Henry

Henry is a green mixed-traffic tender engine who lives and works on the Island of Sodor, and is the North Western Railway's number 3 engine. He was originally built as a dysfunctional prototype engine and needed special Welsh coal to operate properly. Following his accident when pulling the Flying Kipper, Henry underwent an extensive rebuild, giving him a new shape and a better performance.
==Biography==
Henry's exact origins are unknown. The story goes that he was built from drawings stolen from Sir Nigel Gresley at Doncaster in 1919 by an anonymous locomotive builder who held a grudge against him. The spy, however, blundered and took the wrong drawings. Instead of the new A1 "Pacific" locomotives that Gresley was designing at the time, with the prototype of the A1 Class being Gordon, the thief ended up with plans that had been rejected early on. The mistake was realised too late, and Henry was built with many resulting flaws, and only a superficial likeness to Gresley's Pacifics. One of these flaws was an undersized firebox, making Henry an unreliable shy steamer.
The thief was delighted to sell his "White Elephant" on to the first desperate customer who came along - Sir Topham Hatt. He had intended to buy a Great Central Railway Robinson Atlantic locomotive but was swindled and Henry was purchased instead. Henry arrived in 1922, and as the railway was facing a motive power crisis the Fat Controller, out of desperation, had no choice but to keep him.
When he came, Henry was vain and stopped in the Ballahoo Tunnel and refused to come out, believing that his paintwork would be spoiled by the rain. After several attempts to move him failed, he was bricked up in the tunnel for a duration of time, between several weeks to a few months, until Gordon broke down while pulling the Express. As Edward was unable to move the train himself, the Fat Controller offered to let Henry out of the tunnel to help. Henry eagerly accepted and was later freed from being bricked up.
Henry performed well and the Fat Controller promised him a new coat of paint, since Henry's existing paintwork had been spoiled more by his stay in the tunnel than it would have been by the rain. Henry asked to be painted blue like Edward, only for many people to confuse him with Gordon, much to the bigger engine's annoyance. The matter was worsened after a trip to Crovan's Gate Works|the Works when Henry was given a spare set of Gordon's buffers. These buffers were later removed after Henry - while boasting about them - ran into the buffers at Tidmouth. To cheer him up after losing his square buffers, the Fat Controller offered Henry to be repainted green, so as to end the confusion between him and Gordon.
Unfortunately, Henry was to suffer humiliation when he was pushed out of a tunnel and later hosed with water by an escaped elephant. After Gordon and James had suffered humiliations of their own (and all three had become thoroughly fed up having to do their own shunting and fetch their own coaches), the big engines went on strike. The Fat Controller naturally disapproved of this nonsense and locked them up in the shed for several days, leaving them miserable. However, they were let out again after promising to work hard.
The poor engine and his system - which was already finicky at best due to design flaws - never really recovered from his stay in the tunnel. Henry developed steaming problems, which he complained about constantly, though he found little sympathy from the engines, especially when it caused him to run late.
A period came when the Main Line engines were supplied with a poor delivery of coal and Henry had a very difficult time of it indeed. He had strength to pull trains only sporadically, in spite of numerous part replacements, and there was talk of being replaced by another engine. At last, the Fat Controller looked into it personally and asked for the opinion of Henry's fireman, who told him about the poor coal and Henry's firebox being too small to burn it efficiently. The fireman also suggested purchasing the high-grade Welsh coal used on the Great Western Railway. Sir Topham Hatt agreed to purchasing some in order to give Henry "a fair chance".
When the Welsh coal came, Henry's performance vastly improved, such that he was comparable to Gordon. He continued to use the coal until he had a collision with a goods train near Killdane while pulling the Flying Kipper and was sent to Crewe to be rebuilt in around 1935. Henry was rebuilt into a Stanier 5MT. The Fat Controller had connections with Sir William Stanier, so this is likely the reason he managed to get Henry rebuilt so quickly. Besides being given a new shape, Henry also received a larger firebox, allowing him to use regular coal again.
==Technical Details==
===Basis===
In his original form, Henry is based on one of the early rejected designs for Gresley's Great Northern Railway (GNR) A1 class 4-6-2, of which Gordon would later become the prototype. Between 1915 and 1922, a number of different iterations of the design were created. While it is unknown which exact one Henry was built from, it would have to be one of the designs drafted before 1919, given his build date.
File:PrototypeA1Sketch.png|A sketch of one of Gresley's prototype pacific designs
Following the 1935 Flying Kipper incident, Henry was rebuilt as a London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) Stanier 5MT "Black Five" 4-6-0.
In the real world, eighteen members of the LMS Stanier 5MT class have survived into preservation. Several members of this class survived until the end of steam on British Railways in 1968. Three class members, 44781, 44871 and 45110 were used to haul the Fifteen Guinea Special on August 11, 1968. 44871 and 45110 have survived into preservation whereas sister engine 44781 was purchased for use in the film, The Virgin Soldiers, and was scrapped after being used in a train scene disguised as a Malayan Railway L class locomotive (with the number 531.03).
Upon his return from Crewe, Henry originally carried a Stanier tender, however this was later replaced by a Fowler tender.
File:HenryBasis.jpg|Henry's rebuilt basis
File:StanierTender.png|A Stanier tender
File:FowlerTender.png|A Fowler tender
===Livery===
Henry is painted in NWR green with red lining on his cab, splashers, tender, cylinders and boiler and yellow lining around his windows. His number (3) is painted on his tender in yellow with a red outline. He has a white running board with red bufferbeams and valences.
== Appearances ==
=== Red Panda Express ===
* Welcome to Sodor 
* Discussing Failures 
* Gordon Gets In Trouble 
* Party Preparations
* Thomas VS Gordon
* Broken Trust 
* The Runaway
* Help Arrives
=== Movie ===
* Red Panda Express
Category:Steam locomotives
Category:Tender engines
Category:4-6-0
Category:North Western Railway
Category:The Main Line
Category:Awdry-created characters
Category:Male characters
Category:Standard gauge