Actual Road Name

[AndyJB]

This is a real basic question but I have to ask, what is the official name of the railway that Thomas runs on?

[BassTbone]

Well it is called two things.  All depends on where you are coming from. There is the North Western Railway, as mentioned in the Railway Series books, and there is the Sodor Railway, as said in the TV series.

[AndyJB]

Thanks, I just read in Wiki it's also The Sodor and Mainland Railway or the S & M.

[Anthony P2]

it was the Sodor and Mainland Railway in the early days in the late 1800's

[panniertankboy8751]

The S&M and NWR are probably the two most well known of all of the road names Sodor had. However, in between those two were several other ones. According to Wikipedia:

"The first railway on the island, dating from 1806, was a horse-worked plateway from Cros-ny-Cuirn to Balladwail, a port south-east of Crovan's Gate, which is no longer rail-connected. Pack horses were used to bring copper ore from a mine in the mountains down to Cros-ny-Cuirn, where it was loaded into wagons for the journey to the port. In 1820, the Crovan's Gate Mining Company extended the line up the valley to the mine by building a series of five inclined planes. At the same time, the rest of the 1806 line was rebuilt with fish-belly edge rail. The line continued in use until the Skarloey Railway was built, after which it was abandoned, although the overgrown remains can still be seen to this day. A government-sponsored amalgamation of the standard gauge railways in the Island occurred in 1914 to build a strategic railway for coastal defence called the North Western Railway. The railways concerned were:
The Sodor & Mainland Railway (1853–1901) which ran from Ballahoo to Kirk Ronan.
The Tidmouth, Knapford & Elsbridge Railway (1883–1914) from Tidmouth to Elsbridge (the railway was known as the Knapford & Elsbridge Railway until 1908 when line extended to Tidmouth)
The Wellsworth & Suddery Railway (1870–1914), which ran from Crosby to Brendam, with an extension from Crosby to Knapford in 1912 to amalgamate with the Tidmouth, Knapford & Elsbridge Railway.
The North Western Railway has had running rights into Barrow Central Station since the agreement with the London, Midland and Scottish Railway in 1925. There is a Scherzer rolling lift bridge of 120 ft (37 m) span and double track over the Walney Channel, designed by Topham Hatt and erected in 1915. The NWR built its headquarters at Vicarstown in 1915, but the administrative offices were relocated to Tidmouth in 1926. Until the construction of the Jubilee Road Bridge in 1977, the NWR had rights for a car-ferry and worked an intensive and profitable service. British Rail had running powers over the Bridge to operate the joint NWR/BR suburban service from Barrow to Norramby."