Train sim sickos push new Thomas the Tank Engine game to breaking point by obliterating world records with an unlikely candidate

A new Thomas the Tank Engine game is currently beating Resident Evil Requiem in the Steam top seller charts, and some of those dedicated players seem absolutely determined to push the train sim's cast of characters beyond the conventionally agreed-upon limits of Steam travel.

Thomas & Friends: Wonders of Sodor released earlier this week, and brings the expertise of Train Simulator and Train Sim World developer Dovetail Games to the fictional world of Thomas the Tank Engine. Wonders of Sodor offers a campaign shaped by some of the series' original stories, but a small handful of players are using its more free-roaming mode to push its characters to the limit.

For some, that simply involves getting express train Gordon up to speed without falling afoul of the game's winkier physics - I've seen plenty of clips of wild derailings that have sent Thomas and his friends catapulting into the sky like a Skyrim ragdoll. Perhaps, given Thomas' history with the modding community, that's appropriate, but for other players, it's raw speed, not physics, that presents the game's biggest challenge.

Hitting 100mph seems to be a notable achievement, with several players celebrating hitting that speed on social media, often only crossing the threshold on a downhill stretch. One fan, however, is going even further - smashing past the all-time world steam speed record with possibly the last character that I would have thought capable of the feat.

The fastest speed ever recorded by a Steam engine was 126mph, by Mallard, in 1938. In a clip uploaded earlier today, however, Chandler's Railway reached 127mph - not by using an express train, but by using little tank engine Percy, claiming the record with a train that should never have been able to reach those kinds of speeds. Unsubstantiated claims suggest that a different train once hit 140mph, but that's no issue for Percy, who in a different clip reached a top speed of 143mph before falling victim to Wonders of Sodor's physics and being blasted into the sky.

Interestingly, Mallard exists in what I've chosen to call the Thomas the Tank Engine Extended Universe (TTTEEU), having appeared in a 1991 book. It's also available as DLC for Train Simulator Classic, and while I don't think that means the engine is likely to appear in Wonders of Sodor, I'm now fascinated by the idea of just how fast players could push it. If a tiny tank engine like Percy can smash the world record, I reckon the real-life holder could go significantly faster - as long as it can stay on the tracks.

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