Thehalford
From Sodor Island Forums
thehalford is one of the five moderators of Sodor Island Forums. One of the many Australian residents on the forum, he joined on December 23, 2004.
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SiF History
In mid 2004, Thehalford had auditioned for TV gameshow The Einstein Factor with Australian Football Grand Finals as a specialist subject. A few days before the audition, it was suggested (somewhat tongue in cheek) that he ask if he can change his subject to Thomas the Tank Engine. From there, he found TV Tome and was amazed that there were other people his age (he was born in 1986) who still remembered and enjoyed Thomas.
From TV Tome, he found Ryan's Sodor Island Fansite, which linked to Sodor Island Forums, which was in the midst of a no-rego period. Instead, thehalford joined the Clearwater Forums, which focused on Thomas's spin-off series, Tugs, as well, on December 8. Soon enough, he grew to feel accepted, and was promoted to moderator in February of 2005. Meanwhile, he had joined SiF, and was quite amazed and somewhat intimidated by the large post counts of many members.
He continued to co-habitate both forums (along with several other, non-Thomas related ones) for the majority of 2005, writing several fictional works along the way.
In between these writing capers, he found the time to audition again for The Einstein Factor, this time with Thomas the Tank Engine as his special subject. He felt that since joining SiF, his knowledge of Thomas had increased greatly from talking about it with fellow fans on an almost daily basis.
Meanwhile, life on Clearwater had begun to slow, as many members joined SiF in May 2005 when registration there was reopened. However, he did meet one member who would prove to be his best friend on the forums. This was Jake, and their friendship would endure for well over a year. Others, such as old iron, ATKtrains and benpennock also populated his PM inbox over the times.
In June 2005, thehalford was a part of the first successful Australian SiF Member Meeting with Jim522 and Jarrah White. Several meetings have been held since, with sodor18, hartleymartin, gonzerelli and tm85 also taking part in some of the meetings. Indeed, he has hosted two meetings himself – excepting of course the countless times he has seen gonzerelli, given that they were friends before the days of SiF.
In March 2006, Thehalford, along with OldSquareWheels, was promoted to moderator as part of a board cleanup. In addition to this, thehalford has found himself one of the leading members of WikiProject Thomas, devoted to fixing the Wikipedia pages of Thomas the Tank Engine and making them a reasonable standard.
thehalford has thoroughly enjoyed his time on SiF, and looks forward to many more years to come as a productive member of the community.
Thomas Fanfiction and ERS
Thehalford began writing fanfiction long before he found SiF. However, these were not of a particularly good quality, and none of them were ever posted for reading. Despite this, he set his sights on the ERS after reading several volumes already in the library. His first attempt – about Duck's days before he came to the Island – was not a success, and so he set to work on a different volume, set on the Skarloey Railway.
This volume introduced a new character, Scott, who is revealed to be Rusty's brother. With help from benpennock and feedback from Ryan, this volume – titled Little Diesel Engines was passed and given the slot of 94.
Proud of himself after this success, Thehalford began writing a new volume, this time set on the main line and focusing on Gordon, Henry and James. Titled The Three Express Engines, it was given a "Conditional Yes" as it was very similar to ERS Volume 82 – Record Breaking Engines. Thehalford took this in his stride, and began modifying the volume to make it more unique.
While this volume was being rewritten, Thehalford was a participant in the War Of Words to write Volume 100, with benpennock and ATKtrains. The resultant volume was not completed by the deadline, and so was out of the running for this prestigious slot. However, Thehalford and ATKtrains continued work on the volume, and it is currently undergoing evaluation.
Meanwhile, Thehalford began work on a second volume focusing on Scott, Rusty's brother. His first attempt at the volume failed to meet his own expectations, so he started again, this time with a more clearly-defined plot in mind. Currently, the first two stories of the revised volume are complete, and the other two are in the works.
As well as the volume on Scott, Thehalford continued his work on The Three Express Engines, scrapping one story, adding another, and making some revision to the rest. The completed and renamed The Four Express Engines was sent in for evaluation some time ago.
However, Thehalford has recently returned to the world of 'fun' fanfiction with his Choose Your Own Adventure story, relying on other members to tell him what to write. This story is nearing completion.
Independent Works
In addition to his ERS works in progress, Thehalford began writing his own Independent Work after being inspired by several of the long running IWs on the forum. This was Gifted, and it was somewhat of a pioneer among IWs, as it was one of the first not to be based upon a transport theme.
As Gifted continues, Thehalford has plans for a second IW, Baking and Baker Street. In the mould of Nerds by Alaric, Baking and Baker Street will focus on a young man's life as an employee of a small store – in this case, delivery driver for the local pizza restaurant. This fiction will be based strongly on Thehalford's real life experience as a delivery driver – indeed, the main protagonist is based very strongly on him.
