# James the Red Engine

James the Red Engine is a fictional character from the Railway Series children's books created by Wilbert Awdry and the television adaptation Thomas & Friends. He is an anthropomorphic tender locomotive, and is the number 5 engine on the North Western Railway, the Fat Controller's railway on the Island of Sodor.
James debuted in the 1946 book Thomas the Tank Engine. Two books in the series, James the Red Engine and James and the Diesel Engines, are dedicated to James.

## Prototype and background

James first appeared in The Railway Series in the 1946 book Thomas the Tank Engine. He was named after James Furze, a friend of the publisher's son. He was originally painted black. At the request of the publishers, Awdry dedicated James the Red Engine to the character. James was painted red in this and subsequent books.
James is based on the L&YR Class 28, an 0-6-0 mixed-traffic tender engine designed by George Hughes and based on the earlier L&YR Class 27 designed by John Aspinall. According to Awdry, the Class 28s were powerful engines but had a tendency to be nose-heavy, especially when used as relief engines on excursion trains and driven at speed. In the book The Island of Sodor: Its People, History and Railways, Awdry gave a fictional history of the engine. James was built by Hughes as an experiment to see if the nose-heaviness could be counteracted. The locomotive was fitted with larger 5 feet 6 inches (1.68 m) driving wheels and a pony truck, making it into a 2-6-0. (The real Class 28 has 5 feet 1 inch (1.55 m) wheels.) James is also missing the prominent front sandboxes fitted to the Class 28s. The improvement was not as great as hoped for and after the grouping, the LMS sold James to the Fat Controller's North Western Railway.

### Models

Awdry had two models of James on his OO gauge model railway. The first, from the 1950s, was based on a 2-6-0 Glasgow and South Western Railway locomotive, the Austrian Goods, designed by Peter Drummond; this is the design that Awdry had originally intended to use for James. The model was red with yellow lining. Despite being professionally made and "a beautiful model", the motor was unreliable, so it could not be used regularly. Awdry later noted that it was sent away in the 1980s for a new motor and chassis and came back "completely transformed".
Awdry's second model of James was based on a 1960s Tri-ang Johnson 3F 0-6-0; a conversion which Hornby used for the production version of their model of James several decades later.

## James in The Railway Series

James the Red Engine was the third book in the Railway Series by Reverend W. Awdry. It picked up where the previous book, Thomas The Tank Engine, left off, as James was introduced in "Thomas & The Breakdown Train" where the Troublesome Trucks pushed him into a field after his wooden brake blocks caught fire. James was rescued by Thomas and the Breakdown Train and was repainted red.

## James in Thomas & Friends

Unlike the books, the TV episode "Thomas and the Breakdown Train" had James in his red colour from the beginning. For unknown reasons, James also appeared in all episodes before "Thomas and the Breakdown Train" even though this story established him as being a new engine.
Like in the books, James is very proud of his red paintwork and hates getting dirty, which often gets him into trouble.
James is one of only four characters that appears in every Thomas & Friends film, but only has major roles in four of them.
He is one of the leads of the 2013 film Thomas & Friends: King of the Railway, in which he, Thomas, and Percy assist in the restoration of Ulfstead Castle and the construction of the Earl of Sodor’s estate.
James is the main antagonist of the 2014 film Thomas & Friends: Tale of the Brave. He pulls a prank on Percy which leads the latter to think there is a monster on the island. They make amends after Percy saves James from a rockslide.
Thomas & Friends: The Adventure Begins retells the first seven episodes of the show, with some alterations; most notably, James appears in his original black livery from the second book. In this version, James arrived on Sodor before Thomas and is the engine Annie and Clarabel originally belonged to. Thomas chases after the runaway James but fails to stop him and James crashes into a field. Thomas then gets the breakdown train, has James put back on the tracks, and takes him to the Steamworks. James comes back some time later, now painted in his familiar red, but finds that his two coaches have been assigned to Thomas's newly acquired branch line.
In the 2017 film Journey Beyond Sodor, Henry is prevented from taking a freight train to the mainland, so James is assigned to take his place. James has been teasing Thomas for being stuck on his branch line, so Thomas takes the train to spite him. James volunteers to go find the missing Thomas in the hope of being praised as a hero. After some investigation, he uncovers and is imprisoned in a large steelworks that Thomas had escaped from earlier and is forced to work there. He is eventually rescued by Thomas and a group of misfit experimental engines.

### James in Thomas and the Magic Railroad

In the 2000 film, Thomas and the Magic Railroad, James was threatened by Diesel 10 and almost got pushed back into a smelting pit before being teleported out by Mr. Conductor Jr. (portrayed by Michael E. Rodgers). In the beginning, the fly annoying James was a reference to the original Awdry story "Buzz, Buzz".
Susan Roman voiced James in the film. Michael Angelis provided James's voice in the workprint, along with Percy before he was replaced.

### James in All Engines Go

In the 2021 reboot, James was brought back as a supporting character, rather than as part of the main cast as with the original series. Much like many of the other characters in the reboot, many of James' design elements and personality were altered to a more engaging dynamic towards the young engines. He does exhibit carelessness with his often-dropped cargo.

### Voice actors
#### English

* Susan Roman (Thomas and the Magic Railroad)
* Michael Angelis (Thomas and the Magic Railroad, original workprint only)
* Keith Wickham (UK, Hero of the Rails – series 20)
* Kerry Shale (US, Hero of the Rails – series 18)
* Rob Rackstraw (US, The Adventure Begins – series 24, UK; "Tit for Tat" – series 24)
* Luke Marty (US, Thomas & Friends: All Engines Go)
* Tom Dussek (UK, Thomas & Friends: All Engines Go)

#### Others

* Katsuji Mori (Japan, series 1 – series 8)
* Masashi Ebara (Japan, Calling All Engines! onwards)
* Um Sang-hyun (Korea, Series 18 – series 19)

## Legacy
### Awards

A large-scale working replica of James, along with Thomas, Percy, Gordon, Harold and Jack, was created by BBC Visual Effects for Thomas & Friends: The All Aboard Live Tour. This battery-powered locomotive is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the "largest model railway engine" ever built, at 2.64 x 1.5 x 6.52 metres.

### Real-life replicas

The Mid-Hants Railway repainted one of its engines – a Southern Railway N Class – into the livery of James. The engine retained this colour scheme for many years and participated in The Railway Series golden jubilee celebrations at the National Railway Museum. On the East Lancashire Railway, unrestored LMS Ivatt Class 2 Mogul No. 46428 has been painted as James the Red Engine.
The Japanese Ōigawa Railway's locomotives include five characters from the Thomas & Friends series: Thomas the Tank Engine, Hiro, Percy, James, and Rusty. The locomotives are based at Shin-Kanaya Station.