Hiro

## Hiro the Japanese Engine

Hiro is a wise Japanese engine, who is famously known as the "Master of the Railway".

## Personality

Hiro is an old steam engine who has been on Sodor for a very long time and was originally known as the "Master of the Railway". He is grand, masterful, mature, wise, very dignified, enormously kind and is able to find good in any engine he meets. He has an appreciation for serenity and order and often thinks fondly of his homeland, far away, where he was once one of the strongest engines. Hiro fell victim to neglect when waiting upon parts to arrive for him from his home country, when he began to break down and became lost. He was eventually rediscovered by Thomas, who, despite some problems in worrying about sharing the discovery of Hiro with the Fat Controller, helped Hiro to be fully restored to his former glory. Hiro continues to be gentle, wise and graceful, as well as a useful engine on the railway and a good friend to the other engines, especially Thomas. He does not appear to hold a grudge; in his first appearance, he helped Spencer after an accident, despite Spencer previously trying to send Hiro to the smelter's yard.

## Technical Details

### Basis

Hiro is based on a Japanese National Railways (JNR) Class D51 2-8-2 "Mikado" built by Kawasaki and popularly known as the "Degoich" in Japan. These were primarily used as goods locomotives and were an adaptation of the earlier Class D50. In addition to Japan, members of this class have been built for export to South Korea, China, Taiwan and the USSR, totalling 1,184 locomotives. Hiro is standard gauge, while most D51s were built for 3'6" gauge (cape gauge), though the two examples of his class exported to South Korea (KNR Class Mika7) were built to standard gauge. Over 170 of these engines are preserved throughout Japan, two of which are in working order, while four are preserved in Taiwan and eleven in Russia.

Though Hiro's number is a reference to his basis' name, there is a D51 with the number 51. However, unlike Hiro, the real engine is an earlier build of the D51 class, with its dome flush with its funnel. It is preserved at Torokko Saga Station in Kyoto, Japan. Hiro also has a buffer-beam fitted on his front and on the back of his tender.

Hiro’s basis
### Livery

Hiro is painted black with gold lining, boiler bands and fittings and red wheels. The number "51" is painted on the sides of his tender in white and he has gold nameplates, with his name in black on the sides of his smoke deflectors. His "patchwork" colour scheme consists of a blue boiler with gold lining, a green left smoke deflector, a purple right smoke deflector, a brown dome, green pistons and rusty-red coloured wheels except for the right rear driving wheel which was blue. Two more parts, the part between his lamp and funnel, and the part under his face, were also green.

## Trivia

* Hiro is the first character to have the same voice actor in both English dubs.
* Hiro is canonically the first engine on the island, but the D51 class was not built until 1935, whereas engines numbered 1-6 were canonically on Sodor before that.
* According to Christopher Skala, Hiro was originally going to be painted blue. This carried on to his patchwork model.
* Hiro has only been partially modified to work on Sodor. He has been scaled up to standard gauge and has been given buffers on his front and his tender. But oddly enough, he has a chain and hook coupler on the back of his tender and a knuckle coupler on his front. This would make pulling rolling stock or another engine backwards or being pulled away by another engine from his front physically impossible, unless a special adapter used to connect knuckle couplers and chain couplings was fitted onto his knuckle coupling or a pin was put on top of his knuckle coupling so he could couple from the front like Vinnie in The Great Race.
* In the Norwegian narration, Hiro is known as "The King of the Railway".
* According to the Japanese narration, Hiro is owned by Sir Takaboushi Hideki, who is also good friends with the Fat Controller.
* According to SiF's Interview with John Lee, Hiro was going to have a different name.
* Hiro was the last new character to be produced in the Take Along toy-line before it was bought by Fisher-Price and renamed Take-n-Play.
* Despite participating in the Great Railway Show, he does not get his own promotional video. The same goes with James.