Bridge over the Tay

**Bridge over the Tay** is a special episode of the The Series 1990s and focuses on the events of the 1879 Tay Bridge Disaster. It is one of a few episodes focused on a historical event instead of events on the Moorland Steam Railway and is told by visiting Scottish locomotive Maude.

## Plot

Following Maude's arrival to the Moorland Steam Railway that year, the others (except Capulet) had made the ex-North British locomotive feel welcome, especially fellow ex-ROD locomotive Will. Giant decided to ask Maude the question of why were there unused stumps next to the Tay Bridge since the Standard 4, which had worked on ex-NBR metals, has always wondered. Maude decided to tell them all about the Tay Bridge Disaster from the account of a "dead engine" who was there.

Maude began his story in the morning of December 28th 1879 when 8-year-old North British Railway 4-4-0 No. 224 had crossed the Tay Bridge and says "morning" to an old 2-2-4 tank engine called Angus, who was struggling up the slope from Dundee station to the bridge, grumbling up it. No. 224 wonders if the bridge was placed in the right spot since he nearly been derailed a few times crossing the bridge, but dismissed it as a false claim as the bridge was still brand new and left Dundee with his journey northwards.

That night, a 0-6-0 called Dugald (after his designer) was racing through wind and rain to get back on time after his guard stopped the train to catch a pheasant, making them now ten minutes behind schedule with the possibility of holding up Anges' southbound passenger train. Upon arrival at the bridge's southern signalbox and gaining the token, Dugald is nearly blown off the bridge by a violent blast of wind but safely reaches Dundee with his passenger train. Giving word to the station master to alert Anges to be cautious, he departs to continue his journey, hoping nothing would happen but feared the bridge wouldn't last the night.

A over half an hour later at the south box, No. 224 is given the token but isn't warned about the possibility of the bridge becoming dangerous. As he crosses it, the section he and his train is in swings to the left, in the Firth of Tay, only before No. 224 could inhale some air before the plunge. The next morning, several vessels race to search for survivors while Dugald, now stranded on the northern side of the bridge, assists in the rescue while a train arrived at the south box, only to see the destruction of the bridge. The two realise that no one has survived and believe that No. 224 had also perished.

In April 1880, an investigation was underway and the train has been located. As the believed dead No. 224 breaks the surface, a loud breath came out. No. 224 had survived nearly half a year underwater and became the disaster's only survivor. After a tricky recovery, and being dropped twice, No. 224 is brought back to dry land, and rails, where he is quickly teased by the younger Drummond engines. An engine named 'Carlise' decided to call him "The Diver" after his three dips into the Firth of Tay, which No. 224 later accepted as his name.

In 1919, over 40 years since the disaster, a 28-year-old Maude had returned from France after his service in WWI when he encounters an old 4-4-0 tandem compound, No. 1192, at a coaling tower. No. 1192, who is actually The Diver (now 48 years old), suddenly notices Maude and remarks that the engines are getting younger or he's just showing his age, which Maude responds, "You're not old, you're ancient." The two laugh it off and Maude, unaware of who he was talking to,

## Characters

### 1990s

* Maude
* Capulet
* Giant
* Leanne
* Hood

### 1879-1880

* "The Diver"
* Anges
* Dugald
* Dugald's guard (mentioned)
* Dundee station master
* Thomas Booch (mentioned)
* Carlisle (mentioned)
* Unnamed NBR locomotives (mentioned)
* Tay Bridge South signalman

## Locations

* Gladsville MPD
* Gladsville Harbour
* Dundee
* Tay Bridge
* Tay Bridge South signalbox
* Edinburgh (mentioned)
* St Margaret's Depot
* France (mentioned)

## Behind the scenes

Filming the 1879/1880 sequence was tricky since every building had to be made from scratch, with the original Tay Bridge being the largest set piece every built. Another difficulty was getting North British coaches from that era but due to they being little in amount of kits or r-t-r models for old NBR four-wheeled coaches at the time the episode was written, so standard 3D-printed four-wheelers were used instead of the actual coaches while six wheeled coaches made by Hornby was were with with Anges and Dugald for their scenes. Many of the models in that sequence were scratchbuilt and 3D-printed, with one notable exception of Dugald.

## Trivia

This episode marks the first for the following:

* First episode set completely around an actual historical event, instead of being based on a historical event.
* First episode set before 1900.
* First episode to not be related to the Moorland Steam Railway's development and history.
* First episode outside of Stories from the Wars were a locomotive is a narrator.

Henry's theme is reused for the scene with Maude and Capulet talking to each other at the end.

The episode is based on St Gloriana Gaming Collage's own video based on the same event, which oddly featured locomotives built well after the Tay Bridge Disaster (CR 812 and 123, GWR City class and LNER Peppercorn A2).

During production, Dugald's model was built from a Hornby J15 but heavily modified to the point it "resembled a Drummond C". His model is the few characters in the series to use a rebuilt model from a production release.

All of the Scottish characters speak with a strong Scot accent, which would make the audience get confused over their dialogue.

The Diver and Maude's joke over the previous' remark about age is based on a the title of a book named 'You're Not Old, You're Vintage' from 2014.

Maude references a film about the Tay Bridge Disaster where he starred as The Diver as an honour to now deceased engine. This was based on a film discovered by Shane Sowter while researching the Tay Bridge Disaster.

* According to the intro of the film, it was made in 2003 but the footage appears to be much older and shot before 2003.

## Goofs

The wrong design of four wheel coaches are seen.

Some of the coach roofs don't appear to sit correctly on the bodies, and the bodies don't appear to sit correctly on their chassis.

The coaches involved in the disaster are painted in a lighter shape of crimson known as "carmine".

Anges' design was never used by the North British Railway. This is because he's based of the North Eastern Railway (NER) 2-2-4T No. 66 'Aerolite' but with modifications to resemble a classic tank engine of the period.