Hilda

**Hilda the Mobile Tea Shop** is a supporting character in the Seventyverse and is owned by the Skarloey Railway. She used to work on the Mid Sodor Railway. She is also the Seventyverse version of the Refreshment Coach from the original TV series.

## Backstory

The Refreshment Lady needed to find another location for her business as her shop at Lakeside had gotten busy and some scouts were in need of a drink so Peter Sam agreed to help. The locations they saw were very good but she couldn't build a tea room in every place. That night, a storm raged across the island and the engines were dealing with the clean up the next morning. Peter Sam and Rusty were working as a pair when Fred came up to tell them she'd found something. Fred led to the location where that something appeared to be a shed but Peter Sam realised it was an old coach, specifically one from the Mid Sodor Railway. The old coach explained that when the number of passengers decreased, she was sold to a local farmer to act storage until most recently when he got a bigger shed. Peter Sam went to take the old coach to get restored. On the way, they saw the scouts who were still thirsty. Suddenly, Peter Sam had a brilliant idea to solve both the Refreshment Lady and the scouts' problems and when he explained to the old coach, she agreed to the idea. Once the work was completed, Peter Sam bought the old coach who had been converted to a mobile tea room to Crovan's Gate. There, she was reunited with Duke and Sir Handel, the latter of whom admitted that he regretted his rude treatment towards the coach in the old days and apologised. The old coach also apologised when she learnt how Sir Handel tried to make things to her during the dark days, but she bumped him off the tracks every time. Sir Handel then suggested that, even though it wouldn't make up for his behaviour back then, the old coach should be named Hilda after one of his namesake's daughters. The old coach loved the idea. Both Mr. Percival and the Refreshment Lady were pleased when they saw Hilda for the first time. Mr. Percival then assigned Peter Sam to pull the tea shop special, which Peter Sam was honoured.

## Relationships

### Peter Sam

On the Mid Sodor Railway, Peter Sam treated the four wheeled coaches as if they were express coaches - handling them delicately and calling them "my dears". Hilda was among these coaches. Peter Sam, along with Fred and Rusty, found Hilda abandoned as a garden shed. Peter Sam then got the idea to convert Hilda into a mobile tea room. She liked this very much, and is very grateful to Peter Sam.

### Sir Handel

Hilda was one of the coaches that bumped Sir Handel on the Mid Sodor Railway. This was because Sir Handel was very rude to her and the other four-wheeled coaches. Sir Handel admits that it doesn't make up for what he's done, but he names the coach Hilda after one of Sir Handel Brown III's daughters.

## Technical Details

### Basis

Hilda is based on the Talyllyn Railway carriage No. 7, which was used as a refreshments van from 1963 to 1968. It was made from a small refreshment stand mounted on an old open-coach chassis at Abergynolwyn, Wales, UK.

### Livery

Hilda is painted yellow with red and thick blue lining. She has a red serving hatch on one side that swings up as an awning with a white, fold-out sign reading "REFRESHMENT" in red letters on top. One end has a white, cloud-shaped sign listing the products sold (tea, soft drinks, buns, sandwiches and ice cream) in red with black drop shadow. Her interior is painted white.

## Differences between the TV show and the series

* In the TV show, the Refreshment Coach is non-sentient and is recycled from the Red Narrow Gauge Coaches, thus being based on Talyllyn Railway Coaches No.1-3. In this series, Hilda is sentient and her basis is exactly that of Talyllyn Railway coach No. 7, which was, at one point, a tea van.

## Trivia

* The preferred voice actor for Hilda is Diamond White, who voiced Fuli from *The Lion Guard*.