The Island of Sodor is a fictional island featured as the 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 Island of Sodor. There are 42 books in the series, the first published in May 1945 by the Rev. Wilbert Awdry. T ...

'' books by the Rev. Wilbert Awdry (and his son

Christopher Christopher is the English version of a Europe-wide name derived from the Greek name Χριστόφορος (''Christophoros'' or '' Christoforos''). The constituent parts are Χριστός (''Christós''), "Christ" or " Anointed", and φέρε� ...

), begun in 1945, and for the popular ''

Thomas & Friends ''Thomas & Friends'' (originally known as ''Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends'' and later ''Thomas & Friends: Big World! Big Adventures!'') is a British children's television series that aired across 24 series from 1984 to 2021. Based on ''The ...

'' television series since 1984, although the Television series depiction of the island is significantly different and is widely understood that the Railway series and the TV series are different canons. It is depicted as being located in the

Irish Sea The Irish Sea or , gv, Y Keayn Yernagh, sco, Erse Sie, gd, Muir Èireann , Ulster-Scots: ''Airish Sea'', cy, Môr Iwerddon . is an extensive body of water that separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is linked to the C ...

, between the

Isle of Man ) , anthem = " O Land of Our Birth" , image = Isle of Man by Sentinel-2.jpg , image_map = Europe-Isle_of_Man.svg , mapsize = , map_alt = Location of the Isle of Man in Europe , map_caption = Location of the Isle of Man (green) in Europ ...

and the English mainland near

Barrow-in-Furness Barrow-in-Furness is a port town in Cumbria, England. Historically in Lancashire, it was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1867 and merged with Dalton-in-Furness Urban District in 1974 to form the Borough of Barrow-in-Furness. In 2023 t ...

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. ...

, with the real-life Walney Island depicted as part of Sodor.

Inspiration and creation

The need for consistency in the locations for ''The Railway Series'' necessitated the creation of a suitable location. Awdry required a setting for his books that would be within

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It ...

, but would be sufficiently isolated from the rest of

British Railways British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British ...

to allow him to do as he wished with the location. Inspiration came on a visit to the

, which forms the Diocese of Sodor and Man in 1950. Awdry noted that while there was an Isle of Man, there was no similar island of Sodor (the name derives from

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlement ...

, "southern isles", a term that referred to the

Hebrides The Hebrides (; gd, Innse Gall, ; non, Suðreyjar, "southern isles") are an archipelago off the west coast of the Scottish mainland. The islands fall into two main groups, based on their proximity to the mainland: the Inner and Outer Hebri ...

and islands along the west coast of Scotland). A large island would meet the criteria he required, giving him the isolation from changes to the British railway system while giving him somewhere that people could easily imagine. Between them, 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 county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to t ...

. 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 Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peopl ...

Talyllyn: ''logh'' (Manx) = ''llyn'' (Welsh) = "lake"). By the time they had finished, they knew more about 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'')

Etymology

The bishop of the Isle of Man is known as Bishop of "Sodor and Man". This is because the Isle of Man was part of the

Kingdom of Mann and the Isles The Kingdom of the Isles consisted of the Isle of Man, the Hebrides and the islands of the Firth of Clyde from the 9th to the 13th centuries AD. The islands were known to the Norse as the , or "Southern Isles" as distinct from the or Nort ...

, which included the

, known in

as the , (anglicised as "The Sudreys") i.e. "Southern Isles" compared to ("The Nordreys"), or the " Northern Isles", i.e. Orkney and Shetland (also known as Zetland). The Sudreys became "Sodor", which was fossilised in the name of the Diocese, long after it ceased to have any authority over the Scottish Islands. Thus there is no ''island'' of Sodor; rather, the fictional island takes its name from an

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands, or sometimes a sea containing a small number of scattered islands. Examples of archipelagos include: the Indonesian Arch ...

. Awdry was intrigued to find that although the Bishop had the title "Sodor and Man", he had only Man for his diocese. "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)'' Hence Awdry sited Sodor in the Irish Sea, between the Isle of Man and

in Lancashire (Barrow later became part of the new county of Cumbria during the 1974 re-organisation).

Language

The fictional native language of Sodor is "Sudric", a language similar to Manx. A lot of the place names on Sodor are clearly based on Manx forms, but often the nouns are inverted to match English word order. Some of the locations have quasi-Manx names, e.g. Killdane, which comes from "Keeill-y-Deighan" (Church of the Devil), hills are called Knock and Cronk, while "Nagh Beurla", means "I speak no English", a distortion of the Manx. 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 ( el, Ἀνδρέας) is a name usually given to males in Austria, Greece, Cyprus, Denmark, Armenia, Estonia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Finland, Flanders, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Romania, the Netherlands, and Indonesia. The ...

and Bride). Below are some words and phrases, and place-names translated into

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

Geography

Sodor is usually shown as much larger than the

. The island is roughly

diamond Diamond is a solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the chemically stable form of carbon at room temperature and pressure, b ...

