Hannah

Hannah
Number: 5930 Class: GWR 4900 "Hall" Class Designer: Charles Collett Build date: 1933 Configuration: 4-6-0 Arrived on the DR: 1968

Hannington Hall, known by everybody as Hannah, is a mixed traffic steam locomotive who lives on the Dark Railway.

Bio

Service for GWR & BR

Hannah was built at Swindon Works on June 30th, 1933, to the successful "Hall" design by Charles Collett. Her first shed allocation was to Oxley and she mainly mainly worked in the west country, she would also often be seen hauling services between Bristol and Exeter. In October 1961, she was transferred to Worcester shed and in September 1962, she was due to be withdrawn from service. However she was quickly reinstated to cover a sudden locomotive crisis at the shed.

Preservation

In 1965, she was officially withdrawn from Worcester shed, and taken to Bristol for onward transit to a scrapyard. However, a friendly diesel engine saved her life by taking her to Swindon, where the diesel had learned that a group of enthusiasts wished to purchase a Hall for preservation we're in that area. It is for this reason that Hannah has no problem with diesel locomotives.

The group, fashioning themselves as the "Western Locomotive Group", began to restore her to operational condition, but soon, key members of the group lost interest in her, as the restoration was taking a long time. In December 1967, another group of Great Western enthusiasts put an ex-GWR Castle Class on the market, and approached this group for first refusal. In order to raise the capital for the Castle, the WLG put Hannah up for sale, in her half-restored condition. By March, they had found a buyer: Mr Dark of the Dark Railway. He brought Hannah to Gothland Works and had her restored to fully operational order, with her finally being ready to enter traffic in June 1968.

Hannah was rostered to help Dave with his work, using a rota system, ensuring that both engines got a decent amount of maintenance and rest between jobs. Within her first few weeks on the line, Hannah began to notice strange occurrences when she took goods trains: One train seemed to have been marshalled together all by itself, and one evening, she heard the sounds of steam engines moving around at the Industrial Estate. Dave suggested that she might be being haunted by Pogo , but Hannah angrily rejected this idea.

It all came to a head one foggy evening, when she felt herself being pushed from the rear of her train whilst stationary in Gasworks Tunnel. Frightened, she ran back to Merecombe Sheds in hysterics, finally beleiving that she was being haunted. Abomination quickly proved her and Dave wrong, by showing them that Ed and Sid, old friends of Dave's, had stowed away to the railway due to fears of being scrapped.

Over time, Hannah started developing feelings for Dave, which increased following the arrival of Repulse, who was clearly trying to get with Dave herself. One evening, Dave and Hannah were alone at the Junction when he revealed that he felt miserable around Repulse due to her selfishness and desire to talk about nothing but the past. Hannah eventually blurted out her feelings to Dave, who revealed that he felt the same way, leading to the two deciding to officially become a couple. After it was revealed that Repulse was actually Dave's ex-girlfriend Leanne in disguise and the real Repulse was brought to the line following the former's death, Hannah became the first to begin accepting her. She also became very "pleased" when Dave was repainted into LMS black.

After Repulse was involved in an incident where she hit something, Hannah became suspicious of the circumstances and tried to look into it. Repulse eventually asked her to meet her at Galen Junction. She was briefly held up, but arrived just in time to see the shed erupt in flames, killing Colin, Cammer and Owen. She quickly realised that Repulse intended to kill her in the blaze, which she deliberately started. After learning that Repulse had been possessed by Leanne's spirit, Hannah urged Repulse to fight it rather than let herself be killed. When Leanne was finally defeated, and Mr. Dark decided to send Repulse away, Hannah agreed that it was for the best, as she knew that Repulse would never be forgiven. She later visited Repulse at Mr. Smash's yard whilst she had her cylinders repaired after an incident at Upway where she'd hit the platform edge and damaged her cylinder. Hannah assured Repulse that they we're still friends and kept Repulse company until she was taken into the workshop to have her cylinder repaired. Hannah later helped to haul the first DR hauled service to Colhapper after being chosen for the job by Allan. When De la Trip arrived on the railway, he upset Hannah on his first day with his supremacist attitude by calling her fat. When De la Trip was revealed to have been built in Glasgow instead of claiming to have been built in Eastleigh, Hannah berated him for his hypocritical attitude. One day, Hannah told Clyde about the diesel who saved her from scrap. Clyde eventually came across the diesel, Warrior, while searching for a diesel for the railway, and he was eventually brought to the line, much to Hannah's delight. Hannah was the last engine on the line to forgive De la Trip, as he reminded her heavily of Dave when she first met him. She finally forgave him after he rescued her following a failure and after having a talk with Zeke Dark about her feelings. She was finally reunited with Dave in 1975 following his overhaul.

