Henry

Henry is a protagonist and a member of The New Action Squad.

## **BIOGRAPHY**

Henry's origins are highly unknown. The story goes that he was built from drawings stolen from Sir Nigel Gresley at Doncaster about 1919 by an anonymous locomotive builder who held a grudge against him and desired to steal a march on him His spy, however, blundered and took the wrong drawings; they were for an experimental engine, but were supposed to be for the new "Pacific" locomotives Gresley was designing at the time. The thief realised his mistake too late and Henry was built, with many resulting flaws and a superficial likeness to Gresley's Pacifics.

The thief was delighted to unload his "White Elephant" on to the first desperate customer who came along - The Fat Controller. He had intended to buy a Robinson "Atlantic" of the Great Central Railway, but was tricked into purchasing Henry in 1922 instead and had no choice but to keep him due to the railway being desperate for locomotives.

Henry was vain and stopped in the Ballahoo Tunnel and refused to come out, citing that his paintwork would be spoiled by the rain. After several attempts to move him failed, he was bricked up in the tunnel until Gordon broke down while pulling the Express. As Edward was unable to move the train himself, the Fat Controller offered to let Henry out of the tunnel to help. Henry eagerly accepted.

Henry performed very well and the Fat Controller promised him a new coat of paint, since Henry's existing paintwork had been spoiled more by his stay in the tunnel than it would have been by the rain. Henry asked to be painted blue like Edward, only for many people to confuse him with Gordon, to the bigger engine's annoyance. The matter was worsened after a trip to the Works when Henry was given spares of Gordon's buffers. Sometime before 1935, Henry, when again offered new paint, chose green and so ended the Gordon/Henry confusion.

Outside of Sodor, he is also a member of The New Action Squad. His love for nature has grown stronger since then and has swore to protect life on different worlds.

## **APPEARANCE**

Henry's history is unusual. The Fat Controller had intended to buy a Robinson Atlantic of the Great Central Railway, but was swindled and instead received Henry. According to men who worked on Henry pre-rebuild, he had a superficial likeness to Gordon, but the aesthetics were as far as this went. Although Henry's exact origins are difficult to trace, it is generally thought that he was built by an unknown rival locomotive builder to Sir Nigel Gresley, whose spy stole the wrong drawings for Gresley's upcoming A1 pacifics, resulting in Henry.

Henry in this shape developed performance issues from flaws in the design, compounded by his stay in the tunnel. Henry was a bad steamer; with good-quality coal, he could get enough heat to make plenty of steam, but when there was a poor lot delivered, his undersized firebox could not hold enough coal to make a proper fire. On advice from Henry's fireman, the Fat Controller ordered high-grade Welsh Coal, which made an appreciable difference in Henry's performance.

When Henry suffered an accident and severe damage in the winter of 1935, the opportunity was taken to send him to Crewe, where he was rebuilt an LMS Stanier 5MT "Black Five" 4-6-0. After "The Eight Famous Engines", Henry's Stanier tender was replaced by a standard Fowler tender.

In the television series, Henry has always had a one-window cab with an LNER-style tender. The differences between his shapes were removed splashers, the Belpaire firebox replacing the tapered, added steampipes beneath his smokebox, and a top feed. This was done to ease the changeover to his "Black Five"-esque appearance. However, Henry kept his parallel boiler instead of the tapered one that the Black Fives had. He later regained a full set of wheel-arches in Series 2 onwards, making him somewhat a hybrid of the 5MT and the similarly designed LMS Jubilee Class. The grey and purple tender engines are also based on this design.

Henry is painted in NWR apple green with red and yellow lining. His number is painted on the sides of his tender in yellow with red lining and the lining around his cab windows is yellow.

He was repainted in NWR sky blue with red and yellow lining at the end of "The Three Railway Engines" and remained so until the beginning of Troublesome Engines, when he was given back his own livery to avoid him being too similar to Gordon. In Henry and the Express, he was briefly painted orange-red as an undercoat before his standard green coat was applied. In Henry in the Dark, he was accidentally painted with a glow in the dark green livery.

