Chapter Text
Fletcher and Jennings, Whitehaven, 1860s.
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Once upon a time, in a workshop in Whitehaven, four brothers - two sets of twins - were built together. Their names were: Skarloey, Talyllyn, Rheneas and Dolgoch.
Skarloey, and his younger brother, Rheneas, were being sent to the Skarloey Railway on the Island of Sodor; whilst their respective twins, Talyllyn and Dolgoch, were being sent to the Talyllyn Railway, in Wales.
They all knew they would soon be separated from their twins, but pretended hope would keep them together, for really, they wanted to go with their twin, but both the Talyllyn and the Skarlley Railway needed an engine on each line immediately, and those two were the ones closest to being finished.
Besides, all four had been named after landmarks on their new homes. It would be silly to mix them up now.
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Skarloey was the first engine finished, and preparations were made to test him and ensure he could sail to Sodor.
And at last, on a breezy but fairly innocuous day in May of 1865, Skarloey was loaded onto a steamship, and set sail for Kirk Ronan alone, for Rheneas was not yet finished.
Mr. Bobbie, a kind engineer who had helped build the brothers, assured Skarloey that Rheneas would join him later in the year, or perhaps the spring of 1866 if works was delayed.
So, Skarloey was delivered to Whitehaven Harbour one sunny May afternoon in 1865, and sailed alone on the steamship “Cumbria” to the harbour of Kirk Ronan, on the Island of Sodor.