Knapford

**Knapford** is a small town on the River Els estuary, south of Tidmouth, of which it is a dormitory. Knapford serves as the junction for the Ffarquhar Branch Line; Knapford is home to the main station on Sodor in the TV Series.

## History

For centuries the area below Elsbridge had been flooded both at high tide and when the river was in spate. At other times it looked innocent enough to tempt unwary invaders to choose this route inland. All without exception found themselves engulfed in bog.

During the 1880s, the Ulfstead Mining Company became interested in the minerals (lead mostly) waiting to be found on the higher ground east of the marsh; but without a firm footing they could not be either extracted or transported away. Accordingly they called in A. W. Dry & Co who had experience of working on drainage problems in East Anglia. A. W. Dry built embankments across the flats north and south of the river (along which the main line of the railway now runs) and installed tide gates. The river was then embanked along its south eastern side, but the opposite bank was left open to provide a flood-pool for the normal river flow which could be drained off every day at low tide. It thus remained a marsh where the Elsbridge fenmen could carry on their activities as before and since this, fortunately, was the side of the river they preferred, they offered little opposition to A. W. Dry's drainage operations on the east.

The present station at Knapford Station is the third on the site and dates from 1956 when Sir Charles Topham Hatt disturbed by the congestion at Tidmouth, launched his Knapford Harbour Development Scheme. There are now two stations at Knapford - Junction and Harbour. Knapford Station has been useful as a supplementary harbour, but its exposed position has not enabled it to provide the best answer to Sir Topham Hatt's problem. That was why in 1966 he went north to see what could be done at Arlesburgh.

The town of Knapford itself, though an important railway junction, is in a bleak position. It is a railway and dock town. Few people live here apart from railwaymen, dock workers and drainage engineers. It had a population of 2,200 in 1951. Farming, fishing and fowling also form part of the local economy.

Knapford Station is the "Big Station" in the television series. It has a large canopy. The station has six tracks total, four being through tracks and two being terminal tracks. Knapford has a refreshment kiosk, the Engine Drivers locker room, MC BUNN, Sir Topham Hatt's Office and a bookstall. At one point, the bookstall was temporarily replaced by a toy shop. In Tale of the Brave, the station is given a new track layout and signal gantries were added above the lines, and in The Adventure Begins, a yard was added next to the station.

In P.A. Problems, Sir Topham Hatt decided to upgrade the public announcement system with a new one called the TX-1000, but this caused problems as the sound quality was bad. He decided to switch it back afterwards.

Knapford High Street is located here. A bus leaves from the front of Knapford Station to there every ten minutes.

Thomas was the original station pilot (Edward in The Adventure Begins), but he left upon gaining his branch line. Sometime after Percy was bought, he became the station pilot, but when he left for Thomas' branch line, he was replaced by Duck, who eventually left upon gaining his own branch line. Starting with the nineteenth series, Philip has been the station pilot.

Occasionally, the engines from The Little Western stops here, sometimes, Ryan and Daisy from the Harwick Branch Line takes passengers from here. Once, The Fat Controller says that Daisy was going to have routes from Harwick to here.