Gordon

**Gordon** is a big blue tender engine who works on the Main Line. He is Flying Scotsman's only remaining brother. Gordon is also one of the fastest and strongest engines on the Island of Sodor and his main task is to pull the "*Wild Nor' Wester*", the railway's express train, which leads him to feel superior at times. Gordon is mainly used for passenger duties, but has occasionally pulled goods trains, much to his dislike, as he believes that these are below him.

## Biography

### *The Railway Series*

Gordon was built at Doncaster in 1922 as an experimental prototype for Sir Nigel Gresley’s A1 Pacific design for the Great Northern Railway. Inevitably there were faults which needed correction; so Gordon was kept "hush hush" and, apart from test runs, was never put into regular traffic or given a GNR number. He was used experimentally untill all defects had been cured and the first batch of Pacifics had appeared in 1922/23. In 1923 therefore Gordon was no longer needed, and was sold to the NWR together with a spare boiler and firebox.

During Gordon's early years on the railway, he often looked down on the smaller engines like Edward and Thomas. However, he would soon find he needed help from Edward to be his banker after he got stuck on a hill with a train of trucks. He also needed Edward and Henry to pull his passenger train after he broke his safety valve in front of Henry's Tunnel.

Gordon often found Thomas very annoying for whistling rudely at him, so he taught him a lesson by bringing him along his express train before he could be uncoupled. Thomas usually fetched the coaches for him, however, after Thomas left the yard when he was given a branch line, Gordon, along with Henry and James, soon found that they had to fetch their own coaches. After the big engines had several mishaps, one of which involved Gordon having to pull his train backwards, Gordon proposed that they all go on strike, where they would only pull their coaches if another engine fetched them. Edward was the only engine left and since he was a tender engine and that Gordon proposed that tender engines do not shunt, they started to discriminate against Edward until the Fat Controller decided to leave them in the shed until they learned the error of their ways.

After Gordon, Henry and James saw how silly they were, the Fat Controller let them out, reminding them to behave and bought a tank engine named Percy to help fetch their coaches. Gordon almost had a run-in accident with Percy when he carelessly stood on the Main Line. After Percy ran away backwards and stopped in a pile of dirt, Gordon helped him out. Gordon was still arrogant and insulted Henry for the way he whistled. However, he ate his own words when his whistle jammed and he went running down the main line whistling continuously. He did not stop until a fitter climbed up and knocked his whistle in place.

Gordon is mainly used for passenger duties, pulling the North Western Railway's express, the Wild Nor' Wester, but has occasionally pulled goods trains, much to his dislike. He has been known to run into ditches and stop on hills to get out of doing these jobs, as he believes that these are below him.

In 1939, Gordon went to Crewe for a rebuild. His conjugated valve gear, which had been giving much trouble, was replaced by a two-cylinder chassis (designed by the Fat Controller), he received a smoother running plate, Stanier underframes, wheels, cylinders, squared-off side windows, rectangular buffers and a Fowler tender. This rebuild effectively made him a Gresley/Stanier hybrid.

Gordon has become famous after his adventures: In 1953, he pulled Queen Elizabeth II's royal train and in 1956, he travelled to London, where he was lauded by a large crowd. Gordon did not like the visit, however, as he discovered that London's big station was St. Pancras.

In 1957, when Diesel arrived on trial and was having trouble moving some old trucks, he decided to make rumours about Duck giving Gordon a bad nickname, the "Galloping Sausage". So he, Henry and James decided to forbid Duck from the shed. However, when the truth came out that Duck had not made the nicknames, they begin to feel very silly about jumping to conclusions before knowing the true story.

In 1965, Gordon complained about BoCo going on the main line, because the diesel only works on Edward's Branch Line. He claims that the Fat Controller would never agree and states that branch lines are vulgar. That night, Gordon's crew mistakenly claimed that the passenger with a green hat is the guard waving his green flag. As a result, Gordon leaves with the majority of the passengers, the luggage, and the guard stranded on the platform. Everyone is surprised, but the surprise quickly gives way to anger. This makes Gordon so embarrassed, he brought his train back down to the big station as Edward was already late with his train. But the signalman at the junction wasn't told about the change. Because of this, Edward was sent to the main line and Gordon was sent down to Edward's branch line.

