The Fowler Tenders (A Railway Series and Thomas and Friends’ topic discussion)

Finally finished it! YESSSS! Here’s the discord for those interested: discord.gg/5SgqUwRV

I don't mind Edward and James having Fowler tenders, and I like your idea for Gordon and Henry's tenders

4:15Well, I guess that henry will be very cursed with a fowler tender. 5:12 But gordon with a stanier tender.... That IS lovely.

Thank god the tvs changed the desgin of Gordon's tender

In my alternate Sodor universe, the only engine who has a Fowler Tender (at least currently, I've only done up to the first 7, maybe 8, books) is Edward. He was given a Fowler tender after his exploit in 1965. While he was being rebuilt, he got the LMS Fowler tender (which taken from an already withdrawn LMS Fowler 4F) to replace his original one (in my head AU, Edward is a Furness 120/K1 class), which at this point was almost completely worn out. As for Henry, Gordon, and James: Henry is a pure Black 5 in my AU (so he keeps his Black 5 tender with the rest of his Black 5 components), Gordon was sent back to Doncaster to receive LNER A3 modifications at some point after January 1947 (so he got the LNER group standard 6-wheeled tender), and James (being a G&SWR 403 in my AU), keeps his original G&SWR tender. I may update this comment later on, but for now, this is where the tender engines currently stand in my AU.

they leave a fouler taste in my mouth

I’d say they’re custom built tenders or something, sort of as a mark of distinction from other railways (despite similar tenders existing)

In my headcanon during the time where Henry was at crew after his crash the LMS who ran the trains to the island thanks to the agreement the LMS sent a black five tender to the island and it would be used for Gordon…

I like to think Edward and James were given fowlers for longer trips and to stop less frequently on the mainline. Gordon and Henry already got larger tenders so they didn’t need fowlers, and when Donald and Douglas joined the railway, BR didn’t have many fowlers as for spares due to them being mostly used as storage or being scrapped

In the books and show Gordon's Fowler/maunsell styled tender is comparably bigger in size that Edward or James' tender

Wasn’t thinking about the other big tender engines in the show with larger tenders (Murdoch Neville Hank and Hiro) but I guess later on Sir Topham Hatt would be like “eh screw it they can keep their tenders and I don’t wanna bother with getting replacements as it’s too time consuming and they’re already there” and he wouldn’t need to replace every tender type while with Spencer Connor and Caitlin as they’re already on the Mainland and not NWR-owned this wouldn’t apply to them and it’s much bigger there anyways.

In my AU, Sodor is jointly owned by the LMS (not that different from the S&DJR). Tenders, therefore, were commissioned by the LMS, and the Sudrian region of LMS were presented with Fowler tenders. Sodor was a small island and most tender engines on the line at this point were mostly 0-6-0s, such as 4Fs. Later on though these tenders were fazed out by Stanier tenders and later some BR tenders. Also yes this means that in my headcanon, Sodor is under BR and is victim to the modernisation plan. Only a lucky handful of engines were saved for preservation.

I've found not only does the physical size for a tender such as the fowler and Maunsell tenders play a role, but also the height and width of the footplate for such tenders can make it fit, look dinky, or in some instances with little 2-6-0, 4-4-0, and 0-6-0's with low footplates, make the engine look as though it's got a turtle shell on its back. Hence why when I make head canons for my fictional lines in Trainz, I set it up so that when it comes time to set a standard tender, I pick out 2 or 3 I like with the same footplate height and capacity etc and put it behind the locos with that footplate height. if that particular tender fits all the locos, I test it with, it goes through to the next round, so on and so forth until I find a tender that suits these engines as standard. After which I'd go and reskin that tender or loco accordingly to suit the livery I'm after. E.g. Running a M&SWJR 2-6-0 with a GER Holden 2640-gallon tender, or a Gresley D49 with the tender off a Highland Clan class.

I like to think in my head cannon that they keep their original tenders, let’s say Gordon had the tender or tenders used on the a1 form of great northern and other A1s and A3s, the only change I would make is that Edward would have a maunsell tender

The reason why we later see tender engines with big tenders is because they are visitors.

My takes on edward, henry, gordon, james, Donald/Douglas' tenders Edward: LMS Fowler tender- he got it after Rescuing james his old one was scrapped Henry- LMS 4000 Stanier tender- he got it after his final rebuild by Stanier Gordon- LNER Peperccon tender- he got it after his Peperccon rebuild James- SR Maunsell tender- he got after the war (the second one) Donald/Douglas- CR tender- they got it when they were built

My idea of the fowler tender is that their simply backup tenders. Lemme explain... The fowler tenders are a back up for in a tender engine is damaged or involved in a accident where the tender engine is lightly damage but the tender engine is heavily damage, this is why sir topham hatt brought a few spare fowler tenders from the scrapyard during the early days of dieselization. This is where the 6 "lovely" tenders originally came from and why they look run down, they weren't in use yet and in my head cannon series three of the fowler tenders are painted and have 2, 9, and 10 which are made for edward, donald, and Douglas if they ever have a accident, donald would even receive one in my rough adaption of twin troubles after his accident at the start of the episode In a way it's like a wheelchair, a cast, or a prosthetic arm for engines and it's even more truer to the point sense the engines in question using them are given lighter work (in the early days) either from the fowler tender or it was because of the tender engine accident after math. For a time the tender engines would say it was like wearing a cast, they couldn't do as much work in the early days because how the tenders were pretty much patched together and not properly maintain due to sodor adapting to mordenization and the now rising expense to repair engines let alone a single tender out of the tons sir topham hatt brought A engine couldn't do as much work and the time they need a tender one or maybe at rare times two of them were being worked on or finished but in use so they had to use one of the spare tenders from the yard itself... "Oh man it itches!" One would say "it's very clunky and cumbersome" said another "I rather wait on the sidelines then go another inch with this tender!" He would continued Some ghost stories would be spread on the tenders being haunted as a nodding reference the creepy fan story "six lovely tenders" but its not true only a silly story made to scare the daylights out of people and engines Over the years and some decades and the more money sir topham hatt gain he managed to earn enough money to repair the tenders at a much faster rate things to a collab with the sodor ironworks, now the tenders were fully restored and no engine would complain about them and they could do any work they would do without much issue or complaint... well not much anyway~ "This tender looks so dinky on me...?!" Said Murdock

8:23 The NWR is pretty accident prone, if the tender Gordon came with got damaged, it would be a bit harder to repair, my guess is that they created their own tenders in the Fowler tender style, (since both Edward and James both had Fowler tenders) this would probably fix the issue with the tenders being too short. Henry’s tender could have been an experiment, its result were mostly positive, but the NWR never got around to change every single tender engines’ tender When all those newer, bigger engine came along, the North Western probably had a lot more money, which is why they never bothered to change the tenders from then on out, that would explain why Henry’s tender still hasn’t changed much even after the newer engines came to Sodor.

Honestly James and Edward have Maunsell tenders, Gordon has the 4000 gallon tender and Henry has a normal black 5 tender

in my au, Edward is a Lner d40 and does have a Fowler tender, but only after Old Iron happens. And James also has a Fowler tender after being repaired after his first day crash. But in my au, Henry and Gordon both have Stanier Tenders, Henry has one cuz of his rebuild, and Gordon has one cuz of him getting his Stanier cylinders and motion, and he needed a new tender instead of the old Gnr one, so he got a Stanier tender.