -- markds (talk) 14:04, 5 August 2011 (SGP)

OK, I acknowledge that there is a superficial resemblance between Sodor and Singapore, but mainly because both are fairly amorphous shapes. Note that unless you have a Reliable Source for this suggestion, there is no place for it in the article. -- EdJogg (talk) 12:55, 15 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Sodor to be real in the future?

A groupd of Internet Entreprenurs are trying to build sodor for real! It is on Reddit and Sodor Island Fansite, and at least one person is doing a feasibillity study on building it. If it becomes real, then this article will need to be backed up by reliable sources verifying the progress. Similar to artificial islands popping up in places like Dubai. 31.124.144.137 (talk) 07:33, 25 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

A Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion

The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion:

Wilbert Awdry's map of Sodor, Talyllyn Railway museum.jpg

Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 02:07, 31 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

It is real

remove fictional island and everything related to it being fictional — Preceding unsigned comment added by 147.253.233.145 (talk) 22:25, 5 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The article explains how the author made it up at Sodor_(fictional_island)#Inspiration_and_creation. - SummerPhD^v2.0 01:13, 6 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Template:Skarloey Railway RDT

Just wanted to mention that Template:Skarloey Railway RDT exist and may be relevant for this article. --Trialpears (talk) 20:41, 16 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

External links

As per WP:ELNO, open wikis are generally not appropriate as external links. Nikkimaria (talk) 00:51, 22 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Trimming

Per the clear guidelines (and common sense) of Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Writing about fiction, I have trimmed much of the article. The reminder probably needs a partial rewrite to fix remaining issues of in-universe tone. RandomCanadian (talk / contribs) 04:29, 27 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Coordinates ?

There are coordinates attached to this article - do they need removing ? Currenly its located between Wales and Isle of Man — Preceding unsigned comment added by Exussum12 (talk • contribs) 20:56, 15 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

@Exussum12: I have removed them; because this is a fictional place (so the location can be described without putting fictional, WP:OR coordinates), and the alleged coordinates were wrong anyway (it should be closer to Barrow-in-Furness, to begin with) RandomCanadian (talk / contribs) 22:54, 15 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Castles

Throughout every era of the television series, we see plenty of castles in the background (and one of them, Ulfstead Castle is a main location in "King of the Railway" and we see the characters travel there in many episodes after that, such as "The Switch", where Millie and Luke swap jobs for a while. What I'm wondering is: Aside from Ulfstead, how much information do we get on the other castles? I'm sure the set designers wouldn't just put them in for no reason other than for a more lively (or lived in) world, but while I have my own theory, I don't know for sure. Sorry if this seems like an unfit topic. Triviatronic9000 (talk) 03:13, 25 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Placenames

The article mentions that 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). <X> <article> <Y> is the word order used in Goidelic languages for "[the] X of the Y", and is nothing to do with English word order. It's unclear what the article is referring to here. Stadhan (talk) 00:44, 10 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Strange insignia

In the "Description of Lines" section there is an image of the rail lines in the style of Henry Beck. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Maps-sodor-map-beck-amoswolfe.png In the bottom right corner there is an insignia that bears a striking resemblance to the Nazi flag, a black geometric shape in a white circle on a red field. This feels intentional. Is there any source that corroborates this imagery as being from the Thomas series? Or is it just wholly inappropriate and in need of removal? Paula Bunions (talk) 06:48, 22 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I removed the map. We already have a map in the article, so this second map is redundant. The logo is clearly fan made. Opolito (talk) 18:13, 22 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I'm a bit late to the discussion, but I thought I'd just offer some further information about this logo. It has been published by at least one of the original Railway Series artists (example) and it seems to be a parody of the British Railways "double arrow"

symbol, stylised as a letter "S" for Sodor. The logo used on the map (including colour scheme) was copied directly from a source which is now lost to time (it's almost 20 years since I created that map). -=# Amos E Wolfe ^talk #=- 15:58, 3 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I managed to find the original artwork from 2005, changed the colour of the logo to avoid any resemblance to the Nazi flag, and uploaded a new version. I have also uploaded the same artwork in SVG format. -=# Amos E Wolfe ^talk #=- 19:16, 3 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Requested move 12 May 2025

