Thomas and the Great War

Epilogue

World War II ended with the surrender of Japan to the United States military on September 2, 1945. Another victory for the Allies. Four months earlier, as the Soviet Army closed in on the German capitol of Berlin, waiting to organize a plan of attack, a broken-hearted Adolf Hitler gave his last wishes to his comrades, locked himself in his private suite with his wife...and shot himself. Several of his followers were tried and convicted at Nuremberg for their crimes against humanity and by the time Thomas had heard of these events, he was back on the Island of Sodor. The other engines were curious about his journey and the sights of the mainland, especially Gordon who wanted to see London again, but it would not be until sometime after the railways in Britain were nationalised when he got his chance to pull a special train to King Cross (now known as St. Pancras).

With no more wars or revolutions to derail them, the rest of Europe and America enjoyed a prosperous peace, but while things went back to normal for the main and branch line engines, being restored to their original colours and what-not, things were bittersweet for the other Sudrian railways.

In 1947, the Mid-Sodor Railway went bankrupt and Stuart and Falcon went away while Duke was left alone in his shed for being too old to do the modern workload. Unaware that His Grace had died in Africa not long after Thomas' return, he went to sleep and the winter torrents covered the shed in thick trees and bushes. Stuart and Falcon came to the Skarloey Railway, where they were renamed Sir Handel and Peter Sam as their own way of starting a new life, but it would be a long time before either one of them would ever see Duke again.

A long time afterwards, Culdee went back to his birthplace, the Swiss Locomotive and Machine Works in Winterthur, Switzerland for an overhaul and when he came back to Sodor in 1964, he was surprised to see the arrival of three new engines, Lord Harry, Alaric and Eric doing his own work as well as their own, though Lord Harry had proved to be a very difficult case with his coach after he came off the rails at Summit. In fact, Lord Harry had been given a chance to redeem himself when he carried a trainload of injured hikers through Devil's Back in a gale.

But can you guess what happened to Christopher and Wilbert? That's right, they lived happily ever after in a world at peace. Margaret was happy to see them again, and they told her all about their memories of Sodor in a book they had written for Christopher's school. After the war, Wilbert became a reverend at St. Paul's Cathedral to specialise in religious services so that the thought of leaving home would never be an issue for his family again.

Margaret had two more children by 1946; Veronica and Hilary, sisters to Christopher, and her and Wilbert's very own daughters. They went on to become teachers at Whitehall and Oxford before they made the rest of their earnings at Neville Chamberlain's alma mater, Rugby School.

As for Christopher, he graduated from secondary school and went on to attend a college in Wisbech, to study in becoming a locomotive driver when he was eighteen. During his time off, he would walk to a nearby fence that separated the field from an old railway where he saw a tram engine puffing down the line and clanging it's bell with glee.

The tram engine's name was Toby, he was short and sturdy, had cowcatchers and sideplates and didn't look like a steam engine at all. He had a coach named Henrietta who had seen better days. "It's not fair," she would grumble, remembering that she used to be full of passengers and nine trucks would rattle behind her. She was attached to Toby and he always took her wherever he went.

On this particular day, Christopher saw Toby pulling three trucks full of hay and minerals from behind Henrietta as he came to watch the train pass on his daily route to school. When Toby noticed Christopher and rang his bell at him, Christopher could tell that Toby was kind to everyone he met and it reminded him of the engines on Sodor. Taking a chance, he went to the station platform where people came to look at Toby.