The Coach of the Snows: A GSRA Story

*“Winter is coming”*
―Tagline

**The Coach of the Snows: A GSRA Story** is the winter special of Great Southwest Railway Adventures that was released on December 31th, 2020 to celebrate the 4th anniversary of the series. The special is a retold version of the first season episodes, Philipo Gets Spooked and The Coach of the Snows, plus other stories revealing the past of Owen the Railway Coach.

## Synopsis

Great Southwest Railway Adventures is back with a retold version of some of the stories of the series. Sakura set off to the mountains of Sodor to find the mysterious Coach of the Snows, a passenger coach that got lost many years ago. But she'll have to face some challenges in her way to find Owen, the Lost Coach. Trainloads of fun, adventure and friendship will be coming this year, with some new characters and returnees like Philipo and Denna, this special will be the greatest adventure yet!

## Plot

The special with Dany taking a goods train during a winter storm in the mountains of Sodor, then he saw a coach in the distance, he asked the coach what was he doing there and that the Coach of the Snows was coming soon, then Dany began to tell the legend of the Coach of the Snows, as the main credits start to show up.

The story goes to the Mainland, where Owen, a railway coach, is waking up his friend Dan, a blue tank engine. They set off to work on their branch line, when they returned to their shed-

## Characters

* Philipo
* Denna
* Dany
* Jordyn
* Sakura
* Owen
* Dan
* Sir Harry Northon
* Lenny

## Locations

* Sodor Mountains
* Barrow-in-Furness Shed
* Dan's Branch Line
* The Mountain Line
* Dorhnmilch
* Dorhnmilch Shed
* Neisserkast
* Jelsenburg Docks
* Owen's Forest
* Hawin Lake Viaduct
* The Washdown
* Reslond Sheds
* Reslond Goods Yard
* Hawin Lake Station
* Owen's Forest Windmill
* The Mountain Tunnel
* Owen's Hideout
* Sodor Works and Co.
* The Small Iron Bridge
* Dorhnmilch Village
* Reslond
* Japan *(indirectly mentioned)*
* Dany's Shed

## Cast

* MSR2003Productions as Philipo, Dany, Sir Harry Northon, Lenny and Other Human Characters
* Mariangel Castillo as Denna, Jordyn and Sakura
* Jonathan Asiamah as Owen and Dan
* Mason Hagen as the Troublesome Trucks
* Daniel the Blue Engine Studios as the Troublesome Trucks

## Production

### Renewed Set

Between March 31st and April 2nd, 2020, the GSRA set was renewed before the filming of The Coach of the Snows. The previous skyset used from 2016 to early 2020 (two pieces of blue cloth) were replaced with two walls painted light blue, and one hundred clouds were placed in the walls.

### Refurbishment for the models and props

Some of the models were refurbished and restored. A total of 17 props were restored/refurbished/constructed for the filming of TCOTS, 9 engines, 1 coach, 2 road vehicles and 5 snowploughs. The two new models made for the special are specified down below.

### Building Dan the Blue Tank Engine

During the production of TCOTS, some changes were made before the filming. Originally, there was a a silver Furness Railway (FR) Class J1 2-4-2T called Scarlett, but later she was dropped in favor of Dan because her model was a bit complicated to build. Around April 5th, 2020, Scarlett was dropped in favor of a different model. **M**any locomotives were considered but the perfect one was found. A friend of MSR2003Productions, Daniel the Blue Engine Studio**s** had his own **OC (Original Character)**, he was asked if the egines could be used in the special, he agreed, and the build of his model began.

### Building Sakura the Japanese Engine

Sometime around April 8th, 2020, a new model for Sakura was built. At first it was though of using her original model used in Season 1, but it wasn't in good conditions for filming. This gave more freedom to add to the model certain things that the original one didn't have.

## Trivia

* This special was made to celebrate the 4th anniversary of the franchise.
* This is also the first special to celebrate the franchise's anniversary.
* This special is based on the Japanese manga/story, Snow Goddess, by CLAMP. Some dialogues were directly taken from the stories of the manga, but changed for their usage in the special. It is also based on the Thomas & Friends episode, Haunted Henry and partially based on the special, Hero of the Rails.
* The events of the first season episodes Philipo Gets Spooked and The Coach of the Snows are featured and remade. The events are also shown in a different other than the Season 1 order, this was made so the whole GSRA Universe story could work and also for correcting some continuity errors seen on Season 1, like changing the order of the events.