Modernisation

"*A museum!*
*What?*

*That's what this Island is! A Railway Museum! First an old tram, then a Black Five, and now a Caledonian! How this region remains operational with such archaic engines in service is nothing short of a miracle!*

*There's nothing miraculous about it, laddie.*"

— Murdoch and Donald, Modernisation.

**Modernisation** is the second episode of the fourth season of the Stories of Sodor and the fifty-second episode overall.

Modernisation/Transcript

## Plot

The Modernisation Plan was intended for the railways to be upgraded to 20th century standards, with plentiful money poured into it. However, it plainly updated the railways as they existed. It also failed to help BR defend against competition from the roads. The amount of road vehicles had grown dramatically in the post-war years and could provide better services to businesses than railways could. In the 1800s, the railways were designated as common carriers and were compelled to do any job whether it was economical or not. The roads had no restrictions and the railways lost a large amount of the small wagon load traffic throughout the fifties. The plan also shut down branch lines that were seen as unnecessary on a nationalised network, which included the former Main Line for the Elsbridge and Knapford Railway, the Loop Line, much to the resentment of Thomas, Edward and Toby.

One morning, a week after the Loop Line was closed, Whiff pants into Knapford Station, having been held up due of a points failure at Lower Knapford. Gordon then complains about the closure of the Loop, much to the annoyance of one of Whiff's coaches, Ilene, who hears Thomas and Toby whining about it as well. Gordon reminds her of the history the two and Edward have with the Line. Ilene supports the closure because the line had no depot or stations and that the workers were reassigned. Gordon then begins to think that the closure was a good idea, as he never used the Loop Line himself as it couldn't carry express or heavy goods trains. Presently, his guard blows his whistle and waves his green flag, and he departs for Barrow-in-Furness with his express.

Upon arriving at Barrow and shunting his coaches into a siding, a green austerity tank engine barks at Gordon for putting his coaches there. The rude tank engine introduces himself as Sheffield, the new station pilot for Barrow as the J94 was reassigned. Gordon remarks how rude Sheffield is and appalled by the poor condition of the yard. After Sheffield barks more orders at him, Gordon leaves in a temper without his coaches, telling Sheffield to pray that he never crosses swords with Diesel.

At Killdane, James arrives with a goods train and meets up with Samson, in a bad mood after his encounter with Sheffield. Samson says that he had met Sheffield before, alongside his brother, Glenn, at a coal mine on the mainland. He also remembers the two tank engines as polar opposites, personality-wise. He had heard from workmen that Sheffield used to be like Glenn, who never gave a clear answer when Samson asked him and has never tried asking Sheffield, which he regrets. He reminds himself to ask Sheffield the next time he's there. Samson remarks how happy the workers at the steel mill are to make the new rails for BR, though expresses concern of how he and the other engines are struggling to keep up with the heavy workload. James leaves his train at Samson's request and departs. He suddenly derails when going over a set of points. Samson is puzzled as the points were working fine that morning. And James wouldn't be the only one to be derailed by the new points. The new rails were used to overhaul vast sections of railway lines, and while this caused delays, the rails were smoother than ever to travel on once they were completed. While the tracks were being refurbished, new electronic points and signals were being installed, albeit at the cost of giving some signalmen the axe. The new system had issues such as wiring faults, causing the signals to malfunction and the poor censors jammed or misaligned the points. These growing pains were put to rest quickly, but not before Geoffrey got into a serious accident that would have him be in the works for at least a month.

At Knapford Yards, Henry and Toby discuss are Geoffrey is and about the new trucks that have been delivered and there are already tensions between them and old ones. Just then, a strong looking orange locomotive arrives with a train of new rolling stock. He introduces himself as Murdoch. He calls Toby an antique and laughs rudely at how the tram engine is still working and at how Henry claims to be a heavy goods engine. He boasts about him being the pinnacle of steam manufacturing and his record of pulling long trains. Henry tells Murdoch to talk to Donald to pick up his return goods train at the dockside. Murdoch leaves, and Henry fumes at how rude Murdoch is. Toby tells him that Murdoch is a 9F, the strongest in the country and begs Henry not to compete with him, reminding Henry about  when he tried to compete with Peter.

