The Valley Railway Series
A Forward by the Author
To this day, I still can't believe how one minor character could influence all of the stories I've written up until this point. It's also amazing how such a simple concept for books and a television show – talking trains – could be so praised and loved that it's survived for nearly 65 years! Thomas and Friends never fails to inspire awe and wonder in children, and I sincerely hope it never ends.
As a young child, I too was pulled into the infinite world of talking steam engines on the Island of Sodor. But one particular episode – "Granpuff", the first episode of the fourth season – really sparked my inspiration to write. In the episode there was mention of a little green tank engine named Smudger, a reckless showoff who rode roughly and often derailed. A hazard to the other engines, his Manager eventually locked him away in the back of the shed as a generator.
This would've been fine, but then the railway closes, and as time passes, everything is covered in overgrowth. I saw Duke rescued and brought to the Skarloey Railway, where Sir Handel and Peter Sam welcomed him warmly and they lived happily together again. But the whole time I was thinking "but what happened to Smudger?" His descriptions on the web site and toys always finished with the generator story; not once do they mention what happened to him after the line was closed.
This seemingly gaping hole in the series prompted me to try to "save" Smudger. I began to write stories about him being rescued and brought to another railway far away, where he could live happily and peacefully. My fixation with Japanese culture at the time made me place the stories on an island just off the coast of Japan. Virtually no research was put in as to what Japanese engines were like or how the railways worked; I just picked out a few prototypes that I thought were cool and threw them into the story.
This eventually formed itself into "Whatever Happened to Smudger?", which ran from October 10th, 2005 to February 3, 2006. I was amazed with how much positive feedback it received, so I decided to continue it with another series, "Tales from Hasegawa Valley". But from there came the downfall of the stories; I was too wound up with my own personal life and education to continue it.
Several years passed, and I eventually saw the new Thomas CGI production "Hero of the Rails" What marveled me was seeing a Japanese locomotive, Hiro, running on Sodor rails; Japanese engines were a completely different gauge, so Hiro must have a special history behind him in order to make his existence work at all. My firs thought? "I know! I'll incorporate him into my old series!"
But in order to do that, I had to get reacquainted with my old characters and stories. When I looked over all of my old material, however, I realized that it was incredibly unrealistic, and I could have probably written it thousands of times better had I written it today. So instead of just slapping Hiro into my old stories, I retooled everything completely. The only two things that remained intact were Edward Mann and Candy, and even they needed their personalities and roles retooled.
The result of all this was 12 brand new Railway Series-style stories that were drastically different from the original stories they were based on. I've done my absolute best to make the stories more realistic and enjoyable than they once were, and I'm proud of what I've completed up until this point. I really hope you all enjoy reading these stories as much as I did writing them.
~ Nanaki