Talk:Fictional locations in Thomas and Friends

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This page has been flagged as being within the scope of WikiProject Thomas. WikiProject Thomas aims to develop and expand Wikipedia's content relating to the TV Series Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends, as well as the original book series The Railway Series.

Planning and discussion for this project can be found on the Project page. Wikipedians are quite welcome to join us in improving the quality of this article, and others.

Contents

[edit] Proposed Merge

[edit] General Notes

Re: Merge...Please see the work of Wikipedia:WikiProject Thomas for the reasons for the split of the main articles into separate ones for The Railway Series and Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends. It was decided that certain locations would keep their own pages, namely Ffarquhar, Tidmouth and Island of Sodor. The other pages, in which the information has now been removed to Fictional Locations (The Railway Series) and Fictional Locations (Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends), leaving effective re-direct links, should perhaps be considered for deletion.

Please look at the work of the WikiProject before deciding to alter some of the extensive work they have been doing. Mdcollins1984 10:51, 8 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Pages Under Discussion

[edit] Ffarquhar

Could be merged to Books page. TV Series page would have single sentence description and Main Article link to Books page entry (as location is not significant in TV Series).
EdJogg 14:41, 13 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Vickerstown#Vicarstown

This article is fine as it is. The page section links the fictitious location with the real equivalent and provides appropriate redirection links.
If location does not appear in TV Series, section (and links) should be removed as redundant.
EdJogg 14:41, 13 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Arlesburgh

Already redirected to Books page.
TV Series entry should be deleted or simplified
EdJogg 14:41, 13 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Arlesdale

Already redirected to Books page.
Has a noted difference from Books description, so could re-instate pre-redirect page.
EdJogg 14:41, 13 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Ballahoo

Already redirected to Books page. EdJogg 14:41, 13 October 2006 (UTC)
TV Series entry should be deleted or simplified
EdJogg 14:41, 13 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Brendam

Already redirected to Books page.
Has several difference between Books and TV, so could re-instate pre-redirect page.
EdJogg 14:41, 13 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Dryaw

[edit] Elsbridge

[edit] Gordon's Hill

[edit] Knapford

[edit] Wellsworth

Several locations (eg Dryaw, Elsbridge, Gordon's Hill, Knapford,Wellsworth) exist, differently, in both books and TV Series, and the pages provide an appropriate means of redirecting to whichever description is more appropriate. Therefore 'Proposed Merge' is not really an appropriate action - the only action open is deleting the pages or deciding to redirect them all to the Books descriptions. (The TV locations are less clear-cut and fewer in number.)
However, I see no great problem in leaving them as they are.
Regardless of other activity, the TV locations could be greatly simplified, with the reference in the Books page providing the majority of the textual detail, and the TV Series page just highlighting the TV Series aspects.
EdJogg 14:41, 13 October 2006 (UTC)


[edit] Knapford

This was cut from Knapford (the disambig page). I think it contains conflicting information from what is on this page. Does someone want to check/delete it, as I cannot verify the information

Knapford is the largest station of all on Sodor. It has 8 running lines; 7 platforms and 1 freight (this line is where Henry the green engine gets a can of white paint dropped on him. Knapford also is a stop for Thomas' train and the starting point for the express. Knapford also has the Roundhouse, extensive freight yards and coach sidings. the Breakdown train also rests here. The double track line, where Duck was seen followed by Diesel, is the main line going west/north after Knapford. In the shot, the roundhouse is seen to the right, as well as coaches.

Mdcollins1984 12:41, 6 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Places in the TV Series

Having only really watched the first two seasons of the TV series I probably can't really comment but is Vicarstown mentioned in it plus do the Arlesdale and Culdee Fell railways deserve sections on here as they have never been "televised".

Also it seems to be that a lot of the information is duplicated on the Fictional Locations in the Railway Series article. Penrithguy 22:22, 29 September 2006 (UTC)

It does rather look like this article is little more than a copy of the Railway Series equivalent (which has been expanded considerably since). It would seem that it needs rationalising, to remove non-TV information, and revising, to more accurately reflect the locations as portrayed on TV. (I am not able to do the latter, either :o)).
A certain amount of duplication is inevitable - there is the same problem for some of the characters (eg the various diesels) who only appeared in the televised version of the original book stories. -- EdJogg 23:49, 29 September 2006 (UTC)
Prompted by 'Section for rework' (see below) I have taken a hatchet to the article. The maps and the section about the railway lines, all of which is only relevant to the books, have been removed. The article lede has been re-written to better reflect the true situation, and it should be fairly clear that the two 'Fictional locations' articles are now very different.
We still need a reliable source to provide definitive information though. How much of the location-specific information is actually correct?
EdJogg 09:47, 11 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Scrap Yards - work required

The section on the Scrapyards needs some serious copy-editing, however, I am not certain how valid it is including the section at all. Needs some input from someone with TV series knowledge. EdJogg 23:52, 29 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Section removed for re-work

The following section was added to the article today by a well-meaning fan. I must say that I sympathise with the sentiments, but it breaks a whole raft of WP style and content rules, so at the very least needs a major re-working, and a suitable reference would not go amiss either.

This is again highlighting the desperate need for this article to contain some definitive information about the TV series locations. They are different from the books, and the sections need to be re-reviewed for content. Also, there is probably a case for removing the two maps from the top of the page since they are not actually relevant.

[edit] Island Railway Plan

The Plan shown above is in fact the map of the island for the books, and although the first few seasons of the program were closely based on the books, the locations of the stations and lines contradict themselves in almost every episode. For instance, in the fourth episode "Edward, gordon and henry" the station of wellsworth is shown to be at the end of the line. Yet edward the blue engines branchline to Suddery and Brendam origanates from Wellsworth, which is proved by "The Dieaseal" when travelling from [Brendam] to Tidmouth, Bill and Ben pass through here, well also In "Wrong Road" The Night train down to Brendam starts from Knapford, but why does it not start at Wellsworth. Also If Wellsworth is at the end of the line it should be much bigger, and the express should not pass through there.
Another example of the self contradiction is that the in season ten, The Kirk ronan station seems to have disappeared, being replaced with the transfer yard. The yard Is Equipped with at least ten sidings, but strangly, no shed and a turntable, which is very odd for a narrow gauge line. It is also weird that the narrow gauge line now has two tracks. A narrow gauge line in real life would never have two tracks, as the reason the gauge is narrow is to get through rocky terrain. If there was enough room for two narrow gauge tracks, they would have laid one standard gauge track.
The Narrow Gauge railway, in recent years, has been expanded down to the Brendam docks. As well as contradicting all the maps, this is grossly against any rail practice in any country, as a wise company would not extend a double track narrow gauge line down to a port 50 miles away from the nearest peice of already laid track, to a port that is already extensivley serviced by the standard gauge.
One thing that does not help recognising where things are is constantly building new stations that have no names to replace all the old familar ones like Wellsworth, Maron and Ffarquar.
Also, the lines have gradually faded out over the years, so there is no main line or branch line anymore, there is just the line.
Many Fans Consider That All of these things that have happenned in the recent years are just a single part of the transformation from The Reverand Awdry's Railway series, historically accurate, with prototype practice, into another average pre-schoolers show.

(Section moved from article by EdJogg 08:57, 11 April 2007 (UTC))