User:The Vicarstown Sentinel

Brief Intro
Hi there, I'm The Vicarstown Sentinel, formerly known as Sodor Productions. I'm a chat moderator here and I take my role of helping my friends on the staff very seriously. I'm doing my best to help out here and on the TUGS wikia with whatever little tidbits I have to add. I try and help out with the spam here and there, adding delete tags where they're needed and warning the noobs who spam about the consequences of their actions. I am one of many users of Thomas Trainz models by Sodor Island 3D and other such sites. I've added a couple of pictures here and there, both from Trainz: one of the Rebuilt Bert, and one of the Tank Engine Bertram. For reasons unknown, my Bertram pic has been overwritten by Madbomberfan's. Can't understand why really, my angle worked fine if you ask me.

When it comes to my job here on the wiki, I take things very seriously, which can be good or bad. As long as you follow the rules and be respectful to one another and to the staff, you'll be ok with me. But if you spam, are rude and spiteful to others and staff, you're gonna face my wrath. Just saying. You all know who you are.

List of Friendy-ness
I don't really do this on wikis, but I do get along with the mods and consider them web friends. I also have a number of non-mod friends. Here there are in no particular order:

User:Jamesis5

User:Toby7

User:ZEM User:Zem2point0

User:Thomasfan

User:SteamTeam

User:TenCents

User:Terence2

User:Jackninja5DipperGravityFalls

User:Oliverandtoad13

User:OddThomasguy

User:HIROD51

User:OnMistyIsland97

My opinion on the Pre-Brenner HiT Era
Simply put, I am very displeased with the way the Season 8-16 television series was done today. It really disgusts me, because, as SiF/Si3D VIP and BRWS creator Simon A.C. Martin has said, children are easily influenced, and it's teaching them bad things. For example, racism against diesels, though this isn't applied to Salty or Mavis. Another prime example is the lack of safety. Best examples to use for this would be Season 15's "Wonky Whistle" and "Kevin the Steamie" Those two workmen could have been seriously hurt, and is Thomas DEAF? As for Kevin, Thomas and Percy, they should know not to be playing in a "hard hat" area. Then there's the staleness of the 3 strike formula and lack of realism. Completely interchangeable plotline. Steam Team Engine gets redundant and ridiculously unrealtisic "special special" usually conisting of just one or two trucks, and without a brakevan, no less (this isn't the Other Railway, Sudrian trucks are not fitted with those air brake pipe things), engine messes up 3 times, goes back and fixes mistakes, and everyone laughs at the end. BOOOOORRRRRRIIIINNNNNGGGGG.

HOW is the show still successful with such fail plots, one may ask. The answer: Merch. Always the merch. Lots of pointless new characters are introduced, only to be rarely seen, then the toy companies working with HiT make toys of these one-offs and rarities. Prime example: Paxton, Norman and Sidney. No major speaking lines or roles in any episodes or DOTD, particularly Sidney, he only appeared maybe twice within the special, stuck in some sort of machine and without his bogey. Clearly Sharon and HiT did not think to make personalities and backstories for them until after writing Day of the Diesels, and ironically, released them in the Diesel Guide before the DVD's release. Season 15 was byfar the worst, to the point where my good friend Joe, Nene Valley volunteer and North Eastern steam enthusiast, showed some Season 15 episodes to his 5 year old cousin. According to him, she scratched her head and said "What? That's not right..." If one child can see a problem with the series, so can the rest, and then it will become clear to HiT that they are failing horribly at making a decent children's show, only surviving via income from merchandise.

Give me Seasons 1-4 with small portions of 5, 6,and 7 anytime, or the RWS, better yet. HiT was better off in Season 7 and 8 when Sharon was not head writer and the 3 strike formula was not even being used. Though admittedly Season 8 and maybe some small portions of 9 were way better than the rest, they were slightly more realistic, and they didn't stick to Sharon's formula for the most part. There's very little to like about the rest.

