I Love The Fact Edward Is This Gentle Old Man And Yet He Can Be SO FUCKING CRYPTIC AND SCARY WHEN HE WANTS TO BE - Tumblr Posts

i'm very invested in you headcanons, particularly the last one! do you think even without their magical faces engines could still be themselves? maybe something similar happened to city of truro, like, he still functioned and had a personality but had no face (as far as i remember.)

have a nice day! —(@duck-enjoyer)

warning : this headcanon is pretty dark

Faceless trains do exist, though , mostly on the “other railway “. Their presence is unnerving , they dont speak or emote. The mainland workers prefer them to (sodor’s) opinionated, fussy locomotives

When engines are first built , the faces just seem to magically appear permanently affixed to the smokebox door . though opening the door has no effect on them and they can resume talking and snarking as usual , not many stopped to question how exactly they work . the only ones close enough to the engines to examine them are workmen who are advised by the fat controller not to prod at them . they are there to run trains , not potentially risk the life of a living, breathing steam locomotive .

Someone once did find out more than they bargained for . A mechanic stayed after hours after being unusually quiet all day , took a cutters torch to a tank engines face…