Hannah was devastated when Clyde, who had gained the ability to shapeshift into other forms and engines, disguised himself as her and flirted with 257 Squadron. One night shortly afterwards she bore witness to Dave being abducted by the demonic form of his ex-girlfriend Linda. She ran across the whole railway looking for him, and was eventually transported to Pogo's Locker along with Clyde, Theo and Otto. There she was informed of what had happened, but was denied from travelling to the alternate dimension to rescue him as her volatile emotional state would make her an easy target for the demons that lived there. Dave was rescued with the help of Clyde, and Hannah chose to forgive him. Hannah later learned that she along with Brian (later replaced by De la Trip) would be going on display in the Galen Junction Railway Museum when her boiler ticket expired, much to her dismay. She later supported Dave after his fear of tunnels led to him breaking down on the inaugural run on the extension to Bellgrave. After a foreign supply of coal was brought in for the railway, Hannah began to suffer from steaming problems, leading to her early withdrawal from service and her placement into the museum. Despite her protestations, most dismissed her concerns as just being Western prejudice against non-Welsh coal. Following her visit to the works to be cleaned up for display and to see Dave who was still being repaired, she was moved into the museum to await her turn in the overhaul queue.

After a few years on display, in 1980 Hannah was eventually informed that with Mr Smash's works being due to re-open shortly she would be taken into the works for her overhaul now that Rick's construction was completed. To her joy she also found out that after her overhaul was completed and she was running again, she could go with Dave and Stan to the latter's home on the island of New Wessex. Eventually with Mr Smash's work on completing Rick's new tender being completed alongside the repairs to Caracus Smash and Warrior, she was moved into the works alongside Brian, De la Trip & Goose so that her overhaul could commence.

Persona

Hannah knows the importance of hard work, and rarely shies away from her jobs. She is a logical thinker, and always tries to find a reasonable and plausible explanations for problems. She is one of the few steam engines who openly accepts diesels.

Despite being a girl, she is tough, and can hold her own against the lads on the Dark Railway. However, she does have a sensitive side, and cares for her boyfriend, Dave, very much.

Livery

Hannah is painted in British Railways Green with Late Crest. Before this, she would have presumably worn various versions of Great Western Green alongside British Railways Green with Early Emblem.

Basis

Hannah is based on a GWR 4900 Hall Class 4-6-0. Hinderton Hall and Alfred are other members of this class.

Appearances

The Dark Railway Series

Episodes:

• Series 5 - Haunted Hannah, Ed and Sid (does not speak), Claim to Fame, Repulse, Make Love, Time Waits for No One and Time Waits for No One, Part 2
• Series 6 - Ouverture, Trepid (does not speak), Fustercluck, Ed, Ed and Eddie, Plunk 'n Bang, Asphalt Assault (does not speak), Burnin' (does not speak), The Purple Man, The Prime Time of your Life and Apply Overnight
• Series 7 - Futura, Smashing!, Braking Bad (cameo), The Road to Colhapper, Ey Up?, The Red Herring (cameo), Mothership Reconnection, Rollerskate Disco (mentioned), What a Clarence! and The Man in Overalls (mentioned)
• Series 8 - De la Trip, Face to Face, Time Waster, Short Circuit, Autumn and Outro
• Series 9 - 9, Rock Shock, Time Wasted, Extend Extra, Shapeshifter and Pogo / Mere Anarchy
• Series 10 - 101, Welcome to the Tunnel, Tunnel Vision, The Road to Bellgrave, Coaled Weight, Dirty Colossus (mentioned), Quack Attack (mentioned) and Buckin' Hell (mentioned)
• Series 11 - The Times (does not speak), Relations, Further and The Brickenkopf
• Series 12 - Ventura (mentioned), Fresh, Night Beats (cameo), What To Do (cameo), Shuffle, High Fidelity (mentioned) and Eternal Feedback

Specials:

• You Bang Snowploughs
• Mere Anarchy

Trivia

• Hannah was the first regular female character introduced in the series.
• Since "Mere Anarchy", Hannah has carried a Hawksworth tender instead of the Collett one she was introduced with. Hawksworth tender's usually ran behind GWR 6959 "Modified Halls" while the original GWR 4900 "Halls" ran with Collett tenders.
• The real life "Hannington Hall" was withdrawn from service in September 1962 and was scrapped at John Cashmores Scrapyard in 1964.
• Hannah running with a Hawksworth tender is inauthentic for her as the real 5930 never ran with Hawksworth tenders in service for the Great Western Railway or British Railways.
• Hannah's temporary departure from the Dark Railway Series while on loan to New Wessex is anticipated to be due to the upcoming release of a new model for the GWR 4900 "Halls" for Train Simulator.