Donald and Douglas

## Donald and Douglas the Scottish Twins

Donald and Douglas are two Scottish twins from The Island of Sodor.

## Personalities

Donald and Douglas are practical, peppery, proud and level-minded. Donald and Douglas are strong and very able when it comes to doing any job. They are fully capable of being firm with the other big engines, such as Gordon and Henry and the troublesome trucks. They are also used to clear snow in the winter coupled to both ends of a breakdown coach with a snowplow at the front of them. They are also very cheeky, not nearly as cheeky as Bill and Ben though, they can usually be found cracking a joke at the other engines when they get karma. Between the two, Donald tends to be the charming, witty joker whereas Douglas is the smart, quick-thinking, calmer-natured one of the pair.

Donald and Douglas may have the occasional arguement with each other but at the end of the day, they know that they are nothing without each other. They also used to have a strong dislike of diesels. But over time their dislike has softened due to working with the kinder of Sodor's diesels such as Salty.

## Technical Details

### Basis

Donald and Douglas are both based on the Caledonian Railway McIntosh 812 Class 0-6-0 goods engine. Their numbers, however, would realistically place them in the 652 sub-class. One example survives in preservation.

Donald and Douglas' basis
### Livery

According to the Railway Series, Donald and Douglas were painted black from construction and arrived on Sodor in the BR's black goods livery with red-and-white lining on their tenders. They remained as such (with the addition of numbers on their tenders in yellow with red borders) until it was decided that both engines could stay, at which point they requested to be repainted in the North Western Railway's sky blue livery with red-and-yellow lining. They apparently like the colour, as it reminds them of the Caledonian Railway, where many of their shedmates carried a similar shade of blue. They received red nameplates with their names in gold at the same time. In the Railway Series their names are in all capitals, whereas in the television series only their initials are capitalized.

In the Railway Series, they carry two builder's plates on the sides of their cabs.

In the Television Series, the twins arrived in BR lined black and have remained in this livery ever since.

## Trivia

* The Rev. W. Awdry only made a model of Donald for his model railway; there never was a Douglas model. The model is currently on display at the Narrow Gauge Museum in Tywyn.
* According to a magazine story, Donald and Douglas were built at The Scottish Engine Company.
* Donald and Douglas' television series models are currently on display at Hara Model Railway Museum in Japan. As a result of the eye mechanisms not being replaced after the twelfth season, new eyes and pupils have been put in for display.
* In the My Thomas Story Library and Engine Adventures series, the twins were painted blue following their being allowed to stay, just as they were in the Railway Series.
* The twins' original numbers are an in-joke. The 812/652 Class numbers only went up to 57645.
* In the Railway Series, Donald and Douglas are nicknamed "The Caledonian Twins." In the television series, they are nicknamed "The Scottish Twins." This is because they originated from the Caledonian Railway, in Scotland.
* Donald and Douglas' models did not have any watertanks on their tenders, this is also carried on to their CGI models. However, this was present on their large scale models.
* In the Slovene dub of the series, Donald and Douglas are not Scottish. In fact, they are stated to be from Jesenice, a town in the Gorenjska region of Slovenia.