What is the name of the railway company that operates on Sodor?

The railway company that operates the principal railway system on Sodor is the North Western Railway. It is the main railway company in The Railway Series and Thomas & Friends, often informally called the Fat Controller’s Railway.

The North Western Railway includes Sodor’s standard-gauge main line and several branch lines. Its main line connects the mainland at Vicarstown with Tidmouth, while branches serve places such as Ffarquhar, Brendam, and Arlesburgh. The railway handles passenger services, express trains, goods traffic, and a wide range of industrial work.

A common mistake is to treat every railway on Sodor as part of the North Western Railway. The island also has separate narrow-gauge systems, including the Skarloey Railway, the Culdee Fell Railway, and the Arlesdale Railway. Thomas, Percy, James, Gordon, and many other well-known standard-gauge characters belong to the North Western Railway, but engines from those other systems have their own controllers, routes, and histories.