Original DA Upload date: 15/6/23

An FA upload of the first chapter of Tales from the Tarmingham Overhead Book 1 that was uploaded earlier this year. I'm uploading here, as I've decided to leave DA and move all my novel and art over to here, and this is where the series will continue to be uploaded for the foreseeable future.

Authors Note: Finally after five years of development and going through several plans, I now bring to you all the first chapter of the first book of Tales From The Tarmingham Overhead. A long awaited feature length novel that is the start of a series of stories centring around the adventures of the engines of the Tarmingham Overhead Railway in the bustling city of Tarmingham the runs over it's streets on stone viaducts, and the countryside's of Norfolk and Suffolk that surrounds the cities county, with Danwood and Sanworth being the main protagonists for this first book.

I head the idea for this series of books centred around this railway, was an idea that I had ever since 2013 when the sentient machine universe this story, along with all the characters and locations are set in, Universe 29A was still developing. I had attempted to write stories that involved the idea of sentient vehicles before this, but most of them weren't that good. I have learned from those stories since then and now have a much better understanding of storytelling and to not rush them into development straight away, and with improvement by writing short stories with connections to some of my artwork, I'm now ready to write longer stories again.

What inspired me to write these stories was mainly my passion for the idea of sentient machines ever since I watched Thomas the Tank Engine as a child and listening to The Railway Series of stories to which the books were based on, being fascinated by a world of talking steam engines. But when I saw Cars and TUGS when I was nine to eleven years old it and seeing it's use of sentient machines in a more mature setting, and seeing many different non-Thomas related series on YouTube over the years that featured similar themes and subjects (Damocles Productions The Railways of Britain being one example). Give me the inspiration to do my own sentient machine stories with my own characters and to take the idea of them beyond being just a simple concept that was just made to entertain children, and being one of endless possibilities.

While this series of stories and the universe their set in is not 100% accurate to real world railways or any other form of transport that is featured, and is much more serious with the subjects being talked about in each story. They are inspired by events that took place throughout transport history, and there are some silly and light-hearted moments sprinkled throughout. Each series of stories takes places within specific years which is mentioned on the bottom left-hand corner of the cover, to make it easier to know which years the stories take place in, the starting year for this series of Tarmingham Overhead is 1970 a few years after the end of steam on Britain's Railways with them being completely surpassed by the two powers of diesel and electric traction.

The inspiration I had for the narrative of this first story, was based on the GM Streetcar Conspiracy which was a conspiracy based on a series of convictions made against General Motors and other companies to monopolize American surface transport within cities by dismantling tram lines and replacing them with cars and buses. I found this theory to be an interest case, and have watched documentaries and read articles relating to this case, and having watched the subplot in Who Frame Roger Rabbit and it's take on the subject. I came with this idea of 'what would happen if the same companies involved attempted to do this in Britain while Beeching was closing down the branch lines during the sixties?'

This give me the idea for a story about a railway that is struggling against a road construction firm who's former CEO took control of it's local city as mayor who is attempting to destroy it, and when it seems there's no hope for it to survive, an engine comes ridding in to save it from near total collapse. And now after years of development and work, I now bring you all that story. Even though not every illustration is in there, more of them will be added overtime. I hope you all enjoy following Danwood and Sanworth on this adventure to save the overhead from collapse, as much as I will enjoy writing their story.

Summary: The year is 1970, and the Tarmingham Overhead Railway in the city of Tarmingham is in deep trouble, struggling to survive the threat of closure and being torn down forever. HighwayStruct a mega road construction corporation has been conspiring to destroy this iconic Overhead railway network with it's stone viaducts that take trains over the streets of the city, with the help of the evil mayor Alistair Lancaster who has the power and influence over the local population to swing everything in favour of his ultimate plan to destroy the entire public transport system in Tarmingham. It would seem that everything is going his way. Until two DMU's called Danwood and Sanworth from Devon arrive in the city to help out on the railway, and see everything he is trying to do. Will they be able to stop Alistair and save the railway from destruction?

Edit 18/7/23: Text reformatted to different font to make the text more interesting.
Edit 16/8/23: New illustration added.
Edit 06/11/23: New illustration added.
Edit 25/01/24: New illustration added.
Edit 19/03/25: Improved text layout and formatting

Prologue: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/57667552/
Chapter 1: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/54912433/
Chapter 2: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/56178355/
Chapter 3: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/59239880/
Chapter 4: Coming Soon!


Tarmingham Overhead and Characters ©  PatOakGo