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: moved. (closed by non-admin page mover) feminist🩸 (talk) 10:09, 14 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Sodor (fictional island) → Island of Sodor – Widely known by this name,[2] and this title works better as there doesn't have to be brackets explaining what it is. I know Island of Sodor is a redirect to this page, however, Island of Sodor works better as the page's name. Thomasfan1000 (talk) 22:36, 12 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Support as more WP:NATURAL disambiguation. None of the other topics on the Sodor DAB are individual islands, and the article clearly signposts the location as fictional in its lead and short description, so there's no significant risk of misleading anyone. ModernDayTrilobite (talk • contribs) 15:28, 21 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose Not even close to being as commonly used a name as just "Sodor". ᴢxᴄᴠʙɴᴍ (ᴛ) 16:49, 26 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Support. Firstly, and most importantly, because of the WP:NATURAL guideline. (Cf. "hand fan is preferable to fan (implement)".) Secondly, because the Rev. Awbry wrote a 1987 book titled The Island of Sodor: Its People, History and Railways, in which 'Island of Sodor' is capitalised, both in the title and within the content, in such a way that it should be taken to be the island's proper title. (E.g. "The new map of the Island of Sodor [...]".) Thirdly, because this is how the TV series introduces the island in the opening narration, at least during the mid to late 2000s when Michael Angelis and Michael Brandon were narrating. (I.e. "The Island of Sodor is surrounded by beautiful blue sea. [...]".) 146.199.34.171 (talk) 05:49, 1 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Support Yeah, Not only in The Railway Series but also in Thomas and friends in both era in many many Episodes and Movies the island is represented as Island of Sodor. Yeah, For making clear you can add in (Fiction island) like normal. Abdullah1099 (talk) 07:38, 3 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Support Entirely agree here. In many parts of the media both in the books and especially the show, the island itself is rarely referred to as just the name of "Sodor", but instead as "The Island of Sodor". We can still keep the tag noting it is fictional in the name, but almost all main media has the full title as "The Island of Sodor". --Pikaman59 (talk) 06:00, 9 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Making a Rail Map template for Thomas and Friends.

I am thinking of making a rail line template for representing all rail lines and other important things. I think this a fantastic ideas. Does anyone has more ideas for this or has any problem Please tell me those also. Abdullah1099 (talk) 07:34, 3 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Firstly I would suggest that you familiarise yourself with the complex and fragile syntax used in Route Diagram Templates (RDT). Create a Sandbox in your User space and use Template:Railway line legend as a starting point. I note that you say on your User Page that you are from India — perhaps take a look at some of the many templates in Category:Templates for railway lines of India and see if you can make some edits there. Perhaps even copy and paste one into your User Sandbox and play around with it until you get the hang of it.

When you feel ready to start creating a diagram of the railways on Sodor, start with a reliable source, and consider (as I myself have done) drawing it out with pencil on grid paper before translating it into markup. All the icons are hosted on Wikimedia Commons — start at commons:BSicon/Catalogue. You should find all the icons you need to make a start. It doesn't have to be perfect on the first try, as other Wikipedians will surely come along to make further edits.

Don't forget that you aren't representing the actual geographic layout of the railways, but rather the "main line" as a straight line from top to bottom with branch lines coming off, and you want to keep to one important feature per line so that you can have a text label adjacent to it. For more feature-dense diagrams it is possible to have text on both the left and right of the line diagram.

Most importantly, don't forget to have fun! -=# Amos E Wolfe ^talk #=- 15:37, 3 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you very much for your kind information about Railway lines templates and other related things. Abdullah1099 (talk) 15:43, 3 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]