Philip

Philip is a small but energetic diesel boxcab.

## Bio:

Philip lives on Sodor. 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 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, Philip caught him with the top of his cab roof to not let him fall. When James was rescued and sent to the Steamworks, Philip proudly told the engines of his rescue.

Once, 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 has not lost his enthusiasm. He also 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.

Philip 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 birth at Tidmouth Sheds got destroyed by James, Edward stayed over at Philip's shed at Wellsworth. While it was originally hard forward 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 apologizing 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 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.

He primarily works at Knapford Station as the station pilot but also works at Wellsworth.

## 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 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 else'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.

## Basis:

Philip is loosely based on the Pennsylvania Railroad (PR) Class A6 "Boxcab" diesel-electric switcher, but with the curved back end and extra door of the AGEIR (Alco, General-Electric and Ingersoll-Rand) prototype boxcab #8835, albeit with five windows instead of seven. To fit in with the other engines on Sodor, Philip also has buffer beams added on each end with loose couplings and added buffers.

## Livery:

* Dark green (bottom half)
* Yellow (top half)