And for anyone who wants to know: The TV series is retconned timeline-wise, and therefore now officially non-canon to the Classic Series. There are about 4 different canon timelines: The Railways Series, the Classic Series (which was briefly mentioned in the RWS), the Retconned Series (8 onward) and the Magazine Series, which contains characters, elements and events of all 3, albeit altered or split up and with a varying sense of realism. So the Retconned is its own timeline with little to no realism. Though strangely, this timeline as of BMM contains altered versions of Classic Series/Railway Series events, albeit altered as Henry Mk-I doesn't exist in this timeline. This means that possibly all Classic Series/RWS events could have happened in this timeline, albeit altered greatly to conform with the bad writing and lack of railway realism. The only thing Sharon Miller got mostly down to a tee was Victor's backstory, stating that he is Minaz No. 1173 and he worked in the sugar mills in Cuba, though again, like Hiro, his country's name (and this part of the backstory) is not mentioned in the special. It is only mentioned on merch summaries, whilst Hiro is said to be Japanese only on the pre-HOTR era website and the Japanese HOTR trailer. Sadly, since his introduction, he's been inaccurately depicted as 2'3'' gauge. The real deal is standard. 1173 was also never painted yellow with green, which looks more Indian than Cuban to me. Hiro's basis is cape gauged (I think that's 3' 6'') and has a loading gauge probably more comparable to the American loading gauge. But it IS possible to convert one to standard.

My own work
I never imagined myself writing Thomas stories before really. I tried early on, but my attempts were just really terrible. Until Season 13 that is. I was appalled, and set off to write my own stories and rewrite some of HiT's. I rewrote a few Season 13 episodes early on, but now have deemed them as non-canon to my series. As time progressed, I began doing more and more research on engines' origins, accidents, etc. This led to my so-far successful-ish mini-series on DeviantArt. I call it "The Underground Preservation Movement." This mini-series is what I truly consider some of my best work. What is it about? Well, as it turns out, many Railway Series and TV series engines, excluding Stepney, City of Truro and Flying Scotsman, were also real, or almost real in some cases. What I do is that I try to find as much info on a certain "real" engine character, i.e. Duck, and based on what little findings I find, develop a backstory for them, explaining how they ended up being "preserved" on the North Western. Lots of creative liberties have to be taken for whatever info I don't have. The stories are a blend of Railway Series Canon, bits of both Classic and Modern TV series Canon, actual history and creative liberties.

My current work is on revamping the series, as now I have exact scrapping dates and locations for the most part."Almost Real" engines like Bear and 199, believed by Thomasfan, Damocles178 and I to be a Class 46 due to his numbering, also have a chance at having their own parts in my series. Amongst the ranks of real engines I also have Stafford, whom I interpret to be the NRM's NSR No. 1 shunter, the coindentally real Charlie and Hiro (more on that later) and, possibly, a proper backstory for the modern series' take on a certain NER X1 (more on that also later). Despite Awdry claiming that Duck and Oliver's numbers "were likely not their original ones," I am using the real engines for my interpretations, as renumbering an extra engine to bear the same number as one currently in operation at the time doesn't make too much sense to me. I attribute this to Awdry's human error, as he used the models he ordered for representation and didn't do research on their whereabouts. That is why Duck claims to have worked at Paddington and has an affinity for Swindon, which ironically is where the real 5741 was cut up.

Other works currently in progress are Part 3 of my Day of the Diesels rewrite trilogy (At this rate it's like like Half-Life 2 Episode 3), a Blue Mountain Mystery rewrite and a story about Godred, based on this seemingly RWS 40-based illustration seen here. To read my works, click the link at the top of the userpage. Be warned though, just because the majority of my work is Thomas related doesn't mean I'm not afraid to be mature, i.e. use stronger language, lash out at noobs, etc. I should also note that Gmod insanity and MLP FiM are taking over my gallery now, however, I still do the occasional Thomas stuff.

Significant contributions to the community
Well, aside from trying to find out the shed allocations and dates for engines, there is one big contribution I made fairly recently. There's a website associated with SiF that I've been visiting for the past 5 or so years, called The Real Lives of Thomas the Tank Engine. A long while after HOTR was released, they made a page about Victor, complete with exclusive photos of Minaz 1173 only allowed to be used on said site. These pics were from a book about Cuban Railways, and the site managers asked the photographer and author to include them. It showed 1173 in a sad, crippled state; covered in grease, paint fading and spewing black smoke. After reading about 1173, this being the only site with real info on the engine, I set out to try and find if it had been scrapped or not, as it had not been seen by railfans outside of Cuba since 1993 due to government officials disallowing visitors. My research was at a dead standstill for months on end due to lack of other sources of info. Until Summer of 2012, that is.

