James

James is a red mixed-traffic tender engine and a counterpart version of Edward of the steam team.

## Background Information

### First appearance

Thomas the Tank Engine (RWS)Thomas and Gordon (T&F)Thomas and the Sodor Race

## Biography

James arrived on the North Western Railway sometime before Thomas' arrival and after Gordon, and he was originally painted black with wooden brake blocks, which were prone to burning up and emitting smoke when stopping. He originally owned Annie and Clarabel and believed that he would be given his own branch line, although the other engines doubted this.

When Thomas came to Sodor, James teased him on several occasions for making mistakes, often joining in with Gordon to make fun of him. However, one day, James ran out of control with a goods train and was unable to stop due to his brake blocks being on fire. Thomas chased after the train and tried to slow it down, but James flew off a bend and crashed in a field, the crash badly damaging him. Thomas rushed back to Knapford and retrieved Jerome and Judy, who helped to clear away the wreckage and placed James back on the rails. James was sent to the Steamworks to be mended, where he received his new red livery. Upon returning from the Steamworks, James found out that Annie and Clarabel now belonged to Thomas, who had been given the responsibility of running the Ffarquhar Branch Line.

James' ego can sometimes get him in trouble. When he tried to switch his job of pulling trucks with Gordon's express train, he tricked Thomas to give him the express coaches by telling his that the Fat Controller ordered him to take the coaches. However, the Fat Controller heard about James' tricks from Gordon and his driver, and punished him by leaving him in the shed until he learned his lesson. The following day, he was allowed out to shunt trucks, but also got the chance to redeem himself when an inspector requested to ride with James to the Fat Controller. They arrived on time and the Fat Controller considered James a really useful engine.

James' ego has sometimes stopped him from following advice from others. When Percy and Terence tried to warn him about the dangers of trees getting too close to the line, he did not take any notice until a tree literally too close to the line slid on James' tracks. Luckily, Thomas came to his rescue and pulled James away just before the tree fell on him.

James' teasing has also backfired; after he saw Percy being a "middle engine" and made fun of him because of it, James later ended up being made a middle engine himself for which he was teased by Percy. ​​He's also shown to care a lot about his paintwork, having refused to help Percy at the coaling plant because of his admiration of it, wanting to stay nice and clean to be the star of the show and refused to travel across muddy tracks to not get it dirty.

After Thomas told Percy about footprints he had seen at the quarry, James started teasing Percy about a monster being on Sodor. After James himself ended up in mishaps of his own, he decided to make fun of Percy by making him think there was a monster. James was later forced by Thomas to apologise, but Percy refused to listen to what he thought was more of James' teasing which led to James venturing into the quarry to look for the footprints. This ended up causing a rockslide that Percy had to rescue him from, after which James apologised for everything.

## Personality

James is very proud of his splendid red paintwork. He dislikes pulling trucks and believes that he should only pull coaches. He is so self-centred that he thinks himself superior to the others and can be shallow, arrogant, snobby, boastful, overconfident, naughty and vain, particularly to those who appear old-fashioned, weak, slow or dirty. This has caused him to have somewhat of a rivalry with Edward, Percy, Toby and Duck, as well as Thomas, Gordon, Henry and even Philip lately on occasion. His vanity reached the point that he tried to block Edward from a photographer's view when Edward was having his picture taken and when he tried to get his job done quick so he can take the present train. In most cases, it takes scolding from others (particularly Sir Topham Hatt) to make his penny drop, and even then it is too late to prevent trouble at times. He has acted like this even before he was repainted red. His temper can be as fiery as his red coat of paint which can lead him to his eventual downfall. However, on a number of occasions, he has found himself in need of help from those whom he has insulted and is, in the end, apologetic.

James was the last of the steam engines to retain a prejudice against diesels, insulting them the same way other visiting diesels would insult the steam engines on Sodor, with BoCo and Bear barely being spared from his opinionated view. However, after stalling on a cold day, he was rescued by the Works Diesel and had to admit that nothing was wrong with diesels. This appears to be one of the few lessons that have stuck. Despite this, James can remain highly opinionated on someone's character, refusing to believe Sonny had given up life as a criminal, only to find out the hard way that when Sonny bumped him at the docks, it was to save him from being splattered and dented by watermelons. In similar situations, James often feels remorse and guilt for his actions, often leading to his apologies coming out meekly.

James has also been portrayed as a prankster, often tricking or scaring the other engines for fun or to get out of jobs he dislikes doing. However, following a particularly mean-spirited prank he played on Percy in Tale of the Brave, this gimmick seems to have died down. He has been labelled as the "Joker" of the Steam Team by Thomas. James is shown to frequently make excuses to get out of pulling trains he deems to be "not good enough".

Despite all of that, James has shown to have a caring side to him. He has a heart of gold, is normally hard-working and like everyone else, wants to be responsible, reliable and really useful on Sir Topham Hatt's railway. Although his vanity usually hides it, James actually is capable of realizing when he crosses the line. Because of his constant arrogance, he is among some of Sodor's most notorious troublemakers.

## Technical Details

### Basis

James is based on the L&YR Class 28, a class of 0-6-0 mixed-traffic tender locomotive designed by George Hughes for the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway and built by Horwich Works between 1909 and 1912. It was a rebuild of Aspinall's Class 27, with the addition of a Belpaire firebox, a Schmidt/"twin-plug" superheater and the extension of the footplate and front sandboxes.

According to *The Island of Sodor: Its People, History and Railways*, James is an experimental member of the Class 28s; he is fitted with a front pony truck (thus making him a 2-6-0 instead of an 0-6-0), 5'6" driving wheels instead of the class' original 5'1" ones and a Fowler tender. His front sandboxes also appear to be mounted underneath his footplate rather than joined to his leading splashers.

### Livery

James is painted in NWR red with black lining and gold boiler bands. His dome is brass and his number is painted on the sides of his tender in yellow with black lining.

In the *Railway Series*, James would have originally been painted in L&YR passenger black, but any white has never been depicted making his appearance akin to their goods livery instead. In the television series, James was originally depicted as having always been red, even when he was a new engine, the only exception being his appearance in his black livery in *The Adventure Begins*.

## Appearances

**Alsop Productions**

TBA

**Thomas & Friends**

* James and the Coaches

**Railway Series**

* James the Red Engine

## Trivia

* James is the most popular character Daniel Alsop has voiced as he sometimes voices him in other people’s series’s like Niafan18's Take n Play series and in a few redubs
* James is one out of two characters to have always be voiced by Daniel Alsop since Season 1 with the other being Thomas.
* James has currently had 29 episodes in the series.
* James Is the only character who has gotten into trouble the most in the series
* He is also the main protagonist in The Narrow Gauge Mission and is the one only standard gauge engines to be the main protagonist in a special. The others being Thomas and Percy. The former had Sodor's National Championship, Sodor's Finest Engines and The Case of the Missing Engines and the latter also had The Case of the Missing Engines.

## Voice Actors

* Daniel Alsop (Season 1 onwards)

Whistles
 S4