Francis

**Francis the North Eastern Engine** is one of the antagonists in the Seventyverse and a member of the Anti Diesel Electric League Revolution. He is also the Seventyverse version of Ferdinand from the original TV series.

## Backstory

Francis was sent to rescue Lisa's passengers after the electric engine speed through a puddle and wet an electric box in the process, causing the electricity to go out. Francis was very critical of this and despite William asking him to go easy on Lisa, Francis was still annoyed at having to delay his goods train over this.

When Francis was withdrawn from service in favour of diesels, he was rescued by Addison Darnell.

## Relationships

### Lisa

Francis was sent to take over Lisa's train after her mishap with the puddle and the electrical output. Needless to say, he was not best pleased about having his goods train by this and he stated this was not the right way to handle things.

## Personality

Francis hates having his trains delayed, which is why he was cross with Lisa for running through a muddy puddle and damaging a nearby electric box in the process. This is because he had to delay his goods train so he could rescue Lisa's passengers.

Before this, Francis was a friendly and cheerful engine, but after Corporal Lucky's death, he became grumpy and rude.

## Technical Details

### Basis

Francis is based on a North Eastern Railway Class T2, classified as Class Q6 by the London and North Eastern Railway. This class of 0-8-0 steam locomotive was designed for heavy freight, especially for hauling long coal trains to various collieries in the North Eastern region of the UK, with a maximum speed of 40 miles per hour. 120 were built at Darlington Works and Armstrong Whitworth between 1913 and 1921 to the design of Vincent Raven, based on the NER Class T and T1 (LNER Q5). The batch of fifty built by Armstrong Whitworth from 1919 were A-W's first locomotives to be built, after the conversion of their Scotswood works from ordnance to peacetime production.

One, 2238 (LNER 1946 number 3395; BR 63395) has survived to preservation on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. It is owned by the North Eastern Locomotive Preservation Group (NELPG), who purchased from Hughes Bolckow scrapyard in 1967, and was withdrawn from service in January 2017 to await boiler overhaul. This overhaul was completed in September 2018, with the locomotive being completed just in time to visit the Severn Valley Railway for their Autumn Steam Gala.

The engine Francis is based on, 63349, was built April of 1913 and withdrawn 5th of June of 1966. It was scrapped presumably that same year.

Francis' Basis
### Livery

Francis was painted in NER, LNER and BR black for his tenure in service. When Addison bought Francis, he was painted in painted teal with blue-grey lining, with the ADELR logo on his tender with his number on his cab sides.

## Differences between the TV show and the series

* In the SeventyVerse, Ferdinand is renamed Francis. The reason for this is that Ferdinand is of Spanish origin, so unless the driver came from Spain, it didn't make sense for that name to exist in a British setting.
* In the original show, Ferdinand was a Climax Class C, rescaled to standard gauge, In this series, Francis is a NER Class T2 (LNER Class Q6). His original basis is given to Placido.
* In the original show, Ferdinand is said to be the gentle giant of Misty Island, the more quieter of the trio and fun-loving. In this series, Francis starts off as easy-going until Corporal Lucky's death made him grumpy, rude and extremely bitter to the point where he became one of Addison's lackies.

## Trivia

* Francis's number is BR No.63349 (formerly NER No.1261/LNER No. 3349). This was the number of a real member of the class, which was withdrawn and scrapped in 1966.
	+ Furthermore, the number 63349 was chosen as a reference the episode number of *Gordon and Ferdinand.*