Thomas the Tank Train / Sodor Island HO Scale Layout - Model Railroader Magazine

John Busby

He also built a couple of model railways set on the Isle of Sodor which is between the Isle of Man and the Welsh coast.

Close, but no cigar!  Sodor's connection to the mainland is at Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, in the Northwest near the lake district.  Walney Island, a banana-shaped island about a mile and a half wide just off the coast, became a location on Sodor.  I uses to travel there on business. When I got back from one trip, my then 4 year old, asked me if I went to Sodor.  I had to regretfully inform him that it was a made-up place.