Nia

**Nia the Kenyan Engine** is one of the main protagonists of the SeventyVerse, and the eighteenth engine of the North Western Railway. However, she was the thirty-sixth engine purchased for the North Western Railway in the series.

## Background

Nia lived in Kenya and was visited from an engine from Dar es Salaam named Kwaku, who she became long distant friends with. She also knew an engine named Asha. Unfortunately, Nia lived a very harsh life in Kenya. Many engines who ran alongside her were forcefully killed via a final firing, including Asha. Thankfully, Thomas managed to intervene and stand up to the cruel manager. When Sir Topham Hatt purchased Nia for the North Western Railway, she was to work on the Ffarqhuar branch. Her friends back home got a much better manager, and she sends letters to them.

## Ffarqhuar branch

### Thomas

Thomas met Nia when he incidentally went to Africa by mistake - he was initially trying to get to the Great Railway Show in Canada but put onto the wrong ship. The duo hit it off nicely, and Thomas became very protective of Nia when he realised her manager was abusive. With Thomas' help, Nia was saved and went to live on the Island of Sodor. Thomas sees Nia as a little sister figure, but vows to not make the same mistake he did with Percy.

### Percy

Percy isn't as close to Nia as Thomas is, but he did stand up for her when Gordon was ranting about her 'replacing Edward in the sheds'. He also told her the story of how he and Harold had their first race together, and he was interested to learn about her home country, Kenya.

### Toby

When Toby found out about Nia's dyscalculic situation, he was more than happy to help her learn to read numbers. He also appreciates her warm approach on the branch line, and is amused by her cheeky remarks.

### Mavis

Not as much is known about Mavis and Nia's relationship, but Mavis is very welcoming of her on Sodor.

## Other relationships

### Duck

Nia and Duck don't know each other well, but she was horrified to hear he was a near-victim of the final firing as well.

### Sir Handel and Peter Sam

Not much is known about their relationships, but Nia heavily relates to their situation, having been under cruel management at the Peel Godred Aluminium Works.

### Kwaku

Nia looks up to Kwaku as a mentor figure and perhaps older brother. The duo have a very complicated way of saying 'hello', much to Thomas' confusion.

### Asha

Sadly, we don't see much of Asha and Nia's relationship because she was killed by her cruel manager.

## Romance

### Henry

Nia and Henry started to bond over their love of nature and wildlife. Henry was eager to take Nia down to his forest, and Nia even showed Henry that elephants aren't as bad as he thought. A crush is budding between them.

## Personality

Nia is a very cheerful and upbeat engine who likes to sing songs. She can be very cheeky at times, but sometimes struggles with asking for help. This is due to her trust issues from being under a cruel manager.

## Technical Details

### Basis

Nia is based on a Kenya-Uganda Railway (KUR) ED1 class, a class of 2-6-2 tank locomotive built by Vulcan Foundry for the Kenya-Uganda Railway between 1926 and 1930. Primarily used for shunting duties, they were also used to haul branch line trains. They were later operated by the East African Railways and were reclassified as part of the EAR 11 class. One member of this class, No. 327, has been preserved at the Nairobi Railway Museum in Nairobi, Kenya. Nia's design sheet shows that she was specifically modelled after No. 327. Nia is specifically based on number 318. It's unknown when this specific engine was built, withdrawn and scrapped in real life.

Nia has been modified in order to work on British railways. Whereas her original basis was metre gauge, Nia is standard gauge and she has been given buffers and screwlink couplings in order to work with the other engines.

### Livery

Nia is painted orange with yellow lining. She has stripes with a Kenyan pattern consisting of red, yellow, green, black and purple painted along with her tanks and dome, as well as green and yellow lining on her cylinders. Nia has green stripes on her boiler and brake pump. Her footplate is painted red with black buffers. Her name (Nia) and her number (18) are painted on the sides of her tanks and cab respectively in yellow within black squares.

Before becoming a Sudrian, Nia still had her Kenyan pattern, but was painted black with her number (318) on her sides.

## Differences from the episodes

* Nia in the original series only had her number 18. In this series, 18 is her NWR number, but her old number in Africa was 318. A real life engine of her class had this number.
* Nia was black before being repainted orange later on (thanks to seeing Terence's livery). She does retain her pattern on her tanks though.
* Nia merely mentioned she didn't have a shed in Big World Big Adventures. Here, it's mentioned her shed wasn't repaired because her manager was cruel.

## Trivia

* Nia's concept name, Kessie, was given to a minor character in Spencer's backstory in the story *Hardened Frost*.