Culdee Fell Railway question

[jettrainfan]

I know this isn't a Thomas board, but it sure is close to one, and really should be in the everything Thomas topic, but deep down, i feel like other people have wondered this... if not, hopefully wheels start spinning and you wonder too. Now the question is split into two things. as you may know, the culdee fell railway locomotives are incline locomotives. They never made the TV series but they were in the book series. Now, at a young age, I was introduced to the Thomas railroad series (im talking late 1999 as my earliest memories) and I got a set with Culdee in it along with a few other sets. Now here is where the fun begins. I HAD NO CLUE WHO CULDEE WAS! I never played with him much compared to others, in fact, back then, I played with Stephany and James the most. Getting back on Topic, I always wondered, why does Culdee have a rear face? That made no sense to me! I always thought it was a Dr. Jeckel Mr. Hide type thing. Cathrine i thought was a powered rail coach (Does anyone here even remember that wooden railway item?  ) so on, so forth... I was ignorant to the point it wasn't even funny. Then, I found Lord Harry in die-cast by ertl. That just confused me more. Lastly, about 4 years ago, I found the book series as a narration. Found out Catherine was a coach (a big one too, not like the small 4 wheel wooden model),there was quite a few locomotives, and they all had faces on their backs as well as their fronts!

Now for the fun 2 questions...

1. Why do these locomotives have faces on their backs.

2. Are they a totally separate character like Mighty Mac or are they the same locomotive that is just double faced?

Any info would be great!

[StephOfTheEast]

Hi Jetttrainfan,

The Culdee Fell locomotives have faces on both ends because of steep, twisty and dangerous nature of their line. It enables them to keep a good look out.

The concept is different to that of Mighty Mac. Mighty and Mac have separate personas and speak independently whilst Culdee is one character, albeit with two faces.

It's interesting to note that the Culdee Fell locos aren't the only engines with two faces. In the books, BoCo also has a face on either end, however he only has one in the TV series.

Hope this helps.

[DinoNTrains]

In the books, BoCo also has a face on either end, however he only has one in the TV series.

The same goes for Daisy, and (in one illustration) Toby.

[andrewd]

I think that Bachmann should like make a mountain railway set and the engines look like the engines from the culldee fell mountain railway or the option of regular mountain engines and it would come with 4 coaches

[DucktheGWREngine08]

I think that Bachmann should like make a mountain railway set and the engines look like the engines from the culldee fell mountain railway or the option of regular mountain engines and it would come with 4 coaches

That would be complicated in terms of both gauging, designing, & building as the gauge would have to be smaller, the design would take a good 5 months to perfect *there are NO models of the Culdee Fell Railway prototype mind you so this would be REALLY tough*, and building the locomotives would be a good 6 months on the company's end to get it to look decent so like the Skarloey Railway it WON'T happen so don't get your hopes up :L.

[Br 98.75]

If you want a HoZ catalog for a rack railway email me i ordered 3 for a friends dada a while ago but i can email you the pdf