Stepney

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> Bluebells forever! - Stepney's "catchphrase"
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**Stepney**, named after a district in London, is a "Bluebell" engine who lives and works on the Bluebell Railway. He is Boxhill's and Fenchurch's brother. His friendly, enthusiastic attitude makes him a welcome visitor on Sir Topham Hatt's railway.

In *the Railway Series*, Stepney lives on the Mainland and works on the Bluebell Railway. In *Thomas & Friends*, Stepney works on a Sudrian branch line neighbouring the Skarloey Railway, also known as the "Bluebell Railway".

In Lukeillie's Series, Stepney shares traits from *The Railway Series* and *Thomas & Friends.* He is not a permanent resident of Sodor and is either working on the Bluebell Railway on the Mainland or working on the Bluebell Branch Line.

## History

### The Railway Series

Stepney was built at Brighton Works in Brighton, England in 1875 as an LB&SCR A1 class engine and later rebuilt as an A1X in 1912. He arrived on the Bluebell Railway on 17th May 1960, after the railway's founder Bernard Holden MBE helped to save the line for preservation. Stepney was the first engine to be rescued by the Bluebell Railway.

In 1962, Stepney came on loan to Sodor and worked briefly with Duck at Tidmouth before working on Thomas' Branch Line, which during the time he caught a cricket ball in one of his trucks while passing the Elsbridge Cricket Field. Towards the end of his stay, he returned to Tidmouth and on his last day double-headed the Express with Duck after Class 40 had failed.

### Thomas & Friends

Stepney was stranded on a siding in the scrapyard at the Vicarstown Goods Depot where Rusty found him and helped arrange for him to be put back into service. He now runs the Bluebell Branch Line. He later travelled a long distance away from his railway to Sir Topham Hatt's railway as a visitor after getting tired of travelling on his branch line.

Stepney later wanted to have a change from his branch line and he was sent back to Sir Topham Hatt's railway (again on a visiting basis) to help Toby and Mavis at Anopha Quarry. This excursion nearly ended in disaster after 'Arry and Bert tried to scrap Stepney, luckily without success, after Stepney accidentally ventured into the Sodor Ironworks.

For a long time afterwards, Stepney had little actual contact or involvement with Sir Topham Hatt's railway. On a few occasions during the sixth series, he can be seen helping out with the other engines while he visited the North Western Railway. He can briefly be seen helping the other engines out by delivering trucks filled with flowers while the stations prepared for the Most Beautiful Station competition. A short time later, a hot air balloon was flying across the island and Duck accidentally ran into him due to gazing up at it. After he helped Edward with the running of The Loop Line, Stepney had virtually disappeared (not counting his stock footage appearances in the seventh series) until a while later, when he was hit by a truck full of sugar in an incident caused by Rosie. He has not been seen in the television series since.

## Personality

Stepney is a bubbly, modest and humble chap who is bursting with enthusiasm. He is very eager to please and is every engine's friend. When given a job to do, he is determined to complete it to the best of his ability. Even if an engine might not like him at first, his personality wins them over. After being saved from scrap by Rusty and the Bluebell Railway, he now runs his own branch line, but loves visiting and helping out on the Fat Controller's Railway. He has an enthusiasm for learning and listening to advice, as well as keeping busy. Stepney can feel down in the dumps if he does not get enough work to do or if he does not get a good long run to stretch his wheels. Stepney is high-spirited, lively and is keen to see fair play. He is popular amongst the engines and is always game for more work. Unlike most of Sodor's engines, Stepney loves to work with trucks.

## Livery

Stepney is painted in LB&SCR ochre gold, formally known as "Stroudley's Improved Engine Green", with green, red, white and black lining. His name is painted on his side tanks and the number "55" is painted on the sides of his bunker, both in white.

## Appearances

* Season 2 - Diesel of Change (*mentioned*)

## Trivia

* Stepney is currently withdrawn from service, following the failure of his main steam pipe. He was repainted from his British Railways black livery with red lining, which replicates that which he carried upon his arrival at the Bluebell Railway in May 1960. He now carries his original London, Brighton and South Coast Railway "Improved Engine Green Livery". A future overhaul has not been entirely ruled out.
* In 1997, Britt Allcroft attempted to sue the Bluebell Railway for ripping off the character of Stepney, despite the fact he was built 88 years before being introduced in the franchise. This lawsuit attempt failed.
* Alec Baldwin gave Stepney a Cockney accent in the US dub. This may have been intentional, as Stepney is a region of East London and the inhabitants of that area, amongst others, were known as Cockneys.
* When the president of the Bluebell Railway Bernard Holden MBE died at the age of 104 on 4th October 2012, Stepney headed his funeral train on the 16th, due to being the first engine that the railway rescued. In 2014, Stepney also headed the funeral train for Jack Owen, who was his ex-driver.
* The prototype of Stepney's 1996 Wooden Railway toy has the original face and magnets of Thomas.
* In the Spanish and Czech dubs of the show, he is known as the Hyacinth engine instead of the Bluebell engine. In the Dutch dub, he is known as the Violet engine.
* Both of Stepney's appearances in the seventh series were made up of stock footage.
* At one time, the Official Website incorrectly stated that Stepney was a narrow gauge engine. Stepney was also incorrectly stated to be narrow gauge in Railway Rhymes. He was also included in a Take Along Narrow Gauge Gift Pack. The narrow gauge engines' nameboards sequence also includes Stepney. In the fourth series, Stepney's driver wore the same uniform that the narrow gauge engines' drivers wore.
* Stepney was featured in the music video for Tracey Ullman's "*Move Over Darling*" in 1983.
* Although he has not been featured in the CGI series, Keith Wickham has voiced him in *Thomas-saurus Rex*.
	+ According to *Thomas-saurus Rex*, he knew both Sir Topham Hatt and his grandfather prior to his arrival.
* From the sixth series onwards, the block under Stepney's smokebox became the same colour as his livery.
* He is the only returning character in Series 12 who did not appear in the CGI series.
* In some promotional artwork and television series tie-in book illustrations, he is seen often wearing the express headcode lamps.
* Stepney is one of the four engines to be saved from scrap, with the others being Oliver, Hiro and Glynn. However, in the television series, Stepney was saved from scrap twice.
* In the third illustration of *Bluebells of England*, Stepney does not have a face. This is because Wilbert Awdry thought it was best that the engines only have faces on Sodor unless it was important to the story that the engines interact with other characters.
	+ However, this rule would no longer apply on future *Railway Series* books.