Whiff

**William "Whiff" the Rubbish Engine** is one of the deuteragonists of the SeventyVerse and the thirty-fifth engine on the North Western Railway. However, he was the twenty-third engine purchased for the North Western Railway, and has the number 66.

## Backstory

William worked on the North Eastern Railway, later the London North Eastern Railway and British Railways, alongside Carole, Stevie, Lisa and possibly Simon as well. He often took a single coach to perform various inspections on the railway alongside his twin, Aerolite. Occasionally, he'd take some trucks as well. Unfortunately, he also had to work with a trio of very difficult engines known as Barnaby, Daryl and Francis. It is currently unknown how William earned the nickname Whiff or ended up on Sodor in the present, or how he found out his old electric engine friends were gone from the island.

## Waste dump crew

### Scruff

Whiff found Scruff to be a very eager and hard working little engine, and has taken him under his wing as a brother.

## Other relationships

### Harvey

Harvey managed to convince Whiff that everyone had their role to play, no matter how small. Whiff also managed to alert Harvey to be careful with the object in the ground, and save him a trip to the Steamworks.

### Carole, Stevie and Lisa

Not much is known about his relationship with the trio, but William often chatted to them and was close with them. He was devastated to hear they weren't on the island when he arrived.

### Arry and Bert

Whiff often picks up scrap from Arry and Bert. According to him, they're 'all bark and no bite'. It's possible that he doesn't know about what had almost happened to the Little Western quartet to make a remark like that.

## Personality

Whiff isn't the type of engine to keep up appearances, and will do his job no matter how smelly. That being said, sometimes he does aspire to be something more, like when he ends up finding a famous statue.

## Technical Details

### Basis

Whiff is based on the North Eastern Railway's 2-2-4T No. 66, named "Aerolite". Aerolite was built in 1869 to replace a destroyed Kitson locomotive of the same name and to haul the Mechanical Engineer's saloon coach, which is also preserved on the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway. It was rebuilt extensively several times during its career. It was classified X1 by the LNER in 1923 and was retired in 1933, being preserved at York the following year. It can be found today at the National Railway Museum in York.

In the Canon Divergent AU, Whiff is an LNER J72, number NER 462/LNER 8670/BR 68670. This engine was built in December of 1898, withdrawn the 25th of January 1960, and presumably scrapped that same year. These engines are a lot more surefooted than the LNER X1, and better suited to branch line and shunting work.

### Livery

Whiff is painted in a dark green livery with black and yellow lining (which is very weathered) and green wheels. He has red numberplates on his bunker. He wears large spectacles on his smokebox.

## Differences from the episodes

* Whiff's old number was 67. He was supposed to be renumbered 35, but he requested to be renumbered the same as his twin, 66.
* Whiff's real name is William.

## Trivia

* Whiff was the last character in the SeventyVerse in a regular length episode to debut before the CGI portion.