The Railroad Empire of SHED 17 is a colossal, socially progressive nation, ruled by Sir Topham Hatt with an even hand, and remarkable for its multi-spousal wedding ceremonies, national health service, and daily referendums. The compassionate, democratic population of 9.067 billion Bio-Fusion Experiments are fiercely patriotic and enjoy great social equality; they tend to view other, more capitalist countries as somewhat immoral and corrupt.

The enormous, corrupt government juggles the competing demands of Education, Healthcare, and Administration. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Sir Topham Hatts Office. The average income tax rate is 90.7%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The thriving Shed 17 economy, worth 886 trillion Welsh Coals a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector, which is extremely specialized, is mostly made up of the Information Technology industry, with significant contributions from Arms Manufacturing. Average income is 97,792 Welsh Coals, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Traumatised refugees have a full bedpan shoved into their hands along with their immigration papers, citizens are exhausted from weekly general elections, the government has solemnly sworn not to look up other nations' internet browsing history if the favor is returned, and the nation's air force consists of strongly-worded letters folded into paper airplanes. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a very well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. SHED 17's national animal is the Train, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its national religion is Atheism.

SHED 17 is ranked 144,751^st in the world and 6,205^th in Lazarus for Most Cultured, scoring 64 on the Snufflebottom-Wiggendum Pentatonic Scale.