Hiro

Hiro

* Current
* Debut

Background information

**First episode**
"Hiro's Origins"

Character information

**Full name**
* Hiro the Japanese Engine
* Hiro the Old Steam Engine

**Other names**
* The Master of the Railway
* The Scrap Engine (*by Spencer*)

**Age**
Unknown (*Engine*)

**Home**
JapanIsland of Sodor (*formerly*)

**Friends**
* Thomas
* Henry
* Spencer
* Kenji
* C11

**Quote**
"Be polite and kind. Remember, you're Master of the Railway."

**Hiro** is an old and wise Japanese tender engine, who is famously known as the "**Master of the Railway**".

Personality
Hiro is an old steam engine who has been on Sodor for a very long time and was originally known as the "Master of the Railway". He 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 the Fat Controller, 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; in his first appearance, he helped Spencer after an accident, despite Spencer previously trying to send Hiro to the smelter's yard. Hiro 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 "Degoich" 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.
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*.

Hiro's basis
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 lining, a green feedwater heater, a green left smoke deflector, a purple right smoke deflector, a bronze dome, green pistons and rusted-red coloured wheels except for the right rear driving wheel which was rusted-blue. Two more parts, the part between his lamp and funnel and the part under his face, were also green.

Appearances
Television Series* **Season 12** - Vicarstown Takedown
* **Season 13** - It's Good To Be Belle (cameo), Rust or Bust and Sam I Am (cameo)
* **Season 14** - Millie's Castle Hassle (cameo), Quarry Quest (cameo), Hiro and the Heat Wave and Hatt Trick (cameo)
* **Season 15** - Roundhouse Roulette (cameo) and The Island of Misfit Engines (cameo)
* **Season 16** - Sweet Sixteen (cameo), Paxman Pulls Through (cameo) and Victor and Victoria (cameo)
* **Season 17** - Sidney Transplant (cameo), Big Trouble on the Little Western (cameo), Oliver Confusion (cameo), Diesel Gets the Bronze (cameo) and Thomas' Crown Affair

Specials* Hiro's Origins
* Saving Pirate Ryan

Trivia* Hiro is the first of a few things:
	+ The first character to have the same voice actor in both English dubs.
	+ The first character to be created in CGI without having a live-action model.
	+ The first 2-8-2 in the television series.
* Hiro is stated to be the first engine on Sodor in his debut. Taking his basis into account, this would be historically inaccurate if following the timeline of *The Railway Series*, as Hiro's class would not have been built until 1935.
* According to Christopher Skala, Hiro was originally going to be painted blue. This carried on to his patchwork model.
* According to an interview with John Lee, Hiro was going to have a different name.
* In the Norwegian narration, Hiro is known as "The King of the Railway".
* Prior to the twenty-fourth series, Hiro was never outright stated to be Japanese in the English narrations. Japan was typically referred to as "Hiro's island" or "Hiro's homeland".
* According to the Japanese narration, Hiro is owned by Sir Takaboushi Hideki, who is also good friends with the Fat Controller.
* In the seventeenth and eighteenth series, the textures for Hiro's lining on the bottom right-hand (viewers' left-hand) side of his cab were slightly deformed. This was fixed in the nineteenth series.
* Hiro was the last new character to be produced in the Take Along toy-line before it was bought by Fisher-Price and renamed Take-n-Play.
* Despite participating in the Great Railway Show, he does not get his own promotional video. The same goes for James.
* During production of Hero of the Rails, merchandising reference faces were created for Hiro along with Victor and Kevin to be sent to merchandise makers. Only two face masks of Hiro are known to have been produced.
* His name has four meanings: 裕 means "abundant". 寛 means "generous, tolerant" and 浩 means "prosperous".
* In the magazine file fact, it is stated that Hiro is on loan to the Fat Controller from a Japanese Railway.
* Hiro's eccentric rods are not animated properly as they do not complete a full rotation around his larger connecting rods.
* Hiro is the only international engine to return to his home country after moving to Sodor and the only one to appear before his country's formal introduction.
* Hiro's whistle was later reused at a higher pitch for one of The Mean Engines and at an even higher pitch for Rajinda.
* Hiro is the second character in the television series to have smoke deflectors, the first being Murdoch. Had *Gordon Goes Foreign* been made, he would have been the third, with Big City Engine taking the spot of first.
* Hiro is one of the four engines to be saved from scrap. The others being Oliver, Stepney and Glynn.