Wellsworth & Suddery Railway

The **Wellsworth & Suddery Railway (W&S)** was one of the three original standard gauge railway companies on the Ilse of Sodor from 1870 to 1915. It is the main setting of 'Rails Through Suddery'.

## History

The W&S was founded in 1870 after the mayor of Sodor requested a faster link from the capital of Sodor, Suddery, to the west of Sodor. The line was built from Suddery to Croshbyr (Sudric for Cross Farm) and began operations with locomotives and rolling stock borrowed from the Sodor & Mainland Railway (S&M). In February 1873, the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway (LB&SCR) loaned to the W&S Stroudley A class 0-6-0T No. 72 'Fenchurch' for trials to see if the W&S would have a design based upon the "Terriers". Instead, the W&S ordered five Terriers but because it was an LB&SCR design, Brighton wouldn't build any locomotive for another company, resulting in the two twinning in May 1873.

The first W&S As arrived at Brendam in August that year after being built a month before.

## Livery

For locomotives, the standard W&S livery is Maroon with Gold lining with convex curves and the company name 'WELLSWORTH & SUDDERY' written in gold on either the water tanks or the tender. Coupling rods were painted red with silver areas around the crank pins while roofs were painted white. All locomotives feature copper caps on the funnels if possible.

For coaches and parcels stock, the standard W&S livery is Maroon with Gold lining (much like the locomotives) but with the company's initials 'W&S' written in gold on the carriage doors. Wheels were painted brown with white tyres while roof were white.

For goods stock except brake vans, the standard W&S livery is plain grey with unpainted wheels and the company's initials 'W&S' painted in white. Brake vans were painted brown with red trims and the company's initials in gold.

## Locomotives

### Built for the W&S

1. Colin
2. Lily (bought second hand from L&SWR)
3. Adam (bought second hand from L&SWR)
4. Worthington
5. Emily (scrapped, 1894), later Mite (destroyed, 1915)
6. Oxford
7. Bert (scrapped, 1911), number was going to be taken by Thomas (ordered but delivered under NWR)
8. Rex
9. Mike
10. Sam
11. Andrew
12. Brian
13. Drake
14. Derek
15. Grace
16. Erica
17. George
18. Gwen
19. Ginny
20. Windcombe
21. Elizabeth
22. Lincoln
23. Jake
24. Eric
25. Erwin
26. Buxton
27. Burton
28. Irnest
29. Edmond
30. Goliath

## Stations

### Original

* Brendam Harbour
* Brendam
* Suddery
* Lower Suddery
* Wellsworth
* Crosby
* Maron

### Inherited from collapse of S&M

* Cronk
* Killdane
* Kellshorpe
* Rulf's Castle
* Kirk Ronan
* Crovan's Gate
* Great Waterton
* Vicarstown

## Trivia

In the book 'Sodor: Its People, History and Railways' written by the Rev. W. Awdry and his brother George Awdry in 1987, it claims that the Wellsworth & Suddery Railway only had four locomotives which were 0-6-0STs. The details of these four saddle tank engines remains unknown to this day. This number is never acknowledged in Rails Through Suddery in order to contend with the same book claiming that the North Western Railway (NWR) has 80 locomotives.

By the time of the foundation of the NWR in December 1915, the Wellsworth & Suddery Railway was the largest railway company on Sodor.

The Wellsworth & Suddery is nicknamed "Sodor's LB&SCR" due to its "Brigthonised" locomotives, rolling stock and station architecture. This came from the twinning of the W&S and LB&SCR in May 1873.

The section of the W&S from Wellsworth to Brendam is known today as the Brendam Branch, aka "Edward's Branch", while the remainder of the network forms the NWR mainline from Tidmouth to Vicarstown.