Well, as I mentioned yesterday, my next Thomas themed infobox will be about Mr. Steamroller Wheels himself. Give it up for
Sir Handel (formerly known as
Falcon)
This article is about the Skarloey Railway locomotive. For the owners of the Skarloey Railway, see
Sir Handel Brown I and
Sir Handel Brown II
Sir Handel, named after the Skarloey Railway's first owner, Sir Handel Brown I - originally named
Falcon, after the works where he was built - is a narrow gauge saddle tank engine. He formally worked on the former Mid Sodor Railway and the Peel Godred Aluminum Works and now currently works on the Skarloey Railway.
Bio
Sir Handel (then named Falcon) was built at Falcon Works in Loughborough, England in 1904 for the Mid Sodor Railway as an 0-4-0ST, which caused him to bounce. He was delivered by sea to Arlesburgh to replace the original #2 locomotive Smudger
[1] [2], who had been turned into a generator shortly before his arrival. Shortly afterwards, Falcon had to learn the line by double-heading with MSR #1 Duke. While on The Mountain Road, they exited the tunnel and Falcon derailed over a cliff. It was Duke's willingness and quick thinking that saved him from rolling down the mountain
[3]. Despite his gratitude, he occasionally made fun of Duke until he and MSR #4 Stuart were told about what happened to the Mid Sodor Railway's second #2 Stanley
[4].
Falcon would return to Loughborough in 1910 to have trailing wheels fitted as a cure for his unsteadiness in running, turning Falcon into a 0-4-2. By 1936, he Stuart and Duke were the only three remaining engines on the railway after three other locomotives were sold off to keep the company's head above water
[5]. All three engines would continue working the railway for 11 years until the railway closed down in 1947
[6], Falcon and Stuart were sold to the Sodor Aluminium Company at Peel Godred for an expansion project while Duke was stored in a shed for 22 years. Following the project's completion in 1951, Falcon and Stuart were oiled, greased and were placed under tarpaulins ready for disposal and stood for a year in the Company's yard. In 1952, they were purchased for the knockdown price of £50 (£25 each) (equivalent to £791 in present-day terms)
[7] by Sir Handel Lloyd Brown for service on the Skarloey Railway, overhauled at Crovan's Gate Works and renamed to Sir Handel and Peter Sam respectively
[8]. As a result of SKR #2 Rheneas being sent off for overhaul and with Skarloey doing the same shortly after their arrivals, Sir Handel and Peter Sam would be the only two engines (other than the Skarloey Railway's short lived original #5 The Weedwacker
[9], who only saw about two years of service before being withdrawn, dismantled and turned into a flatbed) to manage the Skarloey Railway for six years between 1952 and until SKR #5 Rusty's arrival in 1958
[10].
Sir Handel was not very well-behaved when he first came to the Skarloey Railway, as shown when he insulted the coaches by calling them "cattle trucks"
[11], which resulted in them holding him back on a hill and bumping him off the rails when he had to stop for some sheep that strayed on the line. He derailed himself on purpose when his driver planned for him to fetch trucks from the quarry. This led the Controller of the Railway Mr. Peter Sam to discipline him by leaving him in the shed until he was ready to behave. In 1958, he also pretended to be ill to avoid going to the quarry, as advised by NWR #4 Gordon, which only led to Peter Sam to have an accident with trucks at the Skarloey Slate Quarry incline after they mistook him for Sir Handel, which damaged his funnel and boiler
[12]. Sir Handel also played ill to avoid getting televised by the BBC television producers, but Mr. Peter Sam arranged for him to be taken apart instead in order to show the producers how an engine works
[13].
Sir Handel did not cope well with the worn track on the railway
[14] and would often derail - sometimes deliberately
[15], so he was given a pair of special wheels with broad tyres to cure this problem, dubbed "steamroller wheels" by the other engines
[16]. SKR #1 Skarloey later had Sir Handel meet his match with a bad-tempered steamroller named George to teach him some sense, which resulted in him having an accident when George rammed his front roller into his train
[17]. Despite this, Sir Handel still took the belief that he sent George packing, but he stopped talking about it after some children heard about his situation with George and teased him about it.
In 1969, both he and Peter Sam were happily reunited with Duke for the first time in 22 years after he was rediscovered
[18].