In 1967, Gordon felt devastated about his siblings were all scrapped on the Mainland, but happy to hear that his brother Flying Scotsman was preserved, when the Fat Controller brought him to reunit with Gordon.

Then, in 1986, Gordon got to visit Carlisle when a Diesel taking a Railtour failed.

In 2011, he was dismissed from pulling the express regularly to Barrow due to the purchase of Pip and Emma. He likes this, because he can do two trips a day instead of one and he does not have to hurry.

## Bio in the Television Series

Gordon has, to date, been the fastest engine on Sodor, but has sometimes had accidents, due to him trying to show off. In the fifth season, his brakes were not working and he could not stop, resulting in him crashing through the Kirk Ronan Station wall. Also, in the sixth season, he ignored Salty's advice about going slow while pulling trucks, resulting in him speeding down a rickety old branch line and tumbling into a field. Though he has proven to not be too big for his wheels and to be useful instead, like when Spencer first arrived on Sodor, he gave him advice about taking on water before going to Maron Station; in result, he ran out of water on Gordon's Hill and Gordon had to pull him from there. In the tenth season, he, along with Edward, criticised Rocky when he first arrived on Sodor and called him "new-fangled nonsense". Afterwards, when he crashed into Edward's pipes, which had fallen off his flatbeds, he derailed. In result, Rocky came and lifted him back onto the rails and cleared the pipes, proving how useful he is.

Gordon once tried taking a shortcut in order to beat Stanley to Great Waterton, but accidentally crashed into Ben's logs, but luckily, saved Stanley from crashing into them on the track below. When Gordon was given the task of taking the Lion of Sodor to the Duke and Duchess of Boxford's Summer House with Ferdinand, he ignored his advice about going slowly over the Fenland, with the result of the statue falling into the muddy marsh. After the statue was cleaned, Gordon let Ferdinand be his front engine and they delivered the statue safely to the summer house. They have since then been good friends. One day, Gordon accidentally broke his buffer beam after colliding with a truck at the Dieselworks and Den and Dart gave Gordon a yellow and hazard buffer beam (just like Den's), but Gordon refused to wear it until he later found that he can still be really useful as what Thomas said. One winter he, along with the rest of the Steam Team, had to find places to sleep, when the turntable at Tidmouth Sheds was frozen, so he decided to sleep there, in the one accessible berth, resulting in him getting stuck in there the next morning and remaining there for the rest of the day. He has since become a more sensible engine.

Once, he was waiting at Kellsthorpe Road Station while a workman was painting a telephone box on the other platform. But the man accidentally kicked his paint can onto the track next to Gordon, just as Connor raced through the station, splattering red paint all over Gordon. When Henry saw red spots all over Gordon, he assumed the blue engine had chicken pox. Later, as he was filling up with water, he told Philip to get on with his work and keep out of his way. He explained to Philip that he pulls the express and is very fast. As Gordon returned to Knapford with the express, Philip reversed back to the station as Gordon braked hard and told him that he nearly caused an accident. As he was resting in the yard, Philip challenged Gordon to a race and started to race away, but Gordon went back to resting instead of racing him. That night, Gordon was not very happy and decided to show Philip how fast he can go tomorrow and told him to have another race.

In Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure, Gordon says that Thomas is a silly little engine, making Thomas upset. Thomas wanted to take revenge, but ended up running Gordon's express coaches off the rails. Due to this incident, Thomas was sent away. Later, while he was pulling the express, Thomas nearly collided with him while chasing Sailor John and Skiff.

