Gordon

**Gordon** is a big blue express engine and the strongest and fastest member of the Sodor steam team. who works on the Main Line. He is Flying Scotsman's only surviving brother.

Gordon is also one of the fastest and strongest engines on the Island of Sodor and his main task is to pull the Wild Nor' Wester, the railway's express train. At times, this leads him to feel superior.

Gordon is mainly used for passenger duties, but has occasionally pulled goods trains, much to his dislike, as he believes that these are below him.

## Personality

Gordon's important position as the engine who pulls the Express has made him proud, pompous and self-important, with a good reason too; he is the fastest engine on Sodor. He is extremely proud of this and is inclined to boast. But despite his pompousness, he is goodhearted, always willing to forgive and uses his superior strength to help smaller engines out of trouble. Though he is also vengeful and will plot retribution if he feels he has been sufficiently slighted, as mentioned before he is happy to forgive especially after he has either had his retribution or the individual has received some other comeuppance. He also has a great hatred of goods trains.

Gordon’s philosophy "tender engines don't shunt" meant that he looked down on tank engines and tender engines who do shunt, but after being locked in the shed with Henry and James after going on strike and before the seventeenth series, he seemed to have abandoned this philosophy. However, because of his rank in the social order of the North Western Railway, Gordon expects to get the important passenger jobs and either sulk when he does not and/or gets jealous of engines who do.

Sometimes, Gordon acts like a bully, particularly towards Edward, but following misadventures where Edward had to help him, Gordon had to acknowledge that despite being old, Edward is still a very useful engine.

Sometimes, Gordon shows a kinder side and gives the engines some advice, usually after he has had some mishap as a result of his foolhardiness. Some of his advice is not exactly helpful or honest, though, as James, Percy and Sir Handel have discovered.

Despite being labelled as one of Sir Topham Hatt's more sensible engines, he can act senseless if prompted, which is quite often.

## Technical Details

### Basis

According to The Island of Sodor: Its People, History and Railways, Gordon is the experimental prototype for Sir Nigel Gresley's A1 Pacific design for the Great Northern Railway. Gordon was built at Doncaster Works in Yorkshire. Once the first batch of A1 Pacifics appeared in 1922 Gordon would have more than likely have been reclassified A1/1 - the '/1' indicating he is slightly different to the rest of the class.

Gordon, being an experimental engine, never received a number and was never put into regular traffic, he was only ever used on test runs. Owing to various problems Gordon was rebuilt in 1939 at Crewe. Sir Topham Hatt and Sir William Stanier worked together to rectify these problems - everything under the running board is of Stanier's design while the running board itself is that of Sir Topham Hatt's. In both the Railway Series and television series, Gordon is depicted with a Fowler tender.

His valve gear is similar to that of the LMS Stanier Pacifics in the illustrations, but in the TV Series, he and Henry share the same valve gear.

### Livery

Gordon is painted in NWR bright blue with red and yellow lining. His number is painted on the sides of his tender in yellow with red lining and the lining around his cab windows is yellow. Before arriving on Sodor, he was painted in GNR apple green with white and black lining.

## Appearances

**Alsop Productions**

TBA

**Thomas & Friends**

* Thomas & Gordon

**Railway Series**

* The Three Railway Engines

## Voice Actors

* Daniel Alsop (Season 1 - Season 5)

* Micklenden2 (Season 6 onwards)

Whistles
 S4