George

**George the Grumpy Steamroller** is one of the antagonists of the SeventyVerse and is owned by the Sodor Island Council.

## Backstory

Whilst repairing the bridge near the tunnel, Rusty first came across George who was paving over some fresh concrete and overheard him singing a tune about ripping up railways and turning them into roads. When Rusty came across him again, George was having an argument with Duncan whose passengers were being held up by George. Rusty ordered George to move off the crossing by threatening to Mr. Percival involved and the steamroller reluctantly complied. Sometime later, when the bridge was repaired. Peter Sam had a nasty encounter with George who cruelly said if the railway was shut, some of the engines could be sheeted for eternity. Peter Sam was upset as it reminded of what happened with Duke. When Sir Handel heard this, he decided to make the last train so he could confront George. When the two met, George accused Sir Handel of swanking around with his steamroller wheels pretending he was as good as him. Sir Handel's response was "Actually...I'm better" and he left, leaving George in an angry silence. The next day is rather uneventful but when Sir Handel was heading home after finishing his work, he came across George again. This time, George got a little too close to the line. Sir Handel and George then got into an argument as Sir Handel ordered George to move but the steamroller refused. This resulted in George colliding with Cora and the two rivals continued to argue over whose fault it was. Eventually, the drivers and fireman got involved and Mr. Hugh, who had arrived with Rusty to clear the mess, tried to break the two drivers up to no avail. Fortunately, a policeman came along and that got everyone to stop arguing. After that, a fence was put up between the road and the railway and with the work on the road, the workmen went away, taking George with them, although Sir Handel believed he had made George away.

## Relationships

### Sir Handel

Sir Handel and George have been bitter rivals ever since George upset Peter Sam and this soon led to the incident near the crossing when George collided with Cora.

### Peter Sam

George upset Peter Sam with his comment about the engines being sheeted up in the sheds for eternity.

### Horace

The two got along pretty well at first due to the shared hate of the railways. However, after an argument which lead to them crashing into each other, the duo started to hate each other.

## Personality

George is a grumpy, bad-tempered and mean steamroller who dislikes all of the engines, even the ones who try to be nice to him. He is no friend of the railway, often heard rebelling that "railways are no good" and that they should be pulled up and turned into roads.

## Technical Details

### Basis

George is based on an Aveling-Barford R class steamroller.

Although the concept of George was inspired an Aveling and Porter R10 class steamroller built in 1903 named Thistledown that was owned by the Rev. W. Awdry's friend, the Rev. Teddy Boston. He also owned the traction engine that became Trevor's basis.

### Livery

George is painted green with red lining, gold boiler bands, and black smokebox and funnel with a brass cowl. His front-forks are painted bright red and his name is painted on the sides of his boiler in white.

## Differences between the books, the TV show and the series

* In the books, George was painted in an all-over green livery (included his face) with gold boiler bands and a yellow roof. In the TV series. In the TV show and this series, George is painted green with red lining, gold boiler bands, and black smokebox and funnel with a brass cowl. Also his face is grey.

## Trivia

* It was planned for George to return to the CGI series as he was going to feature in *Free the Roads* but this never materialised and he was replaced with Max and Monty. The Seventyverse adaption of *Free the Roads* features George in his intended role.
* The preffered voice actor for George is Fred Tatasciore, who played The Exterminator from *The Loud House*.