Multimedia
Thehalford has played several roles in the forum's Multimedia productions, generally specialising in minor roles, such as Workmen or Drivers. His debut in Multimedia was in Truro's All At Sea redub as the injured sailor. He continued the minor roles with a part as Edward in the Rusty and the Boulder redub by Alaric, before being cast as the Fat Clergyman in The Xelent Studios' audio adaptation of Tit For Tat.
Unfortunately, his microphone was not working properly at the time, and his lines sounded very muffled, despite the best efforts to remove this effect. As a result, he cringes whenever he hears his voice in this production. Eventually, his microphone decided to play nice, and he returned to his varying minor roles.
As well as these roles, Thehalford has played some notable ones – he narrated both Jake's redub of Gordon and the Gremlin and Chris Burrell's redub of Thomas Comes to Breakfast, as well as playing Henry in Truro's upcoming redub Team Sodor: To Catch A Thief.
In July of 2006, Thehalford starred as himself in the 5-part production A Very SiF Summer Holiday, as well as writing parts of the script for that production. This production also saw the introduction of close friend gonzerelli into the Multimedia world as well.
Flush with success (and more than a little bit of boredom), Thehalford decided to create his own studios for audio production. Albert Studios was the result, and the Railway Series volume Very Old Engines was the first to be adapted. Crosspatch was released first to a good response, and Bucking Bronco is currently undergoing production.
The Einstein Factor
As already stated, The Einstein Factor was indirectly responsible for Thehalford finding and joining Sodor Island Forums. In June of 2005, he reapplied to go on the show on a whim, this time with Thomas the Tank Engine as his special subject. Some months passed, until he was called in for a full audition on November 23. This went well, and on December 2, he received the call he had been hoping for – he was going to appear on The Einstein Factor!
The first date of filming was 25 January 2006, Jarrah White, Jim522 and The Old Bean were in the audience, watching as Thehalford took on Veronica Moriaty, whose special subject was Staffordshire Pottery Figures of the Victorian Era and Grant Heaton, who had The Life and Times of Harry S Truman as his specialty.
Thehalford began well, scoring 1600 points in the first round, in which contestants are quizzed only on their special subject. Veronica scored 1000, Grant 1300. Round 2, a Multiple choice round, saw Thehalford score 200 as against Veronica's 200 and Grant's 250, leaving him 250 points ahead for the final round. This final round was very close, as Grant jumped in very quickly on many questions, denying the others the chance to answer. Ultimately, though, it came down to the final question, which Grant answered incorrectly to give Thehalford the win by 150 points!
The playoff saw Thehalford up against Scott Elliott (DC Comicbook Superheroes and Supervillains) and David Gilbert (The Assasination of JFK). Again, he scored 1600 points in the first round, opposed to 1200 for Scott and 1500 for David. All players scored 300 in the Multiple choice round, and Thehalford pulled away to record a 200 point victory over David.
The Grand Final Qualifier was filmed on 31 March, 2 days before Thehalford's 20th birthday. Competing against him this time were Dr. Virginia Noel, with Greek Mythology and Kevin Summers, who specialized in Australian Metropolitan Horse Racing of the 1960s. For the third straight episode, Thehalford scored 1600 points, against Virginia's 1400 and Kevin's 900. The 200 point margin remained after Round 2, and it looked as though Thomas the Tank Engine would feature in the Grand Final.
Round 3 changed all that. Virginia, a former Sale of the Century champion, leapt out of the blocks to remove the gap immediately, while Kevin 'stole' a Thomas question from him – he later 'stole' a horse racing one in return. The lead chopped and changed over the last few questions between Virginia and Thehalford, before scores were level on the last – Virginia correctly identified Steven Harper as being a Canadian politician, and so won by that sole question.
Although disappointed, Thehalford's spirits were lifted when he was introduced to a 6 year old Thomas fan and his family after the filming who had flown up from Tasmania to watch him. The thought that someone would go to such effort for him amazed Thehalford, and the loss was almost immediately consigned to minor status – he had already won 2 episodes, something only 9 out of 81 people do every year.
Thehalford's appearance on the show has prompted several other Australian members to apply as well. He himself is thinking of reapplying with different subjects, just to see if he can get back on.
In Real Life
- Name: Clay Alan Halford
- Date of Birth: 2 April, 1986
- Resident of: Australia (New South Wales)
- Favourite TTTE Characters: Edward, Rusty, Peter Sam, Duck
- Favourite Railway Series Volume: Small Railway Engines
- Favourite TV Series: Series 2
- Favourite Episode: Tender Engines (Series 3)
- Least Favourite Episode: Bulgy Rides Again (Series 7)
- Least Favourite Character: Bulgy
- Favourite Bands: Queen, Mike and the Mechanics, Men At Work, Skyhooks, AC/DC, Supertramp, Led Zepplin
- Other Favourite TV Shows: Iron Chef, Spicks and Specks, The Einstein Factor, Red Dwarf, Porridge, The Office
- Favourite Sports: Australian Football (supporter of the Carlton Blues), Cricket, Rugby League (supporter of the St George Illawarra Dragons)
