Hiro

**Hiro the Japanese Engine** a.k.a. **The Master of the Railway** is a supporting character in the Seventyverse and hails from Japan.

## Backstory

Hiro came to Sodor in 1946 to try and mend relations between Japan and England after the Second World War and worked on the Sodor and Mainland Railway alongside Richard, Neil, Mary and Samson. In 1972, Hiro broke down and was put onto a siding a few months later. He was then abandoned for years until 2000 when he was found by Thomas, who led Edward, Henry, Gordon, James, Percy, Toby and Emily to help restore him, with Victor, Kevin and Mavis providing backup. Spencer tried to get him scrap, but Hiro was restored anyway and returned to Japan. One year later, when Murdoch went in for an overhaul, Hiro returns to Sodor to cover for him. In 2007, Hiro would compete in the Strength Competition at the Great Railway Show where he represented Japan. When Vinnie got disqualified for sabotaging Frieda, Hiro, who finished second, was declared the winner. After the Great Railway Show was over, Hiro returned to Japan again due to Murdoch's overhaul being completed.

## Relationships

### Thomas

Hiro is grateful to Thomas for helping to get him restored and Thomas looks up to Hiro.

## Personality

Hiro 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 Sir Charles Topham Hatt, 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 and is also very close to his friends on Sodor, knowing that even in a different location they will always be his friends.

## 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 "Degoichi" in Japan. Hiro is standard gauge, while most D51s were built for 3'6" gauge (cape gauge 1,067mm), though the two examples of his class exported to South Korea (KNR Class Mika7) were built to standard gauge.

The D51s were primarily used as goods locomotives and were an adaptation of the earlier Class D50. 1,115 class D51 locomotives were built between 1936-1951, becoming Japan's most mass-produced steam locomotive. In addition to those in Japan, members of this class have been built for export to South Korea, Taiwan and the USSR, totalling 1,184 locomotives. Over 170 of these engines are preserved throughout Japan, two of which are in working order, while four are preserved in Taiwan (Taiwan Railways DT650) and eleven in Russia (Soviet Railways D51). Unlike the D51s in Japan, Taiwan and Russia, the D51s in South Korea have no smoke deflectors.

Though Hiro's number is a reference to his basis' name, there was a D51 with the number 51. However, unlike Hiro, the real engine was an earlier build of the D51 class, with its dome flush with its funnel. It was preserved at Torokko Saga Station in Kyoto, Japan until February 2020, when it was scrapped due to issues that arose from it being stored outside. It's unknown when exactly this engine was built and withdrawn.

Hiro has only been partially modified to work on Sodor. Aside from being scaled up to standard gauge, he has been given buffers on his front and his tender, however oddly enough still has a buckeye coupler on his front bufferbeam, while his rear coupling is a hook and chain coupling. This would make Hiro 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 the buckeye coupler as fitted onto his chain coupler or a pin was put on top of his knuckle coupler so he could couple from the front similar to Vinnie from *The Great Race*.

### Livery

Hiro is painted black with gold lining, boiler bands and fittings and red wheels. His 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 linings, a green left smoke deflector, a purple right smoke deflector, a bronze dome, green cylinder pistons, a tall funnel, a silver headlamp and rusted-red coloured wheels except for the right rear driving wheel which was rusted-blue. Additionally, the feedwater heater, between his funnel and lamp, was also green.

## Differences between the episodes and the series

* In the episodes, Hiro is said to be the very first engine on Sodor, despite his basis being years after most of the characters' real-life basis. In this series, Hiro arrived later than the engines from the pre-grouping companies.
	+ Had he arrived in 1946 in the books, Hiro would have arrived after the North Western Railway had formed, and Thomas, Edward, Henry, Gordon, James and Percy were already on Sodor.

## Trivia

* Hiro's number is 51, which is a reference to his basis' name. The closest engine to Hiro's number was D51 51. However, unlike Hiro, the real engine was an earlier build of the D51 class, with its dome flush with its funnel. It was preserved at Torokko Saga Station in Kyoto, Japan until February 2020, when it was scrapped due to issues that arose from it being stored outside.