Thomas

Thomas is a blue tank engine. He came to Sodor in May 1915 as a branchline runner.

Bio
Thomas the Tank Engine started his life on the Island of Sodor as a cheeky little engine who shunted coaches for the mainline engines, such as Andrew and Fletcher.

Soon, he got his chance to pull passengers when Sarah moved to the mainline. He got the branchline which he shared with Terry, Trammer, Stanley, and Jude. He owrked for years with sixteen other engines until 1940.

Sir Topham kept Stuart and Fletcher and renamed them Thomas and Edward. He brought ten other engines and gave Thomas a new branchline and his own coaches which he shared with the new Percy, Toby, and Emily.

Although Thomas' branch line was indeed the pride of the line, on the main line, things were not going well for the Fat Controller, who needed more engines. He then received four diesels. Thomas also became friends with Mavis after saving him Mavis, Boco, Gordon, and Henry saved them.

Persona
Thomas is rather cheeky, but is good at heart and generally behaves well, except when he is getting into mishap. Thomas loves teasing the others and on occasion brags about his superiority, but is always brought down to earth in due course. If Thomas has one major character flaw, it's that he's forgetful, and slightly impatient. However, he's also optimistic and idealistic.

Although their friendship has been turbulent at times, Percy and Stanley are generally portrayed as Thomas' best friends.

Basis
Thomas is based on the Billington E2-Class 0-6-0T locomotives built for the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway between 1913 and 1916. He is apparently one of the last batch built as only these engines featured his distinctive extended-side-tanks, projecting forward over the leading wheels and little downsweeps at each end of footplate. The E2s were introduced in 1915 to replace earlier members of the E1 class, which had been scrapped. The last five in the ten strong class had extended side tanks to give a greater water capacity, but all engines had two inside cylinders and driving wheels 4'6" in diameter.

Livery
Thomas is painted in the NWR's standard blue livery with red-and-yellow lining and the number "1" painted on his bunker sides in yellow with a red border and the same livery used to paint NWR on his tank sides.