Duke the Lost Engine

**Overview**Gallery

***Duke the Lost Engine*** is the twenty-fifth book in *The Railway Series*. It was written by the Rev. W Awdry and first published on 15 October 1970.

## Foreword

Dear Friends,
An engine lost in the South American jungle was found after 30 years. A tree had grown through its chimney and hornets nested in its firebox. When mended it gave good service for 30 more years.

"The Duke" was lost too; not in the jungle, but in his own shed which a landslide had buried. Not long ago he was dug out and mended. His own railway had been pulled up, so he is now at the Thin Controller's.

The Author

## Features

* Full book
* Individual stories

### Full book

#### Characters

* Skarloey
* Falcon / Sir Handel
* Stuart / Peter Sam
* Duncan
* Duke
* No. 2
* Rex
* Bert
* Mike
* Thin Controller
* Fergus Duncan
* Thin Clergyman
* Fat Clergyman
* Richard Robert Norramby
* Mid Sodor Railway manager
* Duck **(does not speak)**
* Donald **(does not speak)**
* Rheneas **(does not speak)**
* Other Mid Sodor Railway engines  Template:Mentioned

### *Granpuff*

#### Characters

* Falcon / Sir Handel
* Stuart / Peter Sam
* Duke
* No. 2
* Other Mid Sodor Railway engines  Template:Mentioned
* Mid Sodor Railway manager  Template:Mentioned

## Trivia

### General

* "No. 2" is not referred by name in this book. *The Island of Sodor: Its People, History and Railways* would later reveal that his name is Stanley.
* Stanley is painted red in *Bulldog*, even though Awdry's own model of him was painted black. It is unclear if this was a mistake on behalf of the illustrators or if Awdry decided to change his livery.

### Cultural references

* Duke's nickname "Granpuff" was the endearment given to Awdry by his grandchildren, as the smoke from his pipe looked like that of a steam engine's to them.
* Stanley being turned into a pumping engine in *Granpuff* is commonly believed to have been inspired by the Ffestiniog Railway's *Palmerston*, which was serving as a stationary boiler at the time of the book's publication. The locomotive has since been restored to working order.
	+ In reality, Awdry had been inspired by his own model of Stanley, which he cut up and used as set dressing for his model railway due to its poor performance.
* *Bulldog* is based on an incident that happened on the Ffestiniog Railway on 5 September 1962, when locomotive *Linda* derailed while double-heading a passenger train with *Prince*, a member of Duke's real-life class. The site of the accident is now known as "Linda's Leap".
* *Sleeping Beauty* is based on the true story of locomotive *Coronel Church*, which was found consumed by the Amazon Rainforest after having been abandoned for thirty years. It was restored and ran for nearly another thirty years.
	+ The title of the story is also a reference to the fairy tale of the same name.

### Continuity

* Peter Sam and Sir Handel's old railway was previously alluded to in past volumes:

### Errors

* In *Granpuff*:
	+ Duke's face is tilted in the third illustration.
* In *Bulldog*:
	+ Stanley appears inside the engine shed in the second illustration, despite the fact it was previously mentioned that he came to the railway and was retired before Falcon had arrived and that he did not know about him. Furthermore, it has since been established that this story is set in 1904, before Stanley would have even been built.
	+ Duke is lacking the MSR crest on his tender in the third illustration.
	+ Falcon gains a headlamp in the fourth illustration when he did not previously have one. His name on his nameplate is also misspelled "Falcon".
* In *You Can't Win!*:
	+ It is said that Duke "puffed and roared as though the whole train's weight was on his buffers," but Duke has no buffers.
	+ Duke is illustrated with a straight running board for most of the story, but in the final illustration it regains its original "stepped" design.
* In *Sleeping Beauty*:
	+ Ulfstead is misspelled as "Ulfsted" and the present day site of Arlesdale station is labelled as Cas-ny-Hawin on the map in the first illustration.