In the *Railway Series*, Henry has a golden builder's plates placed on one side of his cab.

In the learning segment, *Being Repainted*, he had a cream undercoat.

## **PERSONALITY**

Henry is generally well-behaved and friendly, but is sometimes arrogant. Henry is at heart, a very hard worker, but his frequent bouts of illness hinder his work. His illnesses almost always have something to do with his boiler. Unlike Gordon and James, Henry does not mind pulling trucks, especially as he is a mixed traffic engine, although when he is given the job of pulling the express whenever Gordon is unable to, this can get to his smokebox and he can act full of himself. While he does not usually mind pulling trucks Henry hated to shunt his own trains, which led to several miserable days stuck in the sheds after a failed attempt at going on strike.

In the television series, Henry has been portrayed with a much kinder and softer personality. He has been shown as a nature-lover, as evidenced in Henry's Forest. This personality carried on throughout the more recent series with Henry being occasionally a tree-hugging engine too, as he tried to prevent the tall pine tree and the wishing tree from being cut down.

In the newer series, Henry is portrayed as not too bright and sometimes really worrisome, as shown in multiple episodes. This worrisome personality was also featured in The Adventure Begins, which greatly contrasts to the original version of The Sad Story of Henry. He has shown instances when he was either moody, arrogant and vain, but proud, strong and witty, much like the earlier series, particularly when someone pokes fun at his expense and when vain engines start getting smug. Henry is the most likely to be respectful to smaller engines such as Edward, Percy, Thomas and Toby on a regular basis. He does not frequently antagonize his fellow friends, and usually shows remorse for his actions. Because of this, he is often considered much friendlier than Gordon and James.

## **TRIVIA**

* Henry appeared in the Railway Series more than any other engine, having been in both the most books and the most individual stories.
* The mention of Henry having originally been ordered as a GCR Robinson Atlantic in The Island of Sodor: Its People, History and Railways is based on Awdry's original illustrations of The Three Railway Engines, which depict him as a 4-4-2.
* In the 1997 annual story, We Wish You a Merry Christmas!, Henry's fireman was revealed to be named Ted. In the magazine story, Henry Helps, Old Bailey is Henry's driver.
* Awdry's own model of Henry was as troublesome as its fictional counterpart; it never really worked properly. The model was eventually scrapped but never replaced.
* Henry is the third character to be removed from the Steam Team, the first two being Edward and Toby.
	+ Of these three, Henry is the only one to not have any major roles following his removal from the main cast.
* In the Greek narration of Series 1 to 7, Henry is called "Charlie". From the thirteenth series onwards, Henry has been referred to with his original name to avoid confusion with Charlie, who was introduced that season.
* One of Henry's models is on display in Japan at the Hara Model Railway Museum (previously at Nitrogen Studios) and is currently wearing his sad face mask.
* An ERTL Henry appeared in the American sitcom, *Everybody Loves Raymond*.
* Henry's ERTL toy lacked splashers and was modelled after his rebuild in Series 1 making him closer to both the original Dalby illustrations and his real-life counterpart.
* The only pieces of merchandise to depict Henry in his original shape are a small pull back toy [1] and a prototype for the Thomas Engine Collection Series.
* When nameboards were still used in the series, Henry never had a nameboard shot where he was in his new shape.
* Martin Sherman said in an interview with Sodor Island Fansite, that he originally auditioned to voice Henry, but got the parts for Thomas and Percy instead.
* Henry, Thomas and James are the only characters to speak in every special. They, along with Gordon are the only characters to *appear* in every special.
* According to the online video "Still the Best of Friends", the official reason Henry relocated to Vicarstown was to be closer to his work, referring to his taking trains to the Mainland in Tale of the Brave and Journey Beyond Sodor.