Terence

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**Terence** is an orange caterpillar tractor who usually works near Thomas' Branch Line. He is owned and driven by Farmer Finney.

## History

### The Railway Series

When Thomas first met Terence, he insulted him for having caterpillar tracks, but later regretted it and befriended Terence after he pulled him out of a snowdrift.

Years later, Terence befriended Duck while Thomas was at the Works.

Once, while Percy was at Knapford Harbour, Terence did his shunting work at Ffarquhar.

Terence helped to build a barn the day Victoria was sent back to Thomas' Branch Line. After swerving for a boulder by the Hackenbeck tunnel, Terence's trailer fell down the cutting and balanced dangerously on a bush.

### Thomas & Friends

As in the Railway Series, Terence rescued Thomas when he got stuck in the snow. He later helped Mrs. Kyndley when her house was snowed up and looked after it when she went with the engines to a Christmas Party. In the second series, Terence befriended Duck while Thomas was at the works and attended the Christmas Party at Tidmouth.

When a storm destroyed much of the forest, Terence helped with the planting of new trees and assured Henry that the forest would look better than ever before. Later, when Bertie got stuck in the mud at the Vicar of Wellsworth's party, Terence used strong ropes to pull him out. During the winter, when villagers were stranded by snow, Terence helped them by ploughing the snow away.

In the fifth series, he warned James about the damage that trees can do and reminded Percy that Mrs. Kyndley's daughter was to get married. He was also seen working at Boulder Quarry.

In the sixth series, he helped clear away fallen rock on the line which had derailed Thomas and almost Toby. He was later seen ploughing in a field when Duncan lost his whistle trying to surprise him.

In *The Great Discovery*, when Thomas went missing, Terence helped with the search for him and once Thomas was found, Terence along with Trevor informed Harvey of the news.

Once, when Terence was collecting Christmas trees for the holiday market, Thomas had requested a large tree for the party at Ulfstead Castle. Terence took a shortcut across a frozen lake to get to the tree, but on the way back, the ice began to break. Thomas managed to pull Terence free from the water, but the tree was lost.

Sometime later at McColl Farm, he stared confused at some diesel parts that Rebecca had dropped off there and took the produce train that Paxton was supposed to collect, unaware that this was part of Diesel's trick until Rebecca told Sir Topham Hatt about what Diesel did.

## Personality

Terence is an assertive, orange tractor with caterpillar tracks. The engines find these very unusual, but Terence is very capable of proving that he does not need rails and that his tracks allow him to go practically anywhere. He takes any teasing in the name of fun and is happy to get on with his job, usually partaking in agricultural work. Terence never hesitates to assist in emergencies or sticky situations, road or rail, due to his helpful, forgiving nature. His tracks are particularly invaluable in harsh winter conditions when snow can affect transport across the Island. He may be slow, but he is versatile, adaptable and helpful. He can usually be found transporting agricultural produce or cheerily ploughing fields beside Thomas' branch line. Sometimes, though, he can get a little overconfident and forget to listen to his own advice: "You have to be sensible if you want to stay safe!"

## Livery

Terence is painted orange with grey caterpillar tracks and a black engine and exhaust pipe.

## Trivia

* According to *The Thomas the Tank Engine Man*, Terence was originally going to be called "Terry", but was later changed to the current and more formal version of the name. However, his original name is seen on the 1971 Railway Map of the Island of Sodor.
* Terence is the first non-rail character introduced in the entire series, discounting Sir Topham Hatt or any other Human Characters.
* Terence is the first non-rail character to have an American basis used for a character design, albeit he doesn't speak English with an American accent except in the US dub of the first five series, at least with George Carlin and Alec Baldwin narrating those series. Unlike Trevor where he consistently has a Southern accent in the US dub of the CGI era, Terence has a West Country British accent in both English dubs.
* Terence is drawn with a cab, but without his widow's peak in the book, Thomas's Christmas Party.
* The shape of his face seems to have changed over time.
* Up until the twenty-second series, in which Bertie was absent, Terence was the only character introduced in the first series to be absent from any series afterwards.
* In some scenes, Terence's plough is shown lifted above the ground via small hydraulics yet the company that made his basis designed a set of beams, an A-frame and a winch to lift and lower the plough.
	+ One part on Terence's plough was made using a LEGO element.
* Up until the twenty-first series, Terence never had any eyebrows in the television series, although he has eyebrows in some illustrations and merchandise.
* During the production of the first series, Terence was nicknamed "Drac the Trac" by the production crew.
* In some merchandising and books, Terence's name is sometimes misspelt as "Terrence".
* On early Spanish translations of the Random House books, Terence was known as Terencio.
* In the French dub of the first seven series, Terence's name is Thierry.
* The Polish Story Library book Terence is named Teodor, though his name in the Polish dub is Tymcio.
* In the 1995 annual story, James Gets Cracking, Terence's driver was revealed to be named Farmer Finney. However, he has been driven by Jem Cole, Farmer McColl and Farmer Collett once before. In a deleted scene of *Ghost Train*, Terence was driven by Sam the Farmer.
	+ Farmers on the Skarloey Railway have also been seen using Terence for plowing fields.
* According to a magazine article, Terence sometimes works on Farmer Trotter's Pig Farm.
* Terence, along with Bertie, were the only vehicle characters in *Thomas & Friends* to have pupils. They had them in Series 1 and 2, but they disappeared after that.
* According to Lee Pressman in an interview, the writers were keen to bring back Terence in Series 21. There were also plans to bring Terence back in Series 17, though these plans did not occur until four series later.