In 1982, Sir Handel visited the Talyllyn Railway to help tide over a locomotive crisis while one of its locomotives was being repaired
[19][20]. Sir Handel had plenty of adventures there, such as pulling a wedding train and having to wear an eye-patch after colliding with a tree and hurting his eye at Nant Gwernol. He spent two years in Wales before returning to Sodor in 1984 to take his share of the summer traffic.
When Peter Sam was brought back from the Talyllyn Railway early during a visit in 1996, Sir Handel became jealous and as a protest, deliberately knocked out his firebars. He was sent to the shed and began to fear that he would never come out after weeks went by and no one came to see him. When Mr. Roger Sam came in one day Sir Handel confessed, asked for a second chance and got his firebars later that day (although no one bothered to tell him that they had only just arrived). Shortly afterwards, Sir Handel would attend the naming ceremony of SKR #7 Ivo Hugh
[21].
As of 2020, Sir Handel is still working on the Skarloey Railway, often taking passengers to tourist points on the line and working at the Slate Quarries.
Photos
Sir Handel at the main Skarloey Railway engine sheds at Crovan's Gate in 1958 shortly after Peter Sam's accident at the former Skarloey Slate Quarry.
A picture of all the Skarloey Railway steam locomotives taken in 1970. From left to right and front to back: SKR #6 Duncan, SKR #1 Skarloey, SKR #3 and former MSR #3 Sir Handel, SKR#4 and former MSR #4 Peter Sam, SKR#8 and former MSR #1 Duke and SKR #2 Rheneas.
A photo of all the engines of the Skarloey Railway fleet taken in 1970. From left to right and back to front, SKR #5 Rusty, SKR#1 Skarloey, SKR#3 and former MSR #3 Sir Handel, SKR #2 Rheneas, SKR#6 Duncan, SKR#4 and former MSR #4 Peter Sam and SKR#8 and former MSR #1 Duke.
A photo of Sir Handel taken at an inconvenient time. Dates unknown.
Notes
[1]: Thomas & Friends Season/Series 4 Episode 1 Granpuff, Neither Sir Handel/Falcon or Peter Sam/Stuart know anything about Smudger until Duke tells them about him, meaning that Smudger was turned into a generator before either of them arrived on the Mid Sodor Railway.
[2]: Smudger replaces Stanley (who was only referred to simply as "#2") from
The Railway Series Book 25: Duke the Lost Engine (1970). My continuity plans on having both Stanley and Smudger exist.
[3]:The Railway Series Book 25: Duke the Lost Engine Story 2:Bulldog (1970) and Thomas & Friends Season/Series 4 Episode 3 Bulldog (1995), Falcon derails on The Mountain Road just outside the tunnel. After being filled up with more water, Duke is able to pull him back onto the rails.
[4]: I disguised about Stanley and Smudger in Source #2. However, unlike in the Railway Series, Falcon and Stuart know about Stanley beforehand, they just don't know what eventually happened to him later on until Duke tells them that he got turned into a pumping engine.
[5]: According to
The Island of Sodor: Its People, History and Railways (1987), there were six locomotives working on the Mid Sodor Railway in 1936 (Duke, Falcon, Stuart, Albert, Jim and Tim). However, it mentions that Albert, Jim and Tim were sold off to prevent the railway from going bankrupt.
[6]:The Railway Series Book 25: Duke the Lost Engine Story 1: Granpuff (1970) and Thomas & Friends Season/Series 4 Episode 1 Granpuff (1995), The Mid Sodor Railway is shown closing down with Falcon and Stuart being bought and Duke being put under a tarp and put into his shed.
[7]: £50 (in 1947 British money) for two narrow gauge steam locomotives seems like a pretty good deal to me!
[8]: The Railway Series Book 10: Four Little Engines (1955) and Thomas & Friends Season/Series 4 Episode 6 A Bad Day For Sir Handel (1995), Sir Handel and Peter Sam are shown arriving on the Skarloey Railway.
[9]: The Weedwacker is an original creation of mine, serving as the Skarloey Railway's original #5 for a two year period. He/it was based on the Talyllyn Railway's original #5 "
The
Lawnmower", which was built in 1952 using a Ford Model T engine and transmission from L.T.C Rolt's narrowboat and the wheels from a Talyllyn Railway slate wagon. It worked the Fridays-only winter passenger service until 1953, when it was taken out of use with a failed gearbox. It was dismantled in 1954 and converted to a flat wagon. The Weedwackers follows a similar history.
