Philip

**Philip** is a cheery little diesel boxcab. He works as a shunting engine at Knapford Station. He lives at Wellsworth Sheds.

## History

### Thomas & Friends

Philip came to the Island of Sodor as the new shunting engine at Knapford. During his first day of work, he was eager to impress Gordon by showing him how fast he was, but nothing he did was enough to impress him. He challenged Gordon to a race and took off out of the yard, racing all the way to Brendam Docks. However, he seemed oblivious to the fact that Gordon had not actually competed.

Philip continued to be proud of his speed and boasted about how many trucks he could pull. After taking a train of empty trucks to the quarry, he found James hanging over the top of a tunnel, having had an accident after trying to prove to Philip how many trucks he could pull instead. Just as James began to fall down, Philip caught him with the top of his cab roof in order to not let him fall. When James was rescued and sent to the Steamworks, Philip proudly told the engines of his rescue.

In the twentieth series, Philip was eager to make friends with Toby, thinking he was a diesel boxcab like himself. The tram engine, however, was overwhelmed by Philip's enthusiasm. The two of them briefly raced each other until Philip nearly collided with Thomas. Philip then learned how to be quiet from Toby, but he still hasn't lost his enthusiasm. Also in the twentieth series, he was excited about Hugo's arrival, and left his job to see him. However, he was disappointed and claimed that he did not see Hugo returning from Ulfstead Castle, while the others who went with him did.

In The Great Race, Philip was among the many engines who were eager for the Fat Controller to take them to the Great Railway Show. After Thomas' encounter with Ashima following the show's competitors' accidental arrival on Sodor, Philip insisted that the foreign engines were nothing but trouble and advised Thomas to avoid her.

Ultimately, Philip was not chosen to compete in the Great Railway Show, instead representing Sodor in the show as its mascot and flag carrier. At the show, a series of incidents occurred after he kept accidentally getting in the way of Vinnie - a North American engine - who soon lost patience with Philip and chased him briefly before getting covered in coal from a hopper where Carlos was taking on coal. Vinnie, infuriated, chased Philip around the railway show yard, eventually winding up in the middle of the shunting competition. Vinnie derailed two of Gina's flatbeds before trying to force the little shunter into a turntable well. Thomas and Ashima - both of whom were competing in the shunting competition - however, managed to couple up to the big tender engine and pull him clear of the points, allowing Philip to escape. After this, Thomas' coupling snapped, launching Vinnie off the tracks and into an electric pylon, which then fell on top of him. Philip then joined the other engines from Sodor to watch Thomas compete in the rest of the shunting competition, but one of the derailed flatbeds affected the result of the race, which led to Thomas forfeiting the race to save Ashima of her blocked track. Philip told the other Sudrian engines that he had warned Thomas that Ashima was trouble, only for the judges to give the victory to both Thomas and Ashima: Ashima for completing the challenge first and Thomas for his excellent sportsmanship. Philip later accompanied Sodor's team and Ashima back to Sodor.

In the twenty-first series, he got teased about the number 68 painted on his side and tried to discover why he had the number. After sixty-eight sheep ran onto the tracks and Philip saved them from a speeding Gordon, he decided that it is his lucky number. When Edward's berth at Tidmouth Sheds got destroyed by James, Edward stayed over at Philip's shed at Wellsworth. While it was originally hard for Edward to deal with Philip's loud chattering, he soon enjoyed his company and eventually decided to move with Philip as his shed was close to his branch line.

In the twenty-second series, Philip got fed up with James pushing him around and not apologising to him, so he refused to give way when he and James ended up facing each other on the left side of the Fenland Track. However, James also refused to move and it ended up being a stalemate. This unfortunately caused Thomas, Paxton, Rebecca, Annie and Clarabel to be held up behind them and the bridge became in danger of collapsing, leading to Philip deciding that sometimes the littlest engine can actually be the bigger one. Eventually, James apologised to Philip and the others for causing delay between them, and Philip happily accepted his friend's apology.

Philip later heard from Percy that there was due to be a railway show for little engines at Ulfstead Castle and passed on the news to Oliver to attend. This ended up with him abandoning his duties at Knapford to attend, not shunting the Express Coaches to Gordon and causing him to be late.

## Personality

Philip is a little diesel boxcab engine with a big personality. He is a comic character and a bit of a class clown, is very eager and full of enthusiasm and he has an innocent, but has a very overblown sense of his own capabilities. Philip can be very funny, but some of the bigger engines have very little patience for the little boxcab and find him annoying. Philip is strong, fast and likes to hurry about and can constantly boast about it. But Philip's confidence is as big if not bigger than anyone's and he is always willing to try and definitely believes in himself. His actions and attitude soon won him many new friends on Sodor - especially Thomas and Percy - but Gordon and James find his bragging a little hard to accept.

Philip can calm down for the benefit of others. He is shown being quiet and enjoying the scenery, just like Toby.

All in all, Philip reminds Edward of Thomas when he first came to Sodor.

## Livery

Philip is painted dark green on the bottom half of his body and yellow on the top half, with red buffer beams and black wheels. His number 68 is painted on his sides in black, surrounded by a white circle with a black outline.

## Appearances

* Season 1 - Gordon the Tanker (fantasy), Ask Cranky Day (*cameo*), Bad Luck Emily, and Percy's Mail Problems
* Season 2 - Philip Gets Lost and Red for Rosie (*mentioned*)
* Season 3 - Emily's Misadventure (*cameo*)
* Specials - Attack of the Philips

## Trivia

* Philip has been modified for use on Sodor. He has added buffers and loose couplings on both ends.
* Philip is the first American diesel engine to be introduced in the series and the first diesel boxcab introduced in *Thomas & Friends*.
* Philip is the second Pennsylvanian engine to be introduced in *Thomas & Friends*, the first being Hank.
* Much like Rosie's number 37, Philip's number **68** has to do with the number of standard gauge engines introduced in the television series. In Philip's case, Victor is also counted, thus making Philip the **sixty-eighth** engine.
	+ In the show, the reasoning behind Philip's number is never revealed. It is only stated that Philip was already numbered 68 when he arrived and that the Fat Controller found out the reason after doing some research.
* Even though Philip is an American engine, he speaks with a British accent in both the UK and US dubs of the show, much like Timothy. This would later apply to Rosie following Nicola Stapleton's casting in 2017.
* On the box of Phillip’s Take-n-Play release, it features an early CGI render of him.

## Quotes

> See James? I told you I was very strong! - Philip to James after he saved James.
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> I'll go get help! Oh wait. I can't!
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> The point is, that you can do anything you want to Thomas, if you just put your mind to it. - Philip to Thomas in The Great Race.
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> S-O-D-O-R. What does that spell? Sodor! - Philip cheering for the Sodor team in The Great Race.
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