Duck

**"There's only two ways of doing things. The Great Western way and the wrong way."**

-Duck's catchphrase

**Montague**, affectionately known as "**Duck**" because of his supposed waddle, is a green pannier tank engine. Duck runs his own branch line with Oliver. He holds great pride in being Great Western and this results in him having a strong work ethic. This can, however, be a cause for friction with the other engines, when he insists that his way is the only right way to do things.

In the Railway Series, Duck has two Great Western autocoaches named Alice and Mirabel. In the television series, he has three Great Western Slip Coaches.

## Appearance

Duck is a great western pannier tank engine, who came to help Percy, when the big engines were bossing him about. Duck is painted green, with the letters 'G.W.R' on the side. He also has a number eight painted near the back on his cab. He has six driving wheels, a green dome and a tall funnel.

## Personality

Duck knows how to hold his own and tends to stand for no nonsense from any engines that might get ideas above their station and try to order him or others about; as a result of this and his strength, most tank engines look up to him, though he has not always gotten along well with Thomas due to the latter’s cheeky antics. However, they have shared a mutual respect since the two ended up working together to help Harold and have always had a great friendship with each other.

However, his moral code is not perfect and often favours fairness to kindness, like when he asserted to Percy that Thomas deserved his comeuppance for teasing him about being scared. He enjoys running like clockwork, without problems or interruptions, making him a very efficient and loyal engine. He takes tremendous pride in the responsibilities bestowed upon him, particularly in his role of running his own branch line with Oliver, sometimes known as the "Little Western" as a result.

Duck is cheerful, busy, mature and tends to bustle about. He is very proud of his noble Great Western heritage, often claiming that "there are two ways of doing things: the Great Western way, or the wrong way", occasionally to the annoyance of other engines. He strongly admires City of Truro and enjoyed talking "Great Western" with him when he visited the North Western Railway. He is also shown to be kind to others, but the one engine he finds the most difficult to be kind to is Devious Diesel, especially after Diesel spread rumours about him giving nicknames to the bigger engines.

Duck is often welcoming of newcomers, even most diesels as long as they are not rude. He will often support the underdog, stick up for his friends, and help others see the error of their ways. However, occasionally he does have the "Tank Engine sense" of teasing the bigger engines such as Gordon. Duck is also known to have a rivalry with James, but he has earned the respect of the bigger engines and has firm friendships with Edward, Percy, Oliver, Toad, BoCo and the Scottish twins.

## Technical Details

Duck is based on a Great Western Railway 57xx Class 0-6-0 pannier tank engine with added sand boxes. Duck's Great Western number, 5741, was that of a real 57xx, one of the first fifty 57xx Class (Nos. 5700-5749) built by the North British Locomotive Co. on 31st March, 1929 and scrapped at Swindon on 31st May, 1958. However, according to Sodor: Reading Between the Lines, "...through this might not, in fact, be the number with which he was allocated when built...". 863 of these engines were built by various manufacturers over a twenty-one year period, making it the most produced class of British tank engine. Sixteen of these engines survive in preservation. However in Percy the Small Engine and The Eight Famous Engines, Duck was incorrectly illustrated as a Great Western Railway 64xx Class 0-6-0 pannier tank engine. On top of that, none of the 57xx's were autofitted to work with autocoaches.

## Trivia

* Duck was the first engine in the series to have a nickname. Although, his real name is Montague, he prefers his nickname.
* Duck's whistle sound has been reused for Gordon in the fourth, fifth and eighth series.
* Also, Duck was the third engine in the series to have a problem with his whistle. The first being Peter Sam, the second was Duncan, and the fourth being Mike.
* Duck was also supposed to be the original member of the Steam Team. As said because Sam Wilkinson said in an interview with SiF that Duck being placed at Tidmouth Sheds, thus making Emily leave, was an acknowledgement of fans' belief that Emily replaced Duck as the eighth main character when the Steam Team was created.
* Duck's special friends are Timmy Turner, Cosmo and Wanda.