Reminds me of when my sister graduated from high school.
We gathered a dozen or so family members together for a posed shot, with the photographer (one of my sister’s friends) standing about five or six feet in front of us.
There was plenty of room either behind the photographer or behind us in the crowd to pass through, and yet some idiot still managed to pass between the photographer and the crowd to end up in the picture.
(Fortunately for us, we had time for a second, uninterrupted shot.)
I have no comment on the issue of “Sir Topham Hatt: Kindly Railway Operator, or Sodor’s Salazar?”
Speaking of oblivious people, we have one particularly bad diamond for our slo-pitch league which has the game stopped multiple times each game for people walking right through the middle of the game. There is a team of 9 or 10 people in the field, someone pitching, someone batting - take a wild guess and imagine that we have a game going on here. Yes, I know that the path running through the middle of the field is the quickest way across - WHEN THERE IS NO SLO-PITCH BEING PLAYED!!! I think we would just keep on playing when people amble across except it’s dangerous for our players to possibly collide with one of these morons.
Boy, I’d hate to have you managing the transplant list at one of our nation’s hospitals.
Why do we not assume that the parts are replacement parts?
As for Old Slowcoach, the bottom line was that he wasn’t scrapped. There has never been an actual identifiable engine scrapped. At worst, Sir H is guilty of using some overly strong motivational techniques. But in the end, we see that he is benevolent, saving a coach that is old, slow, and can hardly keep up with the demands of modern railroading. There is no practical reason to save Old Slowcoach - but he is not scrapped. Why, then, would you assume that others have been?
Those replacement parts undoubtedly were salvaged from engines and coaches that “died” natural deaths through misadventure. Not every train, for example, that smacks through a wall will be as lucky as Gordon; not every train that rolls over unsafe track and collapses a mine tunnel can be as lucky as James; not every collison between engines will turn out like Henry and Salty’s experience. Accidents happen, engines are unrepairable, and their parts are salvaged to help repair the existing rolling stock. There is nothing remotely sinister about such a practice. Indeed, replacement parts help engines live longer and more productive lives.
Your vilification of the wise and just Sir Topham Hatt is simply an example of the misplaced emnity you have for authority figures. But anarchy cannot run a railroad, or an island. Someone must set the schedules, assign the engines to cars, and decide which lines are safe for which engines. Hatt does his job admirably, and does not deserve any of the venom you have inexplicably sprayed in his direction.
You admit, then, that Hatt is guilty at least of making terroristic threats to the engines? Though we have not seen a specific engine scrapped, there is circumstantial evidence that indicates it has.
Old Slowcoach - she had been told she was to be scrapped. She believed it and the yard workers confirmed it.
The engines themselves consider it to be a very credible threat. Not a single one of them ever makes any comment like"Hatt blusters about it but he never follows through" when the topic of scrapping comes up.
Whatever the ultimate use of the salvaged parts may be, your slapping a smiley-face sticker on the smelter’s yard doesn’t make it a happy place. We’ve never seen a specific engine scrapped? Well, guess what? We’ve never seen an engine meet a “natural death” either. In contrast to scrapping, which is mentioned fairly regularly, I can’t recall an engine dying a natural death ever being referenced.
Furthermore, Hatt, like many slaveholders, keeps his slaves working with the absolute minimum investment in their wellbeing that he can get away with. Washjobs, paint, and replacement parts (all of which would fall under good preventative maintenance and should be given to each train regularly) are with held and doled out sparingly, even grudgingly, as rewards. Hatt is no different from the slaveowner who dresses his slave in rags and feeds him offal.
Ha! Bob and Wendy manage to get plenty done, and they don’t resort to threats when dealing with their anthropomorphic machinery. Hatt’s methodology is needlessly cruel.
My thoughts exactly. I’m sick of these frickin’s tourists (mainly) unnecessarily blocking whole passageways and taking five minutes to take some dumb wortheless picture and expecting everyone else to wait forever for that sacred photo standing at a McD’s or some crap like that. But in this case, I agree with the OP, with reservations.
Sometimes if I’m in a hurry I walk by giving them the finger while pretending to scratch my head or something. Childish, I know, but how rude can these people get?
“Terroristic threats?” Nonsense. Is a worker that fails to meet quota being “terrorized” by being threatened with being fired? No - it’s simply an appropriate reaction to inability to work. In the world of rolling stock, scrapping is the appropriate step to take. Hatt should be commended for his kindness in never actually imposing this penalty.
Not remotely true. Hatt provides an ordinary maintenance schedule; the need for extra attention is created by knowing and deliberate misbehavior on the part of the trains. Remember when Gordon lost the dome cap on his housing trying to break the speed record? It blew off into the creek – because he was going so recklessly fast. Thomas and Percy get covered by coal dust – again, due to their own misbehavior, which they ruefully acknowledge. Later, Percy deliberately dives into water and has to be rescued. It’s Gordon’s obstinate refusal to be cleaned of mud that causes him to be re-assigned to hauling trucks.
In contrast, when the problem is caused by legitimate mechanical problems, or issues outside the engines’ control, Hatt responds with quick caring and concern. How well we remember when Henry was feeling ill, and the problem was Henry’s firebox, which was much smaller than the other engines. Hatt orders special Welsh coal that lets Henry work better.
Indeed, Hatt’s generosity knows few bounds. When Toby the Tram Engine’s line is closed, Hatt steps in to make sure Toby has a place to work, on the quarry line. When Trevor the Tractor Engine is feeling abandoned and ready for the scrap heap, Hatt is more than willing to listen to Gordon’s pleas to save him.
In the end, what we have here is the typical liberal refusal to accept any notion of personal responsibility. Hatt is somehow supposed to bail the engines out of the trouble they create for themselves, with no thought to profit or efficiency. That’s simply crazy. hatt already indulges the engines to a greater degree than most would. He is to be commended for his compassion.
I couldn’t agree more. At the Fringe Festival, a performance and theatre thingy, a prime spot was given to SUPER ED and his one man sidewalk show. One day, a man wanted to film some of ED’s show. ED had a table, some large props, there were signs proclaiming his show on the wall behind him. ED was wearing gaudy costumes and speaking very loudly. The man filming him had a larger than average camera, set up on a tripod. Numerous people failed to notice the camera and walked through the shot. One woman actually stopped yo ask ED directions. Then, when people realize that they’re disturbing filming they stop in the shot to apologize!
ED was generous and forgiving. Being a big fan of him and his show, I had to restrain the urge to drag people off camera and beat them.