Murdoch makes his way over to the dockside. He meets up with Donald and rudely calls him a museum before the Caledonian can introduce himself. Donald tells the 9F that he has some more trucks to assemble for Murdoch's train. The 9F asks for other trains that are bound for Barrow and Donald gestures to another. He then realises that Murdoch wants to take both trains in one trip and warns him it will be a challenge getting the train up Gordon's Hill. He reminds Murdoch that he can't hand them over without the consent of the yardmaster and Control. After getting their consent, Murdoch gets the colossal train ready. He is furious with Control for assigning him a banker, ignoring Donald pointing out that it was a good decision. Murdoch wants to do his work without help, as he has taken longer trains before. He begrudgingly accepts the banker's help and departs. Upon arriving at Wellsworth, Reginald starts banking Murdoch up Gordon's Hill, but despite the 9F's best efforts, he stalls halfway up.

Presently, Henry arrives at Wellsworth and the stationmaster tells him of the situation. Without hesitation, Henry goes off to help. When he arrives, Reginald tells Henry the guard had gone up to talk to Murdoch and talks about his experience with the 9F. Meanwhile, the guard had walked up to Murdoch and threatens to have him spend the rest of his career as a banker on the Lickey Incline if he belittles the other engines again. Having heard Henry's voice echo from the bottom of the hill, the guard goes back down and reminds Murdoch that the signal to start is two whistles from Henry. Henry's driver thinks why Murdoch has to prove himself because he might not be working for as long as the other engines due to his class being built when BR said they would stop making steam locomotives. Henry decides to chat with Murdoch later on. Presently, the guard returns to the rear of the train. He reminds Henry about the signal. Henry buffers up to Reginald, the guard blows his whistle and waves his green flag, Henry blows his whistle twice, and the train starts up again. The three engines pull and push as hard as they can, and before long, Murdoch makes it to the top and coasts down the other side. Murdoch whistles goodbye and thank you to the two engines as they whistle goodbye and Murdoch continues on.

That evening, Henry meets up with Murdoch in the sheds at Barrow. Henry asks Murdoch if he is concerned about his future. Murdoch says he isn't, because if the diesels start going into service, they may not force him into retirement. Henry mentions that Murdoch's class is the last steam locomotive class built by BR and that Murdoch might be trying to prove he would be useful by taking the long train. Murdoch tells Henry that he is actually a prototype for the 9Fs, built in 1948. Murdoch thinks that they deliberately dawdled in building his class because they considered putting dieselisation before modernisation. Henry does see this as reasonable as BR did decide to end steam abruptly. Murdoch admits that the pride of him taking very heavy trains had gone to his smokebox. He apologises to Henry for his rudeness, and Henry told Murdoch the yardmaster told him that the number of trucks on Murdoch's train was forty-three, the longest goods train in the Region by a country mile.

The next morning, Sir Topham Hatt spoke severely to Murdoch. Murdoch returned to work and apologised to all the engines he insulted. His strength greatly helped in recovering several contracts lost to the roads. Sir Topham Hatt wanted to keep Murdoch, but BR had other arrangements. Once Geoffrey was mended and back in service, Murdoch departed for the Mainland and would have a long and fulfilling career. The planned electrification of signals had to be postponed because of manufacturing problems, but they would be gradually rolled out over the next few years. As for the new rolling stock from BR, the older non-faceless stock remained in service while the others were scrapped or preserved. While Edward admits he hadn't discussed the Dieselisation aspect of the Modernisation Plan, he plans on saving the topic for another time.

## Characters

* Henry
* Gordon
* James
* Toby
* Donald
* Diesel
* Reginald
* Whiff
* Samson
* Sheffield
* Murdoch
* Thomas *(does not speak)*
* Edward *(narration only; does not speak)*
* Adam *(does not speak)*
* Geoffrey *(does not speak)*
* Joshua *(does not speak)*
* The Fat Controller *(does not speak)*
* Percy *(cameo)*
* Eric *(cameo)*
* Samantha *(cameo)*
* Hurricane *(cameo)*
* Clive *(cameo)*
* Neil *(cameo)*
* Matthew *(cameo)*
* Mickey *(cameo)*
* Bertie *(cameo)*
* Caroline *(cameo)*
* Glenn *(cameo)*
* Molly *(cameo)*
* Winston *(cameo)*
* Neville *(cameo)*
* Alice *(cameo)*
* William *(cameo)*
* Spencer *(cameo)*
* Justin *cameo)*
* Barry *(cameo)*
* Charles *(cameo)*
* Wendell *(cameo)*
* Derek *(cameo)*
* Brian *(cameo)*
* Peter *(mentioned)*

## Trivia

* The Murdoch story is inspired by the Tenshine1 Productions' series "Sodor Chronicles" episode "Raising Standards".