North Western Railway

"Please tell everyone that whatever happens elsewhere, Steam will still be at work here. We shall be glad to welcome all who want to see, and travel behind, real engines."

- The Fat Controller, "Enterprising Engines"

The North Western Railway


The North Western Railway was first created in 1914 after a government-funded joining of Sodor's standard gauge railways. The railways involved were the Sodor and Mainland, the Tidmouth, Knapford and Elsbridge Light and the Wellsworth-Suddery Railways. In 1948, it became the "North-Western Region of British Railways", but this term was never used as the railway kept its operating independence. With Privatisation in the early 1990s, it officially became the North Western Railway.

The railway's motto is "Nil unquam simile", which, translated from Latin, means "There's nothing quite like it!"

The Fat Controller's Railway
The standard gauge railway on Sodor in the television series is affectionally known as the Fat Controller's Railway. It serves the whole of Sodor, apart from some areas in the mountains.