Caitlin

*“You're amazing!""Amazing? Not really; just built for speed, that's all!”*
―Emily & Caitlin[src]
**Caitlin** is a magenta streamlined tender engine from the Mainland, who is designed and built for speed. She has her own rake of coaches painted in the same livery as her.

## Contents

* 1Biography
	+ 1.1Thomas & Friends
* 2Personality
* 3Technical Details
	+ 3.1Basis
	+ 3.2Livery
* 4Appearances
* 5Audio Files
* 6Trivia
* 7Merchandise

## Biography

### *Thomas & Friends*

Caitlin loves to challenge the other engines to a race and has a tendency to get a little over-excited. She (along with Connor) regularly transport passengers from the Mainland to Ulfstead Castle on Sodor.

Along with Connor, Thomas, Percy and James, she helped with trying to find Stephen before Ulfstead Castle's opening. Caitlin once had to spend the night on Sodor and became too excited to listen to Sir Topham Hatt's advice. During her night on Sodor, she took the Mail Train and The Flying Kipper. Unfortunately, she did not take others into consideration and ended up waking lots of people up.

Once, Annie and Clarabel (who were in the yard waiting for Thomas) were accidentally coupled up to Caitlin, thanks to Charlie. She even took them to the Mainland, but was stopped by Hiro, who brought them back to Thomas.

Caitlin later thought that Toby was going to be scrapped after hearing about it from Gordon. Later on, she took Emily to the Steamworks after she broke down - a favour which Emily repaid after she saved Caitlin when her brakes failed and she became a runaway.

## Personality

Caitlin is a streamlined engine, designed and built for speed. Along with her friend Connor, Caitlin is an excitable and energetic character, who likes to be busy and loves to race. Both Caitlin and Connor are friendly and eager to get other engines to join in the fun with them. Caitlin is particularly impatient and restless if she has nothing to do. She would rather be racing than sit in a station and be idle.

## Technical Details

### Basis

Caitlin is based on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad streamlined President P-7 Class. Her basis was built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in Eddystone, Pennsylvania, United States in 1927.

The member of the class that Caitlin is modelled after, No. 5304 *President Monroe*, was fitted with a streamlined shroud designed by Otto Kuhler and classified as the P-7a in 1937 for use on the Royal Blue train service from Jersey City, New Jersey, to Washington, D.C. Its streamlining was removed in 1940 and it remained without streamlining until 1947, when it, along with three other class members was re-streamlined in a different design and re-classified as the P-7d class for service on B&O's Cincinnatian train service from Baltimore to Cincinnati, Ohio. It was retired from service and scrapped in 1958.

One non-streamlined member of this class, first-of-class No. 5300 *President Washington*, is preserved at the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore.

Caitlin's basis

### Livery

Caitlin is painted red-violet with light blue and white lining. She has golden nameplates on the sides of her boiler.

## Appearances

* Television Series
* Other Media

* **Series 18** - Not So Slow Coaches
* **Series 19** - The Truth About Toby and Best Engine Ever
* **Series 20** - Cautious Connor (*does not speak*) and Engine of the Future
* **Series 21** - Stuck in Gear (*cameo*), Emily in the Middle (*cameo*) and Daisy's Perfect Christmas (*cameo*)
* **Series 23** - Steam Team to the Rescue
* **Series 24** - A New Arrival (*cameo*) and Thomas' Animal Friends (*cameo*)

Specials* **2013** - King of the Railway
* **2016** - The Great Race
* **2017** - Journey Beyond Sodor (*cameo*)

Music Videos* **King of the Railway** - Working Together Again, Searching Everywhere and It's Gonna be a Great Day
* **Series 17** - Hey, Hey Thomas!
* **Tale of the Brave** - Let's Be Brave
* **Series 18** - The Best Friends Express
* **Thomas' YouTube World Tour** - A World Around You, It's Great to be an Engine, Thomas' Anthem and Night Train
* **Series 19** - Race with You, Spring is Here! and Engine Roll Call
* **Series 20** - Accidents Will Happen
* **The Great Race** - Streamlining (*cameo*)
* **Journey Beyond Sodor** - I Want to Go Home (*cameo*)
* **Series 21** - Set Friendship in Motion
* **Series 22** - Engine Roll Call and All the Girls Around the World
* **Series 24** - Fall is So Much Fun

Storytime* **Series 1** - Not So Slow Coaches

## Trivia

* Caitlin has been partially modified to work on British railways with a screw-link coupling and buffers on the back of her tender. She retains a streamlined cowcatcher (also known as a skirt) on the front, so she is unable to shunt. She has also been scaled down from her basis, with the rear section of her cab and doors noticeably thinner than her basis, and as a result, her cab is too small for her crew to fit in comfortably.
	+ Her crew has been seen climbing into her cab in the nineteenth series episode, "Best Engine Ever", however they were not actually seen climbing in through her cab door, possibly due to her doors being too small.
* In the twenty-first series, Caitlin gained a tail-lamp.
* Caitlin has had several rendering errors:
	+ Between *King of the Railway* and the seventeenth series, her connecting rods and cylinders would face the wrong way in certain scenes, making her eccentric rods and piston rods move incorrectly and leaving certain parts of her connecting gear disconnected from her body altogether. This error was corrected from the eighteenth series onwards.
	+ In the eighteenth series, her eccentric rod wouldn’t move at all in certain scenes.
	+ In the twentieth series episode Engine of the Future, Caitlin’s eccentric rod moved incorrectly, as it moved faster on one half rotation than on the other half rotation.
* In the nineteenth series episode, "Best Engine Ever", the flap on Caitlin's skirt where her crew were inspecting her brakes was a compartment that housed a knuckle coupler on her basis to allow express trains to be double headed.
* Despite being based on an American locomotive, Caitlin speaks with a faint Irish accent.
* Caitlin shares her name with Hilary Fortnam's granddaughter. Fortnam was the youngest daughter of the *Railway Series* creator Wilbert Awdry.

## Merchandise

* Wooden Railway (*discontinued*)
* Wood (*discontinued*)
* TrackMaster (*discontinued*)
* Take-n-Play (*discontinued*)
* Capsule Plarail (*Japan only*)
* Motor Road and Rail (*Japan only*)
* Collectible Railway
* Adventures (*discontinued*)