I began asking railfans who had either moved out of Cuba in the 90's or had been allowed to visit for special steam tours if they had visited Cespedes Sugar Mill, where 1173 was based, and if they had seen it. They hadn't, but they pointed me in the direction of a little Yahoo group called Cuban Railways. I joined straight away, and immediately inquired about information about 1173 for the TTTE community and railfan community outside of Cuba. A few minute later, the admin replied. Earlier that month (it was around August 23rd when I asked this question), 1173 had been rescued from Cespedes and relocated to Patria Sugar Mill Museum, and was to be repainted and put on display. Sadly, it was missing some parts and with Cuba's everlasting poor economy, it's doubtful 1173 will run again. There were pics in the group of the rescue, one showing a profile shot on the flatbed and the other showing the back of the cab, which sported the engines' number and not one (like Nitrogen's model), not two (like JH5500's Trainz model) but THREE large cab lookouts. It was also said that 1173 was built as a typical Baldwin saddletank and converted to oil-firing by the Cubans themselves, hence the additional pannier tanks and lack of a coal bunker. I set out to tell Mr. Gratton, webmaster of TRLOTTTE right away, and later got a reply thanking me for the information and putting them in touch with the admin. The page was given a small update in September mentioning my finding, though this I didn't notice.

Nov. 5 the group updated again, showing 1173 in it's beautiful new livery. The picture was dated October 24, I think, and it was said the Cespedes locos were worked on at a faster pace than previous rescued locomotives from other sugar mills. I alerted Mr Gratton again, who had already apparently known. He kindly sent me a picture of 1173 he was unable to post on the site due to lack of permission from the photographer, and the group admin sent me another from another book. I doubt I'll be able to post either to my Photobucket for others to view. I recently got another email thanking me for all the info, and the page has now been updated with 3 contributed pictures from the group for all to see, barring the back view of the cab. Please, go visit TRLOTTTE and take yourself on a trip through the history of the TTTE franchise, and enjoy Victor's new Cuban-styled livery. :)

http://www.pegnsean.net/~railwayseries/victor.htm

My opinion of the the fanbase overall
I've been a part of the fanbase for a few years now, so I know pretty much the ins and outs of it. You can easily separate the fanbase into two sections: one is the "bad fans" and "noobs" which eat, sleep, breathe Thomas and Friends. Users like these make a lot of mistakes, get flamed, use Autism as an excuse, making terrible videos and in some cases horrible fan art and fan fiction. I won't go into detail, however I will mention that this sort of fan fiction was previously found on the wiki and removed after being reported to my good friend Thomasfan. I honestly do not tolerate that kind of rubbish anywhere, especially here. I may not be an admin, but I have the wiki's best interests in mind.

Then there are the intelligent fans; ones that do their research and have been around for years. Like SiFers for example, I'm impressed with the quality of many an SiF member's work on YouTube. When I was a new to the fanbase and a noob, I was banned from SiF, so I wasn't able enjoy the full extent of their works such as the Extended Railway Series I'd heard so much about. I was kindly let back in recently by the admins and am now enjoying my time there, and people seem to be enjoying the news I've posted on 1173 (more on that later).

Unfortunately, because of the former half being seemingly larger than the latter, the fanbase is often targetted by trolls who blindly group both halves together, assuming that when they see one "bad fan", the rest are all alike. This of course, is a flawed fallacy of logic, called Composition. I've used logic to work my way at many a troll before, and believe me, it's satisfying to see their reaction. But enough about that.

I've had a mixed reputation for the past 5 years I've been in this community. I still do have a mixed reputation. I can be a big jerk sometimes, I realize. I can be pretty dumb at times too, and some people consider me as bad as certain noobs. However, I'm not letting the drama bother me these days. The fact is that despite the rift in the fanbase and my dislike of the latter faction of it, the fact is that we're all human. Nobody is perfect or normal; perfection and normality are merely just concepts created by the human mind that we get so drawn into. If people were meant to be perfect, there would be no good, no evil, etc etc. The world's not gonna change just because some people are getting mad at other people on the Internet where weird stuff crops up everywhere all the time.

