Connor

**Connor** is a streamlined tender engine from the Mainland, designed for speed. He has his own rake of coaches painted in a similar colour scheme to his own. He sometimes visits Sodor by bringing passengers from the Mainland.

## Biography

### *Thomas & Friends*

Connor is excitable and energetic and like Caitlin, loves to race the other engines. Connor, however, is better at being patient, unlike Caitlin, unless he has passengers, then he can be impatient. Although it is probably unintentional, he can come across as being somewhat smug. Both Caitlin and Connor run regularly between the Mainland and Ulfstead Castle via the Vicarstown Bridge.

Soon after arriving on Sodor for his test run and time trials, Connor, along with Caitlin, helped with the search of Stephen, when the old engine went missing and once he was found, attended the grand opening of Ulfstead Castle.

Connor was tricked by Bill and Ben when they challenged him to a race and he almost collided with Henry's goods train after he was trying to beat them.

Connor later had the challenge of bringing his last passengers from Sodor home in time for Christmas. With the help of Thomas, Edward, Henry , James, Percy, Emily, Hiro and the Slip Coaches, he succeeded at getting everyone home for Christmas.

Later, Connor was one of the engines told about the rumour of Toby being scrapped and later raced through Kellsthorpe Road Station, but did not see the red paint spilled onto the rails and ended up covering Gordon's face with red spots of paint. Connor has also been seen racing with Caitlin when the latter was taking Emily to the Steamworks for repairs.

Once, he broke his coupling rod and decided that he should go slowly until Stephen told him stories about his old days which made Connor like himself again.

Much later, Connor almost crashed into Thomas who was on his way to the Great Railway Show.

## Personality

Connor is a streamlined engine, designed for speed. Along with his friend Caitlin, Connor is an excitable and energetic character, who likes to be busy and loves to race. Both Connor and Caitlin are friendly and eager to get other engines to join in the fun with them.

## Technical Details

### Basis

Connor is based on a New York Central Railroad J-3a Hudson built by Alco of Schenectady, New York. Ten J-3a Hudsons, 5445 through 5454 were built with streamlined shrouds designed by Henry Dreyfuss in 1938 in order to do heavy hauling at a greater speed, most famously hauling the 20th Century Limited between New York City and Chicago. Following a grade crossing accident with a sand truck in East Chicago in 1945, the J-3a's had their streamlining removed. All of the NYC Hudson locomotives were scrapped and only one Hudson tender converted into a generator survives.

Connor's basis

### Livery

Connor is painted teal blue with aquamarine and yellow lining. He has gold nameplates on the sides of his boiler.

## Appearances

* Television Series
* Other Media

### *Thomas & Friends*

* **Series 17** - Calm Down Caitlin, Bill or Ben? and No More Mr. Nice Engine (*cameo*)
* **Series 18** - Not So Slow Coaches and Last Train for Christmas
* **Series 19** - The Truth About Toby (*cameo*), Henry Spots Trouble (*cameo*) and Best Engine Ever
* **Series 20** - Cautious Connor
* **Series 22** - Kangaroo Christmas (*stock footage*)

#### Specials

* **2013** - King of the Railway
* **2016** - The Great Race
* **2017** - Journey Beyond Sodor
* **2018** - Big World! Big Adventures! (*cameo*)

#### Music Videos

* **King of the Railway** - Working Together Again, Searching Everywhere and It's Gonna be a Great Day
* **Tale of the Brave** - Let's Be Brave
* **Series 18** - It's Christmas Time and The Best Friends Express
* **Thomas' YouTube World Tour** - A World Around You, It's Great to be an Engine, Thomas' Anthem, Night Train and Rules and Regulations
* **Series 19** - There's Snow Place Like Home, Race with You, Spring is Here and Engine Roll Call
* **Series 20** - Glynn's Christmas Wish
* **The Great Race** - Streamlining (*cameo*)
* **Journey Beyond Sodor** - I Want to Go Home (*cameo*) and The Most Important Thing is Being Friends (*cameo*)
* **Series 21** - Set Friendship in Motion
* **Series 22** - Engine Roll Call, All the Girls Around the World and The Steam Team

### Magazine Stories

* **2014** - Bill or Ben and Not So Slow Coaches
* **2016** - Henry Spots Trouble (*cameo*)

## Voice Actors

* Jonathan Forbes (*UK/US*)
* Jan-David Rönfeldt (*Germany*)
* Dariusz Błażejewski (*Poland*)
* Scott Maurstad (*Norway; King of the Railway only*)
* Sigbjørn Solheim (*Norway; seventeenth series only*)
* Kunihiro Kawamoto (*Japan*)
* Christian Strempler (*Latin America*)
* Nir Ron (*Israel*)
* Paul Disbergen (*The Netherlands*)
* Bruno Marçal (*Brazil*)
* Jordi Estupiña (*Spain*)
* Denis Bespaliy (*Russia*)
* Jukka Voutilainen (*Finland*)
* Loukas Frangoulis (*Greece*)

## Trivia

* Connor's Wooden Railway prototype is Spencer repainted into Connor's paint scheme.
* Connor has been partially modified to work on British railways with a screwlink coupling and buffers on the back of his tender. He retains a streamlined cowcatcher on the front, so he is unable to shunt.
* In the twentieth series, Connor gained a tail-lamp and a rear brake-pipe.

## Merchandise

* Wooden Railway (*discontinued*)
* Motor Road and Rail (*Japan only*)
* TrackMaster (*discontinued*)
* Take-n-Play (*discontinued*)
* Wind-up Trains (*Japan only*)
* Collectible Railway
* Adventures (*discontinued*)
* Wood (*cancelled 2018, rerelease coming 2019*)