In the twentieth season, he was not ready to leave the sheds as his firebox had not been cleaned out in the morning. As Henry was pulling the express, Gordon arrived into Knapford to fetch his train, but the Fat Controller scolded Gordon for coming in late and told him that he had been assigned to a goods train for the rest of the day. Gordon was grumpy as he arrived at Brendam Docks with his goods train. Salty, Porter and Cranky greeted him. Gordon was given a train of coal. When he returned to Knapford, he asked the Fat Controller if he could pull the express again, but he was told to go to the Blue Mountain Quarry instead. As he arrived at the quarry, Gordon was still in a bad mood as he collected a train of stone. As he began to leave, the trucks put their brakes on and then released them, causing Gordon to jump the points and hit a buffer stop. Finally fed up with his work, he ordered to be uncoupled so he could go back to the sheds. That night, the Fat Controller scolds him again for not doing all his jobs that day and ordered him to pull the Flying Kipper as punishment. Henry and Thomas teased him about it not being an easy job, but Gordon was determined to prove them wrong and left the sheds to pull the Flying Kipper. As he returned to the sheds next morning, the Fat Controller praised him for successfully delivering the Kipper on time and told him that he can now go back to being the express engine again much to Gordon's delight. When the other engines noticed how smelly he was after pulling the Flying Kipper, he quickly went to the washdown whilst the other engines laughed. In The Great Race, Gordon introduced Thomas to his brother, the Flying Scotsman, at Vicarstown and later teased Thomas for wanting to compete in the Great Railway Show, believing that he is too small to compete. Gordon was selected by the Fat Controller to participate in the Great Race and was temporarily streamlined for the event. However, Gordon refused to undergo the final safety checks and as a result, the workmen forgot to attach his safety valve. Thomas brought the new safety valve to the Mainland and tried to warn Gordon, but he competed in the race without it and his boiler exploded when he refused to heed Thomas and Flying Scotsman's warnings. Gordon had to drop out of the race as a result. After the Great Railway Show was over and all of the foreign engines (bar Ashima) had gone home, Gordon met up with Flying Scotsman, who admitted that his opinion on Sudrian engines has improved significantly since the race.

In the twenty-first season, he and Spencer love to have a race who is the fastest. However, Spencer was on platform one that he was on platform one before, instead he going on platform two. Then, Thomas and Philip shunted their coaches to him and Spencer for wrong platform mixed up and sets off without realize that they had a wrong coaches. After they raced along the main line, he stops at Wellsworth with Spencer's Coaches while Spencer thundered down with the express and he realise that Spencer got the wrong express coaches and chase after him all the way to Callan Castle of upsetting passengers is missing their stops and they didn't realise that they had a wrong coaches that they shunted on the platform for the first place. Then, he and Spencer takes the passengers to the right stations and returned to Knapford, and apologised to each other as they watched the fireworks all together.

He also teased Philip about his number 68 painted on their side and after sixty-eight sheep ran onto the track, Philip saved him from the sheep blocking on the main line.

Gordon was very upset when Edward moved from Tidmouth to Wellsworth Sheds, even more so when Henry decided to move to Vicarstown Sheds. He was so upset about all the changes happening on the railway that he threw a tantrum in front of Thomas, Annie, Clarabel, Nia, Paxton and the Fat Controller, and after failing to convince Edward to come back to Tidmouth, which was revealed to be more than once, the Fat Controller sent him to his shed for his childish behavior. However, Nia was able to calm Gordon down when she told him that change can be good and that if all her old friends will remain her friends, so will Edward and Henry. Despite bonding with Nia, Gordon was not very pleased to hear of another engine taking over Henry's berth in the sheds, which later turned out to be Rebecca. However, he later became good friends with her, after she retorted the Flying Scotsman's teasing of him about being the 'little brother'.

After Rebecca coated herself in honey and produce, Gordon found himself with an uncontrolable urge to laugh. He kept it surpressed until Sir Topham Hatt told him it was alright.

#### *Thomas & the Magic Railroad*

   In the film, Gordon complained to Thomas, who was late and Thomas retorted that Gordon was being bossy and told him that he had to find Mr. Conductor, who was coming to visit Sodor to look after the North Western Railway while Sir Topham Hatt was taking a holiday. He thought Mr. Conductor was not needed until Diesel 10 sped through Thomas and Gordon at Killaban by. Later, he, James and Thomas argued about who should have taken Mr. Conductor and retorted that James is a big engine and Thomas is a small blue engine.

