36005 'Field Marshal Montgomery'

Blue-ridge-riley (blue-ridge-riley.deviantart.co…) devised a competition for a 'Thomas-esque' locomotive character, and as it sounded a nice ideas this drawing thus arose. 

The real 36005 was the final of five 'Leader' class steam locomotives built by OVS Bulleid as his attempt to merge the benefits of new diesels (such as cabs at each end) with cutting-edge steam technology (notably sleeve valve gear).  Only 36001 steamed, suffering many problems owing to its revolutionary nature, and on the cancellation of the project the part-built sister engines (36004-5 being just parts at this point) were duly scrapped.   Bulleid attempted a loosely similar design burning peat in Ireland, but this too was ultimately ill-fated.

In line with the 'Sodor' inspiration though, and based on this history, things could have been somewhat different...:


The engine always had terrible luck.  Its class had been considered a failure and consigned for scrap even before all of its components had been built, let alone assembled.  The Designer was frustrated at the company's close-mindedness, but diesels were in vogue; steam was obsolete.  Even as the prototype was being scrapped though, he had other ideas.  The company never noticed that when he left for Ireland, the remaining parts on the scrapheap only accounted for *four* engines.  But luck wouldn't improve: the Designer quickly realised its boiler was ill-suited for peat, while other modifications meant most parts were not needed for his improved design.  The rolling chassis had been assembled, but it and the other parts remained tucked away out of sight.  It was only some months later, when even the new design was threatened with the gas-axe, that a Stout Gentleman encountered the forgotten engine at the back of the shed.  Recognising the parts immediately - being quite a singular design - he had them shipped to his own workshop and construction finally completed.  Regular operations were probably out of the question, but the engine would complement the railway's museum displays on locomotive development.  Now carrying the intended number, but refusing the former company crest as a mark of defiance against those who had condemned, one of the intended names for the class was duly bestowed: 'Field Marshal Montgomery'.  A happy ending indeed but still with some questionable luck, for after being named it was found that 'Monty' was a *girl*...


[Edit: I'm delighted to say this won first place in Blue-ridge-riley's competition:  Winners of the Contest!Hey guys! Sorry it took me over a week to get the entries judged, a lot of things came up to where I couldn't properly nor fairly judge the entries I got. Now that I've had some time to look over each entry, I have finally decided on a winner and two runner ups!
Now please remember, don't be discouraged if you didn't win first place nor received a runner up spot either. This contest was meant to challenge your creative mind and come up with a fresh, new character. I picked entries if they were creative and were "out of the box," so to speak.
First Place!
First place goes to... JD-Ripper!

This entry blew me out of the water with the choice of locomotive and the story behind it. I learned a great deal from this entry, and can we talk about the effort and work that went into creating this lovely character! Congrats, and enjoy your three month CORE Membership!
Runner Ups!
As I stated pre  Many thanks!]