Donald and Douglas

**Donald and Douglas the Scottish Twins** are two of the main protagonists of the SeventyVerse and the ninth and tenth engines on the North Western Railway.

## Backstory

Donald and Douglas worked in Scotland together, and made lots of friends including Harriet/Barry, Murdoch, Duchess and a tank engine named Hamish. During this time, the two unfortunately got into an argument when they crashed into a hay cart. The duo were separated at the worst possible time because Donald was chosen to go to Sodor, and Douglas was withdrawn after he broke down. Donald frantically rushed to save him, and they had their numbers painted over so they could sneak to Sodor together. After a lot of trials, the duo remained on the island of Sodor.

## Relationship with each other

Donald and Douglas have worked together for a long time, and are each other's best friend. Donald can get a bit overprotective of Douglas sometimes, but that was due to the fact he almost lost him to scrap. That being said, Douglas was able to return Donald's favour when Arry and Bert almost got him. The duo often tease and pull pranks on each other, but their loyalty to each other is undeniable.

## Main Line crew

### Henry

Henry helped to keep the twins' spirits up when Sir Topham Hatt left the island for a holiday during Donald and Douglas' trial. He took them to his forest, and in return, they helped rescue him from a snowdrift and helped to rebuild his forest after it was damaged in a storm.

### Gordon

Gordon was a bit surprised when the twins showed up together, but was very welcoming of them. He later lead the indignation meeting when he realised Donald or Douglas were going to be scrapped, and suggested Duck be a deputation for them. Occasionally, the twins do make fun of Gordon's nonsense, like when he was scared by a cow.

### James

James helped Douglas up the hill when the Spiteful break van was making fun of him. Douglas later repaid James' favour, and accidentally crushed Old Spiteful in the process. Not as much as known about James' relationship with Donald, but both twins do get annoyed with James' showing off.

### Emily

Donald and Douglas get along pretty well with Emily. Emily does sometimes help the twins with ploughing the snow if one of them is being mended, even if she isn't the strongest engine. Unfortunately, the twins' story about Douglas' escape did make Emily doubt herself, and she started pushing away from the other engines. She has gotten better though.

### Murdoch

Donald and Douglas are old friends with Murdoch, having worked with him back in Scotland. The trio had a mutual distrust of diesels, which only increased when D199 went after Douglas. Murdoch was one of the engines who assisted on the London trip, which the twins are very grateful for. Not much is known about their relationship in the present, but some of it will be explored in the Series 6-7 redux.

### Rebecca

Not much is known about the twins' relationship with Rebecca, but they did warmly welcome her to the island.

### Bear

The twins had a good first impression of Bear when they heard he slipped around to help save Oliver and Toad. Douglas didn't hold any ill will toward Bear when he had a failed injector on his trial run. Not too much else is known about their relationship.

## Little Western crew

### Duck

Duck was the twins first real friend on Sodor, and he admired their efforts with the trucks and coaches. He later stood up for Douglas when he shunted Annie and Clarabel by mistake, and went along with Donald's crash gambit to save Douglas. Duck was a deputation for the twins, and was glad they stayed on the island. He remained close with them ever since. Donald and Duck also became pranking buddies, such as when a duckling was slipped into Donald's tank and an egg was put under Duck's bunker.

### Oliver

Douglas had related to Oliver's struggles of escaping from scrap, and was more than happy to help save his life. Since then, the two had become quite close. They also both accidentally destroying a piece of spiteful rolling stock (Old Spiteful for Douglas; S.C.Ruffey for Oliver), and Oliver found a lot of consolation in Douglas. Douglas was very concerned when Oliver went missing during his first mail run, and both were in deep denial of their budding romance with each other. Oliver returned Douglas' favour by saving him from Diesel 10, and finally the duo confessed their love. Not as much is known about Donald's friendship with Oliver, but he does tend to get more frustrated with him when his ego gets in the way.

### Ryan

Not too much is known about the relationship with the twins and Ryan, but Ryan did offer to take a lobster train for Douglas when he filled in for Henry.

### Jackie

The twins don't know Jackie too well, but she did help out when the engines went to London. They heard some stories about her from Duck. Duck also joked that Donald may try to get with Jackie or Katrina after he and Tasha had a budding crush, and Oliver and Douglas were already together. Donald didn't appreciate hearing that.