## Personality

Gordon's important position as the engine who pulls the Express has made him proud, pompous, arrogant, stubborn, prideful and self-important, with a good reason too; he is the fastest steam engine on Sodor. He is extremely proud of this and is inclined to boast. But despite his pompousness, he is goodhearted, always willing to forgive and uses his superior strength to help smaller engines out of trouble. Though he is also vengeful and will plot retribution if he feels he has been sufficiently slighted, as mentioned before he is happy to forgive especially after he has either had his retribution or the individual has received some other comeuppance. He also has a great hatred of goods trains and believes that he should only pull coaches. Because of his rank in the social order of the North Western Railway, Gordon expects to get the important passenger jobs and either he sulks when he does not get what he wants, or gets jealous of engines who do get what they want.

Gordon is rude and egotistical more often than not, especially towards smaller engines like Thomas or Percy, although he has helped them on a few occasions and does not necessarily dislike them, although one incident temporarily ended his acquaintanceship with Thomas. He can also be rude to older and more weaker engines like Edward, but following misadventures where Edward had to help him, Gordon had to acknowledge that despite being old, Edward is still a very useful engine. However, Gordon still sometimes doubts Edward is still reliable, such as the time he did not believe Edward could win a race against Spencer as he is only a "back engine" and a "waste of steam" and even outright saying he is worthless and calling for him to be scrapped. He soon stopped belittling Edward for good after being tricked by Thomas; he learnt his lesson and apologised to Edward, saying that he promised not to call him old or unreliable anymore. Despite the way he treats Edward sometimes, deep down, Gordon cares a great deal about Edward and the other engines on the railway. This was especially shown when he was very upset after he learnt that Edward and Henry moved out of Tidmouth Sheds to sleep elsewhere for their own reasons, thus indicating how much he missed them. He appears to have a hard time accepting change, but with help from his friends (and Nia), he is able to pull through it.

Sometimes, Gordon shows a kinder side and gives the engines some advice, usually after he has had some mishap as a result of his foolhardiness. Some of his advice is not exactly helpful or honest, though, as James, Percy and Sir Handel have discovered. This side resurfaced once Rebecca joined the North Western Railway, but this time, Gordon realised himself that he was wrong to do so, especially when he ended up smashing through a set of buffers. With Edward gone, Gordon has often found himself forced to act as the other engines' father figure. His pompous attitude often makes this a difficult role, but he eventually matured enough to give some meaningful advice which actually helps others.

Since the twentieth series, Gordon has developed a tendency to pin his own faults on others. This was shown when he blamed Henry over having to do his jobs for the day and vice-versa, even though his lateness was what led to the change in the first place. When he and the rest of the Steam Team got in trouble for refusing to leave the shed at night, believing there was a ghost train about (which was actually Henry with a coat of luminous paint), he once again blamed Henry unfairly for the predicament.

Despite being labelled as one of Sir Topham Hatt's more sensible engines, he can act senseless if prompted, which is quite often. Because of his reputation, he has a fear of being found out, and often tries to refrain from acting less than serious. Much like James, Gordon can be highly opinionated on an engine's character; he remained mistrustful of Sonny due to his role in Kenji's runaway and the theft of the plans for Ruth's Hover-Car in spite of Sonny having switched sides, due to the well-tank engine being owned by the crooks in the first place. Eventually he learnt from Thomas that he did not mean to be involved, but he still refused to believe that Sonny left the lifestyle of a thief until much later. Gordon is also very posh and egotistical, claiming engines wearing decorations for the best dressed contest make him look ridiculous and Thomas to be undignified wearing a monkey costume, while others saw him as funny-looking. Despite this, he does have moral standards, as he chose to give Henry his special coal back instead of using it to break his own record.

## Trivia

* Gordon is also Rainbow Dash's boyfriend.
* Gordon is also best friends with Harrison.
* Gordon know Bow Hothoof and Windy Whistles, Rainbow Dash's parents in *Thomas' Adventures of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic-Parental Glideance* when he revealed to Scootaloo and Duncan that Rainbow Dash had introduced him to her parents before and that he kept Rainbow Dash's membership of the Wonderbolts a secret due to her embarrassment from her parents a lot.
* As of *Big World! Big Adventures!* and And the Twenty-second series, Gordon is one of the four remaining engines from the Railway Series to be part of the Steam Team and Gordon and Thomas are the only members of the Steam Team to be the exact same colour.
* As of the CGI series, Gordon's catchphrases are "*Oh the indignity"* and "*Express coming through**"*****.**
* He is the oldest member of the current Steam Team in terms of experience.