Agnes, Ruth, Lucy, Jemima, and Beatrice

**Agnes, Ruth, Lucy, Jemima, and Beatrice** are the oldest coaches on the Skarloey Railway and characters in The Sudrian Dozen.

## History

Agnes, Ruth, Lucy, Jemima, and Beatrice are the primary coaches of the Skarloey Railway. The first three are sisters while Beatrice is their cousin and Jemima has no relation to the others whatsoever. Agnes used to be proud of her status as a First Class coach. This changed when she was redesignated as a Third Class coach. She complains bitterly about this. Ruth has always been a Third Class coach, leaving her largely indifferent to Agnes' whining. Lucy is a bit shorter than her sisters and was the first of them to be delivered. Having been a composite coach (for First AND Third class), she usually tries to see both her sisters' sides of an argument. Jemima was the last of them to arrive and while she means well, she's hard of hearing and often misinterprets the situation. Because she was built by a different company, she feels she's the odd one out of the group. Beatrice was the original guard's van and came to Sodor along with Lucy. While Beatrice is looked down on by the others, she's the humblest and most important of them. Beatrice is criticized by the others of smelling of fish and cheese, which she ignores. Beatrice has a ticket booth and an emergency buzzer and sometimes even carries passengers when the coaches are full. While one or more of the others are sometimes left behind, Beatrice is always brought along with whatever small passenger train is pull.

## Personalities

The coaches like all the engines, Sir Handel least of all for referring to them as "cattle trucks". They were also mistrustful of Skarloey at first for being bouncy. On the contrary, they took to Peter Sam right away and he even called them his 'dears' whenever he took them out.

Agnes is a deep-voiced and proud first-class carriage who looks down on the others, who are third-class. Agnes appears to be the leader of the five. All four coaches look down on Beatrice and claim that she "smells of fish and cheese." Beatrice is, however, very useful. She has a ticket booth and an emergency buzzer and sometimes even carries passengers when the coaches are full. Jemima is somewhat deaf and while she means well, she often misinterprets the situation. Ruth is indifferent to Agnes' whining and Lucy seems to be the mediator of her older sisters, but, it's unknown how she and Ruth interact with Jemima.

The coaches are genuinely nice and quiet like many other coaches, but, can be hot-tempered and sinister if an engine does not treat them properly. They can occasionally be silly and awkward and play tricks on the engines by pushing them down a hill without thinking about what they are doing, something that Sir Handel and Duncan struggle with. However, Skarloey and Rheneas, given their many years of experience, always know when to be stern with them when they misbehave and put them in their place. Beatrice is the humblest of the quintet and tries to be the voice of reason. Unfortunately, because she's the guard's van, the others ignore her.

## Trivia

* The books have Jemima as No. 3 and Lucy as No. 4. The order is flipped here to keep the 'list of coaches' consistent.
* There was an unknown fifth coach illustrated in the story Old Faithful by mistake. This coach is made into a new character, Hilda, a nod to an early draft of the owner of the Skarloey Railway having five daughters. Hilda was the name that was initially dropped from that idea instead of being reused for the Skarloey coaches.