[10]: Between Rheneas and Skarloey heading off for their overhauls in 1952 (
The Railway Series Book 10: Four Little Engines (1955) ) and Rusty arriving on the railway in 1958 shortly before Skarloey came back (
The Railway Series Book 14: The Little Old Engine (1959)), Sir Handel and Peter Sam were likely the only engines to work on the line for that six year period.
[11]: Sir Handel calls the coaches "cattle trucks/cars" in
The Railway Series Book 10: Four Little Engines Story 2: Sir Handel (1955) and its TV series adaption
Thomas & Friends Season/Series 4 Episode 6 A Bad Day For Sir Handel (1995). In the same story/episode, the coaches get their vengeance on him by holding back on a hill. The Thin Controller(Sir Topham Hatt in the TV Series) scolds Sir Handel, and he behaves until he is sent to work at the quarry one day. He later purposely derails himself, and when he is put back on the rails, he is sent to the shed in disgrace.
[12]: In
The Railway Series Book 14: The Little Old Engine Story 1: Trucks! (1959) and its TV series adaption
Thomas & Friends Season/Series 4 Episode 8 Trucks/Rusty Helps Peter Sam (1995), Sir Handel pretends to be ill after Gordon talk him into it. This later leads to Peter Sam's accident as mentioned above.
[13]: The Railway Series Book 14: The Little Old Engine Story 4: Little Old Twins (1959), Sir Handel tries to play ill again, but this results in the Thin Controller simply asking his crew to take him apart to show the producers how an engine works.
[14]: A decent portion of the track on the Skarloey Railway prior to Rusty coming to the railway to help out with railway maintenance and odd jobs was in poor condition. The railway didn't have the funds to fix the tracks at the time. Try running a railway on a shoestring budget!
[15]: I already mention in source 11 how Sir Handel derailed himself twice.
[16]: In
The Railway Series Book 17: Gallant Old Engine Story 2: Steam Roller (1962) and
Thomas & Friends Season/Series 4 Episode 12 Steam Roller (1995), with Sir Handel often slipping between the rails, he is given new wheels with broad tyres. The engines make fun of them and called them "steamroller wheels", much to his annoyance.
[17]: Ibid: Sir Handel's crash with George happens later in the story/episode.
[18]: Sir Handel and Peter Sam are reunited with Duke in
The Railway Series Book 25: Duke the Lost Engine Story 4: Sleeping Beauty (1970) and in
Thomas & Friends Season/Series 4 Episode 2 Sleeping Beauty (1995).
[19]: The Railway Series Book 29: Great Little Engines (1985), Sir Handel leaves for the Talyllyn Railway in Wales in the second story of the book
Peter Sam and the Prickly Problem after the restoration of Duke is complete in 1982 (in the first story
Patience is a Virtue, it mentions that Sir Handel can't head off for Wales until Duke restoration is complete, which it is shortly afterwards). In the fourth story
Sir Handel Comes Home, Sir Handel comes back to Sodor in Summer 1984 and tells the other Skarloey Railway engines about his adventures on the Talyllyn Railway, including how some members of the British Royal Family came to visit during his stay, pull a party train of wedding guests, and getting an eye-patch in Nant Gwernol after hitting a fallen tree hit on the tracks.
[20]: According to
The Railway Series Book 29: Great Little Engines (1985), Sir Handel was sent to the Talyllyn Railway because Talyllyn was feeling ill, however according to
The Island of Sodor: Its People, History and Railways (1987), as well as promotional material for the real event, he was sent because his sibling locomotive Sir Haydn needed repairs.
[21]: The Railway Series Book 40: New Little Engine (1996), Sir Handel deliberately knocks out his firebars in the second story
Sir Handel's Plan. In the fourth story
I Name This Engine..., Sir Handel attends Ivo Hugh's naming ceremony with the other Skaroley Railway engines.
Thomas infoboxes:
North Western Railway
NWR #1 Thomas
Skarloey Railway
SKR #1 Skarloey
SKR #2 Rheneas
SKR #3/Former MSR #3 Sir Handel (formerly Falcon) (you are here)
Other things
Fletcher, Jennings and Co.
