Monthly Archives: Jan 2026

Introducing the Sudrian Armorial

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I realised recently that I had made quite a lot of posts on this blog about heraldry relating to The Railway Series, so much that it almost became a topic in itself. Since this is not a topic which I have seen extensively covered elsewhere, I had the idea of collating all the scattered bits of information into one comprehensive catalogue, which helps me keep track of what I’ve done as well as serving as a template for other fans and researchers, so that we I, and they, do not need to repeatedly crawl through multiple separate articles.

These, by the way, are the posts which are being collated:

This will be a dynamic list as I still expect to find new entries, but updates will continue to be mentioned in blog posts while the page itself will integrate them into what was already there. I’m hoping to eventually cover every example of heraldic description or design in the entirety of both the book and television series, as well as establishing a proper armorial for the Awdry family in real life. Sadly, my research into that particular avenue has not progressed much since my last post on it.

Here it is. I’ve made it as a page rather than a post and elevated it to a direct link in the main menu for ease of visibility. If this works out I may give the same treatment to some of my other projects in the future.

Blog Records for 2025

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My target for the year 2025 was to get a total of five thousand views on this website. Until a relatively late point in the year it looked as if I would fall short, but then I got an unexpected boost from a handful of very busy days which were more than enough to carry me over the line.

I passed last year’s record of 4,664 on 8th November and reached the target of 5,000 on 2nd December. My total for the year was 5,599. I suppose that puts me most of the way to the target I already had in my head for 6,000 views in the year 2026.

My single busiest day ever was 2nd November with 119 views. The two days before were 84 and 96 respectively, making an unusually active trio. I also got 100 exactly on 2nd December. The mean count was 15.3 per day. My target for this year is 16.3. Of course, these few days are highly unrepresentative and their future recurrence is unpredictable.

I have also calculated the percentage growth of the site year on year from the start of this decade.

  • 2021: +008.9
  • 2022: +002.9
  • 2023: -020.2
  • 2024: +102.8
  • 2025: +020.0

Of course 2024’s extraordinary growth throws everything else out of whack, but last year was still fairly respectable. I remind readers again that I am not making a business out of this blog, there is no chasing of eyeballs, nor an ordained timetable and I do not have access to any sophisticated metrics. Posts will continue to be made whenever I have time, knowledge and inspiration.

Public Domain Day 2026

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It’s that time of year again. Here’s a look at some of the stuff which has just gone out of copyright in the United Kingdom (and other countries with a copyright term of author’s life plus 70 years) are novelists Ruby M. Ayres, Beatrice Chase, Joseph Jefferson Farjeon, Constance Holme, Clemence Housman, Roger Mais and Thomas Mann (though in the latter’s case this only applies to his original writings in German, not to subsequent translations by other people); composers Alfredo Cuscinà, Isaak Dunayevsky, George Enescu, Arthur Honegger, Jaime Ovalle, James P. Johnson and Francesco Balilla Pratella; and scientists Albert Einstein and Sir Alexander Fleming; all of whom died in the year 1955.

As usual in recent years, the most intriguing load comes from works made in the United States in the year 1930, expiring under the term of publication plus 95 years. These include the first Betty Boop film Dizzy Dishes, the first Three Stooges film Soup to Nuts and the first major John Wayne film The Big Trail. There are also some works originating outside the United States in that year which now are public domain there but not here, such as Sir Alfred Hitchcock’s film Juno and the Paycock, which will remain under copyright in Britain and most of Europe until 2053. There is also a film adaptation of All Quiet on the Western Front, which was made in the United States but adapted from a book first published in Germany, whose author lived until 1970.

Conversely, there are some American works first published after 1930 by authors who died in 1955, which thus are public domain here but not in their home country. Most prominent of these is Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People (1936).

There is a further category of works which were already public domain in their home countries but are now entering it in the United States, such Composition with Red, Blue and Yellow by Piet Mondrian of the Netherlands (d. 1944) and Animal Friendship by Paul Klee of Switzerland (d. 1940).

We still have one more year to wait for the expiry of A. A. Milne’s copyright, and ten years for that of Sir Winston Churchill!