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

strait A strait is an oceanic landform connecting two seas or two other large areas of water. The surface water generally flows at the same elevation on both sides and through the strait in either direction. Most commonly, it is a narrow ocean chan ...

called the Sudrian Sea (Faarkey-y-Sudragh), four miles (6 km) wide. Its north-east edge overrides and replaces the real Walney Island. The place names on Sodor are mostly a mixture of Manx and Norse. Its highest mountain is Culdee Fell, which was modelled on Snowdon: 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; however, Tidmouth has grown to be the largest town on the island. One of the more famous settlements on Sodor is Ffarquhar, the terminus of Thomas the Tank Engine's Branch Line. All of the other settlements on the island are described in Locations on the Island of Sodor, while the six railway lines from ''The Railway Series'' are described below.

Railways

The railways of Sodor include standard and narrow gauge railways, a

rack railway A rack railway (also rack-and-pinion railway, cog railway, or cogwheel railway) is a steep grade railway with a toothed rack rail, usually between the running rails. The trains are fitted with one or more cog wheels or pinions that mesh with t ...

and a 15-inch gauge railway. The first few stories concerned standard-gauge engines (including Thomas the Tank Engine). 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 Interoperability is a characteristic of a product or system to work with other products or systems. While the term was initially defined for information technology or systems engineering services to allow for information exchange, a broader def ...

with each other and with the mainland system, so the standard-gauge engines can visit London (for example) under their own power. In the story ''Gordon Goes Foreign'' several of the engines recount their stories of working in London when they were younger, and later in the same story Gordon pulls a train of mainland rolling stock to London. In the story ''The Fat Controller's Engines'' several of the ''famous engines'' visit London, and run on the mainland permanent way to get there. There are two narrow-gauge railways and a 15-inch gauge railway: the Skarloey Railway, in addition to the rack-and-pinion Culdee Fell mountain railway, and the 15-inch-gauge Arlesdale Railway, each isolated from the other. Movements of rolling stock (particularly engines) to and from the narrow-gauge railways is achieved by transporting them on flatbeds on the standard-gauge system, for example, when Rheneas is sent away for repairs in a flashback in the story ''Skarloey Remembers'' and later returned in the story ''Gallant Old Engine''. Each of the narrow-gauge and 15-inch 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 additio ...

: * 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 mainline railway and many of the branch lines on the

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An isla ...

and is often referred to as The Fat Controller's Railway. ** The ''Mainline'' runs from

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. ** ''Thomas' Branch Line'' runs from Knapford to Ffarquhar. It is operated by Thomas's push-pull train and Daisy the diesel railcar. 8 trains a day are provided each way. ** ''Edward's Branch Line'' goes all the way to Brendam from Wellsworth. It links the china-clay works at Brendam to the mainline. It is run by Edward, who manages passenger traffic and possibly more locomotives. At peak hours there is an extended commuter service, during which trains run all the way to Tidmouth. ** ''The Little Western'', also known as Duck's Branch Line, runs along the coast 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 railway built at lower costs and to lower standards than typical "heavy rail": it uses lighter-weight track, and may have more steep gradients and tight curves to reduce civil engineering costs. These lighter standards all ...

, which means trains on it are limited to 25 mph. ** Four ''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, later

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four (British ra ...

and currently

Northern Trains Northern Trains, branded as Northern, (legally Northern Trains Limited) is a publicly owned train operating company in England. It is owned by DfT OLR Holdings for the Department for Transport (DfT), after the previous operator Arriva Rail N ...

. *** Kellsthorpe Road to Kirk Ronan * The Arlesdale Railway (also known as ''Small Railway''), a

15 inch gauge railway Fifteen-inch gauge railways were pioneered by Sir Arthur Percival Heywood who was interested in what he termed a minimum gauge railway for use as estate railways or to be easy to lay on, for instance, a battlefield. In 1874, he described the ...

, 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 Other Railway refers to the nationalised

ways company that ran the Railway System in the United Kingdom until 1997, and later simply the National Rail. * The Skarloey Railway, a narrow-gauge railway, runs from Crovan's Gate up to Skarloey.

On-screen portrayal

The Island of Sodor in the ''

'' television series differs significantly from that in the books. Wilbert and Christopher Awdry's notes have been largely overlooked. The television version of Sodor appears quite larger and has more industry. The connection to the British mainland was not acknowledged until the 2013 feature-length film special ''

King of the Railway ''Thomas & Friends: King of the Railway'' is a 2013 British computer-animated fantasy comedy adventure film and feature-length special of the British television series, ''Thomas & Friends''. The film is produced by HIT Entertainment and animated ...

'', which introduces "The Vicarstown Rolling Bridge", connecting Sodor to mainland Britain. In the 2000 film '' Thomas and the Magic Railroad'', the Island was portrayed vastly differently not only to the ''Railway Series'' but also to the television series. Sodor was a magical land that was supported by a magical railway line called "The Magic Railroad". Without the Magic Railroad, the island would vanish off the face of the

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's sur ...

. In the film, one could only travel to Sodor via The Magic Railroad or gold dust. This means the only way Diesel 10 and Splodge (Splatter and Dodge) could have arrived on Sodor is via boat.

Notes

References

External links

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