Ashima

Ashima is a brightly-painted Indian tank engine, who works on the Nilgiri Mountain Railway. She was one out of many engines to participate in the Great Railway Show, and competed in the Shunting Challenge, and of whom Thomas is very close friends with.

## Personality

Ashima is usually found working on the Nilgiri Mountain Railway in Southern India, where the steep incline makes the track very dangerous and difficult to climb. So it's no wonder that a small tank engine like Ashima shows no fear. Beautifully crafted with hand painted decal, Ashima is a fun, feisty and likeable engine who is more than happy to help out wherever and whenever needed.

## Technical Details

### Basis

Ashima is based on the Nilgiri Mountain Railway X class. She is based off of the oil-burning version of the engine. These engines are built to run on metre gauge rails, whereas Ashima is standard gauge.

Ashima's basis
### Livery

Ashima is painted hot pink with white and royal blue lining. Her wheels and bufferbeam are also painted royal blue, and she bears several bright green, white and orange patterns, inspired by Indian textiles and Henna Tattoos. In addition, the flower petal designs on her front cylinder block was based on her basis X-37385's.

## Appearances

### Thomas and Friends

* **Season 22** - Trusty Trunky, Thomas Goes to Bollywood and Tiger Trouble
* **Series 23** - Grudge Match (stock footage cameo), Shankar's Makeover, Crowning Around and Thomas Makes a Mistake

### Thomas & Friends Webseries

* **Season 1** - Acting Up, Chop Chop, Beauty Pageant, Christmas Sing Along, Lovers Day, The Big Thomas Hunt, Engines of the Wild, The Mystery of the Doors, Welcome to Sodor (cameo), Fashion Fever, The Spatula, Halloween, Fashion Frenzy, 12 Days of Thomas, Philip Monroe and the Engine Shadow!, Thomas Holmes (brief cameo on the phone), X Marks the Shop and Fair Weathered Friends
* **Season 2** - Lost and Hound (Part 1), Lost and Hound (Part 2), Lost and Hound (Part 3), Lost and Hound (Part 4), Swing Vote (Part 1), Swing Vote (Part 2), Swing Vote (Part 3), Swing Vote (Part 4), The Sodor Games (Part 1), The Sodor Games (Part 2), The Sodor Games (Part 3), The Sodor Games (Part 4), Power Hungry (Part 1), Power Hungry (Part 2), Power Hungry (Part 3), Power Hungry (Part 4), Silly Season (Part 1), Silly Season (Part 2), Silly Season (Part 3), Silly Season (Part 4), Ain't No Party Like a Thomas Party (Part 1), Ain't No Party Like a Thomas Party (Part 3), Ain't No Party Like a Thomas Party (Part 5), After Party (Part 1), After Party (Part 2), After Party (Part 3), Engines Bring Europe to Jessicake (Part 1), Engines Bring Europe to Jessicake (Part 2), Engines Bring Europe to Jessicake (Part 3), Thomas World Fair (Part 1), Thomas World Fair (Part 2), Thomas World Fair (Part 4), Thomas World Fair (Part 5), World Wide Vacation (Part 1), World Wide Vacation (Part 2), World Wide Vacation (Part 3), Lights, Camera, Thomas! (Part 1), Lights, Camera, Thomas! (Part 2), Lights, Camera, Thomas! (Part 3), Lights, Camera, Thomas! (Part 4), Look Within, Be Mine, Cutie, Go Thomas!, Hey! Listen! and Keep in Touch
* **Season 3** - T&F Checkout! (Episode 1) and T&F Checkout! (Episode 3)

### Specials

* **2016** - Thomas & Friends: Chef Club
* **2017** - Thomas & Friends: World Vacation
* **2018** - Thomas & Friends: Wild Style

## Voice Actors

* Tina Desai (UK/US)
* Patt Souza (Brazil)
* Manuela Bäcker (Germany; The Great Race only)
* Franziska Lessing (Germany; twenty-second season onwards)
* Csuha Borbala (Hungary)
* Naomi Watanabe (Japan; The Great Race only)
* Misa Ishii (Japan; The Great Race trailer and twenty-second season onwards)
* Annie Rojas (Latin America)
* Julia Kołakowska-Bytner (Poland)
* Olga Golovanova (Russia)

## Trivia

* Ashima's name means "without borders/limitless" in Hindi.
* Despite the fact she is based on an oil-burning tank engine (and has an oil tank on top of her boiler), Ashima still uses coal to make steam.
* Ashima has been partially modified to work on British railways; She has been given buffers and chain couplers, and her cowcatcher has been reduced in size and lowered to accommodate these.
* The Cuban dock workers' models from Blue Mountain Mystery were reused as her crew.