Opinion on Nitrogen Studios' Work
Now, back when I joined the fanbase, Season 11 was being aired, and Season 12, much to my dismay, began. I was skeptical at first, because it didn't quite feel right seeing CGI mixed with the models. That all changed with Hero of the Rails. Despite the many flaws of the special, I was thoroughly impressed. After every season they seem to get better and better. Greg, Nicole and their team truly seem to have a passion for the series; Greg is even an avid Railway Series fan, and always does his research. Despite my hatred of the Logging Locos, his modifications to their prototype design work really well. When HiT was being bid on, I secretly hoped that Nitrogen themselves would scrounge up enough cash to buy the series outright. They are truly avid fans and even support and keep in contact with the higher ups at SiF. I believe that in the hands of Nitrogen alone, and not some toy company like Mattel or even HiT (despite My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic doing phenominally well in Hasbro's hands), that Thomas and Friends would truly be on the right track, and once again appeal to all audiences. I have high hopes for Nitrogen, and sincerely hope they collaborate with WETA Digital Studios (who have also done Lord of the Rings' CGI as well as design a TF2 Sentry for Valve's office) on the 2014 WWII movie.

I find it disappointing that HiT have decided to dump Nitrogen in favour of Arc. There is nothing too notable about Arc imo. Their only good CGI film was 9, directed by Shane Acker, also in charge of the WWII flick being worked on. This makes NO sense to me. If HiT wanted Arc so badly, they should have enlisted them to collab with WETA for the WWII flick, with some possible help from Nitrogen. 9's visuals were amazing, and Nitrogen frankly isn't given enough credit by some. Come on, folks, Nitrogen animated all of the cutscenes from the M-rated video game called God of War, and they made that WWII poster. If the television series should belong to just one animation studio, it is Nitrogen who deserves it. HiT have clearly disregarded Greg and his team's hard work and passion for the series. They always did their research. Greg is an avid RWS fan and even wanted to render 4 Little Engines, Duck and the Diesel Engine and even Mountain Engines in CGI. They fully understood what HiT was handing them was sheer rubbish, and they truly wanted to turn the series around. HiT's biggest mistake was not handing the full series rights over to Nitrogen, instead opting to sell the series to Mattel and blindly opting to switch to a studio only notable for one great CGI film and stunning visual effects in non-CGI films.

King of the Railway and Season 17 look/sound promising, but my only gripes with Arc are the streamliners and the distortion of the smokeboxes with the facial flexes. Come on, Arc, you can do better than that. This isn't Chuggington, you guys made 9 and animated the cutscenes for Halo 4! And what's with the J3A Dreyfuss and B&O President?? I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Arc are trying to follow in Nitrogen's footsteps by picking some of the basis for characters. And if that's the case and they picked those streamliners, they're already struggling/failing to reach the high bar Nitrogen set for them. I'm pretty sure Mr. Brenner and McCue have a decent amount of creative control, so I'm willing to bet either of them picked Rocket and the Decauville for Stephen and Millie.

Music
I've always loved the music used in Thomas and Friends. Mike and Junior captured the essence of the characters and series beautifully, and same goes for their work in TUGS. I was sad to find Robert Hartshorne replaced them in US Dub Season 7 and then onward to today. However, despite that I found his narrow gauge railway themes very catchy, even humming them whilst doing chores. Ed Welch, however, was a terrible songwriter compared to Mike and Junior, and his work seemed too childish even for a children's series, to sound ironic. Then, they dropped him from the staff probably around the time of The Great Discovery, and as if a veil was lifted, everything got better. Hartshorne's work became more noticable, if you catch my meaning. The music began to improve and be even catchier. Then, come Hero of the Rails, it changed from "better" to "amazing"! The opening theme, despite it being the "Engine Rollcall" so to speak, felt very nostalgic paired with the LNER poster art style of the opening. Throughout the special the music was phenomenal, particularly Hiro's flashback and the chase themes. Later, Season 13 arrived, and the music seemed to improve still. Some of the themes from the recomposed Season 7 were reused, but because no one really liked his themes then, they stood out even more, as if they were brand new. With Misty Island Rescue, he improved even FURTHER. I was amazed at the music (not the plot though, I can't watch it for the plot, only the animation and his music). Season 14 and 15 had some great tunes too, and the songs kept getting better as they're all composed himself now. And must I say how EPIC his Day of the Diesels themes were? Though this time, he's been joined by his son. Now we're back to a pair of composers, and I believe they have now surpassed Mike and Junior in terms of skill. Well done to you both, it's hard to believe Hartshorne has now been on the show longer than Mike and Junior.