Merlin

**Merlin (née Sir Gillemere) the "Invisible" Engine** is one of the deuteragonists of the Seventyverse, and the thirty-eighth engine on the North Western Railway. However, he, Hurricane and Lexi were the thirty-second, thirty-third and thirty-fourth engines purchased for the North Western Railway.

## Backstory

Sir Gillemere worked on the Southern Railway, and met a few engines like Rosie, Neville, Vaughn, Miranda and Rebecca. Unfortunately, Sir Gillemere was built during a very desperate time, and had an experiment done to his funnels. Despite this, Sir Gillemere thought it was cool, and when the war was over, he begged to keep them on. He worked as a passenger engine after that. Sir Gillemere did something he highly regrets in life though. One day, he got into a collision with a H15, 30485 [name goes here], and unfortunately, [name] was withdrawn. Another traumatic thing that happened was that his brother was used in a military exercise and was destoryed. Sir Gillemere was devestated by this and he decided to rename himself in honour of his fallen brother: Merlin.

## Main line crew

### Henry

Henry finds Merlin's eccentric tendencies a bit annoying, but he does admire Merlin's bravery and his kindness toward Lexi and Theo. They also relate to each other as being experimental builds.

### Gordon

Not much is known about their relationship, but Gordon finds Merlin's invisibility a bit of a nuisance. He does admire his bravery though.

### James

James also finds Merlin's invisibility tendencies annoying, but even he has to admit, his bravery is admirable.

### Emily

Not much is known about their relationship, but Emily is more amused by Merlin's antics.

### Rebecca

Merlin and Rebecca highly relate to each other, in loosing a dear friend due to an accident beyond their control. She also finds his three funnels to be very special.

### Bear

Not much is known about their relationship, but Bear also finds Merlin's antics to be irritating.

### Derek

Derek and Merlin often bring goods trains to Tidmouth or Vicarstown. Merlin, having been around experimental engines for so long, understands Derek's teething troubles despite never seeing him during that time period.

## Other relationships

### Theo

Merlin often helps Theo regain his confidence, and Theo tends to bring Merlin back down to earth if he's getting cocky.

### Lexi

Lexi often finds Merlin's antics amusing, and knows he will buckle down and work when the need calls for it.

### Hurricane

Not much is known about their relationship, but it's implied that Hurricane admires Merlin for his bravery and big brotherly like nature. Merlin likewise sees a good side in Hurricane he doesn't in Frankie.

### Frankie

Frankie and Merlin don't get on very well. Merlin knows he's cocky, but he does know where to draw the line. He hates Frankie for her rudeness toward Lexi and Theo, as well as her abuse to Hurricane, Henry and James. He was more than willing to leave when he was given an offer to go to Sodor.

## Personality

Merlin is a cool-headed, but very cocky, confident and eccentric engine. He is devoted to his little 'siblings' Lexi and Theo, and is also very brave. However, under all that is a thick layer of trauma when he lost his dear friend...

## Technical Details

### Basis

Merlin is based on a London and South Western Railway (LSWR) N15 Class, referred to as the "King Arthur" class by the Southern Railway, specifically No. 783 Sir Gillemere (Merlin's number). In 1940, Sir Gillemere was fitted with three stovepipe chimneys by Oliver Bulleid as a wartime experiment. The way the smoke was spread out was meant to make the trains less visible to bombers overhead. The experiment was not a success, and the engine was quickly converted back to normal. No. 783 became No. 30783 under British Railways after nationalisation in 1948 and was withdrawn in March 1961.

Merlin's name is likely taken from another King Arthur engine, No. 740 Merlin. A single King Arthur is preserved as part of the National Collection, No. 777 Sir Lamiel, and is based at the Great Central Railway, currently awaiting overhaul.

### Livery

Merlin is painted silver with a red running board and wheels, and black smoke deflectors. He has red and gold nameplates on his sides. His number (38) is also painted white on his front buffer beam, the sides of his cab and tender.

## Differences from the episodes

* Merlin doesn't join the NWR in the actual special - instead stays at the Steelworks - while he does join the NWR the rewritten special.
* Merlin has the number 783 in the series. In this series, his old numbers are SR 783/BR 30783 and his NWR number is 38. It's a backwards number of his last two digits.