Oliver

## Apperances

**Oliver** is a Great Western tank engine who was saved from scrap by Douglas. His daring escape made him popular with the other engines, which perhaps made him a little overconfident

## Biography

Oliver was built by the Great Western Railway at Swindon Works and was "push-pull" fitted for branch line work. He was originally numbered in the 48xx series, but along with the rest of his class, he was renumbered into the 14xx series in 1946, eventually becoming 1436. He worked as a passenger engine on a branch line in the West Country.

Oliver reached Sodor in 1967. With the rapid closure of West of England branch lines, Oliver's crew were appalled at the prospect of their engine being scrapped or left to rust away at Barry Scrapyard. Both were bachelors with no local ties, so they determined to take a chance and try to save their engine, along with his coach Isabel and Toad the brake van. An escape route was carefully worked out with the help of a chain of sympathetic signalmen. It was necessary to travel at night - often over "goods only" lines - and lie hidden by day. They had many narrow escapes and the journey took longer than planned.

When control got wind of the runaways, they hid in an old quarry branch and had the cutting blocked by rubbish to avoid being spotted by the diesels outside. The runaways decided it was safe to leave at some point, but before they could reach the greener pastures of Sodor, Oliver ran out of coal in Barrow Yard. Luckily, Douglas was able to rescue Oliver and took him to Sodor, taking him to Crovan's Gate Works. The Fat Controller soon found out and arranged for the three to be repaired and painted in Great Western colours. Toad decided to be Douglas' brake van to thank him and the Fat Controller rescued another auto coach named Dulcie and gave her to Oliver.

Oliver was then sent to work on the Tidmouth-Arlesburgh branch line, but became conceited after the big engines gave him their respect in recognition of his adventures and pushed his weight around, prompting several ballast trucks to push him into a turntable well. Oliver received little respect from the trucks after the incident but got his own back by pulling the ringleader, S.C. Ruffey, apart. Oliver is now well-respected by the trucks, out of fear they will be pulled apart too.

## Personality

Despite his heroism and daring feats of escape, Oliver is an engine who is willing to admit every day is a learning curve. When he was still new to Sodor, he let the other engines' responses to his courage, resource and sagacity from his amazing recounts of daring escapes and adventures get to his smokebox and he became conceited. However, when the Troublesome Trucks pushed him into the turntable well, he grew into a much humbler, settled engine and was far warier of trucks

## Technical Details

### Basis

Oliver is based on a Great Western Railway (GWR) 14xx Class 0-4-2T. These engines were fitted with a mechanical system allowing the driver to control the locomotive remotely from the cab of an 'Autocoach', such as Isabel. They were originally assigned numbers in the 48xx series but were renumbered into the 14xx series in 1946. Oliver's number comes from a real 14xx, No. 1436, which was built at Swindon Works in August 1934 as No. 4836 and worked in the West of England until it was withdrawn in October 1958. It was scrapped at Morkot Ltd., Caerphilly on the 30th of April, 1959.

### Livery

Oliver painted in NWR unlined apple green with the 1934 GWR crest painted on the sides of his tanks and his number (11) painted on the sides of his cab in yellow