### Katrina

Oliver told stories of Katrina to the twins, being his old friend from the Great Western Railway. Katrina filled in for Donald on the London trip, and has met Douglas as well. Duck also joked that Donald may try to get with Katrina or Jackie after he and Tasha had a budding crush, and Oliver and Douglas were already together. Donald didn't appreciate hearing that.

### Daisy

Daisy and the twins don't get on the best. Donald and Douglas often find Daisy's diva antics annoying, but they do get the upper buffer sometimes.

### Toad

Like Oliver, Toad was saved from scrap by Douglas, and he greatly respects him for it. Toad often works with Douglas when Oliver is taking passengers. This became more frequent when Isabel and Dulcie were reunited with Oliver several years later. Not as much is known about Toad's relationship with Donald, but he has taken Toad with him on occasion as well.

### Alistair, Mirabel and Benjamin

The twins admitted they've taken slip coaches before, and Duck promises to have them take the slippies out sometimes.

### Isabel and Dulcie

When Douglas realised how much Oliver missed his autocoaches, he talked to Sir Charles Topham Hatt about it and allowed the trio to reunite. Isabel and Dulcie are very grateful to Douglas.

## Other relationships

### Thomas

Thomas didn't see eye-to-eye with Donald and Douglas at first, as the latter accidentally shunted Annie and Clarabel away. However, when Thomas heard Douglas was going to be scrapped if he was sent home, Thomas immediately changed his attitude. Their aren't too close, but Thomas and the twins have each other's backs.

### Edward

Edward knew something was wrong when the twins arrived together. When he learned about Douglas being put in the line of scrap, he asked Douglas to work with him on the Brandam branch so he could calm down.

### BoCo

The twins were very apprehensive about BoCo at first. However, BoCo was very patient and slowly won them over with his kindness and good sense of humor.

### Arry and Bert

Donald and Douglas hate Arry and Bert for what they do to steam engines. If it wasn't bad enough they tried to scrap Oliver and Toad, they tried to get Donald as well (they were aiming for Douglas, but they got the twins mixed up). There is a lot of tension when the four engines are together.

### Spencer

After hearing about what Spencer almost did to Hiro, Donald and Douglas - mostly the latter - were understandably furious with Spencer. However, when Spencer opened up about his past and almost being scrapped, Douglas began to understand Spencer a bit more.

## Technical Details

### Basis

Donald and Douglas are both based on Caledonian Railway (CR) McIntosh 812 Class 0-6-0 goods engines. Their numbers, however, would realistically place them in the 652 sub-class. One example, No. 828, survives in preservation. As Donald and Douglas' BR numbers are fictional, they have no real-life counterpart.

### Liveries

Donald is painted in British Railways (BR) black with white and red lining on his cabs and tender. His numbers (9) is painted on his tender in yellow with red outlines.

Douglas was originally painted in the same livery as Donald. But from *Out of the Blue* onwards, Douglas is painted in NWR cerulean blue, with red and yellow lining, like both twins were in The Railway Series. Douglas' number (10) is painted on their tenders in yellow with red outlines.

Donald and Douglas both have black running boards with red bufferbeams and valences. The pair also have brass nameplates with red backing, mounted on either side of their smokebox.

## Personalities

Donald and Douglas are very practical, peppery and proud. They work hard without fuss and can stand up to the big engines when they are too big for their buffers. They can get up to some harmless practical jokes though, and occasionally get into arguments. Donald is more of the charming, witty joker with more of a temper whereas Douglas is the quick-thinking, calmer-natured one of the pair.

## Differences between the episodes and the books

* Donald and Douglas were both repainted blue in the books, but remained black in the TV show. In this series, Douglas later gets repainted blue, but Donald remains black.
* Douglas is in a romance with Oliver while Donald will later be in a romance with Katrina.
* Douglas and Oliver share Toad between them. In the books, Toad becomes Douglas' brakevan as an act of gratitude for saving him, and Oliver keeps him in the TV show.
* In the books, Donald and Douglas' old numbers were 57646 and 57647. These numbers were considered in-jokes, as there were no CR 812s with those numbers. Their LMS numbers would have been 17646 and 17647, and the CR numbers 662 and 663.
* In the books, Douglas pretended he was Donald to fool Sir Topham Hatt when they swapped tenders. In this series, Donald pretended to be Douglas.
* Donald's voice sounds gruffer while Douglas' voice is softer. Such a distinction wasn't made in the book or the show.